So clinical and complete was his mastery of Rafael Nadal here that his loss to Federer earlier in the week seems in retrospect to have done no more than ignite the odd, irresistible power that resides deep in his Serbian soul.
Advertisement
Coming just a week before they teamed up at the Davis Cup final, that incident had threatened to derail the Swiss but they sorted out their differences while still in London and went on to achieve glory together for their country.
The 10-time major champion lost only seven points on his serve in the first set and three in the second. He will be targeting a flawless ending to a season which he has had to suffer agony against the Serb in the final at Wimbledon and US Open.
“Obviously, after 46 matches and 10 years of professional tennis, I managed to tie my head-to-head score with Nadal”, Djokovic told reporters. Despite Djokovic not playing as well as he did at the start, his serving and returning were still been on point.
Federer kept Djokovic from overtaking him for the first time in the pair’s head-to-head rivalry by claiming a 22nd win in their 43 meetings.
Federer earned a straight-sets win over Djokovic in the round-robin stage, 7-5 6-2, in one hour and 17 minutes.
With Nadal already in the semifinals and Ferrer going home after two defeats, the clash of the Spaniards had no impact on the tournament but the packed arena was treated to the longest match of the tournament so far.
After the game Djokovic commented on his success. “It took a lot of time”.
Djokovic was supreme in every phase of the game in grinding down the long-ago world’s best, Nadal, and what we have in prospect is a delicious contrast of styles: the revived serve-volley game of Federer against the driving, relentless, all-court dominance of Djokovic.
“I played the full season with not many problems”. This telling piece of statistic revealed the storyline of the first semifinal, played by two men who have played each other more times than any others in the Open era.
He has also struggled with knee problems throughout his illustrious career. “The year, it was awesome for me”. Hopefully I’ll be able, if I play him tomorrow, to play better than I’ve done a few days ago. I think he also likes playing me because he has variety in his game with the slice, he comes to the net, he takes away the time from me. There is a lot at stake.
Regardless, Federer knows he has a tough task ahead of him. “I know he can play better. I’d like to give myself credit for that, quite honestly, yeah”.
Nadal declared Djokovic “almost unbeatable”, adding with a smile: ” When somebody’s doing this, the only thing I can do is congratulate him and just wish him not the best of luck for the next year”. He will bid for his 7th title of the season (89th of career) on Sunday.
“He was better than me and he deserved to do what he did during the whole season”.
The Greek-league match between host Panathinaikos and archrival Olympiakos was postponed after home fans clashed with police and threw flares at Olympiakos players as they walked out onto the pitch. I beat so many top guys.
Advertisement
“So my motivation and my goal is try to keep being in that top league, that is the top five, top four of the world”.
