The preview for the first of the men’s semis can be found here.  The second semi-final, which will headline the Friday night schedule will see Roger Federer take on Rafael Nadal.  As with any Federer v Nadal match, it promises to be a special occasion.  Here are my thoughts.

TFF DreamTeam Update: lfc is drawing away in 1st place from AO-EK in 2nd place and woo in 3rd.  I am currently in 4th place, but struggling with just Bouchard and Wawrinka left in my teams.

Roger Federer

Roger Federer has had a great tournament so far, perhaps playing the best tennis we have seen from the Swiss maestro since Wimbledon 2012.  He backed up his straight sets win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga with another excellent performance, defeating Andy Murray in four sets, 6-3 6-4 6-7(6) 6-3 in three hours and 20 minutes.  The match felt much like their semi-final encounter in Melbourne last year, but in reverse.  Federer was the dominant player throughout this encounter and should have wrapped up the victory in straight sets.  He served for the match at 5-4 in the third set and had two match points in the third set tiebreak, which Murray eventually won.  Federer put constant pressure on Murray’s serve and made the breakthrough on his 10th break point in the 4th set before sealing victory.  I think Murray had a very good tournament following the back surgery and he competed and fought well in this quarter-final.  I never expected him to have a hope of winning this tournament.  Many agreed on this match with 75% of people going for Federer in the pre-match poll.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPBFJRZ8_3k

Federer takes on the world number one and favourite for the title, Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals.  The Spaniard struggled at times in a four set victory over Grigor Dimitrov, who should really have taken the third set.  In a tiebreak featuring some incredible rallies, shocking errors and two consecutive shanks, Dimitrov missed a  forehand on set point that would have seen him take a two sets to one lead.  Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t convert and the writing was pretty much on the wall from then as Nadal, and that quite disgusting blister that the media insist on showing pictures of, moved onto the semi-finals.  Dimitrov was in tears at the end.  He can hold his head high after a real breakthrough at this tournament.  He missed big chances, but is by some distance, the most promising of the up-and-comers on the ATP tour right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi8sEGy_k5k

Federer has always struggled against Nadal and hasn’t recorded a win against the Spaniard since Indian Wells in 2012.  Since then, Nadal has won their last four matches including three on hard courts.  The last time they played was at the World Tour Finals where Nadal prevailed, 7-5 6-3.  I thought the blister was affecting some of Nadal’s forehands today and he commented after the match that his serve was “bad”.  I have a much more positive feeling about Federer’s chances compared to the last couple of times he has played Nadal.  He struggled to close out against Murray though and I could see that being multiplied against his nemesis if he got into a winning position  I think this semi-final will have a little bit of everything and I could see it going the distance.

Prediction: Nadal to beat Federer in 5 sets