AMERICAN Mardy Fish continued his amazing run at the Pacific Life Open, stunning world No 1 Roger Federer 6-3, 6-2 to reach the final.
It was the second-worst defeat for the top-seeded Swiss since he climbed atop the world rankings 215 weeks ago.
Ranked No 98 in the world, the unseeded Fish claimed his fifth consecutive upset at this event to earn a spot in the final against No
vak Djokovic. Federer had not lost to a player so low in the rankings since falling to Richard Gasquet (No 108) at Monte Carlo in 2005. A three-time champion at this hardcourt event from 2004-06, Federer had a 41-match winning streak against Americans broken by Fish, who beat the 12-time grand slam champion for the first time in six career meetings.
Djokovic advanced to the final courtesy of a straight-sets rout of world No2 Rafael Nadal. The third-seeded Djokovic lost to Nadal in the final here last year, also in straight sets. But Djokovic rolled to a 6-3, 6-2 win over the second-seeded Spaniard.
Federer was fulsome in his praise of Fish's performance. "I have a great record against him and I have always controlled matches against him," said the Swiss.
"Today was different, a tough result. He came up playing very, very well. He took everything on the rise and hit winners. I just couldn't get to his second serve and that was disappointing."
However, Federer felt his defeat was not as big a surprise as reflected by Fish's world ranking.
"The guy has been top 20 before and he's had big matches before. We know how good Mardy can be. Let's not talk about 98. We know he's way better than that."
Fish, meanwhile, admitted his stunning form this week has given him the confidence to overcome the final hurdle in lifting his maiden career ATP Masters title when he meets Djokovic.
"I've always been the hunter almost my whole career, and I felt like I was always capable of beating everybody, but it was always here and there. It was always sporadically," said Fish. "Putting together these wins this week gives me a heck of a lot of confidence."
Djokovic said of his win over Nadal: "I played really well and tactically I played really smart. I knew that I had to be aggressive, take control of the match and try to go for the shots, which I did."
Nadal said: "If you play against a player like Novak, you have to be at 100 per cent if you want to have chances to win."
The full article contains 448 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
