Sunday, November 27, 2011

ATP World Tour Finals: Semi-Finals


Semifinals
R. Federer d. D. Ferrer 7-5 6-3
J. Tsonga d. T. Berdych 6-3 7-5

No one played flawlessly, but two men played more steadily than their opponents and walked away with straight-set wins and a chance to lift the final trophy of the season.

Federer and Ferrer both played scratchy tennis in the first set with Federer's backhand letting him down and Ferrer's forehand and serve not clicking. After breaking Ferrer at 5-5, Federer went to hold at love to win the first set and then immediately break Ferrer in the first game of the second set. That was all she wrote as Federer kept his unforced errors down and won nearly every point on serve in the second set to notch his 12 straight win over the Spaniard. This win lifted Federer to his 100th ATP final contesting for his 70th career title. It also assured him ending in top 3 in rankings for the ninth consecutive year.

Tsonga's aggressive play and Berdych's forehand errors decided the match. Always under pressure, it was Berdych who blinked first in the opening set giving the one and only break that was needed for Tsonga to win handily. It was a closer affair in the second set with both players trading a single break in the middle of the set. At 5-5 Tsonga was able to break Berdych one last time after the Czech hit a forehand into the net and only had to hold to notch the win. Tsonga reaches the final of the ATP World Tour Finals for the first time and will try to be the first Frenchman to win the title.

Finals Preview
R. Federer [4] v. J. Tsonga [6]

If you've been paying attention to the past few weeks, this match-up is starting to feel like some kind of déjà vu. It's the third straight Sunday these two will meet as they met in the finals of Paris two weeks ago and opened up the World Tour Finals last Sunday. Federer won both matches lifting his H2H record against the Frenchman to 7-3 (5-2 just for 2011).

As I said above, they both have a lot to play for in their 8th meeting this year. If Federer wins, he becomes the only man to win this tournament 6 times breaking off from his tie with Pete Sampras and Ivan Lendl, and will interesting enough also be the oldest player to win the title. For Tsonga, as only the second Frenchman to reach the final, he will try to do one better than his countryman Sebastien Grosjean and be the first Frenchman to win the year-end event.

Federer has the definite momentum and H2H advantage, but underestimate Tsonga if you dare. Do remember that it was Tsonga who beat Federer this year at Wimbledon after the Swiss was up 2-0 sets. That alone proves that anything can happen. Should be an exciting and thrilling match to be sure.

1 comment:

  1. This was the great matches and they all 4 semi finalists played great but David loos his temperament against the greatest champion roger federer and Tsonga easily defeat Tomas Berdych in the semi's.Roger shows his legacy throughout the tournament and the most important is he defeat his great rival Nadal by 6-3 and 6-0.

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