Båstad, Sweden—2009 Catella Swedish Open

The wear and tear of two five set Davis Cup matches, coupled with a three hour plus affair with Daniel Kollerer on Thursday, finally became too much for top seed Fernando Verdasco. During the first game of set one today, Verdasco strained a right calf muscle. For the remainder of set it was evident that his injury would not alleviate and a retirement would be in order. After some careful thought, the Spaniard called the match after trailing 6-1, 3-1 to Juan Monaco of Argentina.

Verdasco had this to say after his retirement:

"I had real pain when serving, especially since the injury was in my my right leg," explained World No. 9 Verdasco. "Monaco played well and didn't make any mistakes. It was not easy for me, I tried to continue playing but when I saw that I had no chance to win I retired before injuring myself further. Bastad is one of my special tournaments of the year. It's hard for me to retire here."

Verdasco's decision to play the event in the first place was a poor one at best. Especially after enduring two five set matches in Marbella over the weekend. The upcoming hard-court swing contains two Masters 1000 events, as well as the U.S. Open. At this point in Verdasco's career, those tournaments must take prescient.

For now, the hard hitting lefty will head back to Madrid to rest up and begin preparation for the Montreal Masters. That should have been the plan all along.

Monaco advances to his second ATP World Tour semifinal of 2009, he was also a finalist in Buenos Aires in February. The Argentine was also coming off of Davis Cup duty in the Czech Republic (he was defeated in both his singles matches).

Monaco will now look towards the challenge of defending champ and third seed Tommy Robredo who was a routine winner over Teimuraz Gabasvili 6-4, 6-0.

Robredo has won in Bastad on two occasions. The victory today propelled T-Rob towards a stellar 21-6 win/loss record at the event, reaching at least the quarterfinals on seven occasions.

Robredo and Monaco have played four times (all clay matches) on the ATP World Tour with each player winning twice. The last meeting between the pair came in Monte Carlo earlier this year with T-Rob prevailing in routine fashion.

Elsewhere, the hometown fans were treated to a double treat of Swedish success today, when Robin Soderling and Andreas Vinciguerra both recorded quarterfinal victories.

Second seeded Soderling dismissed fifth seed Nicolas Almagro 7-5, 6-3, and Vinicguerra continued his storybook run after battling past fourth seed Jurgen Melzer 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Soderling displayed his brand of power tennis at its best, winning 87 percent of his first serve points, hitting seven aces and breaking the Almagro serve four times. The win becomes the third impressive Spanish scalp for Robin during the season, after dispatching Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer at the French Open.

Soderling had this to say after his victory.

“I played well today,” Soderling said. “I hit the ball well. Maybe I didn’t move at 100 percent. Almagro is an excellent clay-court player and I beat him in two straight (sets), so that is very good for my confidence."

The second piece of the all Swedish semifinal will bring forth the surprising efforts of Andreas Vinciguerra. Currently ranked 460 in the world, the 28-year old Malmo native had not won back-to-back matches on tour since 2003. The wild-card recipient staved off the unorthodox challenge from Melzer who appeared to be in the drivers seat after easily obtaining the first set.

The home crowd support has been an integral part of Vinciguerra's confidence to continue his form this week. In similar fashion to Raemon Sluiter's fantastic run, en route to the finals in Holland last month.

Saturday's semifinal will be the first meeting between Soderling and Vinciguerra on the ATP World Tour. Vinny will undoubtedly be the underdog going into the encounter. But with the way he's been striking the ball this week, one would have to give him a decent chance at the upset.

 

Stuttgart, Germany—Mercedes Cup

Second seed Nikolay Davydenko followed the same path of departed top seed Gilles Simon on Friday, by thoroughly collapsing against Italian Fabio Fognini 6-1 3-6 7-5.

After regaining order in set two, the Italian's counter-punching style continued to weigh heavily on the ground-strokes of the Russian. Set three went down to the wire, but the superior serving of Fognini became the inevitable difference. A usual liability for the Fognini, his improved serve motion has allowed for a steady increase in the rankings.

Davydenko appeared in constant search of his tactics throughout, displaying the rust of a injury prone year.

Fognini will now progress the final four, where four seed Victor Hanescu awaits. The Romanian ousted lucky loser Alexandre Sidorenko 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.

The high flying service contest featured Hanescu winning 86 percent of his first serve points; 80 percent for Sidorenko, and only one break of serve captured be either player—Hanescu in set one.

With the win, the world number 33 advances to his first semifinal of 2009. Hanescu's serving prowess will be of utter importance during his encounter with Fognini, with the Italian more adept off the ground.

Hanescu and Fognini have never met on the ATP World Tour.

The day's remaining quarterfinal matches were postponed due to heavy rain.

When play resumes on Saturday, local favorite Nicolas Kiefer will battle Lukasz Kubot on Center court, with Mischa Zverev taking on Jeremy Chardy on the grandstand. The winners will then return to Center Court latter in the day to fight for a finals berth.

Zverev is the man responsible for handing top seed Gilles Simon an exit card during Thursday's action. Zverev also defeated Simon during the Masters 1000 event in Roma, earlier this spring.

Please check back, I will have a Saturday semifinal wrap-up from Bastad, Sweden and Stuttgart, Germany. Cheers.