Inside Info and Daily Commentary on the ATP Tour




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Barcelona Quarterfinal: Rafael Nadal vs. Juan Ignacio Chela

Top-seeded Rafael Nadal has not been tested yet through three rounds of the Open Sabadell Atlantico in Barcelona. It doesn't appear to be much tougher in the quarterfinals, where he will take on Juan Ignacio Chela.

Rafael Nadal stormed through the Monte-Carlo field last week and he is doing the same so far in Barcelona at the Open Sabadell Atlantico. Common sense, as well as their past head-to-head history, suggests that Juan Ignacio Chela will do nothing in the quarterfinals to change that. The Argentine has defeated Nadal once, but that came way back in 2004 on the hard courts of Cincinnati. Overall Nadal holds a 3-1 edge, including 2-0 on clay. Last season in Monte-Carlo, the Spaniard crushed Chela 6-3, 6-1.

The 28-year-old Chela has looked good in Barcelona, but he has done nothing else recently to suggest he can stay on the court with Nadal. He had a decent showing on clay earlier in 2008, reaching the semifinals in Buenos Aires, but not surprisingly he slumped miserably on the hard courts. Chela should be confident having taken out Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Marc Lopez, and the dangerous Ernests Gulbis, but Nadal is a whole different beast.

The No. 2 player in the world dominated his way to the Masters Series shield in Monte-Carlo and he has plowed through his first two opponents in Barcelona with relative ease. Nadal dispatched Potito Starace 6-4, 6-2 in the first round and followed that up on Thursday with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over 16th-seeded compatriot Feliciano Lopez.

Chela is still capable on clay, but he is no more formidable an opponent than Starace or Lopez. Nadal will be able to dictate play from the baseline and Chela does not own a serve like Lopez's that can give Nadal any trouble. Go ahead and pencil Nadal into the semis in straight sets.

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Barcelona Quarterfinal: Denis Gremelmayr vs. Nicolas Almagro

Little-known Denis Gremelmayr will face clay-court master Nicolas Almagro in the quarterfinals of the Open Sabadell Atlantico on Friday in Barcelona. Almagro is the heavy favorite, but Gremelmayr has shown that he is a force to be reckoned with.

Denis Gremelmayr and Nicolas Almagro will square off for the first time in the Barcelona quarterfinals on Friday afternoon. Almagro has been near flawless on clay this season and a semifinal showdown with Rafael Nadal appears imminent, but he would be wise not to look past Gremelmayr.

A relatively obscure player until just recently, the German is in the midst of a breakout hot streak on clay. Gremelmayr reached a career-high ranking of No. 84 in the world last week by reaching the semifinals in Estoril. He took out Jarkko Nieminen, Teimuraz Gabashvili, and Jiri Vanek before falling to Roger Federer in a tough three-setter. So far this week he has kept up the momentum. The unseeded Gremelmayr started off his Barcelona campaign by easing past Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo and he has followed that up with impressive blowout wins over James Blake and Dmitry Tursunov.

All of those scalps, however, would pale in comparison to upset of Almagro. The No. 10 seed is a genius on clay, and never more than in 2008. He won titles in Costa Do Sauipe and Acapulco earlier this season and two weeks ago he made it to the final in Valencia before being edged out by David Ferrer. Overall Almagro is a ridiculous 23-3 on clay courts in 2008. In Barcelona he has taken care of Viktor Troicki, Filippo Volandri, and Mario Ancic in succession.

Does Gremelmayr have enough game to contend with that? It's true that he is in rare form at the moment, but Almagro very well might deliver a reality check. Almagro has been serving incredibly well this week and if he keeps that up to go along with his ever-solid one-handed backhand, he is almost impossible to beat on the red stuff. Look for Almagro to come through in two tight sets.

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Nadal Still Rolling in Barcelona

Rafael Nadal moves on to the quarterfinals of the Open Sabadell Atlantico with a straight-set win over Feliciano Lopez. In other matches, solid clay-court tactics overcame power tennis.

Rafael Nadal d. Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 6-3

Lopez battled against his friend and countryman, but as expected, it was not nearly enough in the end. All Nadal needed in each set was just one small opening on Lopez's serve, as the challenger never threatened in Nadal's service games. The No. 1 seed completely dominated from the back of the court throughout the afternoon, losing just seven points on serve in the first set and a mere five in the second. Lopez stayed competitive simply thanks to his serve, but Nadal started to get a read on it late in the second set and he quickly broke twice to end the match.

Juan Ignacio Chela d. Ernests Gulbis 2-6, 6-4, 6-3

Facing a veteran clay-courter for the second time in as many days, Gulbis suffered the opposite fate on Thursday. Against Carlos Moya he dropped the first set but stormed back in stunning fashion to win in three. With Chela, Gulbis surged to an impressive first-set victory but the lost control and faded after leading 3-2 in the third set. The 19-year-old Latvian saw his first-serve percentage plummet over the last few games of the match and he also failed to jump on Chela's second deliveries throughout the final frame play like he had been doing in sets one and two. Chela's win earns him the herculean task of taking on top-seeded Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals.

Denis Gremelmayr d. Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-0

By his standards, Gremelmayr has been a in awesome form so far this clay-court season. Two weeks ago the German reached the semifinals in Estoril, where he won the first set off Roger Federer and almost finished the match in two before losing in three. Gremelmayr preceded this blowout win over Tursunov by with a win over Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo and a blowout of James Blake. Tursunov was in this match--even up a break--until he got broken while serving to stay in the first set at 4-5. After that it was all over for the Russian, who completely went in the tank. Gremelmayr, won won the last 11 games of the match, lost just eight points in the entire second set.

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Almagro Wears Down Ancic in Straight Sets

Nicolas Almagro gets through a tough first set against Mario Ancic and then steps on the gas pedal to pull away and sprint into the Barcelona quarterfinals. Next up for Almagro is the surprising Denis Gremelmayr.

Nicolas Almagro turned a serve-dominated contest into a runaway on Thursday evening as he defeated Mario Ancic 7-6(5), 6-2 in the third round of the Open Sabaell Atlantico in Barcelona. The 10th-seeded Spaniard appears to be on a semifinal collision course with Rafael Nadal, but first he will have to get by Denis Gremelmayr.

For a long time just getting by Ancic seemed to be in serious question. Both Almagro and Ancic had to save two break points in the first set, but for the most part both players dominated on serve. The 6'5'' Croat put in 70 percent of his first serve and fired three aces, while Almgro won 23 of 24 first-serve points and lost just seven service points total in the opening frame of play. With Ancic serving down 5-6 in the tiebreaker, Almagro finally struck to take the opening set seven points to five.

Five games later the second set appeared to be heading in the same direction, as both players held serve without difficulty. Suddenly, however, Almagro raised his level with Ancic serving at 2-3. A critical break of serve gave Almagro a 4-2 lead and seemed to demoralize his opponent. Ancic kept fighting, but at that point it was a lost cause. Almagro held serve to 5-2 and then broke again to finish off the contest in style. Ancic's serve really fell off in terms of both percentage and effectiveness in the late stages of the match, and once Almagro got comfortable in baseline rallies, he enjoyed a significant advantage.

It will be the first-ever head-to-head clash between Almagro and Gremelmayr in the quarterfinals.