CH Marrakech QF: Klizan def. Delbonis 6-4 7-6(6)

Battle between two up-and-comer hard hitting left-handers. Klizan was an elite junior and is finally starting to tap into his potential and make something of himself as a professional. Good serve, good BH and FH, good movement. The main difference today, at least in the second set, was the difference in confidence. Delbonis hit a lot of dropshots today, including one down MP in the tiebreak at *5-6, but Klizan hit a BH passing shot and then hit an ace to win the match.

He's a lot more mentally put together now than he's ever been, and with that improvement in his maturity, he's starting to dominate the challenger tour. 16 sets in a row won dating back to last week in Rabat, a tournament in which he won. If he wins this tournament he'll be around #90 in the ranking.

DelBo has a good game too and has a lot of different skills than the standard BH/FH with power shots. Hopefully he continues progressing up the ranks and we see him in the top 100 ASAP.

Way too good from Klizan, he struggled on hard from October, but really improved his serve and that is paying off right now.

Martin really needs this points from clay in spring, because after Roland Garros he has almost 300 points to defend till September and he won´t be playing on clay that period till September, so it will be very hard for him.

His coach Karol Kucera said something like he needs to improve on grass and hard too, so he will play at least one grass pre-Wimbledon tournie and then American hardcourts tournaments till US Open.

Well Klizan needs to focus on solidifying a top 100 and MD spot at the French and Wimbledon, which isn't secure yet. He's likely to make it but he needs to really try to win this event, or make the finals here and then do well in Barletta. In any case, Karol is smart to try to expand Martin's game. If Klizan wants to be the best he can be, it will be by improving his game off clay.