So far the Mutua Madrid Open has been an absolutely excellent tournament with some great matches so far and today we were treated with some more.
On the WTA tour side of things, there were some good results with Petra Kvitova who came through a tough battle against Dominika Cibulkova in 3 sets to make the semi finals. Victoria Azarenka also came through a fairly tough match against Lucie Safarova (Tomas Berdych's bird in case you didn't know) in 3 sets, 6-3 3-6 6-2. Also Stuttgart Tennis Porsche Gran Prix winner Julia Goerges came through her quarter final match against Anatasia Pavly in a fairly easy straight set win in 6-4 6-2. And finally Li Na fought it out against a game (and still bizarrely dressed like a character from the fighting video game Tekken!) Bethanie Mattek-Sands in 3 sets also winning 6-4 4-6 6-4. I was quite pleased to see Li Na come through to the semis after so many early round defeats in previous tournaments since her impressive Australian Open finalist run. So Li Na will face an on form Petra Kvitova tomorrow and Victoria Azarenka faces an also on form Julia Goerges. Its going to make for two great semi finals and to be honest there will be no favourites among any of them, they are all on form players. Li Na is playing great as is Petra and Azarenka is playing her most aggressive tennis I've seen so far, while Goerges is shown sheer utter determination, so its going to be very interesting to see who will come through.
On the men's ATP side of things, it was no less exciting and intruiging. Rafa though had the easiest match against Michael Llodra winning comfortably in 6-2 6-2, but Tomas Berdych also got an upset defeat at the hand of Andy Murray's conqueror, Thomaz Bellucci who defeated Berdych in straight sets 7-6(2) 6-3 without dropping his serve. Federer also played a fairly tricky match against Robin Soderling, but he came through in straight sets winning 7-6(2) 6-4.
But the match of the day without a doubt was from the so far unbeatable Novak Djokovic and clay court veteran David Ferrer. I somehow didn't think this match would be a walk in the park, but I did think it might be a straight set win for Djoko, but thankfully I was proved wrong, as the match was a very tough battle for the World No 2. Ferrer showed the same incredible resiliance as he showed Andy Murray at the Australian Open and he pushed Djokovic as far as he could into a 3 set battle. The windy conditions on court also made things difficult for Djoky too as he dropped his serve in the second set and made some unforced errors allowing Ferrer to take his chances to take the second set away from him. But in the third set Djokovic found his game again and defeated the world no 7 scoring 6-4 4-6 6-3. But I really do admire Ferrer's spirit, guts and sheer determination to battle it out against such an opponent as Djokovic. It makes me think if he got to the Australian Open final instead, he could have punished Djokovic a whole lot more than Andy could have done. In fact in retrospect I wish Ferrer had got to the final as I think it would have been a much tigher match, and Ferrer would have gone down fighting, unlike Andy who just went down whinging.
Not to sound mean spirited towards Djokovic, I do appreciate his tremendous talent and formidable skill that he has displayed this year so far, but I was glad to see him tested so much tonight on the clay, as I don't believe he should be allowed to steamroll his way through the season. It also showed while Djokovic can demolish players on hard court, he certainly can't on clay, and it signals he could be in for a really tough French Open.
And Murray/Berdych beater Thomas Bellucci also appears to share the same level of belief as Djokovic does, as he thinks he can beat anyone on his best surface too. However as much as I admire the young Brazillian's spirit, I do think he is being a little bit delusional on this one, from here I can't see Bellucci beating Djokovic. It would be terrific if he could and it would show how remarkable an achievement it could be for an unseeded player to take someone at the peak of their game. But I think its a massively big ask, and I don't really see it happening. Although it would be terrific to see if Bellucci could really push Djoko as far as he can and again test the Serbian like Ferrer did. He could be the underdog, the Rocky if you will, the southpaw jinx who comes on and shakes up the World No 2. Again Bellucci has the advantage of never having played Djokovic before so perhaps Djoky doesn't fully know what to expect from the Brazillian, so it could make for a very exciting encounter, or just a straight forward win for Djoky. But it could upset the final we all want to see Rafa vs Djoko if Bellucci does win and I can't see him upsetting Rafa too much for that matter, so we will wait and see!
Now of course there is another more interesting semi final that awaits us, the showdown between the two titans, Rafa and Roger. Now last time Rafa handed Roger's ass to him in Miami as he beat Roger quite easily in 6-3 6-2. But hopefully this time Roger will have brought his A-game to the proceedings, so we can only hope it will make for an exhilirating semi final, but I think we know the outcome of the match before it begins. But hopefully it will be the match we all hope it will be, as Roger will be out looking for revenge or something close to it. Shall see shall we.
Its all good from here, bring it on once more!!! Cue part 6!
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