Dream Clash on Friday

Synam Swedish Open
June 8th, 2005

Friday is the day of the quarterfinals at the Synsam Swedish Open, and one of the matches features two past Roland Garros champions, this year's winner Rafael Nadal and the 2003 winner Juan Carlos Ferrero.

The last two French Open winners that played against each other at the Swedish Open were Roy Emerson and Manolo Santana in 1965.

Topseed Nadal meets No. 5 seed Ferrero for the third time in 2005, and Nadal has won their past two clashes in Valencia and Barcelona. Ferrero's 2004 season was plagued by injuries, and he ended outside the Top 30 for the first time in five years. The 25-year-old's best efforts in 2005 are a final appearance in Barcelona, a semifinal at the ATP Masters Series event in Monte Carlo and a quarterfinal in Halle.

Nadal, who hails from Mallorca has already lifted six tournament trophies this season, most recently Roland Garros, and he holds a 51-8 match record for 2005.

The winner of the past two editions of the Swedish Open, Mariano Zabaleta, faces Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic. Zabaleta injured his foot in Monte Carlo and has been out of action since then. The 27-year-old Argentine has two previous quarterfinal appearances in 2005, Vina del Mar and Costa do Sauipe. Berdych made a name for himself when he captured his first ATP title in Palermo last year. This is the first time since then that he finds himself among the last eight at an ATP event.

Frequent Swedish Open visitor Tommy Robredo, seeded No. 3 this week, meets Russia's Mikhail Youzhny for the second time in his career. Robredo has advanced to the Bastad semifinals twice in his past four appearances, in 2002 and 2003. The Spaniard is currently 22nd in the INDESIT ATP Champions Race after having advanced to the Estoril final as well as the semifinals in Dubai and the quarterfinals at Roland Garros. Youzhny is in the quarterfinals of an ATP event for the first time since Dubai in February.

Oscar Hernandez, who came back from a one-set deficit to defeat No. 7 seed and local favorite Robin Soderling on Thursday, takes on Jiri Vanek of the Czech Republic for a spot in the semifinals. The 27-year old Spaniard, who won the Braunschweig challenger last month, is in his first ATP-level quarterfinal since Casablanca in 2004.

27-year-old Vanek has also had most of his 2005 success at challenger events. He opened up the season by winning the Heilbronn challenger and was a runner-up in his hometown event in Prague. Before coming to Bastad this weel, his only previous match win at an ATP event in 2005 came against Fabrice Santoro in the first round in Casablanca.


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