First up is No. 4 seed Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina against Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov. Chela is playing his first hard court match since the US Open - since the last Grand Slam of the year he has played one tournament, but it was on clay (he reached the semi-finals of Bucharest). Now the 32-year-old veteran plays one of the game’s rising stars, 20-year-old Dimitrov, who has had his best season to date, reaching three ATP World Tour quarter-finals. It could be tough for him to reach his fourth, however - he is 1-13 this year against Top 30 players (Chela is No. 28).
Next up is No. 3 seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland against Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen. Wawrinka has had a very consistent year, reaching seven ATP World Tour quarter-finals (including a Grand Slam and two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events) and spending all but the first week of the year inside the Top 20 (currently No. 19). Now he faces Nieminen, who has been ranked as high as No. 13 but who is now down at No. 72, and who is on a nine-match losing streak against Top 20 players (his last win came against David Ferrer at Rotterdam right after the Australian Open).
Next on is top seed Gael Monfils of France against Australian wild card Bernard Tomic. Monfils is playing his first match back after missing Beijing and Shanghai the last two weeks due to a knee injury. The World No. 10 is making his tournament debut here but has always done very well indoors, two of his three ATP World Tour titles coming indoors (as well as five of his 11 runner-up efforts). Tomic will be tough, though - the 18-year-old, who turns 19 on Friday, has already scored two Top 10 wins this season (Robin Soderling at Wimbledon and Mardy Fish in Shanghai last week).
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