ATP Madrid Friday Preview

Roger Federer vs. Robin Soderling

Roger Federer didn’t make the most convincing start to his Mutua Madrid Open campaign, but bounced back from his near-defeat against Feliciano Lopez in round two to secure a 6-4, 6-3 win against Xavier Malisse. The former world No. 1 will now face Robin Soderling in the quarter-finals, in what promises to be one of the most exciting contests in this year’s competition. Federer will need to be on top form, but this is the kind of match that will provide him with ideal preparation for Roland Garros.
Soderling had a tough match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in round three, but still hasn’t lost a set in this competition. The Swede is always capable of recording significant results on clay, but Friday’s showdown looks set to be another major challenge. Soderling has struggled against Federer in the past, but managed to win his most recent clay court meeting against the Swiss No. 1.
Federer first faced Soderling in 2004, and currently has a 15-1 head to head record against him. Whilst this record suggests that Federer will be dominant, Soderling is in good form at the moment, and might be able to find a way into the final four.

Tomas Berdych vs. Thomaz Bellucci

Berdych holds a 2-0 record against Bellucci in ATP Tour matches while the two have split challenger level matches on the clay court surface.The 2011 Madrid Masters will feature the quarterfinal matches on Friday and in one match Tomas Berdych and Thomaz Bellucci will meet. Bellucci enters the match with some clear momentum as he took out world number four Andy Murray in the round of 16 in Madrid while Berdych is quietly having himself an impressive tournament so far, having not dropped a set in the two matches that he has played.

Berdych and Bellucci have played twice on clay before as they split 2 matches that were played at the Prostejov Challenger in 2008 and 2009. Berdych won the more recent match between the two and he's been the more consistent player in the last year as Bellucci is still ranked just 36th.Berdych has better grass court and hard court results but Bellucci's best surface is clay and the 23 year old Brazilian should be able to exchange groundstrokes with Berdych through most of the match.

It is important to note that both of Bellucci's career titles have come on the clay court surface and his best Grand Slam showing so far in his career took place at Roland Garros as the Brazilian made the round of 16 in 2010 before losing to Rafael Nadal.

Rafael Nadal vs. Michael Llodra

Rafael Nadal was given a walkover into quarter-finals of Madrid Open when opponent Juan Martin Del Potro withdrew before the match with a hip injury.

He will meet now Llodra who battled by Gimeno-Traver to advance in quarter-finals bouncing back after he lost the opening set. Gimeno-Traver produced some exhilarating tennis in the first set but after that he remained without steam and the Frenchman started to serve much better and won in a tie-breaker.

The Spaniard received a needed pause and will start aggressive from the beginning to not stay too much on court, the Frenchman will hope to save himself with the serve as any long rallies will be on the Spaniard side, Llodra has a prone to errors backhand when he is pushed way behind the baseline as will be difficult to control the balls. 

David Ferrer vs. Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic equalled Ivan Lendl's 1986 record of a 29-0 winning start to a season on Thursday when he reached the Madrid Masters quarter-finals. He started very aggressive the match when the serve of the Spaniard didn’t entered, which happened all around the match, then the Serb had the upper hand.

"I was winning my service games really comfortably and that's something that I'm happy about, it's a very encouraging fact for my upcoming matches", said Djokovic.

Sixth seeded David Ferrer needed 1 hour and 29 minutes to get past Sergiy Stakhovsky. Ferrer served well, winning 84 per cent of his service points against the Ukranian. The Spaniard will attempt to end the undefeated reign of Novak Djokovic in 2011. Ferrer is the player who enters on court to win and this will be the key of the match, the Spaniard played consistently recently and he served well against the Ukrainian and we expect to push the Serb here.