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  • Indian Wells Third Round: Mario Ancic vs. Juan Carlos Ferrero

    3/17/08 9:32 PM | Ricky Dimon
    - It's been a bumpy road at times for the careers of Mario Ancic and Juan Carlos Ferrero, but all is well so far this week at the Pacific Life Open. The two very different players will match wits and skills in the third round on Tuesday.

    Unseeded Mario Ancic has already won twice this week and No. 22 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero took care of business in his first match of the tournament against Thomas Johansson to set up a marquee third-round matchup at the Masters Series Indian Wells. This will be the fourth head-to-head meeting between the two players and Ferrero holds a commanding 3-0 advantage. All three matches, however, came back when the Spaniard was at or near the top of the men's game and two of the meetings were contested on clay, Ferrero's best surface and arguably Ancic's worst. So it should not be alarming that Ferrero has enjoyed a deciding edge.

    Considering recent results, however, this could be Ancic's time to break through. The 6'5 Croat has been plagued by injuries throughout his seven-year pro career, but he is just now in the process of overcoming recent ailments. Although he missed both the 2007 U.S. Open and this season's Australian Open, Ancic played two tournaments in February and both were extremely productive. He was runner-up in Marseille (lost to Murray but had wins over Tsonga, Soderling, and Baghdatis) and reached the semifinals of Zagreb (lost to fellow Croat Ivan Ljubicic). He has not missed a beat yet this week in Indian Wells. Ancic blew past Gael Monfils, who is also returning from injury, 6-3, 6-2 in the opening round and then pulled off a minor upset of 12th-seeded Fernando Gonzalez 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.

    Ferrero is no longer the player he was back in 2003, when he won the French Open, lost in the U.S. Open final to Andy Roddick, and briefly became No. 1 in the world. “The Mosquito,” however, still has plenty of game and is ranked 22nd. He is simply a lot more inconsistent now than in the past and that is already apparent from his few 2008 results. He kicked off the season by finishing runner-up to Philipp Kohlschreiber in Auckland and reached the fourth round of the Australian Open by destroying David Nalbandian. Despite that early momentum, Ferrero has compiled a dismal 1-3 match record since then. He is coming off two first-round blowout losses to Teimuraz Gabashvili in Rotterdam and Roddick in Dubai.

    Will that Ferrero show up on Tuesday or will it be the one who erased Johansson in round two on Sunday? It better be the latter if Ferrero hopes to have any chance of staying with the huge-serving Ancic. He has a solid return and he can outlast Ancic from the baseline, but with the way Ancic has been playing (especially serving) recently, the outcome of the match is in the Croat's hands.

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