Juan Carlos Ferrero looks to make the Mercedes Cup semi-finals for the second year in a row when he takes on Marcel Granollers on Friday.
It's been a strange old week in Stuttgart and Ferrero ensured that the quarter-finals will take place without any of the eight seeds. Despite playing just his seventh match of the year, Ferrero showed that there's no replacement for clay-court nous as he ultimately outplayed third seed Mikhail Youzhny 6-7, 6-2, 6-2.
It was a big surprise for many as Ferrero had played just three tournaments in 2011 due to a combination of knee and wrist injuries.
Granollers is currently loitering just outside the world's top 50 but that's mainly down to a brilliant spell of form last autumn which saw him make the Valencia final. 2011 has seen little consistency for the Spaniard who's competing in just his second quarter-final all year.
However he stunned seventh seed Andreas Seppi 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in the opening round before battling past Benoit Paire 6-4, 7-5 earlier today.
However Ferrero has beaten his compatriot fairly handily in the past, winning 6-0, 6-3 when they met in Monte Carlo last year. Despite his lack of matches we see no reason for this encounter to go any differently.
