Roger Federer turned back the years to halt Novak Djokovic’s love affair with China, with victory in the SFs of Shanghai. Djokovic had won the last 2 years in the Chinese city as well as the last 3 years in Beijing. But the Swiss Maestro produced a vintage performance and reach Sunday’s Final. There the 17 times Gran Slam winner, will face Frenchman Gilles Simon after he ended Feliciano Lopez’s great week, with a straight sets win.
ATP Shanghai Masters 1000: Day 6 Sat, SFs
Federer bt Djokovic: 6-4, 6-4
They’ve met 4 times this year, with Federer winning in Dubai and Monte-Carlo and Djokovic triumphing in the finals of India Wells and Wimbledon.
Cue Round 5 then.
Coming into their SF clash, Novak was on a hot streak in the World 2nd largest economy. The Serbian Ironman had won an incredible 29 matches running in China, with wins aplenty in Beijing and Shanghai during the past seasons.
However it was Federer who was the more aggressive in the first set and it paid off, as he broke Djokovic in the 5th game.
This was enough for the Swiss superstar to take the opener by 6-4.
Roger’s aggression again paid dividends right at the start of the 2nd, immediately breaking the Serb’s serve in the first game.
Yeah you guessed it, just like the opening set, 1 break of serve was more than enough to see Federer past the finishing line. Federer will be playing in his 2nd Shanghai Maters Final, 4 years after his first, where he lost to Andy Murray: 6-3, 6-2
Simon bt F Lopez: 6-2, 7-6 (7-1)
Gilles Simon’s resurgent week out of nowhere, continued a he halted Feliciano Lopez’s run in straight sets.
The Frenchman had already stunned both Aussie Open champ Stan Wawrinka and Czech Tomas Berdych, en-route top the semi-finals.
Lopez meanwhile also had an equally impressive run to the last 4, highlighted by a rare 3rd career win over compatriot Rafael Nadal in the 2nd rd.
It was Simon though who came to the fore right from the start, outplaying his left-handed rival from the get go.
A backhand volley into the net from Lopez, handed Gilles the first break in the 3rd game of the first set.
Another drop of serve due to a double-fault followed, and Simon had jumped to a 4-1 lead.
Simon who has only reached 1 previous Masters Final before (Madrid 2008), easily then took the first set by 6-2.
Then in the 2nd set, back and forth players went, saving break-points aplenty, but neither of the willing to budge.
An inevitable tie-break then ensued and it was literally over in a flash.
Simon just like at the start of the match, pounced straight away and never looked back. The wily Simon helped by a bout of double-fault-titis from Lopez, calmly eased through the breaker 7-1.
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