A fleet of Premiership football stars arrived at the Royal Albert Hall on Thursday night to watch Marcelo Rios set up a dream quarterfinal against John McEnroe at the BlackRock Masters.
Arsenal trio Freddie Ljungberg, Cesc Fabregas and Phillipe Senderos were all looking on, as was Chelsea’s Arjen Robben, as Rios blasted past Pat Cash 6-4, 6-1. Ljungberg was a guest of Mats Wilander, while Robben came to see his countryman Paul Haarhuis in action.
The Chilean’s victory means that he will meet McEnroe on Friday after the American went down 7-6(5), 7-5 to Cedric Pioline.
Rios has been the dominant force on the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions this year, but he bizarrely predicted that McEnroe will beat him on Friday.
“I think he’s going to beat me in two straight sets,” said Rios.
“The court is fast, he’s serving big and I’m not hitting the ball that well.”
McEnroe is also confident that he can cause an upset.
“The best chance I have to beat him is on this court,” said McEnroe, who lost their only previous meeting in the Algarve final in August.
“It’s pretty quick. He takes the ball early. It’s not like I’ll be the favourite, but the best chance I have to beat him is on this court. If my body can bounce back this is a good court to play him on. I’m in the quarterfinals and now I’ve got to step it up.”
Rios had won 25 straight matches on the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions until the Frankfurt event two weeks ago. On an identical surface to that used at the BlackRock Masters, Rios lost to Paul Haarhuis and Goran Ivanisevic.
IVANISEVIC SQUEEZES PAST HAARHUIS AGAIN
Three times they have faced each other over the past three months, and all three times Ivanisevic has won their showdowns in pulsating third set Champions’ Tie-Breaks.
On Thursday night, the Croatian defeated Paul Haarhuis 7-6(9), 5-7, 10-8 (Champions’ Tie-Break) to earn a quarterfinal clash with Jeremy Bates.
Haarhuis will now meet Sergi Bruguera in the last eight.
The other quarterfinal will see Pioline take on Henri Leconte, who surprisingly beat the 2004 finalist Thomas Muster 6-4, 7-5.
There is winner-take-all cheque of $100,000 on offer to the victor at the BlackRock Masters.
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To be eligible to compete on the Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions, players must have been either a World No.1 during their competitive playing careers, a Grand Slam singles finalist or champion, or a singles player on a victorious Davis Cup team, and no longer active as an singles player on the ATP circuit. Each event can also invite two players of its choice to take wild cards.
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