By Chris Kane
As Patrick McEnroe signed off on ESPN2’s coverage of David Ferrer’s quarterfinal victory over Rafael Nadal at the 2011 Australian Open he declared that Ferrer had “crashed the party.” While the tennis public were left to only dream about the semifinal that might have been, Andy Murray may be wishing for a better bouncer as Ferrer is a party goer that is unlikely to go quietly.
First off, let’s nip any notion of this being a Cinderella story in the bud and give Ferrer his due. This is no David (proper pronunciation required Mr. Gilbert!) and Goliath matchup. Ferrer is the No. 7 ranked player in the world, he qualified for the ATP World Tour Finals for the second time in his career (2007 the other) and entered the Australian Open having won two of the last four tournaments he had entered including the warm up tournament in Auckland the week before. He is on a roll and despite this being only his second Grand Slam semifinal(lost to Novak Djokovic 2007 US Open) that is a factor that cannot be discounted.
Let’s turn to the match up against the No. 5 seed Murray. Ferrer holds the lifetime edge 3-2 but that is a bit deceptive. All three of Ferrer’s wins have come on clay while Murray’s two wins have been on hard courts including a routine 6-2, 6-2 win in their last match at the aforementioned ATP World Tour Finals. Murray is also a player on a roll. The set he dropped to the unorthodox Alexandr Dolgopolov was his first of the tournament and he has great confidence playing in Rod Laver Arena having been a finalist in the tournament a year ago. His lack of any noticeable celebration upon closing out the Ukranian upstart in the quarters tells you his sights are set a bit higher this year.
This is an intriguing matchup as these two guys are mirrors of one another. They are both considered attacking baseline players whose defensive skills are considered amongst the best in the business. Both have tireless energy as well so if you’re taping this match you might do well to extend the stop time a little longer…they’re going to be at it a while!