It's JCF!

Juan Carlos Ferrero beat Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-3 7-5 and won in pretty convincing fashion. The Spaniard was broken once in the first set and faced no break points in the second set.

On the other end, Hanescu was broken three times in the first set and had to fight off 5 break points in the second set. If you give someone that many chances, they are going to eventually to take advantage you. Ferrero’s persistence finally paid off when he broke Hanescu for the set and the match after Hanescu was up 40-0 in the last game of the second set.

I had a chance to watch the second set. Sometimes players return from injury and do not look so well, but Ferrero looked like he was in good form. He moved well and looked like the old “Mosquito.” Being a baseliner, Ferrero was often drawn in by Hanescu’s dropshots. Ferrero had no problem running down dropshots from the baseline and coming up with winners at the net. His groundstrokes were solid, and he was really pushing Hanescu around on the court.

Ferrero advances to the semifinal where he awaits the winner of the Andreev-Gicquel match. Ferrero leads Andreev 3-1 in the their head-to head matchup, with the Spaniard winning their last three meetings. In the other matchup, Gicquel leads Ferrero 1-0.

(image: Grand Prix Hassan II)