We had two remarkable semifinals that are bringing us to a remarkable final: Djokovic – Federer!
Federer – Murray 7-6 (5) 6-2
A very mature match here from Roger. The Maestro was once again not at his very best, but his immense experience and class made him win this one in straight sets.
The beginning wasn’t pretty for the Swiss. He came on court quite moody (once again) to immediately lose the opening service game. Murray on the other side was jumping up and down and there was a sense of victory in the British camp.
Then as the match went on Murray started to show lots of holes in his games, many unforced error and a horrible first serve percentage (only 47%). The Maestro got it to break back Andy in the 8th game and then win the opener at the tie break.
Murray melted completely in the second set to be broken twice while Roger conceded only 2 points in the entire set on his service game (no aces, but a very solid first and second serve).
From Roger
“Of course, I was looking at having lost the last two matches against him, so I thought it was up to me to change things around really and come up with a game plan that maybe was different than at the Olympics or Shanghai,” said Federer. “The pressure was really on me. I’m happy with what I chose with my coaching staff today. Obviously the tournament’s not over yet, I want to keep on playing well, but I’m happy that the offensive play did pay off and it gives confidence doing more like that in the upcoming match tomorrow.”
From Andy
“I think he played well,” said Murray. “I didn’t think it was incredibly high standard in terms of length of points. There were a lot of quick points. I started the match well. He came back in and got the tie-break. Once he gets ahead, he’s incredibly hard to stop. He tends to play better and better when he gets up. I feel like I gave him that advantage at the beginning of the second set.”
Djokovic – Del Potro 4-6 6-3 6-2
Great Nole. He won another match with his never die attitude.
Delpo had a perfect start to win the opener 6-4. Djokovic wasn’t at his very best to commit some uncharacteristics errors and to have a horrible 2nd serve points percentage (he won only 5 out of 15).
Then Nole demonstrated once again why he is the world no.1. The Serb had another horrible start in the second set to be broken once again and find himself 1 set and 1 break down. Then it was Nole’s resurrection! Djokovic came back very strongly to win 12 of the following 15 games and win the match at the decider.
From Nole
“I was aware that the key for me would be to try to get as many returns back in the court and get into the rally,” said Djokovic. “I wasn’t managing to do so, especially at the end of the first set, beginning of the second. I dropped with my first serve percentage, made a lot of unforced errors. He used it. He was the better player at that time. I believed that I could come back. I believed that I could turn this match around in my favour, and I’ve done so. I’ve played from that moment on, when I got the break back, very flawless tennis.”
From Delpo
“Nole improved his game, basically, between the middle of the second set until the end of the match,” said del Potro. “He deserved to win today. I think I played really good in the first two sets. If you don’t play for thewhole match at your best level, it’s really difficult to beat him. I had the chance to win today when I was a break up in the second, but I didn’t serve like yesterday and I didn’t serve like my first set today. Nole was returning really well.”
