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2010 Open Sud de France: Ivan Ljubicic versus Albert Montanes – Match Preview

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2010 Open Sud de France: Ivan Ljubicic versus Albert Montanes – Match Preview
Three of the top four seeds will play in the semi final round of 2010 Open Sud de France Men’s singles competition on Saturday. The field will be led by Jo Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils, who are seeded number second and third respectively to win the title.
In the first semi final battle of the day, fourth seed Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia and Albert Montanes from Spain will square off for the final berth at Montpellier. Both of them will face each other on the first occasion in their careers.
The 29 year old Montanes is playing in his sixth ATP World Tour semi-final or better in 2010 and also his second one on the hard court. The professional tennis player, who made his debut on the ATP World Tour back in 1999, posted his best result of the season
by winning his fourth and fifth titles in Estoril and Stuttgart earlier in 2010. He also reached the semi final rounds in Auckland, Buenos Aires and Bucharest.
The Spaniard is attempting to make his way into his 10th career ATP World Tour title battle and the first one on the hard court. He missed just a single set in his opening three clashes in France.
Montanes also successfully made his way into the third round or better at all the four Grand Slam tournaments in 2010, including his career best fourth round run at the United States Open in New York where he was defeated by Robin Soderling. He enters with
a win loss mark of 37-21 on the season and is currently ranked number 23 in the South African Airways 2010 ATP rankings list. Montanes achieved his career highest ranking of number 22 back in August this season.
The Barcelona resident is one of the eight Spaniards to win an ATP World Tour crown along with Nadal, Ferrero, Verdasco, Garcia-Lopez, Almagro and Lopez. Spain stands at 19-9 mark in the title battles this year.
The right handed Ivan, who is 31 years old, is the second highest ranked player from Croatia at number 17 in the ATP list. He is playing in his fourth ATP World Tour final four or better in 2010 and third in the last four weeks. A few days back, the professional
tennis player from Croatia was toppled by the world number two, Roger Federer in the semi final round of If Stockholm Open and prior to that he had made his way into the semi final at the China Open in Beijing.
The Monaco resident, who made his debut on the ATP World Tour back in 1998, also won trophies back in 2001 and last season. He registered his name as the ninth active player to triumph in at least 400 singles clashes in his career on Friday.
Ivan grabbed the biggest crown of his career at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 competition in Indian Wells earlier this season. He got the better of Novak Djokovic as well as the world number one, Rafael Nadal on his way to the final round. In the finals,
the 1.93 meters tall Ivan overpowered Andy Roddick from the United States of America and as a result improved his ranking from number 26 to number 13 on the tour.
Ivan also contested in the quarter final round of the Davis Cup ties versus Serbia however he was defeated by Djokovic in the opening rubber.

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