MagNet News - Roger Federer ended Novak Djokovic's 43-match unbeaten run on Friday to set up another French Open final showdown with longtime tennis rival Rafael Nadal.
Second seed Djokovic had been seeking to equal John McEnroe's 1984 record of 42 successive wins at the start of a season, but was denied his first final appearance at Roland Garros by the 16-time grand slam champion.
Federer, the 2009 winner in Paris, triumphed 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 3-6 7-6 (7-5) in three hours and 39 minutes in one of the all-time classic matches to prevent Djokovic taking top spot in the world rankings from Nadal.
The Spaniard, seeking to clinch a record sixth French Open title, booked his place in Sunday's final with a 6-4 7-5 6-4 win over British fourth seed Andy Murray in the opening semi.
Can Federer stop Nadal equaling Borg's record?
"I had nerves and this wasn't even the final," Federer, who has never lost a grand slam match after leading by two sets, told reporters.
"I have worked a lot in my life and it's for these types of matches. It was certainly one of my greatest matches in an extraordinary atmosphere.
"It was probably the best match I have played this year. There were breaks, break backs. It's always intense when we play and I wanted to make it as physical as I could."
Djokovic had been unstoppable this year, winning seven titles as he beat Federer in his first three events of 2011.
But the Swiss third seed has battled through a disappointing year so far by his high standards to give himself a chance of extending his record tally of grand slams.
The 29-year-old won the first set in 70 minutes and the second in just 45 before his Serbian opponent dug deep to reduce the deficit.
The fourth set continued the extraordinarily high level of tennis on show, as Djokovic broke to lead 5-4 before Federer immediately returned the favor to level.
A cheeky drop shot gave him the opening point of the tie-break, and Djokovic saved two match-points -- the second with an ace -- to give himself hope at 6-5.
But, with darkness growing at the local time of 9.35 p.m., Federer showed immaculate poise to blast one of his own down the middle to set up his 25th career meeting with Nadal.
"All credit to him. He went for his shots, but there are no regrets for me," Djokovic said after his first match since last Sunday, following the withdrawal of his quarterfinal opponent Fabio Fognini.
"He deserved to win. We were part of a very good match. But I had a great tournament. It's been the best five months of my career and I knew it had to end some time."
The 24-year-old subsequently revealed he would miss the start of the grass-court season as he pulled out of next week's tournament at England's Queen's Club in London due to knee problems, having played with support strapping throughout his Paris campaign.
Nadal leads Federer 16-8 and has won all three of their French Open final encounters plus a semi in 2005.
He earlier celebrated his 25th birthday as he extended his career record at Roland Garros to 44-1 after beating Murray in three hours and 17 minutes.
The Spaniard, beaten by Djokovic in clay finals at Madrid and Barcelona, is now one match away from equaling Bjorn Borg's record of six titles in Paris.
On Sunday he will seek to become just the seventh player to win 10 grand slam titles.
"I have a lot of respect for the great Bjorn, but I am focused on trying to play well," the defending champion told the WTA Tour website. "For me, is much more important [to] win Roland Garros than equal Bjorn."
Murray, who lost to Djokovic in January's Australian Open title match, failed in his bid to become the first British male to reach the final since Henry Austin in 1937.
"I thought I did well. Everyone seems to think it's easy against Rafa to just come into the net or come in or go for big shots, but you do have to be very patient," he said after dropping to 4-11 against Nadal.
"Sometimes I didn't quite get the ball I was looking for, and sometimes when I did I made a few mistakes. But I think it was a close match. I don't think there was too much in it. He just played better than me today.
"Going into the grass (season) I have to take positives from that, but I also need to look at things that I need to work on, not only for the grass-court season but beyond that as well. So I look forward to getting back on the practice court."
No comments:
Post a Comment