David Goffin produces a masterclass performance against Roger Federer to surprise the tennis community and beat the Maestro in 3 sets in the semis of the ATP Finals.
Before this match. the Swiss was commanding a 6-0 win-loss record against the Belgian that in their previous encounters managed to win just 2 sets (of 16) against the world no.2.
The match
Everything looked easy for Federer after he grabbed a fast 5-1 lead in the opener before clinching the set (6-2). Roger was far superior to Goffin in every department, and it seemed as being focussed was the only issue for the Swiss.
In the second set, Goffin got a 3-0 lead almost out of nowhere with Roger progressively losing his confidence on the groundstrokes. Eventually, David won the set to bring the affair at the decider.
Federer started strong in the third set with a great service game, and once more it seemed that Roger could easily regroup and win the match. But the world no.2 was full of doubts especially from the baseline when at times he was unable to even perform elementary groundstrokes. Eventually, Federer lost the decisive break in the 3rd game (1-2). The Swiss tried to move thing around with frequent runs at the net, but Goffin didn’t lose his cool for the rest of the set and he won the contest 2-6 6-3 6-4.
For the first time, I played my best tennis. GOFFIN
Soon after the match, Goffin commented
“For the first time I played my best tennis, and I played a little bit more relaxed after the first set. I started to feel the ball really well for the first time, and continued to serve and played my best tennis today.”
Goffin will now face Grigor Dimitrov in the final. The Bulgarian trashed him in the Round Robin with telling 6-0 6-2. Let’s see if David can turn this around.
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