ATP World Tour No. 2 Roger Federer edged past Andy Roddick 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in a gripping encounter on Wednesday night to reach the semi-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open, an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tennis tournament in Miami.
In the pair’s 19th meeting, and a rematch of the Sony Ericsson Open quarter-finals last year, Federer drew first blood with a break of serve in the fifth game. The Swiss then secured a one-set lead with a second break of Roddick's famed serve in the ninth game.
Roddick, who had won just two of 18 matches against Federer, recovered from a 0/40 deficit in the fourth game of the second set and his perseverance was later rewarded with the first break of Federer’s serve in the tournament in the seventh game. The Swiss committed one of five double faults in the match on break point after squandering a 40/0 lead in the game and was made to pay the price as Roddick went on to level the match.
With a record Wednesday night crowd of 12,606 fans creating a fever pitch atmosphere on Stadium, the American crucially squandered two break point chances on Federer’s serve at 3-3, but the Swiss did not miss his opportunity. With Roddick serving at 4-5 deuce, a Federer backhand pass clipped the top of the net and soared over Roddick’s outstretched racquet to land just inside the baseline – presenting the Swiss with his first match point. As Roddick again approached the net, Federer’s forehand pass found its mark enabling him to clinch victory after two hours and three minutes.
"I enjoyed it," said Federer. "It was a good match. Crowd really got involved. I think they wanted to see as much tennis as possible and down to the wire kind of stuff. It was an interesting match. I should have had it under control in the second set. Kind of lost that and was under quite a bit of pressure in the third set. So I'm happy I got through it...
"When I get through those kind of tough matches, sometimes I go on to win the tournament and I don't ever look back. I hope that's what's going to happen right now."
"I at least gave it a go there in the third, and didn't really catch a break there," said a disappointed Roddick. "He had a couple good let cords when it was a break point against him, and one to set up the match. He hit forehand on the outside of the line down break point, too. But at least it became a battle."
The 26-year-old Roddick, who leads the ATP World Tour this season with a 26-5 match record, was competing in the Sony Ericsson Open quarter-finals for the fourth straight year and was looking to repeat the victory he achieved over Federer at the same stage last year. The Austin, Texas resident, captured the Sony Ericsson Open title in 2004 with victory over Guillermo Coria and has a 25-9 event record.
Federer clinched back-to-back titles at the Sony Ericsson Open in 2005 (d. Nadal in five sets) and 2006 (d. Ljubicic in three tie-breaks) and has a 34-8 event record. The 27 year old is bidding for his 15th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title and his 11th since 2005. His last ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title came at 2007 Cincinnati (d. Blake) as last year he failed to win at least one of the coveted trophies for the first time since 2003.
The right-hander is yet to win a title in 2009, having been denied the chance to tie Pete Sampras’ all-time record of 14 Grand Slam titles by Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final.
Federer takes a 7-2 career-lead into his semi-final meeting with World No. 3 Novak Djokovic, who earlier defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 6-4 to reach the semi-finals. Going into the quarter-finals, Djokovic had lost to Tsonga four times in succession since beating him in their first meeting in the 2008 Australian Open final.
After having saved three break points in a lengthy fourth game of the match, Tsonga surrendered his serve for the first time in the tournament to trail 2-4 and could not recover the deficit as Djokovic went on to close out a one-set lead. Djokovic broke serve once again in the fifth game of the second set to go on and open up a 4-2 lead. The Serbian faced two break points at 4-3, and was again under pressure as he served for the match at 5-4 - but he denied Tsonga on two more break back opportunities before closing out victory in one hour and 55 minutes.
“I have to be very happy with today's performance, because I have been struggling to find a way to win against him in the last four encounters,” said Djokovic. “It was all so close, so I just knew that I need to stick in and try to wait for my chances and be aggressive. Today I think I tried to be closer to the line, more in control, and just put the pressure on him. Overall, I'm really satisfied.”
The 23-year-old Tsonga was appearing in the Sony Ericsson Open quarter-finals for the first time after defeating seventh-seeded countryman Gilles Simon in the fourth round. He dropped to a 25-5 match record on the season, the second-best match-wins record on the ATP World Tour in 2009 (behind Andy Roddick 26-4).
The last time that Djokovic reached the Sony Ericsson Open semi-finals, he went on to win the tournament with victory over qualifier Guillermo Canas in the 2007 title match. The 21 year old is chasing his fifth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title, having won two titles in each of the past two seasons.
The Belgrade native endured disappointment at the start of 2009, making a first round exit in Brisbane (l. to Gulbis) before bowing out due to a heat-related illness against Andy Roddick in the quarter-finals of his Australian Open title defence. However, in February the Serb hit back to win his 12th tour-level title in Dubai (d. Ferrer).
(From Website : http://www.atpworldtour.com/TENNIS/1/EN/NEWS/NEWSARTICLE_2896.ASP)
