2015 ATP Dubai Tennis Recap: Djokovic, Federer, Coric & Berdych Move To Semis
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The quarterfinal round at ATP Dubai 2015 (Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships) was completed on Thursday with three of the top four seeds in the event advancing to the semifinals. Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Tomas Berdych will play on Friday while third seeded Andy Murray suffered an upset.
The line scores for all of Thursday’s matches are below:
[1] Novak Djokovic d. [Q] Marsel Ilhan 61 61
[2] Roger Federer d. Richard Gasquet 61 ret.
[LL] Borna Coric d. [3] Andy Murray 61 63
[4] Tomas Berdych d. Sergiy Stakhovsky 63 46 62
Coric, who is only eighteen years old, is the only unseeded player remaining in the draw. An interesting point regarding the Croat is he is only in the Dubai draw as a “lucky loser.” For those that don’t know that means he was the highest ranked player to lose in the final round of qualifying. As such he served as a replacement when Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber pulled out of the tournament with an illness.
Coric, who will face Federer in the semifinals, made the pretty standard comments that players make when they make a surprise run:
“I have nothing to lose, just literally nothing to lose,” Coric claimed. “Just go on the court, enjoy, learn and see how he’s playing.”
“Mostly, I’m going to try to beat (Federer),” he continued. “I’m not going to go in the match like I’m going to lose.”
Federer, despite the fact that he is playing a relatively unproven player, knows better than to take him lightly.
“(Coric) seems to really play up when it matters against the better players,” Federer stated, suggesting that he’s going to prepare for the match like any other.
The Swiss Maestro added: “(Coric) makes very little errors, and I think that’s why he is able to put a lot of the top guys under pressure.”
The Coric vs. Federer match is scheduled for a start time of not before 5pm on Friday. It will be followed by Djokovic vs. Berdych (not before 7pm), a match that features two Top 10 players.
Djokovic, who had a very inexperienced opponent in the quarterfinals, attributed his easy quarterfinal win in part to that.
“(Ilhan) lacks a little bit of experience and confidence on being in the big stadium,” Djokovic said. “That’s where I used my opportunity from the start. I made a double break, and I felt like I was in control of the match. I didn’t allow him to get into the groove.”
Berdych, as a contrast to Ilhan, does not lack in experience in big stadiums however the Czech No. 1 does lack in experience when it comes to beating Djokovic. On head-to-heads Berdych is just 2-17 against the current World No. 1, a trend that strongly implies that Djokovic will advance to the Saturday final.
The situation as it is the championship match in Dubai looks as though it will feature the World No. 1 vs. the World No. 2 with the 500-series title in Dubai at stake.
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