Sat, June 09, 2012
PARIS, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Top seed Novak Djokovic beat third seed Roger Federer 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 to reach his first French Open final on Friday.
Federer struck the first blow as he broke the world number one in the fifth game of the first set, only to see Djokovic immediately break back twice to take the set.
The Swiss fought back at the start of the second, racing to a double break, but Djokovic answered back even more strongly`as he broke Federer three times in a row.
With the momentum then firmly in his favor, Djokovic broke again in the sixth game of the third and closed out the match with a service winner.
Djokovic became only the fourth man in the professional era to reach four consecutive grand slam finals and will play Rafa Nadal on Sunday.
Defending champion Nadal devastated fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 in the semifinals to move within only one win away from the seventh-title record at Roland Garros.
The second seed, whose only loss here came in the fourth round at 2009, put on a daunting performance to break sixth seed Ferrer seven times throughout the match.
"I probably played my best match here at Roland Garros this year," said Nadal.
"I am sorry for David to lose like this. He is one of my best friends on the tour and one of the best claycourters. It was a fantastic match for me and I am so happy to be in another final at Roland Garros," Nadal said.
