Toronto Masters: Roger Federer to play Andy Murray in Final
The dream of seeing the biggest rivalry in the final of the Toronto Masters is over as World number one Rafael Nadal crashed out in the semi-final of the tournament. The reigning champion Andy Murray toppled him to give another shot to his defence of the title.
On the other hand Swiss maestro Roger Federer scored a battling win over world number three Novak Djokovic, prevailing in three sets.
Briton Andy Murray, who had to make it to the final of the tournament in order to retain his ranking in world tennis, brushed aside the world number one and current Wimbledon champion in straight sets.
Murray looked in control making vital breaks in the two sets to record an emphatic 6-3 6-4 win.
The reigning champion will now be focusing on attempting to score a win in the final and grab his first title of the season.
If he succeeds in winning the title, he will end up becoming the first back-to-back winner of the tournament since American legend Andre Agassi managed the feat in 1995.
The two pre-finals had the top four in world rankings pitted against each other. It was only the 14th time in over two decades that the top-four ranked men faced off in the semi-finals of an ATP Tour event.
After Murray’s comfortable win Swiss master Roger Federer winner of the most grand slam titles in the history of the sport regained his number two rank in ATP rankings as he edged out a determined Novak Djokovic.
Federer was forced to battle really hard on his way to the final with an eventual score line of 6-1 3-6 7-5 as his Serb opponent fought all the way.
Before the start of the tournament speculations were rife on Federer’s future, but the master has quashed all rumours with a top class performance in the event.
He is now a step away and will hope that he sees off the challenge of Andy Murray for the title on Sunday.
However the last two matches have been energy sapping for the former world number one who had to work really hard against his Wimbledon conqueror Tomas Berdych in a nearly three hour match.
He had an equally tough battle with Djokovic in the semi final after the Serb roared back in the match with a determined fight back.
Federer who has won the tournament twice before, breezed through the first set in just 25 minutes.
After surging ahead 2-0 in the second set, Federer looked poised for a quick match, yet he lost his grip on the match with an easy win in his sights.
Djokovic seized the opportunity and displayed the talent and depth in his game to send the match into a decider.
Federer then got his game back at the crucial time, and made full use of his experience and ability to break Djokovic at 6-5 in the final set, before clinching the match on his first match point.
After the match Federer revealed that he was happy with the outcome adding that his form pleased him no ends.
"To some degree I'm happy yeah, I played great tonight. I had chances to come through earlier but at the end I have to be happy that I came through at all because he really started to play some great tennis towards the end of the match and also midway through the second set he was hitting the ball super clean so I'm really happy to have played so well tonight."
The final is set to provide enthralling tennis and it remains to be seen if Federer can hold off the challenge of Murray in the title decider.
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