© 2012 Daily Tennis News Wire -
MUTUA MADRID OPEN
Madrid, Spain
Friday Men's Summary


For reasons of drama, we're going to list the matches in the order they were played, not in the order of the seeds, because it affects the level of suspense....

Singles - Quarterfinal: (10) J del Potro def. (16) A Dolgopolov 6-3 6-4
This really put the pressure squarely on Janko Tipsarevic, because Tipsarevic is trying to earn the #8 Roland Garros seed, but this win moved Juan Martin del Potro ahead of him in safe points. At least until Tipsarevic played. For Alexandr Dolgopolov, this leaves him still below #16 -- but close enough that he will have a good shot at Rome.

Singles - Quarterfinal: (6) T Berdych def. (15) F Verdasco 6-1 6-2
Fernando Verdasco ends up at #16. A nice number, but it will be a lot nicer if he is still there after Rome and gets the #16 Roland Garros seed.... As for Tomas Berdych, he still has a shot at the #6 ranking. He needs a title to get it -- but he's in the soft half, along with Del Potro.

Singles - Quarterfinal: (7) J Tipsarevic def. (1) N Djokovic 7-6(7-2) 6-3
One way or the other, this match was bound to cause earthquakes: Either Janko Tipsarevic would lose the #8 ranking or Novak Djokovic would suffer another shock loss. We know which one we were expecting! Tipsarevic keeps the #8 ranking for at least another day. Djokovic remains a strong #1 -- but not as strong as he was a week ago....
And, yes, he was cranky about it, and like Rafael Nadal, he has declared that he won't be back unless they get rid of the blue clay. Funny how they only say that after they lose....

Singles - Quarterfinal: (3) R Federer def. (5) D Ferrer 6-4 6-4
So what happens if there is a player vote on blue clay and Roger Federer vote for it and Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal vote against? Because Federer is clearly liking it a lot better than the other top players! He leaves David Ferrer stuck at #6, with the possibility that he might go lower. Federer still needs a title to get back to #2, but he now has a pretty clear field....

Doubles - Quarterfinal: (2) Mirnyi/Nestor def. (5) Paes/Stepanek 6-3 6-7(2-7) 10-2 (Match TB)
Mirnyi/Nestor crank up their lead over the Bryans. It looks likely that they will keep the top spots at least until Roland Garros.

Doubles - Quarterfinal: (4) Fyrstenberg/Matkowski def. Cilic/Melo 7-5 6-2

Doubles - Quarterfinal: (6) Lindstedt/Tecau def. Granollers/M Lopez 7-5 7-6(7-5)

Doubles - Quarterfinal: (7) Bhupathi/Bopanna def. Qureshi/Rojer 7-6(7-2) 7-6(7-5)