There is $510,000 winner- take-all for the semi-final winners, $1,050,000 for the victor of the final, plus a further $2,228,000 for an undefeated champion.
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Nadal’s recent upturn hasn’t gone unnoticed by Djokovic. Instead, he did nothing of the sort.
Nadal leveled the match after breaking for 5-3 in the second set and then serving it out at love. “For me the main goal is to try to arrive in good shape next year”. I’m trying to win every match that I play.
“I think he’s going to get stronger”.
“Maybe I’ll think of Santa and keep it. (Christmas is) around the corner”.
There had been a chance the “Big Four” were going to fill out Saturday’s semifinals at the O2 Arena – until Stan Wawrinka spoiled the party, that is.
In an nearly exact copy of the second set, Nadal served out the following game, winning the match in the process.
While it continued what might be said to be a below-par run at this tournament for a player of his class, as only twice in six attempts in London has he reached the semi-finals, huge mitigation lies in the fact that the 28-year-old has had to mix training here this week with practice sessions on an indoor clay court specially created to mimic the conditions at the Flanders Expo Centre in Ghent next weekend.
Even when his ranking fell to 10th in June, the former No. 1 never doubted that he would qualify among the top eight, he has said, although not arrogantly, for that is not his way.
Murray and Wawrinka were both guilty of numerous careless errors, Murray in a first-set tiebreak that he led 4-2.
Nadal hit only two more winners in the first set following the third game, and made 18 unforced errors. “I started to be really confident against them, that I have the game to beat them”. He started slicing his serves a little wider, putting less of his first serves in play but setting himself up well for the rallies. I made one other error at the end of the set as well. He also knew Novak Djokovic awaited him in the semifinals a day later. He built a double-break advantage and a 3-0 lead in the opening set. However, the second spots in both groups are still open. Another deuce ensued, before Wawrinka was denied of his second match point. “There’s not much I can do about that”.
Showdown #46 of what was the best rivalry – that label now belongs to Federer-Djokovic. It is Nadal’s fifth semi-final in seven appearances. “But I am not anxious about it”, Nadal said. Was a lot of points to win today.
And maybe it’s the right strategy. He has kept his eye on Nadal, knowing that the ironman with whom he’s had such epic, ground-shaking clashes can’t have shriveled up and died inside that 6-foot-1 frame of Nadal’s. That’s a lot of positive energy. Very good confirmation this week. An early exit at the US Open followed by back to back losses in the final of Paris and Shanghai to Djokovic have summed up the last couple of months for the Brit. Murray lost to Nadal but a win over Ferrer and the local crowd have kept his dream alive in London. “Already in China, playing finals in Beijing, semifinals in Shanghai, you can feel that he’s starting to get comfortable on the court, start to play better. I don’t know about your wife, but I’m allowed to”. We played so many times. “I’m well. When you are coming after a tough period and suddenly you feel better then you feel fresh”, he said.
And if Novak serves well he’ll get through this.
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If Nadal has fared better in the first three games of a hard-court match against an elite opponent than on Friday afternoon, it can’t have been on many occasions. Mirka was allegedly getting on Stan.
