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10/13/11 8:32 PM | Ricky Dimon
One of several surprising matchups on Friday in Shanghai pits Florian Mayer against Feliciano Lopez. The two competitors will be battling for a semifinal spot.
Florian Mayer and Feliciano Lopez will be squaring off for the fourth time in their careers when they clash in the quarterfinals of the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Friday evening.
Lopez leads the head-to-head series 2-1, but it is tied up at one apiece on hard courts. Mayer dominated 6-2, 6-2 last fall in Stockholm only to see Lopez get revenge with a routine 6-3, 6-4 victory earlier this season in Rotterdam.
Both players are in fine form at the moment; Mayer especially. The German is up to No. 23 in the world and poised to surpass his career-high mark of 18th thanks to his best year on tour. He captured his first career ATP title last month in Bucharest and has not looked back in Shanghai. After taking out Fabio Fognini and David Nalbandian, Mayer pulled off a third-round stunner on Thursday by ousting Rafael Nadal 7-6(5), 6-3.
Two years older than Mayer at 30, Lopez is once again heating up at this time of the season. The Spaniard advanced to the 2009 Shanghai quarterfinals and he has returned to the last eight with wins over Janko Tipsarevic, Alex Bogomolov, and an in-form Tomas Berdych. Lopez, also a Wimbledon quarterfinalist, is now 33-23 for his 2011 campaign.
At times this will be a battle of slice backhands, but Lopez will not want to contest too many baseline rallies. Mayer was absolutely on fire against Nadal and showcased his traditional variety of spins, slices, and angles. Lopez will have no chance to handle that kind of array, so he must serve well and keep his opponent from executing the game-plan.
It is always difficult to follow up a monumental victory with a similar performance the very next day, but Mayer has a good chance to score another win with Lopez--as opposed to Berdych--on the other side of the set. Look for the No. 15 seed to prevail in three entertaining sets.
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So Lopez wins the first set, and it's Mayer's turn now in not having a single break point chance. Yes scoot, on another day, Rafa would have beaten Mayer, but not yesterday where Rafa's ROS sucks.
luckystar , 10/14/11 1:26 PM
Yes Lopez wins! Congrats to Feli, unbelievable serving! Mayer has only one break point chance the whole match! Mayer getting a taste of how Rafa felt yesterday.
luckystar , 10/14/11 2:05 PM
What was that I said yesterday Lucky?
Im not sure but I think it was something to do with Mayer & a straight sets comedown.
Ah yes, it's all coming back to me :-)
Sosueme , 10/14/11 2:17 PM
I'm glad Feli won. Well Done.
Where was the Mayer who played Rafa yesterday? Everyone plays against Rafa as if their life depended on it.
nadline , 10/14/11 2:41 PM
To me, even if Mayer played like yesterday, he would still lost to Lopez. Lopez simply served lights out and he was able to return many of Mayer's serves. For one thing, he stepped in to return serves, unlike Rafa who stayed so far behind the baseline and wait for the ball to come to him. Lopez took away the time from Mayer when returning his serves and rushed Mayer, Rafa on the other hand allowed Mayer time to get ready for the ball to come back to him after serving. Also Lopez could slice the ball better and more consistently than Rafa, varying the pace on the ball, Mayer couldn't handle some of Lopez's slices and netted a few of them. The main thing that won Lopez the match was still his serve, Berdych didn't have a single break point chance against Lopez yesterday.
luckystar , 10/14/11 3:10 PM
Wasn't able to watch but I was hoping he would keep the Spanish flag flying.
ed251137 , 10/14/11 3:11 PM
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Florian Mayer 
Shanghai
Mayer over Nadal...how could that happen????
scoot , 10/14/11 4:22 AM