Preview: Rafael Nadal vs Ivan Ljubicic – French Open 2011
King of clay, Rafael “Rafa” Nadal from Spain continues his title defence at the 2011 Roland Garros in Paris, France on Monday, May 30th as he takes on the Croat number two, Ivan Ljubicic for their fourth round match.
The reigning world number one is contesting in his seventh Roland Garros this year with a five title win here already. Rafa is the only male tennis player ever to win the Roland Garros on his debut. Coming here in 2005, the Spaniard
made his way to the final to win his first Grand Slam ever. Coming back year after year, Nadal clinched back to back wins here. It was only in 2009 that the King was dethroned due to personal problems and knee injury. However, on his comeback in 2010, Rafa
once more took back the crown.
Going for the only player to hold six Roland Garros, Rafa started this edition playing John Isner. In a tiring battle, Rafa was pushed to five sets before finally clinching a win for himself. Rafa met with resistance again in the
second round as he played Pablo Andujar. Albeit straight sets, Rafa was forced to fight to stay in the match as sets went to 7-5 or tiebreakers. His only easy match in the event came in the third round when he met and blasted away Croat qualifier Antonio Veic
in simple straight sets.
A phenomenon on clay, Nadal seconds to none on his favourite surface – save maybe the unstoppable Serb, Novak Djokovic. Well the Spaniard must be thanking the heavens he isn’t playing the Djoker in the fourth round. Already holding
two titles on clay, Nadal recently sported a 37 match winning streak on clay. He also made it to the finals of two clay Masters events, Madrid and Rome.
Set against such a decorated record, Ljubicic might as well come out waving the white flag. Sporting only one semi-final appearance as his season best, Ljubicic has mostly suffered early round exits this season. His clay run for
the season registers a meagre 4-3 win loss, with his best being a quarterfinal appearance at Monte Carlo.
Sporting nearly a decade of appearances at the Roland Garros, Ljubicic does not have much to show for it. A career win loss record of 15-11, the Croat has never made it past the semi-final here. Incidentally his semi-final run
here was ended by the Spaniard as well.
If these stats weren’t discouraging enough for the Croat, he already trails 2-6 in the head-to-head series against the Spaniard – 0-3 on clay. Their most recent came at the 2011 Monte Carlo where the Spaniard raced past Ljubicic
in easy straight sets.
Prediction: Although Ljubicic may put up a fight, outdoing Nadal would take a lot more. The Spaniard is expected to sail past the Croat in straight sets to secure a quarterfinal berth for himself.
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