Estoril Open quarter-final preview

General / Editor / 04 May 2007 / Leave a Comment

There will be a new name on the Estoril Open role of honour come Sunday, as none of the last eight has triumphed at the Portuguese event before.

The way things are shaping up it looks like the winner could be Novak Djokovic or Tommy Robredo, who are on course to meet in the semi-finals.

Seventh seed Robredo fought back from a set and 3-0 down to overcome qualifier Alberto Martin on Thursday and secure his place in the quarter-finals this afternoon. There he will face Argentina's seventh seed Agustin Calleri, who was Estoril runner-up in 2003.

While Robredo got the better of Martin 6-7 7-5 6-2 in 146 minutes to give himself a belated 25th birthday present from Tuesday, Calleri had the easier task against fellow Argentine Juan Martin del Potro, who was forced to retire through illness when trailing 7-5 1-0.

If you are looking for omens, world number seven Robredo beat Martin on the way to the Auckland final in January (he lost to David Ferrer) - and he clearly has his eye on another final as he looks to improve his 18-9 season record. Robredo won 69 points on his first serve.

He and world number 28 Calleri are 3-3 in head-to-head encounters - all but one of those contests were on clay courts. But Calleri won their most recent clash in Barcelona last month, 6-4 2-6 6-3 in the round of the last 16.

Robredo is trading at 1.75 with Betfair to reach the last four and can be backed at 6.4 to win the title. Calleri is on offer at 2.28 to beat Robredo.

Theirs is the strongest form guide of all four quarter-finals, with two matches being first-time contests and the other only a second meeting.

Fifth seed Richard Gasquet of France took his record to 20-8 for the season with an easy 6-1 6-2 win over Portuguese wild card Frederico Gil.

Gasquet has reached the last eight four times this year - going on to reach the final in Sydney in January before losing to Carlos Moya. None of the players who stopped him in the other three quarters is in the tournament (Robin Soderling, Chris Guccione and Juan Carlos Ferrero).

In the last eight he faces American veteran Vince Spadea, who is through to a European clay court quarter-final for the first time in three years.

Gasquet, who is world number 15 to Spadea's number 76, should have too much know-how on clay and is trading at 1.11 with Betfair to reach the last four against the oldest player in the draw.

The 32-year-old Spadea reached the last eight by fighting back to beat French qualifier Olivier Patience 2-6 6-3 6-4. Patience had knocked out top seed Nikolay Davydenko on Wednesday, but he couldn't work the magic a second time.

Gasquet and Spadea open the quarter-final action on Centre Court at 1.45pm.

Serbian Novak Djokovic, third seed and world number five, was first into the quarter-finals after taking just 56 minutes to dispose of Spanish qualifier Santiago Ventura 6-2 6-2.

He is the hot shot on the world circuit with 28 match wins so far this year and is a player to watch going into next week's Hamburg Masters and, particularly the French Open at the end of the month.

His record certainly suggests he is a Major force waiting to happen after his ATP win in Adelaide and at his runner-up finish in the Miami Masters, after being beaten by Rafael Nadal.

Barring his path to the last four is Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Djokovic has won their only previous meeting but that was on grass at Wimbledon in 2005, when he came back from two sets down to win in five (including two tie-breaks).

Garcia-Lopez reached the last eight by putting out sixth seed Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 6-4 6-3, but it's Djokovic who is the hot favourite to progress. The 19-year-old can be backed at 1.17 with Garcia-Lopez available at 6.6.

The remaining quarter-final is the battle between two 6ft 1in players. Frenchman Paul Henri-Mathieu, who knocked out Chile's world number six Fernando Gonzalez on Wednesday, toppled Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-2 6-1 to reach the last eight. There he faces Juan Monaco, after the Argentine player beat American Sam Querrey 3-6 6-1 6-4.

Mathieu is a man in form having won the Casablanca title last weekend and is now 17-8 for the season and is trading at 7.6 with Betfair to chalk up back-to-back title triumphs.

Victory today will put Mathieu (1.43 to reach the semi-finals) through to a semi-final against Gasquet or Spadea.