Roger Federer and Andy Murray had an entertaining rivalry in 2012, meeting five times in the semi-finals and finals. Federer outclassed the Briton in Dubai and Wimbledon before Murray responded in the Olympics final to secure the gold medal for his country.
Their next meeting was in the semi-final of the Shanghai Masters, and Andy defeated Roger 6-4, 6-4 for the tenth victory over the Swiss in 18 meetings. Andy advanced to his third consecutive title match in Shanghai as he won the titles in 2010 and 2011 and hopes to repeat it.
It took Murray an hour and 38 minutes to beat Federer, serving just 53% but doing his best after the initial hit to keep the pressure on the other side. Murray faced just one break point as she converted 26 of 30 first serve points from him.
He was broken that time, but converted almost half of the return points to take three breaks from 11 chances and march to the top. Andy won 13 more points than Roger, making more game winners and forcing more errors from the big rival to outplay him on shorter rallies by up to four shots.
The Briton hit a forehand crosscourt winner in the first game of the encounter to steal his opponent’s serve in the 15th, before adding a backhand error in the next to bring Federer back to 1-1. The Swiss staved off a break point in game three with a forehand winner and held serve after a pair of deuces.
However, it was broken at 2-2 after a double fault. Murray confirmed the break and opened up a 4-2 lead, playing well and hitting an ace in game eight to stay in front.
Pospisil on facing Federer
Former Wimbledon doubles champion Vasek Pospisil has revealed that Novak Djokovic has been the toughest opponent he has ever faced.
«The most difficult for me is definitely Novak, also if you take into consideration the style of play and the matchup with him as the best returner of all time and the serve as one of my strengths, you know it’s a big challenge.» he said.
«He’s the hardest guy to implement my style of play. He’s so amazing neutralizing big shots and big swings and making long points. For me, every time I’ve played Novak, he’s definitely the toughest opponent for me out of those,» he said. . he said he.
«Even the few times I played Roger Federer, I was actually two points away from beating him in Basel one year and he was third. Obviously, he’s an incredible talent, but he could do something. With Novak, he doesn’t give you anything, so It’s quite difficult,» he added.
