After 10 days of action, the all important final 3 matches are up, starting in a few hours. As expected the dream semifinal lineup has come to fruition. 2 mouth watering clashes. It’s an exact repeat of the French Open semifinal lineup where Federer and Nadal got the better off Djokovic and Murray respectively. The story might pan out a bit different or it could be the same thing repeated all over again. Let’s focus on the first match.
Novak Djokovic (1) vs. Roger Federer (3)
Roar of the warrior
Roger Federer
Federer has been on a real roll in his past 2 rounds as he demolished Juan Monaco first and then got sweet revenge over Tsonga for his previous 2 losses particularly, the Wimbledon quarterfinal loss. In the 4th round, Roger lost just 3 games against Monaco and even bagel-ed him in the 3rd set for a 6-1, 6-2, 6-0 rout. The entire match lasted just 82 mins as it was a repeat of the glory days of Roger. He was commanding, aggressive, positive, fearless and epitomized modern day power tennis perfectly. With 14 aces and 42 winners, Roger didn’t face a single break point on serve. Monaco had a pathetic match as his serve was broken 7 times and had just 4 winners in the entire match.
Against Tsonga, Federer repeated his commanding show as he took 1hr 53 mins to dispatch the Frenchman and set up a date with numero-uno Novak Djokovic for hopefully a repeat of the Roland Garros semifinal result. It was an attacking brand of tennis all the way as the match never lived up to the pre-match hype as Tsonga was blown away. Bright sparkling moments were few and far in between. Federer’s first serve rate was a very healthy 72% and he was high on the winners (29) as well the unforced errors (30) count as he went for broke and the result was on expected lines for the Swiss ace, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3
The popular people's champ is eyeing his maiden US Open
Novak Djokovic
The World no.1 had a comparatively tougher route to the semifinals as he was tested first by the unorthodox Dolgopolov and then by his own countryman Janko Tipsarevic. Dolgopolov was expectedly erratic and he really gave a fight in the first set as the tie-breaker was a classic which Novak nailed 16-14. The remaining 2 sets were a stroll as the tight first set took a toll on the 22nd seeded Ukrainian. The match ended 7-6, 6-4, 6-2 in Djokovic’s favor at the end of 2hrs 26 mins. Dolgopolov had 44 unforced errors and 25 winners. Both the stats are much higher in comparison to Djokovic’s corresponding stats.
In the quarterfinals, the 2 countrymen traded 2 highly competitive tie-breakers as the match looked like a real cracker. Tipsarevic lived up to the occasion until a freak injury ruined his chances. He stretched and hurt his thighs and after that he couldn’t win a single game. He threw in the towel in the 4th set after it increasingly looked like a double bagel against his name. Novak also had an injury scare of his own and this might prove costly in the 2 most important upcoming matches. The final result was 7-6, 6-7, 6-0, 3-0 in Novak’s favor after 3hrs and 27 mins. Like in the previous match, Novak’s opponent had more winners (40) and more unforced errors (64) compared to him. Tipsarevic’s 2nd serve winning conversion (8/37) was a major weak-link that was exploited by the current hotshot without any mercy.
Just minutes to go now, for the start of the blockbuster clash. My money is on Roger while the odds point to another Novak win to extend his 62-2 season record
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