World No. 4 Andy Murray once again got the better of Roger Federer, defeating the three-time BNP Paribas Open champion 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 on Saturday in Indian Wells to advance to the final at the year’s first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tennis tournament. He will play Rafael Nadal for the title after the Spaniard defeated American Andy Roddick 6-4, 7-6(4).
“I've started to play better against him lately, but he's obviously one of the toughest players ever,” said Murray about playing ATP World Tour Champion Nadal. “I have to play some of my best tennis.”
In his semifinal match, Murray took a frightening tumble in the fourth game of the decisive set, but brushed himself off and won the next three points to go up a break. He broke the Swiss again to take an insurmountable 5-1 lead, and served out the win on his fifth match point.
“Way too many errors today,” said Federer, who committed 32 unforced errors total, including 14 in the first set. “The first set, I tried to keep playing; I couldn't. I struggled with the rhythm today, so that was the same thing in the third set... He played unbelievable in the end.”
Federer had a golden opportunity to assume the lead early in the semifinal match when he held triple break point at 2-1 in the first set, but made three errors and then lost serve in the next game. He pointed it out as a pivotal point of the match: “Who knows if I maybe win that point, maybe he can't play the way he played all match long. That definitely helped him to stay in the match, and then maybe got the break later on after that. So it was a tough match for me and tough moment.”
Since falling to Federer in straight sets in last September’s US Open final, the 21-year-old Murray has now beaten the Swiss four straight times to assume the 6-2 lead in the head-to-head series. He is the third player to have defeated Federer at least four times in a row, joining David Nalbandian and Nadal.
“If you change the pace with the ball a lot and mix it up, I'm playing the match how I want it to go,” said Murray about his tactics. “If I started trading big groundstrokes with someone like Federer, I think he likes that. I haven't done it against him, and I don't do it against many people. That's my game style. Very rarely do I lose matches having let the other guy play his natural game.”
Murray is off to a career-best start in 2009 with an impressive 20-1 record, his only loss coming in the fourth round of the Australian Open to Spaniard Fernando Verdasco. He opened the year with the Doha title, posting wins over Federer and Andy Roddick, and then defeated World No. 1 Nadal in February at Rotterdam to win his 10th ATP World Tour title.
He is the first British player to reach the BNP Paribas Open final since Tim Henman finished runner-up to Federer in 2004. The 21-year-old Scot won his first two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title last year at Cincinnati and Madrid.
Federer said of his opponent: “He's a great counter puncher and reads the game really well. He's got great feel, so he's very confident at the moment. You can tell the way he plays. He knows he doesn't need to play close to the lines because he knows he can cover the court really well. I think that calms him down mentally. I think that's why he's playing so well.”
The 27-year-old Swiss was playing in his first tournament since an epic five-set defeat to rival Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open, having been sidelined with a back injury for the past month.
He was attempting to become the first four-time winner in tournament history. He won three straight from 2004-06, joining Americans Michael Chang and Jimmy Connors as title leaders at the year’s first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tennis tournament.
(From Website : http://www.bnpparibasopen.org/1/news/newsarticle_2734.asp)
