Jurgen Melzer takes on Fernando Verdasco in a battle of the left-handers in the Hamburg quarter-finals.
There's a lot of similarities between Melzer and Verdasco. Both big hitting left-handers who play with a lot of flair and like to dictact the rallies with heavy forehands, neither has performed as well as their fans would have hoped this season and they came into this tournament, badly needing a few wins.
Melzer has plenty of good memories of Hamburg having reached the final last season and he's played his way into form this week. He looked very sharp in a 6-2, 6-3 third round win over Fabio Fognini, an Italian with a hefty forehand who can be dangerous on his day but Melzer did not face a single break point.
Verdasco also did well against a tricky opponent on Thursday. Cedrik-Marcel Stebe got the home fans excited by stunning Juan Carlos Ferrero and Nikolay Davydenko in straight sets as an unknown wildcard but Verdasco proved a step too far and the experienced Spaniard pulled off a 7-5, 6-2 win.
Melzer may be ranked much higher but Verdasco leads 5-2 on the head-to-head. They faced off three times last year with Verdasco winning in Miami and Barcelona.
Prediction: Verdasco in two
