Juan Carlos Ferrero defeats Marcel Granollers to make it to the semi-finals – Mercedes Cup 2011
The 31-year-old Espanola, Juan Carlos Ferrero had an easy victory over his 25-year-old, compatriot, Marcel Granollers at the TC Weissenhof Court, Stuttgart, Germany. It was a piece of cake for Juan, who won the match 6-4, 6-3 victory in almost eighty seven minutes.
The players were not meeting for the first time and had met twice prior to this event in 2010 and 2009, thus knowing each other’s style and technique. The first time they met it was in 2009 at the Buenos Aires Championships in Argentina where Carlos battled it out with his countryman and won 6-7(7), 6-0, 6-3. The last time they met it was at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Monte Carlo, Monte Carlo, Monaco in 2010 where Juan won a flawless victory on classic clay courts 6-0, 6-3, thus gaining a lead in head to head at 2-0. The Celestial Power had granted him another chance to even out the score with his old time rival (Granollers) at the Mercedes Cup on Friday.
The first set of the match saw; accuracy of both the players seemed to sway and they each struck two double faults. Although, Granollers had an ace, won fifty percent of his first serve points, saved five out of the eight breakpoints and managed to win two out of five breakpoint advantages from his opponent. He had a very poor second serve win which was a mere twenty two percent and a relatively poorer return game and therefore his total serve points win was a mere forty two percent and total return points were forty three percent.
Juan serving first; had no aces, excellent serve in the first and second thus seeing a total of fifty seven percent of total serve points won along with an even better return winning fifty eight percent of total return points, only gave two breakpoints and won three out of the total eight that were presented to him. The elder Spaniard was not the one to lose this time and thrashed the younger Spaniard winning 6-4.
After being defeated in the first set one would have though the 25-year-old would jump right back into the set. However, no one saw the likes of that, instead he was to worn out to even try! During the second set; his first return points were a bare minimum of thirty seven percent, gave two breakpoint advantages to his opponent, and only won forty three percent of his total set score. Although Marcel smashed an ace, had extreme precision and served zero double faults (a major improvement from the first set), won seventy percent of his first serve percentage and fifty percent of first serve points. His overall performance in the set was disappointing as compared to his opponent, Carlos who was on fire and availed every opportunity that was thrown his way; he was able to win all breakpoint advantages and committed only one breakpoint. His overall set score saw him win a walloping fifty nine percent of his total serve points along with fifty five percent total return points and a total of fifty eight percent of his total set points.
Despite the age factor and the ranking difference, Carlo’s presence was felt on the court; summing-up, Carlos had won fifty eight percent of his total service points along with fifty seven percent of total return points thus achieving a total of fifty eight percent of his total match points and 3-0 lead in their head to head.
The current world number eighty five, Juan Carlos Ferrero will meet Federico Del Bonis of Argentina in the semi-final.
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