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7/27/11 4:42 AM | Ricky Dimon
A spot in the quarterfinals will be at stake when Ivan Ljubicic and Juan Carlos Ferrero do battle on Wednesday. Neither man had to do much work en route to the second round.
Ivan Ljubicic and Juan Carlos Ferrero will be squaring off for the sixth time in their careers when they clash in the second round of the Studena Croatia Open on Wednesday. Ljubicic leads the head-to-head series 3-2, although they have split a pair of clay-court encounters. The two veterans most recently faced each other in round one of the 2009 French Open, with Ferrero prevailing 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
Both players are in decent form at the moment, although Ferrero has been battling physical problems. Playing just his fifth tournament of the season, the 31-year-old Spaniard is 9-3 for his 2011 campaign. Ferrero won the Stuttgart title two weeks ago and advanced out of his Umag opener on Tuesday when Maximo Gonzalez retired at 1-1 in the third set.
Ljubicic endured a brief rough path on American hard courts in the spring, but he rounded into form on clay and grass. The 32-year-old Croat made it to the Monte-Carlo quarterfinals and reached the French Open fourth round, losing to Rafael Nadal on both occasions. Ljubicic, who earned an opening-round bye this week as the No. 3 seed, is appearing for the first time since falling to Andy Murray in the Wimbledon third round.
Ferrero should have a slight edge on the slow stuff but Ljubicic has home-court advantage in Croatia, so this could go either way. Ljubicic will look to serve big and keep points short against an opponent who is more consistent from the baseline. Ferrero will have to raise his level from what he showed against Gonzalez, but look for him to score a minor upset.
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Juan Carlos Ferrero
Ivan Ljubicic
Umag
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