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Roger Federer produced what could be his best tennis of the year to upset Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-4 in their semi-final Saturday at the Shanghai Rolex Masters.
In their 36th meeting, Federer snapped the two-time defending champion’s 28-match win streak on Chinese soil as he reached his 39th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final and stays in pursuit of Djokovic for the year-end World No. 1 Emirates ATP Ranking.
The Swiss, who will return to World No. 2 in the Emirates ATP Rankings on Monday, will face Gilles Simon in the final, hoping to win his first title in Shanghai on his second try (l. to Andy Murray in the 2010 final). The Frenchman defeated Feliciano Lopez to reach his second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final (l. to Murray in Madrid in 2008). Federer leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 4-2.
“I'm not going to come into the match and play terrible,” said Federer. “It just won't happen - not in the finals, not against Simon. That's the confidence I have right now.”
With victory in Sunday’s final, Federer would narrow the gap between him and Djokovic in the battle to finish as year-end World No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings this season, with 1000 point still up for grabs at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris and 1,500 points at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.
In his 52nd ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final, Federer needed just one break point to take the lead and eventually the first set in 48 minutes. The 22-time Masters 1000 champion broke the World No. 1 again in the opening game of the second set and maintained the one-game lead. The Serbian saved two match points on his serve before Federer served out the match in one hour and 35 minutes.
Federer faced and saved only one break point the entire match, hit 35 winners, seven aces, and won 20 of 35 points at the net.
This 36th meeting tied Djokovic and Federer for second with Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe for Most Open Era Match-Ups. With the win, Federer now leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 19-17.
“I think I did not play too bad,” said Djokovic, whose win streak in China included his two Masters 1000 titles in Shanghai (2012, 2013) and three straight titles in Beijing (five overall). “It's just that he played everything he wanted to play. He played the perfect match. I think he's going to tell you how he felt, but that's how I felt he played. He played an amazing match.”
“It was a great match, I agree,” said Federer, who will play for his 81st tour-level title on Sunday. “I think I played very well. There was nothing in the game today that wasn't working. I think it was a high-level match. I'm unbelievably happy with the way it went.”
A win for Simon would put him in a small group of players not named Djokovic, Federer, Rafael Nadal or Murray who have won an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title in the past 41 tournaments.
The four aforementioned players have accounted for 37 titles, the only exceptions being Robin Soderling in Paris (2010), David Ferrer in Paris (2012), Stan Wawrinka in Monte-Carlo (2014) and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Toronto (2014).
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