2011 Mutua Madrid Open: Novak Djokovic vs. David Ferrer – Quarterfinal Preview
Friday night at Park Manzanares in Madrid, Spain, will end in style as world number two, Novak Djokovic of Serbia will encounter the sixth ranked Spaniard, David Ferrer in the last quarter-final of Mutua Madrid Open. It is perhaps
the most anticipated quarter-final matchup of the tournament as the two competitors are in sublime form these days.
The mighty Serb is currently in the best form he has ever had, reining his career highest ranking of world number two and inching towards the top spot. Djokovic is running an inspiring 29-match winning streak in the running ATP
(Association of Tennis Professionals) season and has already won five championship titles, including the Australian Open. Being unbeaten this year, the second seeded Serb came to Madrid as one of the hot favourites and assertively won two of his initial round
matches to reach the quarter-final stage. Djokovic blew away Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the third round of the tournament to enter the last eight of the tournament.
The sixth seed Spaniard is the other strong contender for the Madrid title and he edged passed Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine in straight sets 6-3, 7-6(3), in the third round to meet Djokovic in the round of eight. The Spaniard has
not been able to perform up to his true potential in the tournament so far, as he had to toil a bit in his last two matches before securing victory. He dropped a set in the second round clash against Adrian Mannarino of France but still managed to overcome
him to continue his voyage in the ATP event.
Djokovic and Ferrer have faced each other a number of times and it’s always expected to be a nail bitter contest when the top class players face each other. Djokovic has been more successful against the Spaniard in the nine matches
they played, leading the head-to-head series by 5-4. It is anticipated that the Serb will extend his winning streak against Ferrer in the quarter-final but it is worth noting that he has failed to beat the Spaniard on clay court in all his previous three attempts.
Ferrer had registered three victories over Djokovic on clay surface, with the most recent victory two years ago. He suffered a loss at the hands of Djokovic in his last encounter at Beijing in 2010.
Ferrer is deemed to be one of the toughest competitor to beat on clay surface after the world number one Rafael Nadal. Although Ferrer has one just one ATP title this year, his is performances in the current clay-court circuit
has been phenomenal. He took off the Latin American clay-court season by winning a ATP World Tour 500 championship title at Acapulco and then continued his domination in the European season with authority. Ferrer made it to the finals of the two most recent
clay-court tournaments at Monte-Carlo and Barcelona but fell to the top ranked Nadal both times.
Djokovic is currently reckoned to be the best player in-form and is anticipated to wipe out Ferrer from the quarter-final. However, Ferrer’s recent performances on the red clay clearly hint that he has got all the potentials to
outplay the world number two Djokovic in the quarter-finals.
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