Miami – QF

Thursday. Gilles Simon [27] got booed leaving the court. The Frenchman played only three games (won 2 points, lost 12)  in ten minutes against  Roger Federer [3] and retired due to a stiff neck. “It’s not the way you want to move on,” Federer said, “But, look, I’ll take those, because they happen quite rarely.” It’s Federer’s 16th career-win (Wessels, Gambill, Henman, Heuberger, Ljubicic, Mantilla, Ferrero, Acasuso, Nieminen, Nalbandian, Soderling, Davydenko, Djokovic, Istomin, Dolgopolov, Simon)  thanks to opponent’s retirement, but he never won a match in these circumstances as quickly as today.
Tomas Berdych [7] had initially led in ‘H2H’ with Rafael Nadal [1] three to one, but since then lost 19 consecutive sets to the Spaniard! In the last quarterfinal of Miami ’11, he lost the 20th set, but at the beginning of the 2nd set managed to break Nadal, who didn’t drop his serve in the first three rounds. Nadal after losing the first three games of the 2nd set required treatment (right shoulder) and came back on court full fit, Berdych was able to hold his serve  to the end of the set though, and broke an awful streak of losing sets to his one year younger rival. In the 1st game of the 3rd set, Berdych had a triple break point, Nadal responded in impressive style: service winner, three aces in a row, forehand stop-volley! The Czech was competitive until the 8th game, Nadal broke then his serve to ’15’ and served out the victory in the following game to ‘love’. Nadal after a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win said about his physical problems: “Really strange. I was thinking too much about the arm, and I lost a little bit the concentration.”
Wednesday. In the first meeting in four years between Mardy Fish [15] and David “Pics” Ferrer [6], prevailed the American mixing things up very well and keeping the Spaniard off balance. Fish was *4:5 (15-30) in the 1st set when delivered great kick-serve, it was a turning point in the match, Ferrer since then won only 2 games, losing 9; he was ’30-15′ up in three consecutive games at the end of the 1st set… Fish with his 7-5, 6-2 victory, becomes the No. 1 in the United States next Monday. “It’s a testament to Mardy’s commitment in the last couple years to become the best player he can be, so I couldn’t be happier for him and prouder of what he’s done. I think it is a milestone,” said John McEnroe.
In the second quarterfinal Novak Djokovic [2] avenged his defeat to Kevin Anderson [40] on the same court three years ago, it was the only match of these two players, and the biggest upset of the Miami 2008 edition. Djokovic won 6-4, 6-2 last night, but credit to the South African player for very good performance. Djokovic has extended his winning streak to 24, but in the last four weeks he had tougher matches only against Nadal and Federer. “In the second set I found that momentum, but I went through situations where I faced couple of breakpoints in the first and second set, and I saved them,” said Djokovic, he added about his semifinal opponent, Mardy Fish: “He’s been playing some really good tennis this week, beating high-ranked players, quality players. Today he looked really confident on the court. If he serves well, then he can really beat anybody, I think.”