By Chris Oddo | Saturday, April 19, 2014
Roger Federer downed Novak Djokovic to set up the first all-Swiss final in the ATP Tour since 2000.
Photo Source: Julian Finney/Getty
The serene setting of the Monte-Carlo Country Club will be swathed in the red and white colors of the Swiss flag on Sunday, as Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka each passed their semifinal tests on Saturday to set up the first all-Swiss final on the ATP tour in over fourteen years (Marseille, 2000, Rosset d. Federer).
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Wawrinka was first to reach the final, and he did so with gusto. The World No. 3 turned in a blistering first set against David Ferrer, then edged the Spaniard in the second-set tiebreaker to book a place in his third career Masters 1000 final. The victory was the reigning Australian Open champion's 19th on the season against only three losses, and it also marks Wawrinka's 100th Masters 1000 victory, making the 29-year-old one of only ten active players to have achieved that mark.
The more heavily anticipated semifinal on Saturday turned out to have an anticlimactic finish, as Roger Federer took down an obviously injured Novak Djokovic, 7-5, 6-2, in the 34th career meeting between the two legendary rivals.
Djokovic took the court with heavy strapping that covered his right wrist and forearm, and while he was able to compete quite well in the first set, he appeared to be suffering down the stretch as Federer waltzed to the finish line in 75 minutes.
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But the match had its moments, particularly in a tense first set when neither player could earn a break point in the first nine games.
Federer was put to the test by the Serb in the tenth game, but he coolly swept away two set point opportunities with decisive play to level at 5-all.
In the next game the tides began to turn as Federer rallied from 40-0 down to earn his second break point of the set. He would convert that opportunity, with some help from a limp, netted forehand by Djokovic, and serve out the set comfortably.
During the changeover, a disappointed Djokovic sat slumped, a towel draped over his head, possibly contemplating the chances he'd missed in the opener but more likely coming to the grips with the realization that a comeback from a set down wasn't going to be in the cards in his physical conditions.
The Serb was hardly the same player in the second set, and he quickly found himself down a double-break at 5-1, with his body language plummeting as rapidly as his play. Federer, hungry for an opportunity to win his first ever Monte-Carlo title, showed no mercy down the stretch, and he served out the match with ease for his 18th career victory in 34 career matches against Djokovic.
With back-to-back victories over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Djokovic, the resurgent 17-time Grand Slam champion improves to 6-2 against top ten competition in 2014. He went 4-10 against the ATP's top ten in 2013.
Wawrinka, who crushed 16 winners in the first set of his semifinal against Ferrer today (against only one for the Spaniard), has only beaten Federer once in 14 tries in his career, but that win did come in Monte-Carlo in 2009.
But one could easily make the argument that Wawrinka in 2014 is leaps and bounds ahead of the Wawrinka of the past. Though the man affectionately dubbed “the Stanimal” slipped a bit after winning his first career Grand Slam in Australia this January, he's returned to resplendent form on the clay this week. Wawrinka has not been broken all week, and the extra time to think and react on the slower clay has seemed to bring his world-class, bash-and-crash groundstrokes back into focus.
Sunday's final will not only be for the title in Monte-Carlo, it will also decide temporary bragging rights in Swiss tennis and the ATP's No. 3 ranking:
Federer will certainly have his hands full with Wawrinka, but with such a dominant history against his friend and compatriot, he'll go in as the heavy favorite on paper, and, of course, the fan favorite around the grounds.
No matter the eventual outcome, their will be legions of happy Swiss tennis fans in Monte-Carlo and around the world on Sunday.