BNP Paribas Masters; Federer surpasses his previous best in Bercy, ousts Melzer to reach the semis
World number two Roger Federer remains on course to capture his third ATP World Tour title in a row after he overpowered eleventh seed Jurgen Melzer of Austria 6-1, 7-6(4) at the BNP Paribas Masters Men’s singles tournament on Friday.
The top seed blasted a career-high total of eighteen aces and missed only twelve points in the first set, before Melzer found his range on a fast indoor surface in Paris. Federer said he was pleased with his form and also praised his opponent after the win.
"I thought I served well the whole match. I think in the second he was able play a bit more solid overall, and I think he served a bit better. Top players rarely just go through two sets not having a sniff at all. His sniff was in the breaker when he hit
two good returns to go 2-1 in a mini-break, really,” reflected the former world number one on Friday.
By successfully making his way into the semi-final round at the Palais Omnisports for the first time in his career, Roger improved his match record to 60-12 for the year.
In the last couple of weeks, the Swiss has won the Stockholm Open, beating Florian Mayer as well as the Swiss Indoors Basel, where the Fed Express overpowered Novak Djokovic of Serbia.
Jurgen missed out on qualification for the year-ending finale in London however the Austrian will play along with his partner Philipp Petzschner in the doubles event at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals later this month.
Federer will next take on Gael Monfils for a final berth in Paris. He leads the pair’s head to head series 5-0.
Frenchman Monfils stormed into the semi-final in Paris with a three set victory over Andy Murray in a night session clash on Friday. The match ended 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. It was Monfil’s first victory over Murray in four and a half years on the ATP tour.
Gael fired a total of thirteen winners in the opening set and converted two of five break point chances; however Murray did not fold easily committing only six unforced errors in the second set. Halfway through the final set, the Scott started to tire and
Monfils went on to clinch the win.
In the doubles action, the sixth seed pair of Max Mirnyi and Mahesh Bhupathi outlasted last year’s winners Nenad Zimonjic and Daniel Nestor in three sets, 6-7(8), 6-4, 10-7, to advance to the semi-final round of the BNP Paribas Masters on Friday.
The Belarusian-Indian pair lost a close first set in a tie-break, however rallied back with the help of a service break during the third game of the second set to tie the scores. They then grabbed win in the Match Tie-break after one hour and thirty three
minutes.
In the semi-finals, they will take on Mark Knowles and Andy Ram, who dispatched Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes 6-1, 6-4 earlier in the day.
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