ATP Queen’s – Men’s Friday Preview

Fernando Verdasco vs. Andy Roddick            

Four times winner Roddick required just an hour and 18 minutes to defeat South African Kevin Anderson in straight sets to seal his place in the last eight.

But wasn’t an easy match as the score suggest, the American struggled to earn the opening games in each set, after that Anderson struggled but not being helped by a solid serve he lost. He will meet now Verdasco who seems slowly on his back track. The Spaniard didn’t lost his serve and even that he isn’t on his best surface still can be a dangerous player.

The surface isn’t that fast and the balls are heavier which will permit long rallies and from the back of the court has the upper hand as Roddick made a lot of errors on the ground.

Still the American has the serve on his side but once more light rain is expected and conditions will be slower.

Marin Cilic vs. Andy Murray            

Andy Murray advance in quarter-finals after a tough match against Tipsarevic. The Serbian made a solid match and punished everything what Murray played short, he force the Britt to bounce back in each set but also Murray impressed as he wasn’t impatient, he waited his opportunities and raised his level in key moments to bounce back and won in straight sets. He will now meet Cilic who had a tougher match against Bellucci. Once more the Croat showed that isn’t on his best form, he was pushed to tie-break after he broke first in the opening set and blacked out in the second set.

Murray played well against a solid Serbian and is hard to see Cilic to improve over night, the Britt is favorite to take this one in 2 sets.  

Rafael Nadal vs. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was leading 4-3 in the opening set when Llodra retired with an upper leg injury. A good thing for the Frenchman as he will enter fresher against Nadal.

The Spaniard showed some tired legs against Stepanek, the Czech managed to bounce back in the second set on the background of a tired Nadal but then the Spaniard went to locker room and came much fresher and managed to win easily.

"For sure I'm a bit tired, but I always like to play here with this fantastic crowd and fantastic atmosphere", said Nadal.

The Frenchman isn’t without chances here as he has a powerful serve and if he will play an aggressive tennis coming to the net to finish quickly the points he will force Nadal to play his best tennis which didn’t showed this week as still he makes a lot of errors on court. Tsonga needs to move to hit with the forehand to have more control then on backhand wing, he is fresher and he needs to push the sets in tie-breaks where with his serve will have the upper hand, not the most easiest match.

Sam Querrey vs. James Ward

There is no taking away James Ward's win over world number 14 Wawrinka yesterday but Wawrinka is not particularly happy on grass and maybe it was not as big a shock as thought. Ward like most brits is a decent player on the grass courts and his game will be based around that so with so few tournaments on the surface the specailist clay courters may struggle over a 3 set match to adapt to the game.

He has some scalps last year when beating Lopez and Schuettler at Eastbourne but when coming up against a big server who is adept on the fast surface he has lost and usually convincingly after a brief fight in the first set. I don't see him being able to break Querrey and it will just be a matter of how long can he hold his own serve.