Defending champion Juan Carlos Ferrero is up against third seed Ivan Ljubicic in Umag.
This is a fascinating round two match, easily good enough for the final here. Ljubicic is in front of his home fans and he would dearly love to win this event for the first time. He’s never won a title on clay but performed extremely well on the dirt earlier this year, beating Tsonga and Berdych en route to the Monte Carlo quarters and taking out Verdasco on the way to the last sixteen at Roland Garros. It took Rafael Nadal to knock him out in both events.
Ferrero on the other hand, missed virtually all of the spring clay-court swing due to injury but he returned with a bang a couple of weeks ago, winning his 17th tour title in Stuttgart. He’s spent his career picking up these sort of trophies for fun and is defending his title this week.
Ljubicic leads 3-2 on the head-to-head but they have only played once in the past six years. Ferrero won their clash at the French Open in 2009 but it was an absolute epic, multiple twists and turns before the former champion got the job done 6-3 in the fifth.
Prediction: Ljubicic in three
