The win sets up a championship meeting with No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who moved on with a win over Rafael Nadal earlier Saturday, 6-3, 6-3.
Advertisement
Federer trailed 3-2 in the opening set before charging back to tie it 4-4 and took a 6-5 advantage before closing it out.
Now it was Murray’s turn to start showing his frustrations and his angst only increased when he carelessly dropped his serve in the first game of the second set.
The Spaniard had been aggressive in his play in the first three matches, finding depth and penetration with his groundstrokes, but they had little effect on Djokovic.
Last year, the Serb became the first player to win three successive season finale titles since Ivan Lendl in 1987 and, after a superb year, Djokovic will go into his showdown with Federer – who has won the competition an incredible six times before – in confident mood. “When somebody’s doing like this, just the only thing I can do is congratulate him and just wish not the best of luck for the next year”. Even before Saturday, though, the head-to-head record still sat at 17-3 to Federer.
“I don ‘t feel unbeatable, but it does definitely feel great when I’m playing the way I’ve played today, when I feel like I’m dictating the pace and the match itself and most of the rallies…”
Djokvic levelled his record against Nadal at 23-23 in career meetings and took his eighth win in their last nine matches.
The Swiss player focused on keeping the ball on Murray’s backhand in the next game as Murray surrendered his serve to 15 after a backhand floated over the baseline for the Scot. With Wawrinka serving for the set Murray did fantastically well to stay with the Swiss as he passed him at the net after a few fantastic defence which meant he was back on serve. Fortunately for Djokovic, he was there to tap it back over and get the point. I won a very tough match.
“When he’s on, it’s hard to play him”, Djokovic said of Federer. There is a lot at stake.
When Djokovic and Nadal last duelled in Beijing five weeks ago, the final score read 6-2 6-2 in the former’s favor. Should Federer triumph over Djokovic, he is also guaranteed to finish the 2015 season as the World No. 2 after current second-ranked player British tennis ace Andy Murray was eliminated on Friday following loss to Wawrinka 7-6 6-4. Roger beat him on Tuesday in straights, but Sunday with a title on the line I think we’ll see a different, most determined Djokovic. I know I have to be on top in order to win against him.
From then on he was barely troubled by the 14-times grand slam champion who could make little impression and did not glimpse a single break point in the 79-minute encounter.
Advertisement
Djokovic, who is bidding for a fourth consecutive title at the season-ender, and a fifth in total, made his intentions clear from the start yesterday.
