Valencia Website
April 5, 2024
Top seed Nikolay Davydenko faces a tough opening match against Spanish favorite Albert Costa in the first round. Davydenko was a quarterfinalist at the Australian Open earlier this year and defeated Costa on the clay of Stuttgart last year.
Defending champion Fernando Verdasco, the No. 6 seed, could face Davydenko in the third round. Verdasco, who recently defeated Andy Roddick in Miami, opens his title defense against a qualifier in the first round and could meet Spanish veteran and wild card Alex Corretja in the second round.
Returning from a long injury lay-off, Brazilian star Gustavo Kuerten gets back into action with a tough first round against No. 4 seed Olivier Rochus. Kuerten has not played a competitive match since a first round US Open loss to Kristian Pless last year. The Brazilian underwent arthroscopic right hip surgery in September 2004. Rochus will look to build on some strong results this year that have seen him reach the semifinal in Adelaide and the final in Auckland.
Recent NASDAQ-100 Open semifinalist and Valencia local David Ferrer takes on Frenchman Julien Benneteau in his opening match as he looks to maintain his impressive form of late.
The most eye-catching of the first round matches features Spanish teenage sensation Rafael Nadal against former World No.1 Juan Carlos Ferrero. The two have never met before. Nadal, who plays World No.1 Roger Federer in the final of the NASDAQ-100 Open on Sunday, has already claimed two titles this year (Costa do Sauipe, Acapulco), both on clay. Nadal is the third seed here and could meet Russian Igor Andreev in the quarterfinals. Andreev, from Moscow, moved to Valencia at the age of 15 and has trained here since.
At the bottom of the draw, second seed Fernando Gonzalez plays Bjorn Phau of Germany. The Chilean could meet tough Spaniard Felix Mantilla in the second round and has No. 8 seed Kenneth Carlsen in his quarter of the draw.
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