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4/8/09 8:38 PM | Ricky Dimon
Juan Carlos Ferrero takes out Potito Starace in straight sets at the Grand Prix Hassan II on Wednesday. Next up for the former world No. 1 is a quarterfinal meeting with Victor Hanescu.
Back in his heyday, Juan Carlos Ferrero surely would have closed out his second-round match at the Grand Prix Hassan II in much more routine fashion. While that was far from the case on Wednesday afternoon in Casablanca, Ferrero was good enough to beat Potito Starace 6-4, 7-6(1) in one hour and 49 minutes. Despite getting broken on three different occasions while trying to serve out sets, Ferrero played some impressive backcourt tennis to book a place in his third ATP quarterfinal of 2009.
Ferrero came out on fire, running Starace all over the place in baseline rallies. The Spaniard, ranked 115th in the world, broke serve in the opening game of the match on his way to a commanding 4-0 lead as his opponent struggled amidst windy conditions. Starace finally sank his teeth into the match with two service holds for 2-5, and he secured his first break with his opponent serving for the set. On his second chance to close things out, however, Ferrero eased through a love service game to take the set 6-4.
"The Mosquito" had a golden opportunity to go up by a set and a break when he got a look at a sitting forehand with Starace serving at 1-1, 30-40 in the second. With a wide open court, however, Ferrero netted what should have been an easy winner. Starace, too, had his fair share of chances in the second. The Italian missed break points in the second game and the sixth game. Ferrero finally seized the first break of the set thanks to a poor service game by Starace at 4-4. The world No. 90, however, stayed in it mentally and capitalized on his third break chance of the next game, a huge inside-out forehand keeping hive alive in the match. Starace played that game brilliantly only to drop serve for a second consecutive time when he sent a forehand wide at 5-5, 30-40. Ferrero again failed to serve out the proceedings, losing four straight points after taking a 30-0 lead at 6-5.
Starace won his first service point in the ensuing tiebreaker for a 1-0 advantage, but Ferrero secured two mini-breaks at 2-1 for a commanding 4-1 lead. At last, the 2003 French Open champion made no mistake in putting Starace away. Two big serves led to 6-1 in Ferrero's favor and a wide forehand by Starace allowed Ferrero to take the tiebreaker in dominant fashion.
Ferrero will next take on No. 4 seed Victor Hanescu for a spot in the semifinals. Hanescu erased Ivan Navarro 6-1, 6-0 earlier on Wednesday afternoon. It will be the first career head-to-head encounter between the two veterans.
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