Roger Federer crushes Andy Murray to enter title-round – Barclays ATP World Tour Finals 2012
Former world number one, Roger Federer, outmuscled the third seed, Andy Murray from Great Britain, in straight sets at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals 2012 on Sunday. He notched up a 7-6(5), 6-2 victory against the US Open champion to cruise into the
final show down at this season-ending championship taking place in London, England.
Seeded second in this event, Federer displayed flawless performance to stomp over the Olympic gold medallist in their 19th encounter. After stealing the show in one hour and 33 minutes, the Swiss avenged his loss at the Shanghai Rolex Masters
few weeks ago and lowered trail in the FedEx ATP Head 2 Head Series by 9-10 against the British number one.
Federer reflected in a post match press conference about his last two losses against the Dunblane native and how he learnt from that:
"Of course, I was looking at having lost the last two matches against him, so I thought it was up to me to change things around really and come up with a game plan that maybe was different than at the Olympics or Shanghai. The pressure was really on me. I'm
happy with what I chose with my coaching staff today. Obviously the tournament's not over yet, I want to keep on playing well, but I'm happy that the offensive play did pay off and it gives confidence doing more like that in the upcoming match tomorrow."
The 31-year-old made a sloppy entry at The O2 Arena. He suffered the first blow in the second game and fell at 0-2. Federer recovered in the very next game but lost his serve again, eventually going 1-3 down. The Swiss remained focused after that and despite
losing his serve again, he managed to level the set scores in the eighth game. He exchanged two serve breaks after that and eventually dragged the set to a tie-breaker. Federer unveiled his true class in it and eventually sealed the opener with a 7-6(5) win.
Ranked second in the world, Federer maintained consistency in his game in the following set. He got the coveted break in the third game and jumped to a 3-1 lead. After Murray kept his serve in the fifth game, the Swiss cashed his second break opportunity
in the seventh game and clinched the set with a 6-2 score line.
Next in queue for the 17-time Grand Slam champion is the world number one, Novak Djokovic.
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