Swedish Open Site
July 8, 2024

Spain is the dominating nationality during a Thursday in which the four remaining quarterfinalists will be decided.

First up on center court are Juan Ignacio Chela and Fernando Verdasco. The Argentinean Chela is one of the most consistent players on the tour and captured the title in Estoril this year as well as reaching the final eight at Roland Garros. He is in B�stad for the first time since year 2000 and easily defeated Marc Lopez in the first round. Now, he is up against Lopez� younger countryman Fernando Verdasco, who is one of this year�s rising stars on the tour. The 20-year old from Madrid is in B�stad for the first time and beat Thomas Johansson in the first round. Chela and Verdasco faced each other in the second round of this year�s French Open where Chela won in three straight sets.

The last Swede standing, Robin S�derling, will then take on center court. S�derling won against Boris Pashanski in the first round but is now up for a much greater challenge. Tommy Robredo will be on the other side of the net. The Spaniard has reached the final four in B�stad the last two years and put up a strong performance when he defeated Agustin Calleri in the opening match. S�derling and Robreo are playing each other for the first time.

The third match on center court will be played between Gaston Gaudio and Olivier Patience. Gaudio won the French Open a month ago and is without doubt one of the hottest players on the tour right now. He opened up the tournament by only losing four games to Nikolay Davydenko. The opponent on Thursday, Patience, has had a small breakthrough season when he has entered the top 100. He won a long three set match against Teimuraz Gabashvili in the first round and it would be a great surprise if the frenchman could challenge Gaudio.

The last match will be an all-Spanish duel between Rafael Nadal and Santiago Ventura. The 18-year old Nadal made himself a name in B�stad last year, when he reached the quarterfinal after having defeated Younes El Aynaoui. The super talent from Mallorca has had some injury problems this year and is playing his first tournament since April. Nadal got off to a bad start in the first round, but managed to come back against Jiri Vanek. Ventura qualified into the tournament and won comfortably against Jonas Bj�rkman. The two have played against each other one time before in a smaller Spanish tournament with Nadal as the winner.