We’re looking at a barn-burner of a day in men’s quarterfinal action as world No. 2 Rafael Nadal goes up against one of America’s favorite athletes, No. 9 James Blake.
That’s not to say that Rafa isn’t a favorite of everybody’s the world over as he definitely is a crowd-pleaser.
Nadal played impressive tennis on Tuesday to capture his eighth victory in as many matches played against No. 16 Paul-Henri Mathieu. Now wrap your head around this statistic – in the second set of that match, Nadal won all 18 first-serve points.
Nadal is the reigning three-time French Open champion and that definitely gives him an air of confidence. On the other hand, he’s also been without a title since capturing Stuttgart last July, and that’s a long time for a guy with 23 career trophies.
Now as for Blake, this is the second time in his career that he has reached the quarterfinal of the Sony Ericsson Open and he would love to break the mold and move on to the semifinals. Now many of you might be saying that Blake will not be able to achieve that goal, and point to the fact that as a top 10 player he hasn’t ever won this level of Masters Series event.
But before you jump to conclusions, fans should know that although Nadal won their last outing in the quarterfinals of the Pacific Life Open right before this tournament started, Blake holds a 3-1 winning record over the Spaniard.
Blake will want revenge for his loss at Indian Wells, and already this week every player he’s faced had beaten him the last time they met.
Nadal clearly should have the edge, but let’s break for Blake to join the semifinal ranks.
It’s women’s quarterfinal day here at the Sony Ericsson Open, and No. 4 Jelena Jankovic is the odd woman out, so to speak.
Why does that wonderfully charming and entertaining Jankovic have that distinction fans might ask?
Well, it’s simple – she isn’t Russian.
Yes, the 23-year-old Serbian is spoiling the all-Russian bottom half of the women’s draw quarterfinals. But don’t Jankovic fans worry, she is not about to care less about that fact.
Now Jankovic is very lucky to even be here playing in the quarterfinals, and she’d be the first to tell you that was true. Just the other night Jankovic looked like she was heading back to the hotel to pack her bags when she was being given fits by Swede Sofia Arvidsson. Here’s how it played out – Jankovic was down 5-1 in the third set, but would not give up. She faced five match points in the third set tiebreaker, but would not relent. And then after midnight, Jankovic delighted the crowd by taking the 6-7, 6-2, 7-6 thriller to stay around in the tournament.
Fortunately for Jankovic, her next outing was easier as she scored a 6-2, 6-1 win over Jie Zheng of China to reach the quarterfinals against Elena Dementieva.
Now Dementieva knows what it is like to be top 10 as before last year when she finished the season at No. 11 – which is her current ranking – she ended the previous four years in the elite grouping. And she also knows what it’s like to do well at the Grand Slams where she was a finalist at the 2004 French and U.S. Open.
As far as how they’ve done here in Miami, Dementieva was a runner-up in 2002, while Jankovic has never gone beyond the third round before this year.
Jankovic is definitely the hotter player at the moment, and she holds a slim 3-2 career edge over Dementieva in their career meetings. Their last outing was nearly a year ago on clay in Rome and Jankovic posted an easy 6-2, 6-1 win.
The exceptionally talented Jankovic is still in the hunt for her first career title, and that is soon going to be weighing on her mind. But with the way that Serena Williams wiped away No. 1 Justine Henin in yesterday’s quarterfinal, it’s going to be tough going for any player to capture the title.
While Jankovic has an uphill battle ahead if she’s going to win her first trophy at the Sony Ericsson Open, her quest won’t end in the quarterfinals to Dementieva.
In the other All-Russian women’s quarterfinal, the 13th-seeded Dinara Safina will take on the 19th-seeded Vera Zvonereva.
Now if you take the “a” off of the Safina you get the word Safin, and then you have a clue as to who Dinara’s older brother might be. And Dinara might not have spent much time growing up with Marat, who went off to Spain to train in his early teens, but let’s just say that she shares a similar personality. She is feisty, she can yell at herself and she can slam a few rackets to the ground – all very entertaining stuff for the crowd.
Safina has won five career titles, but all but the Gold Coast title last year happened earlier in her career.
As for Zvonereva, interestingly enough, she’s also won five career titles with the last captured the 2006 title in Cincinnati. However, she isn’t having a great season this year as a left ankle injury gave her no chance when Down Under for the Australian summer in January.
And there seems to be something going on with the left side of her body – this year a left ankle injury, last year a left wrist injury. That left wrist problem certainly played havoc with her 2007 season as she didn’t play between Charleston in April until the U.S. Open at the tail end of August.
These two players are fairly even although Safina, if she can keep a cool head, should have the slight advantage. | 
