Friends and also familiar foes Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer will face each other in the Monte-Carlo quarterfinals on Friday. Novak Djokovic is also looking for a place in the last four as he goes up against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
(1) Rafael Nadal vs. (6) David Ferrer
Nadal and Ferrer will be squaring off for the 27th time in their careers when the two Spaniards collide in the quarterfinals of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on Friday afternoon. Nadal is dominating the head-to-head series 21-5, including an overwhelming 17-1 on clay. The world No. 1 has won 17 in a row on the slow stuff at his opponent’s expense since Ferrer took their first-ever encounter back at the 2004 Stuttgart event. Ferrer beat Nadal 6-3, 7-5 last fall at the Paris Masters, but the favorite quickly returned the favor with a 6-3, 6-2 blowout at the World Tour Finals.
Neither man has endured any real trouble so far in Monte-Carlo; especially not Ferrer. The sixth seed thrashed Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-0 before getting the best of Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-2. Nadal trailed by an early break against Teymuraz Gabashvili and gave back a late break against Andreas Seppi, but he still pocketed routine victories of 6-4, 6-1 and 6-1, 6-3, respectively. The eight-time champion of this tournament is 23-3 for his 2014 campaign. Nothing about the current form of either Nadal or Ferrer suggests that their historical head-to-head trend on clay–and overall, for that matter–will change in this one.
Pick: Nadal in 2 losing 9 games or fewer
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Guillermo Garcia-Lopez vs. (2) Novak Djokovic
It will be the hottest player in the world overall against the hottest play of this clay-court swing’s early stages when Djokovic and Garcia-Lopez meet for the sixth time in their careers. Djokovic triumphed in both Indian Wells and Miami and so far in Monte-Carlo he has dropped a mere two games in total to Albert Montanes and Pablo Carreno Busta. Garcia-Lopez picked up momentum with a third-round showing in Miami and he used to it to capture last week’s Casablanca title. The 38th-ranked Spaniard booked his spot in the quarterfinals with defeats of Benjamin Balleret, Alexandr Dolgopolov, and Tomas Berdych.
Djokovic is sweeping the head-to-head series 5-0, including 2-0 on clay. They have not faced each other since the 2011 Madrid event, where the Serb scored a 6-1, 6-2 victory. Garcia-Lopez is in rare form right now and he should be far more competitive than Montanes and Carreno Busta, but it also has to be noted than he got an assist from a less-than-100 percent Berdych in Thursday’s three-setter. Djokovic is supremely confident right now, so he is likely to advance with ease.
Pick: Djokovic in 2 losing 3-4 games
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From Rafael Nadal Fans.
¤¤ “Losing hurts everywhere. On clay always a little bit more,” said Rafa. “I am not happy today about what I did. Not very happy about the way that I played the second set after losing the first. I didn’t play with the right intensity at the beginning of the second. I give him big opportunity at the beginning of the second. I cannot do that.”
“When you play tennis, you can lose, you can win. When the opponent is doing things better than you, the normal thing is you lose. That’s what happened today,” said Rafa. “I didn’t play the right way. I didn’t play with the right intensity with my forehand. I played too short. I give him the chance to have control of the point almost all the time. He did much better than me, so I just congratulate him.” ¤¤
http://rafaelnadalfans.com/2014/04/18/rafael-nadal-losing-hurts-everywhere-on-clay-always-a-little-bit-more/
Here you can listen to the full audio of the presser (2 parts)
http://www.ubitennis.com/blog/2014/04/18/montecarlo-wawrinka-batte-raonic-ferrer-supera-nadal-dopo-10-anni/ …
Thanks @augusta08. I always like to hear Rafa’s personal take on his matches, more special hearing his words because one can gauge his emotional state.
He’ll be fine.
@luckystar, you don’t have to go anywhere ! we are all shocked,dejected and everyone shud be free to give his/her take … your analysis is quite valuable so make sure you stay at tenngrand 🙂
Rafa very well knows that he was injured in the AO final, yet he seems to be taking the loss a bit too far. I know he had a chance at history and I think once he reached the finals and had Wawa on the other side, he would have expected to lay his hands on the trophy. I think the cruel blow in the form of injury which was ill timed just makes him wonder if destiny is playing too much havoc with him in the form of injuries and whether he has any say in it and how much can he keep fighting it again and again.