World No. 3 Novak Djokovic fell in his pursuit of back-to-back BNP Paribas Open titles, bowing out to top American Andy Roddick 6-3, 6-2 on Friday in Indian Wells. Roddick will attempt to reach the final at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament for the first time when he faces World No. 1 Rafael Nadal, who comfortably got by Argentine Juan Martin del Potro 6-2, 6-4.
“It's a difficult match-up for anyone,” said Roddick about playing Nadal. “He seems to like this surface and it probably favors him. But with the way I serve, I think I'm always in there with a shot. I'm returning better, and I'm able to mix it up with my returns.”
Roddick broke to open and close the first set of his quarterfinal match while losing just two points on his own serve. Djokovic had his best chance to get back into the match with double break point at 1-all in the second set, but Roddick denied the Serbian before proceeding to win the final four games. Djokovic double faulted to set up match point for Roddick, and then fired a backhand long to see his title hopes cease.
Djokovic, who committed 30 unforced errors during the 68-minute match, said: “Overall it was a very bad day. There's not much to say. He played very solid. I mean, he didn't do anything special. It was all me making incredible amount of unforced errors. I just didn't have any momentum on the court. No feel for the ball, no movement. Just no solutions.”
The 26-year-old Roddick has twice fallen short of an appearance in the BNP Paribas Open final, losing in the semifinals to Lleyton Hewitt in 2005 and to Nadal in ’07. He is looking to become the third different American player to reach the final in the past four years; James Blake finished runner-up to Roger Federer in 2006 and Mardy Fish to Djokovic last year.
Roddick has now won 11 straight matches to take his season record to a circuit-best 23-3 mark. He has advanced to the semifinals in each of his five main draw appearances this year, highlighted by his 27th title last month at the ATP World Tour 500 tennis tournament in Memphis.
After saving five match points against Argentine David Nalbandian in a three-hour, fourth round thriller, Nadal welcomed a straight-sets win over del Potro, South America’s top tennis player at No. 6 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings.
The 20-year-old del Potro dropped serve twice in the opening set and quickly fell behind 1-5 in the second. Though he denied Nadal his first opportunity to serve out the match in the eighth game, he was unable to break him again as the Spaniard closed out the victory in one hour and 49 minutes.
Nadal, who hit the practice courts after the quarterfinal match, said: “I just went to serve a little bit, practice a little bit more the serve, because I served well in the beginning, but later I had some mistakes and a little bit more the backhand. I wanted to play a little bit longer the backhand. But that's it. I'm happy. I won against No. 6 in the world.”
The 22-year-old Mallorcan is through to the semifinals for the fourth straight year in Indian Wells, and has an eye on reclaiming the BNP Paribas Open title after exiting against Djokovic last year. He is looking to reach his 17th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final, and has won 12 titles at six different Masters 1000 events, including three last year at Monte Carlo, Hamburg and Toronto.
He boasts a 4-2 record against Roddick and has won their past two matches in straight sets, most recently last September in the Davis Cup semifinals.
“Going to be a really tough match,” said Nadal. “I have to play very well. I must serve well if I want to win and be focused all the time, play aggressive on the return and play right.”
Nadal, who improves to a 19-2 season record, won his sixth Grand Slam title at the Australian Open with an epic five-set win over Roger Federer and was a finalist in Rotterdam, where he injured his right knee in a three-set loss to Andy Murray.
(From Website : http://www.bnpparibasopen.org/1/news/newsarticle_2711.asp)
