THOUGHTS ON NADAL VS. FERRER AND THE OTHER FRENCH OPEN MEN’S QUARTERFINAL MATCHES BY RICKY DIMON

Six of the top eight seeds are through to the French Open quarterfinals on the men’s side. And the only two that are not–Stan Wawrinka and Roger Federer–have worthy replacements in the form of Gael Monfils and Ernests Gulbis. The result is a blockbuster lineup in the last eight.

 

Let’s take a look at the four showdowns on Tuesday and Wednesday:

 

(6) Tomas Berdych vs. (18) Ernests Gulbis: The French fans who took to Philippe Chatrier on Sunday were not amused to see Roger Federer lose to Gulbis. The ones in Suzanne Lenglen on Tuesday, however, will not be disappointed with the end result. Berdych vs. Gulbis should be a phenomenal match with clean ball-striking, highlight-reel shot-making, and of course huge hitting. This is a brutally tough one to call. All I know is I feel sorry for the tennis balls. There will be ball-bashing, ball-bashing, and more ball-bashing. And, as always, I feel sorry for at least one of Gulbis’ rackets…even if he wins.

(8) Milos Raonic vs. (2) Novak Djokovic: Raonic just played one of the best defensive players in tennis two rounds ago and barely escaped Gilles Simon 7-5 in the fifth set. Now he’s going up against another one in Djokovic. Of course, there’s that slight difference between Djokovic and Simon in the form of, you know, six Grand Slam titles. As talented as the Berdych-Gulbis-Raonic trio is, Djokovic in his current form is a shoe-in for the French Open final.

 

(1) Rafael Nadal vs. (5) David Ferrer: Nadal vs. Ferrer in the French Open quarterfinals…just like last year. Oops, wait, that was actually the final. It sure didn’t feel like it after a semifinal instant classic between Nadal and Djokovic. And it certainly did not feel like it–at least not until the handing out of trophies–when Nadal was ushering in a 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 beatdown of his fellow Spaniard. Ferrer has won two of their last three meetings, including earlier this spring in Monte-Carlo, but this Nadal is a different beast. He is 63-1 lifetime at Roland Garros and in three previous encounters with Ferrer at this event he is 3-0 overall, 9-0 in sets, and has surrendered a mere 20 games. Domination.

(23) Gael Monfils vs. (7) Andy Murray: This could be the most intense battle of the entire tournament prior to a possible Nadal-Djokovic title match. Murray has been a human emoticon this fortnight, often going crazy (with positive energy, for the most part, if you can believe that from the woe-is-me Scot!) against both Philipp Kohlschreiber and Fernando Verdasco. Monfils won another circus show against Fabio Fognini in the third round, but he was all business against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on Monday–looking like a man on a mission for not only a slam quarterfinal, but also something more. Get your popcorn ready; both the tennis and the atmosphere in this one should be epic.

Topics: Andy Murray, David Ferrer, Ernests Gulbis, French Open, Gael Monfils, milos raonic, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Ricky Dimon, Roland Garros, Tennis, Tomas Berdych

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