World No.7 Tomas Berdych is all set to cross swords with World No.11 Juan Martin Del Porto in the semifinals of the ATP Masters 1000 event here in the Spanish capital of Madrid.

Placed at No.11 in the ATP rankings, Del Potro has not been able to live up to his billing since winning his maiden Grand Slam at the US Open in 2009. The 23-year old Argentine has 10 career titles to his name and has managed to win two titles this year as well - one in Marseille and the other at the Estoril Open. At the Aussie Open in January, he fell to Roger Federer in the quarters. His win-loss record stands at 31-6, which characterizes his form this year. He would be looking to add a first Masters trophy to his trophy collection in Madrid. He has looked in good all tournament long and outplayed Marin Cilic and then Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3,6-4 at the pre-quarter and quarter stages respectively.

On the other side of the court, Berdych has been consistent this year. While he has only won one event in Montpellier, he has made the quarterfinal and semifinal stages of almost all events he has participated in till now. The Czech did however, fall short of expectations at Indian Wells and then at the Miami Masters too where he was eliminated in the pre-quarters and round two respectively. A resurgent Berdych came back well at the Monte-Carlo Masters, where he took the first set off of World No.1 Novak Djokovic, before the Serb came back to win that semifinal 4-6,6-3,6-2. The former Wimbledon finalist has hardly been stretched this tournament and won his quarterfinal tie 6-1,6-2 against Fernando Verdasco. Berdych has a win-loss record of 26-6 this year and will be looking forward to winning his second tournament this year.

Del Potro leads their head to head count by 3 matches to 1, their only meeting on clay was also won by the Argentine.

TennisEarth predicts a close match with Berdych having the edge. Berdych has looked immaculate in the tournament and should go through.