Neither Rafael Nadal nor Roger Federer played like themselves. today. It just happens in sports. Someone has to win and someone has to lose. It's sport.
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Fish stuns Federer, Djokovic upsets Nadal
By Mark Lamport-Stokes
INDIAN WELLS, California (Reuters) - World number one Roger Federer was stunned by unseeded American Mardy Fish after Rafael Nadal's Pacific Life Open title defence came to an abrupt halt in Saturday's semi-finals.
Federer lost to an American player for the first time in 42 matches when he was crushed 6-3 6-2 by Fish in a match lasting just over an hour at Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
Fish, who had never beaten Federer in five previous meetings, outplayed the Swiss on a sun-drenched afternoon to book a place in Sunday's final against third-seeded Serb Novak Djokovic.
Australian Open champion Djokovic swept aside second-seeded Spaniard Nadal 6-3 6-2 in an earlier match on the showpiece Stadium Court.
"It feels pretty good," Fish, 26, said in a courtside interview after an aggressive display featuring 28 winners and seven aces. "I couldn't have dreamed up a better scenario than that.
"This wasn't obviously Roger's best day, but hopefully I had a little something to do with that. I tried to beat Roger with pace today, up the line and crosscourt. It seems to be working."
Ranked 98th in the world, Fish set the tone for the biggest win of his career by breaking Federer in the second game before sweeping through the opening set in 34 minutes.
With Federer strangely out-of-sorts and Fish in prime form, the American again broke in the first and fifth games of the second before serving out to secure victory in the eighth."I have a great record against him and I have always controlled matches against him," Federer, 26, told reporters. "Today was different, a tough result. He came up playing very, very well.
"He took everything on the rise and hit winners. I just couldn't get to his second serve and that was the disappointing part of today.
TOOK CHANCES
"I could have served better, sure. I could have returned better, sure. But the guy was on top of his game. He took his chances and it was over in a heartbeat."
Earlier, Djokovic, 20, broke Nadal twice in each set to secure victory in one hour 28 minutes.
In a repeat of last year's final, left-hander Nadal broke in the third game of the opening set when Djokovic hit a forehand long but the Serb broke back to level at 2-2.
Djokovic also broke in the eighth game with a favourable net cord bounce to lead 5-3 before holding serve to wrap up the first set in 41 minutes.
Djokovic grabbed the initiative in the second by breaking in the fifth game when an ambitious forehand by the Spaniard flew wide.
A protracted seventh game featuring several rallies of high quality finally ended in another break by the Serb when Nadal netted a poor attempt at a drop shot to trail 5-2.Djokovic calmly served out to seal victory before raising his right arm skywards to pump the air in celebration.
"I played really well and tactically I played really smart," the 20-year-old Serb said. "I knew that I had to be aggressive, take control of the match and try to go for the shots, which I did."
Nadal beat Djokovic 6-2 7-5 in last year's final.
"If you play against a player like Novak, you have to be at 100 percent if you want to have chances to win," Nadal said.
"The truth is he played better than me today. It's difficult to say more things."
Fish Stuns Federer, Faces Djokovic for Title
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Unseeded American Mardy Fish’s improbable run at the 2008 Pacific Life Open continued on Saturday in Indian Wells as he defeated World No. 1 Roger Federer 6-3, 6-2 to book his place in Sunday’s title match.
To hoist his first career ATP Masters Series title, Fish will need to defeat his fourth Top 10 player this fortnight – World No. 3 and last year’s runner-up, Novak Djokovic, who got by defending champion Rafael Nadal by the same score.
Though Fish had spent six more hours on court than Federer en route to the semifinals – he had played five hours and 13 minutes in the last two rounds alone – Federer was the player who appeared more spent as he dropped his first service game.
Fish broke Federer twice more in the second set and earned two match points on the Swiss’ serve before Federer came back to force him to serve out the victory. Fish closed out the win in just over an hour, converting on his fourth match point to earn his first career win in six matches against Federer.
“I've always been the hunter almost my whole career, and I felt like I was always capable of beating everybody, but it was always here and there. It was always sporadically,” said Fish, who handled World No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko in straight sets before posting consecutive wins in a third-set tie-break over two-time champion Lleyton Hewitt and World No. 7 David Nalbandian.
“Putting together these wins this week gives me a heck of a lot of confidence to know that I can beat three guys in the Top 10 so far, and hopefully one more to go.”
The five games won by Federer were his fewest in a match since he assumed the No. 1 ranking four years ago. Fish, who came into the tournament ranked No. 98, is also the second-lowest ranked opponent Federer has lost to during that span.
Fish is the fifth-lowest ranked ATP Masters Series finalist and the second-lowest ranked to reach the tournament final. In his only other appearance in an ATP Masters Series final, five years ago in Cincinnati, he held two match points against Andy Roddick before losing in a third set tie-break.
“The guy has been top 20 before, and he's had big matches before,” said Federer, who has yet to reach a final this season. “Should have won Cincinnati a few years back beating Andy before he became No. 1. We know how good Mardy can be. Let's not talk about 98 in the world. We know he's way better than that.”
In the day’s first semifinal, Djokovic avenged his 2007 final defeat to Nadal to go into the final for the second straight year without dropping a set through the tournament.
Djokovic, who had made a tentative showing in his first career ATP Masters Series final last year, played with confidence and experience this time around – the winner of two ATP Masters Series shields and a Grand Slam title since. After falling behind an early break, he roared back with three breaks of serve to close out the win in one hour and 27 minutes.
“I had some really important wins last year, which proved and made me believe that I can be one of the best players in the world and I have enough quality for that,” said the 20-year-old, who broke into the Top 10 for the first time in his career last year following his run in Indian Wells.
Nadal, who needed three sets to beat Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and World No. 10 James Blake, said: “I had very tough matches in the rounds before, very tight matches. You have to be 100%. He played less hours than me on court, easier matches, and he play better than me, so [I could] not do a thing.”
Djokovic defeated Fish in their only previous meeting, two years ago at the US Open. He said: “He's a really difficult opponent to play against. He’s obviously playing on top of his shape in this tournament, has nothing to lose.” Source: pacificlifeopen.com
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