Thursday Preview - Four Seeds, Led by No.2 Karlovic, No 4.Seppi, Look To Reach QFS

There are four seeds in second round action Thursday,  led by No. 2 Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, No. 4 Andreas Seppi of Italy, No. 6 Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia and No. 7 Arnaud Clement of France. In addition, top-seeded and last year’s ATP World Tour Champions Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic play their first round doubles match against Serbian wild cards Marko Djokovic and Darko Madjarovski. On Friday, top seed and ATP World Tour No. 3 Novak Djokovic will take on countryman and No. 5 seed Viktor Troicki in the quarter-finals.

THURSDAY SECOND ROUND HEAD-TO-HEADS – In Order of Play

HEAD-TO-HEAD

(4) Andreas Seppi (ITA) vs Leonardo Mayer (ARG)     First Meeting

 Seppi FastFacts:
 2009 Highlights:
 YTD W-L: 7-12
 YTD Titles: 0
 Career Titles: 0
 Date of Birth: February 21, 1984
 South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 36

· Seppi, 25, the top Italian enters his opening round match (after a bye) with a 7-12 match record on the season (2-3 on clay) and has yet to win back-to-back matches this year...Seven of his losses have come to Top 20 opponents (0-5 vs. Top 10)
· Last week at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Rome, defeated American Sam Querrey before losing in the second round to ATP World Tour No. 1 Rafael Nadal 62 63
· Three weeks ago at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo, defeated Jurgen Melzer before losing in the next round to No. 2 Roger Federer 62 62
· Reached the second round in Doha (l. to Federer), Rotterdam (l. to Murray), Marseille (l. to Youzhny) and the first three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami (l. to Wawrinka both times) along with Monte-Carlo (l. to Federer)
· In 2008, the top Italian finished a year-end best No. 35 with a career-high 30 match wins...His best result was a SF showing in May in Hamburg where he beat No. 9 Gasquet and No. 15 Monaco (l. to Federer)
· Has finished in Top 75 for four straight years from 2005-08 and in July 2007, reached his lone ATP World Tour final in Gstaad, losing to Paul-Henri Mathieu of France

 Mayer FastFacts:
 2009 Highlights:
 QF: Acapulco (l Monfils)
 YTD W-L: 4-3
 YTD Titles: 0
 Career Titles: 0
 Date of Birth: May 15, 1987
 South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 104

· Mayer, 21, is trying to reach his second ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season, the first since February in Acapulco (l. to No. 10 Monfils)…Afterwards, jumped from No. 110 into the Top 100 for the first time at No. 95 on Mar. 2
· The young Argentine has a 4-3 match record on the season (3-2 on clay) and on Wednesday defeated American Wayne Odesnik 63 62…It was his first win since beating Carlos Moya in 2nd Rd. of Acapulco
· In 2008, the Buenos Aires resident finished No. 102 and compiled a 44-21 match record in Challenger play with one title in four finals

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Marcos Daniel (BRA) vs (6) Ivan Ljubicic (CRO)    First Meeting

 Daniel FastFacts:
 2009 Highlights:
 YTD W-L: 1-4
 YTD Titles: 0
 Career Titles: 0
 Date of Birth: July 4, 1978
 South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 120

· Daniel, 30, won his first ATP World Tour match of the season (1-4) on Tuesday with a 36 61 64 victory over former Top 10 Argentine Guillermo Canas
· His best result of the year came in March when he captured the title at the Marrakech Challenger in Morocco (d. Ouahab)...Also reached the quarter-finals at the Napoli Challenger last month...Has a 10-4 record in Challenger play
· In 2008, finished a year-end best No. 79 with an 8-15 match record highlighted by a quarter-final in Houston in April (l. to Granollers)
· In Challenger level play, compiled a 27-7 match record and won three titles

 Ljubicic FastFacts:
 2009 Highlights:
QF: ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Indian Wells (l Murray); ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Monte Carlo (l Nadal)
 YTD W-L: 11-9
 YTD Titles: 0
 Career Titles: 8
 Date of Birth: March 19, 1979
 South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 53

· Ljubicic, 30, comes into the second round with an 11-9 match record on the season (5-2 on clay)
· He is trying to reach his third ATP World Tour quarter-final of the year after reaching that round at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments in Miami in March (l. to eventual champion Murray) and followed with the same result last month in Monte-Carlo, defeating No. 5 del Potro before losing to ATP World Tour No. 1 and eventual winner Rafael Nadal
· The veteran Croat has an 8-12 record in ATP World Tour finals and he finished in the Top 10 in 2005 at No. 9 and the following year at No. 5...His career-best ranking is No. 3 on May 1, 2006

HEAD-TO-HEAD

(7) Arnaud Clement (FRA) vs (Q) Flavio Cipolla (ITA) First ATP Meeting
Other Meetings:
08 ATP Masters Series Monte Carlo Q  Clay R64 Flavio Cipolla 3-6 6-3 6-0

 Clement FastFacts:
 2009 Highlights:
 YTD W-L: 6-9
 YTD Titles: 0
 Career Titles: 4
 Date of Birth: December 17, 1977
 South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 57

· Clement, 31, enters the second round with a 6-9 match record on the season, including 2-2 on clay
· The veteran Frenchman is trying to reach his first ATP World Tour quarter-final since Wimbledon last July when he lost to German Rainer Schuettler in five sets in five hours, 12 minutes
· Has a 7-1 record in Challengers, winning the Cherbourg title (d. Ascione) and reaching the quarter-finals at Sunrise (l. to Berdych) in March
· In 2008, finished in the Top 100 for the ninth time in the past 10 years at No. 97
· Has a 4-6 career record in ATP World Tour finals, winning his last title in Washington in 2006...Reached a career-high No. 10 on Apr. 2, 2001

 Cipolla FastFacts:
 2009 Highlights:
 YTD W-L: 4-7
 YTD Titles: 0
 Career Titles: 0
 Date of Birth: October 20, 1983
 South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 122

· Cipolla, 25, enters the second round with a 4-7 match record and has qualified into the main draw an ATP World Tour-best six times this season, including this week…Rallied to defeat Marcos Baghdatis 16 63 61 in the first round on Wednesday
· Last week lost to No. 15 Marin Cilic in the first round at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Rome and prior to that, lost to Cilic in the first round at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo
· Opened the first month by qualifying in Chennai and beat No. 16 Stanislas Wawrinka before losing in the next round to Bjorn Phau...Also qualified at the Australian Open and defeated Dmitry Tursunov in four sets before losing in the second round to Tommy Haas
· In February, qualified in Dubai and lost to eventual champion and World No. 3 Novak Djokovic in the first round
· In 2008, finished a year-end best No. 126 after reaching a career-high No. 110 on Apr. 21
· Compiled a 6-7 match record, highlighted by a quarter-final in Estoril (d. Roger-Vasselin, Simon, l. to Serra) and Grand Slam-best 3rd Rd. at US Open (d. Hernych, Lu, l. to Wawrinka)

Brian Dabul (ARG) vs (2) Ivo Karlovic (CRO)   First Meeting

 Dabul FastFacts:
 2009 Highlights:
 YTD W-L: 5-6
 Career Titles: 0
 Date of Birth: February 24, 1984
 South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 108

· Dabul, 25, comes into the second round with a 5-6 match record on the season, including 4-5 on clay
· The Buenos Aires resident is trying to reach his first ATP World Tour quarter-final since Kitzbuhel last July (l. to Hanescu)
· He opened the year with a second round result at the Australian Open (d. Petzschner, l. to Berdych) and in February adavanced to the second round in consecutive tournaments in Vina del Mar, Costa do Sauipe and Buenos Aires during the Latin American clay court circuit
· Reached a career-high No. 82 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings on March 9 and is ranked No. 108 this week
· In 2008, finished a year-end best No. 105 and compiled a 41-21 match record on Challengers with two titles

 Karlovic FastFacts:
 2009 Highlights:
 QF: Chennai (l Devvarman)
 YTD W-L: 8-9
 YTD Titles: 0
 Career Titles: 4
 Date of Birth: February 28, 1979
 South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 21

· Karlovic, 30, The towering Croat has an 8-9 match record (2-2 on clay), reaching the quarter-finals in his first tournament of the year in Chennai (l. to Devvarman)…Has struggled in tie-breaks – 1-4 mark
· In his clay court opening tournament in Monte-Carlo two weeks ago, defeated Florent Serra and lost to No. 9 Nikolay Davydenko in the second round and last week lost to No. 2 Roger Federer in the second round in Rome
· In 2008, the No. 2 Croat (behind No. 22 Cilic) finished in Top 25 for second straight season at No. 25 with one ATP World Tour title and QF or better in four other tournaments
· Owns four career ATP World Tour titles, including Nottingham on grass in 2007 (d. Clement) and again in 2008 (d. Verdasco)… Other career titles came in 2007 in Houston (d. Zabaleta) and Stockholm (d. T. Johannson)
· Played in most tie-breaks (30-31) and had 5-4 record in third set tie-break matches…Compiled marks of 19-15 on hard, 7-2 on grass and 5-8 on clay