Former Wimbledon finalist - Tomas Berdych faces Fernando Verdasco - the conquerer of the 'king of clay' in an enticing quarterfinal clash at the Madrid Masters.

Verdasco is ranked 20th on the ATP Charts as he looks to climb the rankings. With a win-loss record of 18-9 this year, Verdasco reached the finals of the Mexican Open and has performed decently well on clay. In Barcelona, Rafael Nadal crushed him in two sets at the semifinal stage, he avenged his defeat last night to set up this quarterfinal clash with the sixth seed. For Verdasco now, the sky is the limit as he beat perhaps the best clay-courter of all time in three sets 6-3,3-6,7-5. He showed great resilience after being 5-2 down in the third set to win it 7-5.

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. He has a win-loss record of 25-6 this year and will be looking forward to winning his second tournament this year.

These two have played a massive thirteen matches against one another. Out of these thirteen Verdasco has only won 4, while Berdych has won 9. On clay however, they are tied at two each.

TennisEarth's pick: Berdych to win narrowly.