Blake Seeks 13th Straight Win at Stockholm

Only four men will remain standing at the end of the day on Friday at the If Stockholm Open, a €680,250 International Series tournament held on the indoor hardcourts of Sweden’s capital city.

The first quarterfinal match of the day sees a rivalry that has already taken the court three times this year take it for a fourth time, as No. 7 seed Ivo Karlovic battles Arnaud Clement. They split two meetings in 2004 and didn’t play again until this year, with Clement drawing first blood in the quarterfinals of Queen’s Club, Karlovic retaliating in the Nottingham final but the Frenchman getting the last laugh at the US Open. Karlovic has been in much better form since the summer hardcourt swing began, however, reaching three semifinals (Washington, New Haven, Tokyo) and winning 14 of 22 matches until today; Clement has had a tough last few months, going 6-6 since Wimbledon and falling prior to the quarterfinals at every attempt. Karlovic is also riding a wave of confidence this year, having won his first two ATP singles titles and just this week earned a career-high ranking of No. 25. But, Clement does hold a 3-2 head-to-head lead.

In the first of two of Friday’s quarterfinal encounters featuring seeds going to battle against one another, No. 4 seed Tommy Haas plays No. 5 seed Juan Monaco. Haas has had another solid season, winning his 11th ATP singles title in Memphis and performing well at the majors, including his third career semi at that level at the Australian Open (his first two major semis also came down under). Since a run to the US Open quarters (where he beat James Blake before falling to Davydenko), Haas has struggled somewhat, getting crushed by Igor Andreev in Davis Cup and exiting Bangkok in the second round last week; but he holds fond memories of Stockholm, reaching the semifinals in his most recent attempt three years ago. Monaco has had a breakthrough season, winning his first three ATP titles (all on clay) and cracking the Top 20 after a fourth round run at the US Open. Now spending his fifth straight week among the Top 20, he is through to the quarterfinals here for the first time, having fallen first round each of the last two years. Haas and Monaco have identical 3-5 quarterfinal records on the ATP circuit so far this season.

In the only quarterfinal featuring unseeded players, Thomas Johansson plays Mario Ancic. It has been a sub-par year for both of these former Top 10 players, with just one quarterfinal run between them prior to this week (Johansson was a quarterfinalist at Zagreb in January). Johansson will try to draw from his previous successes at this event - he is 22-11 lifetime in Stockholm, a record that includes a pair of titles in 2000 and 2004 (two of his nine career ATP singles titles). Ancic is now 4-2 here, this being his second quarterfinal in the Swedish capital (he was also a quarterfinalist in 2003). The Croat enjoyed a career-best year last year and had a strong start to this year, but retired during his first match in Marseille in February due to illness and subsequently missed six months with mononucleosis. He returned at the ATP Masters Series events in Montreal and Cincinnati (making the second round at both) and fell first round at New Haven before pulling out of the US Open with a shoulder injury; he begins his fall season in Stockholm.

The last match on Centre pits top seed James Blake against No. 6 seed Jarkko Nieminen. Not only is Blake coming off a scintillating summer hardcourt season, where he won 20 of 24 matches and picked up his second ATP title of the year at New Haven (having won his first of the year at Sydney in January), but he is now also 12-0 in Stockholm, going 5-0 en route to the 2005 title (beating Paradorn Srichaphan in the final), 5-0 for the 2006 title (beating Jarkko Nieminen in the final) and now 2-0 so far in 2007 (rallying back from one set down to beat Jonas Bjorkman in his first round then downing Frank Dancevic in his second). Nieminen has dropped a total of seven games across his first two matches to reach his fourth quarterfinal of the year (2-1 in the first three). The Finn is also a two-time former finalist here, finishing runner-up in 2001 (to Sjeng Schalken) and in 2006 (to Blake). Nieminen has a dismal 6-34 record against the Top 10, though he did notch one of those victories just a few months ago in Cincinnati (over Tommy Robredo). Blake enjoys playing lefties, however; he is 27-8 lifetime against southpaws, which includes 6-0 this year. (ATP Digital Services)