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| April 2, 2006 | Sunday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 3, 1427 |
Federer makes 11th straight final
MIAMI, April 1: Swiss No 1 Roger Federer routed 11th seed David Ferrer at the 6.9 million-dollar ATP Masters Series and WTA hardcourt tournament on Friday to reach his 11th straight tournament final.
Spain’s Ferrer appeared helpless in stopping the defending champ Federer, who posted a 6-1, 6-4 triumph.
“I really thought I played well in the first set, I didn’t give him much chance,” Federer said. “The second set, it got much tighter.
“I think his game obviously suits me on hard court - on clay, it might be a little bit different story - but I think I’m playing so well this week that it was tough for him from the start.”
Federer booked a finals clash with Ivan Ljubicic after the sixth-seeded Croatian similarly crushed third-seeded Argentine David Nalbandian, 6-1, 6-2.
“We play similar tennis,” Ljubicic said of Sunday’ final with Federer. “I use my serve a little bit more than he does, he probably returns a lot better than I do, but when the ball is in play we both try to be aggressive off the baseline.”
After storming through the first set, Federer dropped the opening three games of the second.
But rather than panic, the Swiss star captured the next five games, then closed out the victory two games later with a service winner.
It was Federer’s 47th consecutive win on American soil and record 23rd straight triumph in ATP Masters Series events.
He also improved to 3-0 lifetime against Ferrer, who had reached the semifinals with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 triumph over fourth seed Andy Roddick on Thursday, and upped his mark to 27-1 in 2006.
Ferrer also advanced to the semi-finals here last year before falling to countryman Rafael Nadal.
Federer is 9-3 lifetime against Ljubicic, with wins in their last six encounters, including the quarter-finals at the Masters Series event at Indian Wells, California, two weeks ago.
Nalbandian had been 2-1 lifetime against Ljubicic and routed him in their last meeting, a 6-2, 6-2 triumph in round-robin play at the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai in November.
The Argentine went on to win the title by beating Federer in a fifth-set tiebreak.
But he had no answers on Friday for Ljubicic, who dropped just five points on serve all match and ended the encounter with an ace clocked at 141 miles per hour.
It was the second-straight match in which Ljubicic lost just one point on his first serve.
The 27-year-old won 36 of his 37 first-serve points against another Argentine, Agustin Calleri, in the quarter-finals and took 24-of-25 on Friday.
Ljubicic improved to 25-3 in 2006. He already has won ATP events in Chennai, India and Zagreb, Croatia this year, while Nalbandian has yet to win one.
By reaching the final, Ljubicic will match his career-high No 5 world ranking on Monday.
Should he win on Sunday, he would move to fourth, surpassing American Andy Roddick.
Results:
Semifinals: Ivan Ljubicic bt David Nalbandian 6-1, 6-2; Roger Federer bt David Ferrer 6-1, 6-4.—Agencies
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