David Ferrer, the lesser known Spaniard at the ATP World Tour Finals, burst out of Rafael Nadal’s shadow to reach the last four on Wednesday with a demolition job on world No. 1 Novak Djokovic at the O2 Arena in London.
While Nadal’s place in the semi-finals is still in doubt after his thrashing at the hands of Roger Federer on Tuesday, world No. 5 Ferrer made sure he will be around at the weekend with a 6-3, 6-1 defeat of the year’s outstanding player.
In the day’s other match, Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic saved a match point against Djokovic’s fellow Serb Janko Tipsarevic to seal a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) victory, which means the calculators may be needed to decide who finishes runner-up in Group A today.
Photo: Reuters
The complications mean Djokovic could beat Davis Cup teammate Tipsarevic, a stand-in for injured Briton Andy Murray, and still fail to go through, while a defeat, providing Ferrer beats Berdych, would see him survive.
Whatever the math, Djokovic said he would need to play “50 percent” better in his next match.
“I have no words to explain this match,” Djokovic, who went on a 41-match winning rampage at the start of the year and claimed three of the year’s four majors, told reporters. “Nothing was going well. I don’t play at least 50 percent better than I did tonight, I don’t think I’ll have any chance. You always hope that tomorrow will bring something better.”
Photo: Reuters
In front of another sell-out crowd at the 17,500-capacity arena, Djokovic began solidly enough as the first six games of the match went with serve.
However, when the terrier-like Ferrer raced across court on break point to whip a forehand down the line that caught his opponent flat-footed at the net, the match ceased to become a real contest as the 29-year-old from Valencia ran way with it.
He broke the Djokovic serve again to win the opening set and he needed nothing spectacular in the second set as Djokovic offered little resistance. The Serb’s mounting unforced error tally spoke volumes.
“I’m embarrassed to look at the stats,” said Djokovic, who made 33 unforced errors. “All credit to my opponent, he played a great match, but, you know, I wasn’t there.”
World No. 9 Tipsarevic, one of the year’s most improved players, can no longer reach the semis after his defeat by Berdych, although he can content himself with his US$70,000 fee for being an alternate and the US$120,000 participation fee.
He should also have banked another US$120,000 for a round-robin victory, but a skewed volley on match point in the deciding set tiebreaker proved extremely costly.
Berdych looked set for a second consecutive defeat, after his three-set loss to Djokovic on Monday, when Tipsarevic turned the tiebreaker round to lead 6-5 on serve.
He struck lucky, though, as Tipsarevic let him off the hook.
First the bearded Serb’s backhand volley went just wide of the sideline on match point. He followed that with a crazy double fault and the match ended painfully when he stumbled over trying to return a Berdych serve. In trying to get to his feet, he fell again and ended up in a heap as a relieved Berdych played the ball away into an empty court.
Tipsarevic hobbled off after whacking his knee on the court, although he said he would be OK to play Djokovic.
“If I have gotten the chance one more time, I would still take that ball early, and go to the net and play the volley,” said the Serb, who began the year ranked 49th in the world. “I am not honestly at all disappointed because of the way I played on the match point. My feeling now is that I will be ready for practice tomorrow afternoon.”
Berdych was just happy to still be in with a shout.
“I was a bit unlucky on Monday, but I got luckier here,” he said. “There is still a good chance to qualify and go through. So we will see.”
In Group B, Federer has already guaranteed a top-two place and he will be joined in the semi-finals by the winner of the match between Nadal and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
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