Photo: Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships
Bidding for a place in the semi-finals of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, Marcos will have to overcome food poisoning and World No. 56 Michael Berrer on Thursday at the ATP World Tour 500 tournament.
Marcos has been unwell all week but has battled past No. 8 seed Gilles Simon and qualifier Somdev Devvarman, in what he deemed to be his worst match of the year so far, to reach his second quarter-final of the season.
Berrer’s route through to the quarter-finals has seen him defeat Sergiy Stakhovsky in straight sets and advance past fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko, when the Russian retired with a wrist injury after losing the first set.
The 29-year-old Berrer is currently just five places down from his career-high South African Airways ATP Ranking of No. 51 after a stellar start to the year. The German was a quarter-finalist in Chennai in the first week of the season and later that month won a Challenger title in Heilbronn before reaching his first ATP World Tour final in Zagreb.
Marcos has played Berrer once before, beating the Stuttgart native in two tie-break sets in New Haven in 2006.
“I know Michael, I’ve played him before, I’ve practised with him a couple of times,” said Marcos. “He’s serving very good, he hits the ball pretty clean when he feels good. So I just have to try to break his rhythm, try to find a way to win, and try to get the ball back if I feel fit. I think I can find a solution to win if I feel OK.”
The match will be the last of the singles quarter-finals to be played on Thursday. It follows the match between Ivan Ljubicic and defending champion Novak Djokovic, which begins not before 7:00pm local time (+ 4hours GMT). Check out the full order of play here.
Stay tuned to www.baghdatis.com for all the latest news from Dubai.
Go, Marcos!
