ARTICLE Coria, Ferrero Advance to Quarterfinal Showdown
Argentine Guillermo Coria outgrinded Spaniard Felix Mantilla 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 on Wednesday to set up an exciting quarterfinal match-up against Juan Carlos Ferrero at the Croatia Open in Umag.
Coria at No. 2 is the highest seed left in the tournament since Rafael Nadal was forced to pull out with a knee injury. He has only five losses on clay this year, two of which came to Nadal, one to Roger Federer, Agustin Calleri and a surprise loss to Nikolay Davydenko at Roland Garros. He is looking to reach his third final of the year (Monte Carlo, Rome).
He next faces the No. 7 seed
Juan Carlos Ferrero a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Novak Djokovic. Coria and Ferrero are even in their series at 2-2 with Coria claiming the last two matches, both this year, at the Australian Open and semifinals of the Masters Series Monte-Carlo.
Ferrero's other best showings in 2005 have been the final of Barcelona and quarterfinal at Bastad where he went down Rafael Nadal both times. He also reached the quarterfinals of Halle.
Fifth seeded Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic set up a quarterfinal meeting against countryman Lukas Dlouhy with a hard fought 6-0, 4-6, 7-5 win over Spanish qualifier Albert Portas. This is the third quarterfinal berth for Novak this season (Delray Beach, Acapulco).
Novak and countryman Petr Pala are the top seeded doubles team in Umag, through to the quarterfinals.
WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID:Ferrero: "I am very happy with the way things are going. I played very solid from the beginning, and I am feeling really well.
I am playing very well and hopefully I can be back at the top pretty soon."
"The court and specially the ball is pretty slow. But it is very good for me."
"Coria is going to be very tough. Already in quarterfinals!!! He played really good today against Mantilla, and if I want to win I will need to be very aggressive.
It is going to be a very interesting match."
Pictures from UMAG added to the GALLERY
