World Tour Finals - Semi-Finals Thread

[JuliusHMarx]

Day 6 is over. It's so in the past. The future, on the other hand, is so bright I gotta wear shades.

[Johnyjeep]

What I'm expecting, for some reason, is two reasonably close matches.

My head says Djoko and Nadal will win. I think close, but they'll ultimately prevail.  

Saying that if they both went the other way, you could see why (probably more so with Fed as he generally performs so much better indoors than Nadal - and has done so for so long). And with Wawrinka only because he is having the season of his life and pushed Djoko close twice.  

I wouldn't like to put any money on it frankly. I'm happy on my very comfortable fence.

[sirfredperry]

All Swiss final? Probably not. Agree with JJ that you could make a case out for Fed and Stan winning. No doubt Fed will be more confident than usual against Rafa simply due to the court and venue. A Rafa-Nole final, though, I think.

[Roger Laver]

The biggest thing going for Roger is that all the pressure is on Rafa, until Roger gets close to the win that is. He was 2 points away from a break in the 2nd set in Cincinnati and he blinked, something he wouldn't have done at his prime.

Bring it on

[JuliusHMarx]

Blimey, you start a semi-final thread and everyone decides it's still Day 5 and 6. Get with the times people! (Not The Times - that's PPV)

[Jahu]

Funky socks on Greg.

[Jahu]

Come on Fed, whisk him like a spanish omelette.

[HM Murdock]

For the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm 'supporting' Federer... And it's excruciating! I don't know how you people go through it!

[Henman Bill]

Quite enjoyable match so far. A few wild shots but mostly solid quality and good indoors tennis.

[Henman Bill]

Supportinng Federer can be excruciating because his game is so brittle and walks a fine tightrope between brilliance and errors.

[Henman Bill]

I think Roger has started at an above average level (for 2013 overall, and this tournament). Not winning many points againnst serve though, quite a few easy holds for both.

[Jahu]

Missing chances, now broken. Wake up swisso.

[Henman Bill]

Roger at least had the good sense to realise that he had to guess a dive after going with an easy approach to the forehand, but guesses the wrong way. (at 15-30 in the previous game)

[Jahu]

Fed better player so far. Takes break back.

[Henman Bill]

Much better point at 15-30 this time. Really high quality rally with a winner, great stuff. There was some fist punching in the Henman Bill household on that one.

[HM Murdock]

Some seriously sexy play by Fed there.

[Jahu]

Fed keeping to the center

[Guest]

Fed breaks back but broken again nadal to serve for it a second time

[Henman Bill]

break point conversion % has been a key part of the story of the rivalry for a long time...and once again it is here today.

[Guest]

First set tags but more competitive than I though

[Guest]

Tags? I mean rafa

[summerblues]

All in all, I think this has been about as good as one could hope for (from Fed's perspective).  He lost the set but he has played close to the highest level he has been playing as of late.

[Henman Bill]

Who did Henman say was going to be his golfing partner at Augusta?

[Guest]

It's close but the courts rearing up and the mistakes are flowing off the fed racquet at the mo. he needs a second wind

[Josiah Maiestas]

I hope Nadal wins so Djokovic can slaughter him later.

[Henman Bill]

Federer's level has dipped..a few too many easy forehands missed.

[Henman Bill]

First set was just a few key points here and there, second set Fed's level dropped and Nadal was the better player.

[summerblues]

Congrats Rafa, well done.  He was the better player by some margin.

[Guest]

All too easy after a close first

[summerblues]

The next match will be difficult for me.  On one hand, I prefer Stan, on the other hand I need Nole in the final

[Henman Bill]

4 wins in a row in the head to head for Rafa - although he had managed 5 in a row a couple of times.

[Guest]

Now then on to a supposed mismatch. Stan versus djoko I'm gonna take a punt and stan in 3

[Guest]

Wow rafs won all 4 bp s he got. That's clinical

[Henman Bill]

8-6 to Rafa on hard. Rog's misses the chance to even that out and probably never will now.

[Jahu]

Not bad first set from Fed.

Rafa-Stan tomorrow

[laverfan]

Federer played miserably. Even worse than Cincinnati.

Nadal. . Close to a WTF.

[Henman Bill]

It wasn't that miserable, it was probably at least average for the year.

[Danny_1982]

Way too many errors from Fed. Rafa looked far more solid and deserved it.

Stan v Djokovic could be fun. Stan is one of the very few for me who goes into these types of matches against the big boys with the firepower and belief he can win. I think Djokovic will come through, but it might be close. Maybe 3 sets.

Stan is actually my favourite SHBH player to watch nowadays. He's been fantastic this season. I still think Stan v Novak in Melbourne is the match of the season.

[JuliusHMarx]

It's occurred to me that if Fed were that bothered about the H2H he wouldn't keep putting himself in positions where it's more than likely to get worse. Clearly his love of the game is more important to him than that.
I lost a hard fought doubles match in straight sets this morning and it was much more fun than the following one which was an easy straight sets win. Fed may approach things in the same way.

[summerblues]

Stan is actually my favourite SHBH player to watch nowadays. He's been fantastic this season.

Things are relative, are they not?

He certainly has been fantastic this year.  Fed, on the other hand, has had an atrocious year.  Yet, most likely, Fed will still be ahead of Stan at YE.

[summerblues]

Federer played miserably. Even worse than Cincinnati.

Nadal. . Close to a WTF.

"Even worse than Cincinnati"?  I think Cincinnati may have been the best match he has played all year, or one of the best for sure.

I thought Fed played fairly well today, certainly better than yesterday.  Rafa was always likely to be a bridge too far.  One thing where Fed should have done better was with the missed easy FHs on critical points.  But even with those misses, his performance was still ok.

[Danny_1982]

Indeed SB. Stan has been a decent player in the past, Federer the greatest ever... Yet they are actually pretty closely matched right now. Stan will never have the magic, elegance or invention of Roger, but he has more power and a bit more consistency at this moment.

Key for Stan is, can he sustain or improve what he's done this year? Or was this just his Tipsaravic moment in the sun? I hope he sustains it because he's a lot of fun to watch.

[HM Murdock]

That went totally as predicted. Fed starts well, doesn't take his chance and then falls away.

The H2H is now 22-10. Please can we stop calling this a rivalry?

[Silver]

You do seem rather insistent about not calling it a rivalry, HM. Something got your goat? No pun intended perhaps we can replace it with the highly underrated Fed-Delpo rivalry.

Good match from Rafa, very solid. Federer played alright, just lacked consistency at key moments. As usual, could've been a completely different match, but wasn't.

[JuliusHMarx]

We might as well stop referring to the Fed-Murray rivalry and the Fed-Djoko rivalry as well, since Fed will probably never notch up another victory against either.

[laverfan]

That went totally as predicted. Fed starts well, doesn't take his chance and then falls away.

The H2H is now 22-10.

Very close to this one…. http://www.atpworldtour.com/Players/Head-To-Head.aspx?pId=L018&oId=M047

Please can we stop calling this a rivalry?

Even posters who are in stasis…

[naxroy]

don't think stan can do it, but lets see

[Danny_1982]

We might as well stop referring to the Fed-Murray rivalry and the Fed-Djoko rivalry as well, since Fed will probably never notch up another victory against either.

I actually think he may notch more wins against these two. Even playing well against Rafa, the match up gives him problems he simply can't solve. Against Murray or Novak, if he's moving ok and confident, I think he could still beat them.

My hope is that the error hitting Roger is a consequence of a lack of belief caused by poor results, which were caused originally by his bad back. Having seen him last week against Novak it's clear the balletic Federer is now gone... But the optimist within me hopes that an injury free few months could see him back in decent groove.

[CAS]

Del Potro is starting to pick up quite the habit of killing off players in the next round, he did it to Federer in the Olympics and again here and personally think he did it to Novak as well at Wimbledon, that being said its hard to say because Murray was awesome in both matches as was Rafa today

[hawkeye]

Federer played well at the beginning and even later on in patches. He can still out fox Nadal unlike Djokovic who just beats him by out bludgeoning him. Federer must have been tired after that long and since he was always coming from behind emotional match with Del Potro. He should take some positives from the match and from the tournament (Del Potro is no push over and he pushed Djokovic too). Hopefully next season he will play a better schedule and get a little momentum going.

I enjoyed watching a bit of out foxing and I'm sure the packed crowd did too. The WTF is after all a bit of a glorified exhibition and having 30 slams on the court at the same time is perfect for such an event.

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