Indian Wells – QF

Friday. The story of a match between Novak Djokovic [3] and Richard Gasquet [21], repeated itself in both sets – the Frenchman led 2:0 (a game point a couple times) and 3:0* (deuce) respectively, but since then Djokovic won six and five games respectively, to clinch the victory 6-2, 6-4 in 1 hour 35 minutes, the duration of the match seemed longer than it actually was, mainly due to the 3rd game of the 1st set, which lasted 16 minutes and was won by Djokovic after seven ‘deuces’. Gasquet appreciates  Djokovic’s amazing form: “Because he won Davis Cup, he took a lot of confidence there and after the Australian Open. We see a confident player. That’s why he’s playing really good right now. He can do everything on the court.” Roger Federer [2] needed one break in each set in his match against compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka [14] to win 6-3, 6-4. The match lasted 21 minutes less than the previous quarterfinal, however, was consisted of one game more. Wawrinka made a very bad impression, producing unforced errors from both wings. Federer seemed to spend “another boring day in the office”, now leads 9-1 in their H2H, having won their last five meetings in the last ten months.

Thursday. The first quarterfinal between Tommy Robredo [28] and Juan Martin del Potro [90] wasn’t played due to injury of the Spaniard (strained left adductor muscle). “I’m sorry for Robredo; I wish [him a] fast recovery, but I am glad to be semi-finals,” said Del Potro “Maybe I could play with Nadal again. We’ve had very good matches before, so I have two days to be better, in good form, and hopefully I can play 100 percent.” Indeed, in the semifinal Del Potro faces Rafael Nadal [1] who was only two points from being eliminated from the tournament. At 5:5 in the 1st set, Ivo Karlovic [239] played perhaps the best return game in his life and broke Nadal to “love”! In the next game fought off a break point with an ace and surprisingly took the set. The tension at the end of the 1st set cost him too much and Nadal quickly jumped  into a 5:0 lead in the 2nd set. The 3rd set went with serves – “You lose a set against Karlovic, and you are under pressure the rest of the games of the match,” said Nadal “I think I played a fantastic second set returning better than ever. In the third, I didn’t have chances. His serve was unstoppable. In the tie-break I was really nervous. I think I returned fantastic in the tie-break, but I didn’t put one first serve on court, so I was really nervous.” In fact, Nadal delivered the first serve at 7:6 (second match point for him), before that he led 5:2 and 6:5. The final score 5-7, 6-1, 7-6(7)… Nadal’s record in long final set tie-breaks (at least 14 points): 5-3; Karlovic has 7-4.

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