Marcos Baghdatis takes on Ivan Ljubicic on Friday for a place in the Rotterdam semi-finals.
Ljubicic has reached the final twice at this tournament, losing to Roger Federer in 2005 and then missing his big opportunity in 2007, going down to Mikhail Youzhny at the final hurdle. It's easy to see why the big Croatian has enjoyed plenty of success in Rotterdam over the years, even with his 32nd birthday drawing near, he still possesses an absolute cannon of a first serve.
Ljubicic will have been disappointed with his quarter-final exit in Zagreb last week but this week the seventh seed has been on song, dispatching Sergiy Stakhovsky and Benoit Paire in straight sets.
Baghdatis followed up his shock win over Andy Murray with a 7-6, 6-3 victory over Feliciano Lopez. It was quite a change of game styles for the Cypriot to deal with but he adjusted well, producing some blistering returns in the first set tiebreak to turn the match in his favour.
“This match was a tricky one,”he said. “Beating Murray and then playing Lopez, a player that doesn’t give you rhythm, serves well and likes to play in these conditions. What I did well today was take my chances in the tie-break and in the second set, the same thing.
“Ivan is a great player,” he added, looking ahead to the quarter-finals. “He’s playing great tennis. He serves well. I’ll try to continue the way I’m playing, stay concentrated, be aggressive at the important points and I think I have the weapons to win.”
Baghdatis has the confidence of a 4-1 head-to-head record against his opponent. They have not played since 2007 but the Cypriot has won some big matches against Ljubicic in the past, beating him in the 2007 Zagreb final and twice at the Australian Open.
Prediction: Baghdatis is a confidence player and he will have taken a huge boost from beating a player of Murray's calibre. Look for him to pull through in two tight sets.
