Defending champion Roger Federer guaranteed his place in the last-four of the ATP World Tour Finals with a straight-sets win over Spain’s David Ferrer yesterday.
The Swiss world number two, bidding for a seventh title at the end-of-season finale, dished out yet more punishment to Ferrer in a 6-4, 7-6 victory at the O2, taking his career record over the tenacious Spaniard to 14-0.
“It was a long match and I’m extremely happy to win,” said Federer. “I played a great match. I’ve qualified and I’m obviously relieved and thrilled that that’s the case.
Federer took a while to settle into his smooth rhythm, though, and Ferrer, who beat Juan Martin del Potro in his opening match, had numerous opportunities to make inroads in the opening games of their Group B clash.
Ferrer, who has a season-leading 73 match wins this year, could have been forgiven for feeling pessimistic about his prospects but he was finally rewarded for his endeavour with a break in the fifth game when Federer wafted a backhand wide. Having hauled himself back into the match Ferrer wavered at 5-6, however, allowing Federer to take the opening set.
Ferrer, darting around the court in his fluorescent lime green top, hung on to Federer’s coat tails in the second set to extend the Swiss maestro into a tiebreak.
Even when Federer moved 6-3 ahead, Ferrer refused to accept the seemingly inevitable, saving two match points but there was no escape as Federer clinched his place in the semi-finals with one round-robin match to spare.
“I enjoy playing against him (Ferrer), not because I’ve got a good record, but because he’s a great guy and a great competitor.”
Federer has now won his last 12 matches at the ATP World Tour Finals since losing to Nikolay Davydenko in the 2009 semi-finals when the tournament made its debut at the spectacular O2 Arena.
Berdych hopeful of place
in semis
Tomas Berdych is revelling in Wednesday’s win over France’s Jo-WIlfried Tsonga, which moved the Czech one step closer to securing a place in the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour Finals.
Berdych, who lost his opening Group A fixture against Andy Murray, now has to beat world number one Novak Djokovic today to book his place in the last four of the prestigious season-ending event.
The former Wimbledon finalist’s victory also means Djokovic isn’t certain to qualify yet even though the Serb maintained his 100 percent record with a win over Murray earlier on Wednesday.
Tsonga isn’t eliminated but he would need to beat Murray in straight sets and hope Berdych loses by the same margin against Djokovic to advance.
“It was important to win and now I’m looking forward to the next match,” said Berdych. “I tried to just focus on myself and remind myself I had won the recent matches between us. I was a bit surprised with the score in the final set but not how hard I had to work for it. I played well and finished it well.”
Federer
“It was a long match and I’m extremely happy to win. I played a great match. I’ve qualified and I’m obviously relieved and thrilled that that’s the case.”
Berdych
“It was important to win and I’m looking forward to the next match. I tried to focus on myself and remind myself I had won the recent matches between us.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 9th, 2012.
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