Roger Federer moved to within one match win of his 100th career ATP title when he destroyed Borna Coric 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Friday. Federer fired seven aces while double-faulting just once and he lost only 11 points in eight service games without facing a single break chance.
“I was really happy with my play today,” Federer commented. “In terms of feeling, [this match] was definitely by far the best one (of the week), so that was good. I’m sure Borna was feeling it a little bit from his past few matches.”
Coric had advanced to the semifinals by surviving winning three consecutive third-set tiebreakers over Jiri Vesely, Tomas Berdych, and Nikoloz Basilashvili. But the Croat was never competitive in this one and his serve especially let him down (only one ace, 41 percent of second-serve points won).
“I think it was important to mix it up, be solid, not give him too many chances and keep showing him it’s going to be really difficult for him to win,” Federer explained. “At the end, I actually played really good. I’m very pleased.”
The 37-year-old Swiss booked a spot in the title tilt against Stefanos Tsitsipas after one hour and seven minutes. Tsitsipas, who outlasted Gael Monfils in a third-set tiebreaker on Friday, upset Federer at the Australian Open a little more than a month ago.
“[Stefanos] showed me at the Australian Open how hard he is (to play),” Federer assured. “I hope I’m going to play well…. We’re still far from [reaching 100 titles], it seems. I’m just going to try to focus and play good tennis.”
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WYG?
Fed in three , Tsitsi will respect the moment
Federer in 2, 7-5; 6-3