Toronto – semifinals

Six years waited Richard Gasquet [21] for his third ‘Masters 1000’ final, the previous one occurred also in Toronto. The first semifinal between him and John Isner [11] was pretty one-sided – the Frenchman won all his service games easily as well as the tie-break of the first set. One break obtained at 3:2 in the 2nd set was decisive (Isner led 40/15 in that game) to notch a 7-6(3) 6-3 victory in 81 minutes. Presumably the bronze medal won in doubles at the London Olympics made a positive impact on the gifted Frenchman. “The key of the match was to return well, and I did it. I tried to return all the time to make him play,” said Gasquet. “Then I like to defend. But of course I had to do a big tie-break, and I did it. I played incredible in the tie-break and then I felt well.”
In the final Gasquet meets Novak Djokovic [2] to whom has lost the last four matches quickly. Djokovic in an all-Serb duel outplayed Janko Tipsarevic 6-4 6-1. The match was delayed two hours due to rain. The first set was interrupted by rain a couple times too. The younger Serb dealt better with these difficult circumstances in the end, having saved 3 break points at 3-all in the 1st and a triple break point serving for a place in the final. There was an interesting situation early on, when Tipsarevic during a demanding baseline rally slipped and dropped on his buttocks – Djokovic sent the ball wide though. The very solid chair umpire Steve Ulrich was so concerned about Tipsy’s tumble that didn’t notice where the ball landed, delivered wrong scoreline (30/40 instead of 40/30), and after another point won by Djokovic, announced a game for him – quickly realized his mistake and changed the decision – the game ultimately took Tipsarevic [9].