Potito Starace

*ATP Madrid Qualification - Starace retired due to a right bicep injury

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http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2012/1536/qs.pdf

Starace lost in Casablanca 2011 final.

Starace, who was relegated runner-up status for the fourth time in four ATP World Tour finals, said: “He played a great match. He was too aggressive and didn’t give me one chance, so congratulations to him. He was playing a very high level.”

The 29-year-old Starace, who dropped to an 11-9 season record, also looked ahead to European spring season. “It was the first tournament on clay, and now I have four or five tournaments before Paris,” he said. “I hope I can make some good results because it’s very important for the confidence.”

"I had two tough match in a row," said Starace, who broke serve five times against Hanescu. "Today I had chances to win in two sets. But then Hanescu came back and I started making a lot of mistakes. Luckily I managed to win in three."

About playing Andujar, Starace added, "He's a good player and he has been beaten some strong players this week including Montanes in the semi-final. It will be a difficult match and as always in a final everything is possible."

Fifth seed Potito Starace of Italy defeated Gilles Simon 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in two hours and 20 minutes. It was the pair's first meeting since November 2007 at the BNP Paribas Open at Paris.

Starace, currently No. 47 in the South African Airways 2011 ATP Rankings, advanced to the Movistar Open semi-finals (l. to Giraldo) at Santiago in February. Simon dropped to a 15-9 season record.

ATP Casablanca 2011: World No. 47 Potito Starace reached his fourth ATP World Tour quarter-final (or better) of the year. The fifth-seeded Italian won 73 per cent of service points and converted four of eighth break point opportunities to beat Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain 6-4, 6-3 in just over 90 minutes. It was their first tour-level meeting in six years. World No. 103 Ramirez Hidalgo hit five doubles faults and won just 13 points on return of serve.

Fifth-seeded Italian Potito Starace dropped 10 points on serve in a 7-5, 6-2 win over Daniel Brands of Germany in 76 minutes on Tuesday at the Grand Prix Hassan II in Casablanca.

Starace, a semi-finalist last year (l. to Wawrinka), won 81 per cent of service points in their second ATP World Tour meeting. Brands hit eight aces, but failed to hold his serve on four occasions.

After losing the Croatian Umag 250 final to Ferrero:

“Today was a tough match. He played very well especially on his serve. I was a bit tired, but he played a perfect game.

"I will try next time. I'm playing good tennis so I want to carry on and do something special. I am very close to playing my best tennis. I lost today, but he played a great match. I want to try and improve my ranking in the next two-three months and try and get back to the Top 30."

Starace stayed late in Santiago to play the doubles final on Saturday.

From Bob Larsson's Tennis News:

Round 1 in the Italian players gambling lawsuit against the ATP goes to (drum roll!): The Italians.

Judge James Cohn in U.S. District Court has denied an ATP motion to dismiss the case brought by the estate of the late Federico Luzzi and Daniele Bracciali, Giorgio Galimberti, Alessio De Mauro and Potito Starace in which the players claim the men's tour improperly punished them with suspensions and fines for alleged violations of ATP gambling regulations.

The plaintiffs are seeking declaratory judgment and breach of fiduciary duty against the ATP for acquiring betting records of the plaintiffs from a European wagering company called Interwetten and, subsequently, punished the players for wagering.

The ATP believes it had a right to acquire those records because the players had signed a consent from which the ATP says binds its members to its rulebook.

The Italians argue that the consent form covers only the ATP's anti-doping policy. Following the widely publicized 2007 incident in Sopot, Poland, in which top-10 pro Nikolay Davydenko came under suspicion when he retired from a match in which his much lower ranked opponent received heavy better favor, the ATP put on a full court press against gambling and sought betting records on its players from various betting houses.

As a result of that investigation, the plaintiffs were suspended from between 100 and 270 days and fined various amounts. Davydenko, meanwhile, was completely cleared.

The ATP tried to have the Luzzi suit dismissed on grounds it was filed (in South Florida) in an improper venue. That was rejected by the court, but Interwetten was dropped as one of the defendants.

Starace was a finalist here last year and should be high on confidence following his challenger title in Napoli last week. His weaker second serve is not as much of a liability on this surface where it is much harder to hit clean winners. He is an excellent mover and his groundstrokes are generally well directed with good power. Bolelli has done fairly well this year on the faster courts but despite the promise he has shown his second serve has looked a bit of a liability and he struggles to win 50% behind second delivery. Three previous meetings have all gone to Starace in straight sets and unless Bolelli is willing to up his aggression the likelyhood is Starace will prove too good from the back of the court and make the series score 4-0.