Rafael Nadal and Ivan Ljubicic are headed toward a quarterfinal showdown at the 2011 Monte Carlo Masters. Ljubicic has beaten Nadal twice before but never on clay.
Rafael Nadal remains the favorite to win the 2011 Monte Carlo Rolex Masters, a tournament where he is the defending champion. On Friday the world number one is scheduled to face Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia and Nadal looks great to advance to the semifinals.
The two players are not strangers to one another as they have met seven times before and Ljubicic has even managed two victories over Nadal in those seven matches. Of those two victories, one of the wins came in their last head-to-head meeting which took place just over a year ago at Indian Wells.
Ljubicic, en route to the Indian Wells title in 2010, defeated Rafa in a third set tiebreaker in the semifinal round although Nadal was not playing his best tennis at that point in his career.
They have met twice on clay specifically and in both cases Nadal defeated Ljubicic quite easily including in a quarterfinal match from Monte-Carlo 2009.
Nadal has not hinted at any kind of weakness so far at this year's Monte-Carlo event as he has brushed aside both of his opponents so far with ease. His two recent wins at Monte Carlo include a straight sets win over Richard Gasquet, a strong clay courter in his own right, with the score ending at 6-2, 6-4.
The Order of Play contains the following scheduling information for the Nadal vs. Ljubicic quarterfinal:
Not Before 1:30 PM (GMT)
[1] Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs Ivan Ljubicic (CRO)
