At the Australian Open today
There are a lot of matchups in this tournament between guys playing at a completely different level from the last time they met. Two such men, who meet in the quarterfinals Wednesday, are No. 2 Roger Federer of Switzerland and No. 8 David Nalbandian of Argentina.
First of all, don't let Nalbandian's origins fool you. He's not a clay-court specialist. In his Wimbledon debut, he reached the final. He nearly took away Andy Roddick's first major title in the semifinals of the U.S. Open. Nalbandian's a hard-core, hard-court threat.
Then there's Federer. Compared frequently to Pete Sampras for his beautiful all-around game, Federer sliced his way through all of the top players at the Tennis Masters Cup to go undefeated last fall. It was there in Houston that Federer exacted a little revenge for five straight losses to Nalbandian with a 6-3, 6-0 victory.
However, Nalbandian is one of two men -- the other being Andre Agassi -- who has not dropped a set in this tournament yet.
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Ferrero owns a 3-2 record against Arazi. Except there's one catch: Ferrero's only beaten Arazi on clay. The two wins by Arazi came on carpet and hard court.
They did not meet at all last year when Ferrero's career hit a growth spurt. He took over the No. 1 world ranking for a brief time, won the French Open and finished runner-up at the U.S. Open.
After his fourth-round match, Ferrero said he was not able to move 100 percent because of a leg injury.
Both players can run into hot and cold streaks on the court, but Myskina tends to be more emotional.
Cynthia Faulkner is the tennis editor for ESPN.com.
