Marcel Granollers must love playing in Valencia.  Tennis fanatics know that David Ferrer was the defending champ at Valencia.  He lost in the semifinals to Argentine, Juan Monaco.  Few remember who Ferrer beat in the finals.  The finalist was Marcel Granollers who had to qualify for Valencia a year ago.  And he didn’t even succeed there!  He was a lucky loser.

And who did Granollers meet in Valencia in the quarterfinals?  None other than Juan Monaco who he beat in three sets.

Granollers stood only to stay even if he lost today, but he already upset Juan Martin del Potro, Monaco’s countryman, and he wanted to win the title that eluded him last year.

This year, he started off well with a 6-2 first set win.  Monaco got a break early in the second, but got broken back before breaking again and holding to win the second set, 6-4.  The third set saw each player breaking once and the match heading into a tiebreak which Granollers won handily, 7-3.

The difference in the match seemed to be the second serve.  Granollers was much more successful taking advantage of Monaco’s second serve.  Monaco tried to blunt this strategy by keeping his first serve percentage high.

This duo may see each other in a few weeks time in Spain when the Davis Cup final pits the Spaniards against the Argentines.  The Spaniards are expected to play Nadal and Ferrer, however.  The Argentines hope to play del Potro and Nalbandian, who may be injured.  If Nalbandian can’t play, Monaco would be the likely one to play.

Because Granollers was defending finalist points from last year, he only gains about 200 points over last year’s results, which should put him around 25 in the rankings.  He should be right near Nishikori when the new rankings come out Monday.  This is Granollers third career title and his second title this year.  He won Gstaad (in Switzerland) earlier this year.

Granollers takes on Jeremy Chardy of France in his opening round match next week in Paris.  It’s quite common for players who win a tournament to let up a little bit in the following tournament and lose early.  Even if he manages to win, he would face Andy Murray in the second round.

Murray has entered the doubles in Paris pairing with Colin Fleming, who normally plays with Ross Hutchins.  They open up against the Spaniard due of Almagro and Merrero.   Murray has said he doesn’t plan to play Paris if he isn’t 100% over the freak buttock injury in Basel.  However, Murray did practice against Gasquet today, and he’ll have a bye in singles, though he plays doubles tomorrow.