Ivan Dodig looks to follow up his shock win over Rafael Nadal when he takes on Janko Tipsarevic later today at the Rogers Cup in Montreal.
Who said men's tennis is predictable?
Dodig recorded one of the shocks of 2011 when he recorded a thrilling 1-6 7-6 7-6 win over second seed Rafael Nadal on Wednesday night.
It was a stunning win in every way. Dodig is enjoying the best season of his career, but has never shown any signs of threatening the top guys, and for much of the match he looked down and out.
Usually no one is better than Nadal at closing a match out. Once he gets his nose in front he never looks back. But he will look back on this one in disbelief having led 6-1 3-1 at one stage.
Dodig also trailed 3-0 and 5-3 in the deciding set, but amazingly Rafa lost his nerve and let the Croatian in.
"I know it's very tough when you play these guys to be aggressive," he said afterwards.
"Sometimes they don't allow you [to be]. But today I had some chances and I think I used them. I finished the match by myself. I didn't wait for his mistakes."
The question today will be whether he can come down from cloud nine to stand a chance against the vastly experienced Janko Tipsarevic.
The Serb beat Fernando Verdasco 6-4 6-7 6-3 in a match in which neither player could find any rhythm on serve whatsover. Tipsarevic hit 12 double faults and he will need to improve on that if he's going to go any further.
They played once earlier this year, with Tipsarevic winning 7-6 6-1 in Delray Beach.
