Roger Federer is two wins away from a sixth Basel title, but Ivo Karlovic stands in his way of the final on Saturday. A more surprising semifinal pits David Goffin against 17-year-old Borna Coric.
(1) Roger Federer vs. (8) Ivo Karlovic
Federer is now 54-9 lifetime at the Swiss Indoors Basel and he has put himself two victories away from a sixth title at this event as he takes the court for semifinal action on Saturday. The 33-year-old Swiss is looking for his first winner’s trophy in Basel since 2011 after being denied by Juan Martin Del Potro in the final in both 2012 and 2013. His path to the last four this week was not entirely routine. Federer destroyed Gilles Muller then scraped past Denis Istomin 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 before defeating Grigor Dimitrov 7-6(4), 6-2. Coming off a title at the Shanghai Masters, the world No. 2 is 64-10 for what has been a resurgent 2014 campaign.
Up next for Federer is Karlovic, against whom the 17-time major champion is 11-1 lifetime. Federer has won five in a row in the head-to-head series since being upset by the 6’11” Croat at the 2008 Cincinnati Masters. They most recently faced each other this spring in Miami, where Federer prevailed 6-4, 7-6(4). Karlovic, 35, advanced to the semis by beating Lukas Rosol, Kenny De Schepper, and Benjamin Becker. The eighth seed is playing well enough and serving well enough to keep this close, but Federer is all too familiar with the Karlovic serve. It is worth noting that Federer is 12-3 in 15 tiebreakers played between the two veterans.
Pick: Federer in 2 with one tiebreaker
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(7) David Goffin vs. (WC) Borna Coric
Goffin and Coric will be going head-to-head for the first time in their careers when the two fast-rising players collide on Saturday. While it is a somewhat surprising matchup, Goffin’s hot streak has been in progress for quite some time–four months, in fact. The 28th-ranked Belgian is an unbelievable 42-2 since Wimbledon, a stretch that includes two ATP titles in addition to pure domination on the Challenger circuit. Goffin has remained on fire this week by defeating Dominic Thiem, Ivan Dodig, and Milos Raonic.
Coric really started to make a name for himself this summer. The 17-year-old Croat, who will become the youngest player in the top 100 on Monday, reached his first career ATP quarterfinal on the clay courts of Umag before making it to the second round of the U.S. Open as a qualifier. After kicking off this week with scalps of Ernests Gulbis and Andrey Golubev, Coric pulled off the biggest victory of his career by upsetting Rafael Nadal 6-2, 7-6(4). Although the underdog played well and held his nerve on Friday, Nadal was not the typical Nadal. Coric’s win should not get blown out of proportion and it will be difficult for the youngster to bounce back mentally from such a momentous occasion–especially against an opponent as hot as Goffin.
Pick: Goffin in 2
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who ya got?
I go with Federer and Goffin in straights just like you..
Basel is now a bore, Valencia line-up more interesting………….
disagree. Valencia has one awful semifinal. Both in Basel are intriguing.
Aaaghh, let me mourn Rafa’s departure in my own petulant way, Ricky!
haha
Basel is totally boring – nothing to watch.
There are Spaniards in both SFs in Valencia. Spaniards are interesting players to watch. I have always liked Ferru and Robredo (except they play against Rafa).
Paris qualies tomorrow
any good matches?
Goffin lost the craggy beard for his semi……………..looks much nicer.
Boffin must have heard you, RITB
Federer vs Karlovic…………….*groan*. Who watches such stuff?
Time for Braking Bad re-runs…………..
Just seen the Paris draw…..this is a joke, right?
http://www.atpworldtour.com/share/event-draws.aspx?year=2014&eventid=352&draw=ms
Why don’t they just dispense with the pretense and label this, “BNP Paribas Masters, Suitably Rigged for Federer’s Pleasure”?
I don’t really care about Paris but Djoker seems to have a tough draw which suits me 🙂
I didn’t watch the Fed vs Karlovic match because I would rather endure a root canal treatment than watch that. Trawling through the net there seems to be a consensus that the Swiss crowd behaved abominably, cheering each of Ivo’s mistakes like they were match points in Fed’s favour.
Glad I missed such crass imbecility but then, not very surprised. That after all is Fedfans, sorry, tennis fans, at their best.
I watched about half of it. I had it on while I was doing household chores, so I was in and out of the room. Yes, the crowd was cheering double faults and so on, but it was just the typical stuff from a very partisan tennis crowd: rude by tennis standards, but acceptable in most any other sport. Any player going to Basel and playing against Roger knows to expect it.
It was the match itself that was mostly uninteresting. Lots of aces and even when a serve was put back in play, almost no extended rallies. It was as predictable as they come. Roger employed his chipped returned and low slices. Ivo would come the net, Roger would hit it low to Ivo’s feet, Ivo would in turn hit the ball into the net. The same stuff we’ve seen a million times. No point construction, no rallies, just a bunch of serves, missed returns, and some net play.
Thanks for the match summary @jpacnw. Pretty much why I shied away from watching the match!
Sarcasm? What sarcasm.
Own it.
not ruling out the possibility of goffin winning. He can win
definitely has a chance
A very unlikely chance. He’s a 5:1 favourite ATM.
Goffin is overrated. Most of those recent wins were in challengers. He’s just 20-13 in ATP events this year compared to 61-10 for Fed and he’s playing indoors at home. He also has 13 wins against the Top 10 this year, more than any other player.
Goffin is serving under 50% in each of his last two matches. Good enough for Raonic and Coric, but won’t hold up to Fed’s ROS.
Federer will demolish Goffin losing eight games or less. He’s simply too good ATM.
didn’t say it was likely
but it’s a lot more likely than any of the nonsense posted above
True dat.
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Vamosrafa,
I cannot see any of the tennis since I do not have cable yet in my new place.
I was sorry to see that Rafa lost in the quarterfinals. It has been tough.
I look forward to watching some tennis and being able to share my thoughts next week.