Roger Federer will take on ATP Finals champion Grigor Dimitrov in the final of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament after he beat Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-3, 7-6 in the semifinals of the competition on Saturday in Rotterdam.
After a slow start, Federer moved through the gears nicely. The Swiss maestro improved things quite drastically for himself as after trading early breaks of serve with his Italian challenger, he suddenly woke from his slumber. The wizardry, the elegance, and ruthlessness were all back in his game after the initial hiccups as he cruised through the final three games of the opening set.
From 3-3, the Basel native quickly made it 6-3 as he broke Seppi on his second attempt in the seventh game. Two games later Seppi was forced to commit a string of errors, including two double-faults to hand him the first set in 37 minutes. Federer hit 16 clean winners, served 5 aces, won an impressive 76% points behind his well-oiled first serve to grab the vital lead in the contest.
Federer once again looked razor sharp in the second set as he continued to dominate the proceedings, particularly on his own serve. However, Seppi managed to keep himself in the hunt as he played at an extremely high level. Even though Federer’s backhand was more clinical in set No. 2, producing spectacular shots time and again, he was still unable to get the all important break, and ultimately the set moved into a tiebreaker.
Federer turned it up a notch in the breaker. Launching a full-blooded assault on his opponent, the six-time Australian Open quickly changed gears to put Seppi on the back foot as soon as the tiebreak began. All of Seppi’s good work was undone in the end as Federer sealed his place in Sunday’s showpiece final against the Bulgarian Dimitrov in an hour and 24 minutes.
