Novak Djokovic turned on the style to outclass old adversary Rafael Nadal and reach the final of the ATP World Tour Finals with a 6-3 6-3 victory at the 02 Arena on Saturday.
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With the victory before a crowd that included David Beckham, Thierry Henry and actor Hugh Grant, Federer ran his career mark against Wawrinka to 18-3.
“A great match, I really enjoyed it”, Federer said afterwards.
“No, I am joking”.
“I’ve lost against Roger three times this year”. “I know he can play better”.
Perhaps the Murray match, which was a straight fight for a place in the last four, took too much out of Wawrinka, who seemed intent on going for broke. “No blows below the waistline”.
The Serb set that right within five minutes on Saturday with a breathtaking return game, four clean winners helping him break Nadal’s serve to love.
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. There is a lot at stake.
And the former Wimbledon champion is confident the prospect of victory at the end of a memorable Davis Cup campaign, which has already included wins over the United States, France and Australia, will quickly make him forget his London exit. “I am able to practise a lot”. If he wins the tournament today, for the fourth year in a row, he will have claimed 11 titles in the season, which would beat his haul from 2011.
“Novak for the moment is nearly unbeatable”, Nadal said.
That said, Roger’s one guy that gives Novak problems, so that will be in Djokovic’s head. After Saturday’s win, the Serb called this the “best season of his life”. Regardless of the outcome of tomorrow’s match, the season will still be the best that I had.
“I’m excited to be back for the semifinals”.
Djokovic has bounced back from his group-stage defeat to Federer with wins against Tomas Berdych in his final round-robin match and Nadal in this semifinal, to take his record for the season to 81-6 – that is a win rate of over 93 percent.
As four of the world’s top five men contested the semi-finals of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals here yesterday, one player was conspicuous by his absence.
While Nadal was pushing his body to the limits, Djokovic was at home relaxing having finished his group campaign on Thursday and unsurprisingly there was noticeably more zip to the Serb’s groundstrokes in the first set.
He won two of their three matches this year, including their last encounter in the US Open semi-finals, where Federer went on to lose to Djokovic. “He played a great match against Rafa… and I’m sure it will be a fantastic meeting”.
Federer dispatched fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 7-5 6-3 to keep alive his hopes of a seventh title at the year-ender, while Djokovic outplayed Rafael Nadal 6-3 6-3. “That’s what I am going to try”.
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“My next step is just keep practising the way that I am doing”.
