ATP - Casablanca Friday Preview

Eight ATP World Tour stars will battle it out for spots in the final four as Quarter-final Friday takes place at the Grand Prix Hassan II.

First up is an all-Spanish, all-unseeded battle between Pablo Andujar and Pere Riba. This is Andujar’s third time this year winning back-to-back matches, having done so in reaching the quarters of Costa do Sauipe and the third round of Miami (beating Top 10 player Fernando Verdasco along the way); Riba has done it here for the first time this year (in fact, the first time since last July). This is their first meeting on the ATP World Tour (Andujar has won three of their four Challenger meetings).

The second match on Court Central is No. 1 seed Albert Montanes against No. 7 seed Fabio Fognini. Neither player has had the best year so far, Montanes now 7-7 and Fognini now 7-9, but Montanes has done far better on these courts in the past, making deep runs in two of his four previous appearances here (reaching the final in 2007 and the semi-finals in 2009) while Fognini fell first round in his only previous appearance here. Fognini has also gone to three sets in both of his first two matches this week, and Montanes has won their last two meetings.

The third quarter-final of the day pits No. 3 seed Gilles Simon against No. 5 seed Potito Starace. Simon, a former Top 10 player, started this year outside the Top 40 but is now No. 23 after a very strong last few months, highlighted by a title in Sydney and the quarters last week in Miami. In that Miami quarter-final he had to retire due to a neck injury, but he had a strong return to the courts here with a routine win in his opening match. Starace is a former semi-finalist here, doing so last year, but Simon has won both of their previous meetings (one on the ATP World Tour, one last year in the Challengers).

Last up is No. 8 seed Victor Hanescu against qualifier Andrey Kuznetsov. After first round losses in his first three appearances here in 2005, 2007 and 2008, Hanescu has stepped it up over the last few years here, reaching the quarter-finals in 2009, the final in 2010 (losing to Stanislas Wawrinka) and now the quarters again. Kuznetsov has won back-to-back matches for the first time in his career and is now in his very first ATP World Tour quarter-final - and he has already taken out one seed this week, No. 2 seed Marcos Baghdatis. In this pair’s only prior meeting, Kuznetsov pushed Hanescu to 7-5 in the fifth set before falling.