1 Response to basel09_tokyo11djokovic_federer_murray_nadal

1. Voo de Mar says:

   December 13, 2023 at 7:50 am

   Points won by each set: | 40-33, 27-31, 30-23 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   24 % Djokovic – 24 of 98
   32 % Federer – 28 of 86

   Points won by each set: | 24-28, 36-26, 24-3 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   20 % Murray – 13 of 64
   15 % Nadal – 12 of 77

   A time of “Big 4” – these four players occupied the first four spots of the ATP ranking in the years 2008-2012. During those five years they faced each other multiple times in ATP finals and (semi)finals of Grand Slam events. Here are two ATP 500 finals, lasting ~2:15h, concluded with surprising results: Federer [1] enjoyed a 19-match winning streak in his hometown event, and had a 9-4 lead in H2H vs Djokovic [3] while Nadal [2] was on a five-match winning streak against Murray, having defeated him in three major semifinals that year.
   In Basel nothing interesting happened until Djokovic broke to lead 5:4 in the opener – in the following game occurred perhaps the longest game between them overall, there were 11 deuces, Federer had four break points, one of them the Serb fought off with a second service winner (173 kph) and needed a treatment to his lower back afterwards. Federer came back from *0:2 (deuce) in the 2nd set. In the decider Djokovic raced to a 4:0* lead, Federer squandered a triple break point in game no. 6.
   The Tokyo final was exceptionally long given the number of games played, however, in the late 00s/early 10s when Nadal, Murray and Djokovic were facing each other, rallies were long and they were regularly violating the 25-second rule between the points to regulate their breath. Earlier that year in Monte Carlo, Nadal and Murray played almost a three-hour match with just two games more. In Japan, the crucial moment came as Murray led *3:1 (0/40) in the 2nd set – despite the slow surface he fired three aces in a row then. The third set it’s the worst bagel in Nadal’s career (15 times he lost “0-6”), Murray was simply sublime.

   Djokovic’s route to his 15th title:
   1 Andreas Beck 6-3, 7-5
   2 Jan Hernych 6-0, 6-0
   Q Stan Wawrinka 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2
   S Radek Stepanek 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-2 – 3 m.p.
   W Roger Federer 6-4, 4-6, 6-2

   # Djokovic was two points away from losing to Wawrinka at 5-all in the tie-break, trailed *4:5 (0/40) against Stepanek in the 2nd set

   Murray’s route to his 20th title:
   1 Marcos Baghdatis 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-4
   2 Alex Bogomolov Jr 6-1, 6-2
   Q David Nalbandian 6-4, 7-5
   S David Ferrer 6-2, 6-3
   W Rafael Nadal 3-6, 6-2, 6-0

   # Murray saved SP at *5:6 vs Baghdatis, trailed *1:3 in the 3rd set

   Serve & volley: Djokovic 1/3, Federer 2/2
   Serve & volley: Murray 1/1, Nadal 0

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