Roger Federer mallets Mikhail Youzhny in the quarter-finals – Dubai Tennis Championships 2012
Swiss Maestro, Roger Federer, eases his way through the unseeded Russian opponent Mikhail Youzhny in the quarter-final battle of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Thursday. The Second seed hot favourite, Federer, took
just 69 minutes of play to stamp his authority over the 34th ranked Youzhny in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, marching into the semi-final draw of the event in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The fairly one-sided affair was contested on the outdoor hard courts of the Aviation Club Tennis Centre, with a capacity crowd coming out to see the 16-time Grand Slam winner thrashing Youzhny. Federer carried on his sublime run
of form in the current season and improved his year-to-date tally by 14-2 after clearing the quarter-final round.
It was the 12th occurrence that Youzhny went one-on-one against the world number three and he maintained his trend of losing to the mighty Swiss. Federer improved 12-0 in the head-to-head series against the Russian and
continued his voyage to his second successive semi-final of the season. Youzhny bagged his eighth ATP World Tour championship title last month at PBZ Zagreb Indoors but couldn’t sustain his golden touch against the expertise of the Swiss Maestro in the quarter-final,
falling cheaply in the end.
"I thought on my serve I was doing many of the right things," expressed Federer in his post match reviews. "It's quick out there, so you got to be really focussed. He was obviously taking a lot chances for one set and a half. Maybe
his energy wasn't quite up. At the end he really got pumped up a bit, but it was almost too late for him."
Federer didn’t have to work hard in the contest and he kept his basics right by conceded minimum unforced errors to build up pressure. Youzhny, on the other hand, was buried under the immense stress from the opposite side of the
court and kept losing crucial points to make his way out of the competition. The second seed Swiss dropped nine points on his first serve, winning 20 out of 29 points en route to victory.
Action started from the fourth game of the opening set, when Federer fought five deuces before registering the first serve break of the day to lead 3-1. He kept the lead in tact to close out the opening set and then concluded his
victory in style by racing through the second set in just 30 minutes.
Federer will face Juan Martin Del Potro in the semi-final battle on Friday afternoon.
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