Murray and Mayer will meet in the first match of the day from central court in Rome.
The 2011 Rome Masters continue on Friday as the men's draw will feature its quarterfinal matches with eight in-form players aiming for the semifinal round and Sunday's championship.
In what will be the first match of the day to be played on central court Andy Murray of Scotland will face Florian Mayer of Germany with a spot in the semifinals on the line.
Most are calling for Murray to advance as he enters the match as a convincing 2/9 favorite (
all odds bet365) while Mayer is set as a 3/1 underdog.
The German's chances appear to be redeemed somewhat by the fact that he does have recent strong results on clay as he made the final of ATP Munich a couple weeks ago (l. to Davydenko). Mayer also has recent wins over both Jurgen Melzer and Viktor Troicki and perhaps the German can set his sites on the fourth round of Roland Garros as he does appear to be playing strong enough tennis right now.
Murray and Mayer have never met on tour, not on any surface, and while one has to acknowledge that Mayer could push himself through here Murray has started playing better once again.
Only Rafael Nadal and Thomaz Bellucci have defeated the Scot in recent tournaments and those are players that are better clay courters than Mayer. Against the weaker competition, Murray has been the one to advance and fans should be looking for Murray to get through this match as well, a result which would set up a possible semifinal against Novak Djokovic provided that he beats Robin Soderling.
