Djokovic beaten down by Ferrer

Djokovic, the winner of three Grand Slams and ten titles overall this season, looked far from the player who dominated most of 2011 and lost for only the fifth time this year. From 3-2 in the first set, the off-form Serb lost seven straight games against the fifth-seeded Spaniard. The top-ranked Djokovic made 33 unforced errors – exactly three times as many as Ferrer.

Djokovic can still advance to the semi-finals if he beats fellow Serb Janko Tipsarevic tomorrow. Tomas Berdych earlier saved a match point en route to a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) win over Tipsarevic to maintain his hopes of reaching the last four.

Just like the match between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal the previous evening, Djokovic and Ferrer were evenly matched in the opening stages. Federer won ten of the last 11 games to win 6-3, 6-0, and Ferrer was almost as convincing against Djokovic to win in one hour, 15 minutes.

Djokovic was dressed all in black for the evening match except for the flashes of gold on his shoes, while Ferrer was dressed in a more traditional white outfit, but it was the Spaniard’s tennis that dazzled the crowd at the O2 Arena.

Ferrer’s energetic retrieving around the baseline appeared to sap the belief from Djokovic, who spent much of the second set shooting pained looks at his support camp or shrugging his shoulders in despair.

When the world No 1 blazed a forehand wide and long to give Ferrer the match, it was the Spaniard’s turn to shrug his shoulders, as if in disbelief. The 29-year-old Spaniard joins Federer in qualifying for the semi-finals with a match to spare. Ferrer said: “Maybe it’s my best match this season. I enjoyed it a lot.

“He was maybe a little bit tired and made some mistakes, but I didn’t make any mistakes. This tournament is very important to me.”

Berdych had lost his opening match against Djokovic despite holding a match point, but he turned the tables in yesterday afternoon’s match when Tipsarevic put a difficult volley just wide when leading 6-5 in the deciding tiebreaker.

“I was a bit unlucky on Monday. I got luckier here,” Berdych said. “So, you know, one-all.”

Tipsarevic double-faulted for only the second time to give Berdych his first match point, and the Serb slipped on the baseline to allow Berdych to put away a forehand winner.

Tipsarevic was a replacement in the tournament for the injured Andy Murray, but though he said his knee was hurting after his fall, he didn’t expect second alternate Nicolas Almagro to be called into action for tomorrow’s match against Djokovic.

“We’ll see what’s going to happen when I cool off,” Tipsarevic said.

“But my feeling now is that I will be ready for practice tomorrow afternoon.”