Novak Djokovic battles past Roger Federer into the final – US Open 2011
World number one Novak Djokovic of Serbia made an epic comeback from two sets down to earn a 6-7(7), 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 victory against world number three, Roger Federer of Switzerland at the US Open 2011, last of the four Grand
Slam events held on the hard courts in New York City on Saturday. After earning success in this five set thriller, he secured a title round spot on Saturday.
Top seeded Serb showed his true class by winning after being two sets down and facing two match points against a former world number one. He required almost four hours overpowering Federer, the 2004-08 champion, in five sets in
his best career match of the season.
Both top class tennis stars played their best tennis in the opening set which lasted for fifty-five minutes. They held on to their entire serves with their fabulous skills and abilities and took the set to a tie-breaker. The Swiss,
however, managed to take lead in the tie-breaker and eventually sealed the opener with a 7-6(7) victory.
The Swiss Master flashed into the second set at the Arthur Ashe Stadium and took the first blood in the third game. He squandered his lead in the sixth game but quickly roared back in the proceeding game to eventually clinch the
set with a 6-4 victory in forty-six minutes.
Djokovic re-focused his strategy in the third set and unleashed a flurry of groundstrokes to strike out first three games in a row. Djokovic then held on to his remaining serves by maintaining consistency in his game and sealed
the set with a 6-3 score line in forty-two minutes.
The highest ranked player of the tournament, Djokovic carried his momentum into the fourth set and broke the Swiss serve in the very first game. He broke again in the fifth game and solidified his winning position by going 5-1
up. The Serb then held his serve in the last game to win the equaliser with a 6-2 win.
The decider went head to head till the Swiss held his serve in the seventh game to take a 4-3 lead. Federer earned the coveted break in the following game and was standing at double match point at 40-15 in the eighth game when
the Serb got back on track.
Djokovic broke back when the Swiss double faulted later in the game and held his serve to square the scores at 5-5. The Serb then broke Federer’s serve again to 15 in the eleventh game and smoothly held his serve in the last game
to win the final set by winning seven games to five.
"It was a very similar situation to last year," acknowledged Djokovic. "I had to take my chances. I was very close to being on my way back home. He was serving. He was 40/15 up. I managed to hit that amazing forehand return which
got me back. I got a little bit of energy from the crowd, and I fought back. I needed to stay positive, and I definitely didn't want the French Open to happen again. It was an incredible last two games.”
Up next for the confident Serb is the world number two and the defending champion, Rafael Nadal of Spain who triumphed over British Andy Murray in four sets to set-up this clash.
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