Reuters
London, Nov 22: A year later maybe, but the ATP World Tour Finals will get a fitting climax to the season here Sunday after World No.1 Novak Djokovic and Swiss maestro Roger Federer marched to consummate semifinal victories.
Djokovic turned on the style to outclass old adversary Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-3 while in Saturday’s evening session at a packed O2 Arena, six-times champion Federer beat fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 7-5, 6-3 with a masterly display.
They will meet for the 44th time Sunday when 34-year-old Federer will hope to make up for the disappointment of 12 months ago when, after also beating Wawrinka in the semis, he was unable to face Djokovic because of a back injury.
Federer, who had an unblemished record in group play including ending Djokovic’s late-season 23-match winning run, hit back from 2-4 down in the opening set to brush aside his compatriot in little more than an hour.
“Novak should be knocked out by now! No, I am joking,” World No. 3 Federer, who last won the year-ender in 2001 when he beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, said on court. “He played a great match against Rafael (Nadal) and I’m sure it will be a fantastic meeting.”
Spaniard Nadal had looked more like his old dominant self with round-robin wins against Andy Murray, Wawrinka and David Ferrer, but the World Mo. 5 was no match for Djokovic who was at his clinical best. “Novak for the moment is almost unbeatable,” Nadal said.
Djokovic has now drawn level with Nadal for the first time in what is the most prolific rivalry since tennis turned professional. Both players have 23 victories.
“Obviously, after 46 matches and 10 years of professional tennis, I managed to tie my head-to-head score with Nadal,” Djokovic told reporters. “It took a lot of time.
“I think I was a few levels under him at the beginning of my career. Nadal was alongside Federer dominating the tour. I just couldn’t really do much against him,” added the Serb.
Djokovic, bidding for a fourth straight title at the season-ender, and a fifth in total, made his intentions clear from the start as the ball whistled off his strings.
The 28-year-old broke Nadal’s serve in the second game of the match with four exquisite winners that the Spaniard, one of the sport’s best athletes, could only watch whiz by.
From then on the Serb was barely troubled by the 14-times Grand Slam champion who could make little impression and did not sniff a single breakpoint in the 79-minute encounter.