Monte Carlo – QF

David Ferrer [6] has been in impressive form. After crashing a big-serving Milos Raonic, Ferrer easily beat another hard-hitter Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-3. The match was balanced until 3:3 in the 1st set, since then Ferrer won 8 out of the next 9 games and was two points away to win the 2nd set 6-1. Troicki [16] finally managed to get two consecutive games though, but was broken to ‘love’ trying to serve to stay in the match for the second time. “Pics” now faces Jurgen Melzer [9] who stunned Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4 in very windy conditions. Melzer never lost his serve, breaking Federer twice: in the 5th game of the 1st and the 3rd game of the 2nd set. The former No. 1 had his chances to break back in both sets, especially at 3:4 in the 2nd set (Melzer held his serve after nine minutes). “He did well. I think he played aggressive, was able to mix it up. Obviously, I wasted way too many breakpoint chances today, which was unfortunate.” the Swiss commented. Melzer joins David Nalbandian, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, Gilles Simon, Robin Soderling and Nikolay Davydenko as the seventh player to notch wins over the best three players (Nadal, Federer, Djokovic) of the last five years, making it within twelve months #.
Rafael Nadal [1] ran his clay-court winning streak to 25 matches, topping Ivan Ljubicic [40] 6-1, 6-3. The Spaniard is only two wins away from establishing a record of the most consecutive titles obtained in one tournament. Nadal will meet tomorrow Andy Murray [4] in a repeat of the Monte Carlo semifinal 2009. The Scot easily outplayed a qualifier Frederico Gil 6-2, 6-1 in 71 minutes, for Gil it was the best event in career. The 26-year-old Portuguese before today’s defeat had won five matches in a row at Monte Carlo (two in qualifying tournament, three in the main draw), all of them in straight sets!

# Players who beat Nadal, Federer & Djokovic within 12 months:

Nalbandian – 2007  (1 tournament)
Roddick –  2008  (span of 3 tournaments)
Murray – 2008  (span of 4 tournaments)
Davydenko – 2009  (span of 5 tournaments)
Melzer – 2010-11 (span of 20 tournaments)
Simon – 2008  (span of 23 tournaments)
Soderling – 2009-10 (span of 24 tournaments)