ATP Rome Friday Preview

Andy Murray vs. Florian Mayer

Murray and Mayer will meet in the first match of the day from central court in Rome. The 2011 Rome Masters continue on Friday as the men's draw will feature its quarterfinal matches with eight in-form players aiming for the semifinal round and Sunday's championship.

In what will be the first match of the day to be played on central court Andy Murray of Scotland will face Florian Mayer of Germany with a spot in the semifinals on the line. Most are calling for Murray to advance as he enters the match as a convincing 2/9 favorite while Mayer is set as a 3/1 underdog.

The German's chances appear to be redeemed somewhat by the fact that he does have recent strong results on clay as he made the final of ATP Munich a couple weeks ago (l. to Davydenko). Mayer also has recent wins over both Jurgen Melzer and Viktor Troicki and perhaps the German can set his sites on the fourth round of Roland Garros as he does appear to be playing strong enough tennis right now. Murray and Mayer have never met on tour, not on any surface, and while one has to acknowledge that Mayer could push himself through here Murray has started playing better once again.

Only Rafael Nadal and Thomaz Bellucci have defeated the Scot in recent tournaments and those are players that are better clay courters than Mayer. Against the weaker competition, Murray has been the one to advance and fans should be looking for Murray to get through this match as well, a result which would set up a possible semifinal against Novak Djokovic provided that he beats Robin Soderling.  

Rafael Nadal vs. Marin Cilic

Nadal returned quickly to his game, he made a solid opening start against Lopez and since there he controlled the match, fewer errors from the Spaniard who found the corners better this time around. Later attributed his struggles this week to a fever as he revealed it was touch-and-go whether he could continue.

“I hope the fever goes away but I don’t know. If it stays five days I will see you all at Roland Garros, but if it stays for only one or two days I want to stay and fight”, commented the Spaniard. The key of the match will stay also in the first couple of games of the match, Cilic still struggles to found some confidence and a match against Nadal should be an opportunity. He looked solid against Fish but wasn’t an easy match, he grew in confidence after he saved some key moments.

Nadal usually starts strongly the match putting a lot of pressure on opponent but if Cilic will hold we might see an interesting match, the Croatian can be a hard nut to crack even that his recent results doesn’t show that, but look for a competitive match.  

Richard Gasquet vs. Tomas Berdych

Another tricky match on the line. The last two meetings were won by Berdych but overall they are tied up to two wins a piece. Gasquet is coming after a boosting win over Federer who simply once more time slipped the match, he was a set and a break up and missed, he became frustrate as the match went on, but overall the Frenchman is the deserved favorite.

Berdych had a tight match against Nimenin but we give him circumstances, he slept at the end of the first set and since there he didn’t pushed too much and allowed to the Finn to clinch back but Berdych didn’t looked in danger to lose the match. Not an easy match, overall Gasquet won because Federer choked in some moments while Berdych might need some rest before the Grand Slam.

Both have the chance to go further, Berdych hit more flat and has an advantage as the weather will be sunny and thing should be faster but Gasquet will need to play his usual game, to keep his serve and force tie-breaks, the Czech looks overall more consistent but Gasquet is coming after a boost win.

Robin Soderling vs. Novak Djokovic Novak

Djokovic makes it from win to win and even that he makes an error here and there he has the upper morale to win comfortably.

Wawrinka looked stronger of the two players at the moment while the Serb entered slowly to the match, Wawrinka engages Djokovic in long rallies and forced him to found the right shots but also he waste a lot of energy.

Soderling once more came through a massive struggle against Nicolas Almagro in more then two hours. Still the Swede came with the proper shots in key moments and managed to make an entertaining decider.

The Swede escape through two tough matches recently but the Serb will not give him cheap points, Djokovic needs to play a little bit more aggressive as the Swede has a powerful serve to win some free points and to gain in morale but even that Soderling won the most recent wining between them, was indoors a more suitable surface for the Swede.