Federer dominates Nadal to reach Shanghai final
SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Roger Federer looked sharp in dominating Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-1 Saturday to advance to the Masters Cup final against David Ferrer, who cruised past Andy Roddick 6-1, 6-3.
The second-ranked Nadal was 8-5 against Federer and played well early, but the top-ranked Swiss star found another gear while serving at 4-4 in the first set. After Nadal pulled ahead 15-30, the defending champion ran off 20 of the next 21 points, including 15 straight in an 11-minute span.
A stunned Nadal won only three points in the first five games of the second set. He finally held at love to break Federer's streak of seven games.
Serving at 5-1, Federer hit an overhead winner to set up match point, and Nadal netted a backhand to finish it off in 59 minutes -- 13 minutes less than Federer needed to blitz Roddick on Friday.
Federer landed 83 percent of his first serves in winning his third straight match since losing his opener in the season-ending tournament for the top eight players in the rankings. He ended up with 26 winners to 16 unforced errors and yielded only 11 points in his nine service games.
While Ferrer was backed by a vocal section of flag-waving Spanish fans dressed in their red and gold national colors, most of the fans in the packed but chilly 15,000-seat arena clearly favored the fifth-ranked Roddick.
They didn't get much to cheer about.
Ferrer was fresh, confident and sharp from the start, while Roddick seemed to be showing the effects of the 20-hour turnaround after his loss to Federer. Ferrer last played Thursday.
"Today I played very good," said Ferrer, who has dropped only one set in four matches. "Now I want to enjoy this moment."
After Roddick held serve to start the match, Ferrer ran off six games in a row, with Roddick never managing a game point. Roddick's serve lost some of its zing, and he got a massage on his lower back after getting broken for the second time to trail 4-1. He won only 11 of his 26 service points in the first set.
"It was really stiff. My range of motion was really bad," Roddick said. "Normally you're able to work your way into a match a little bit. With David, he comes out, makes balls right away. We had some extended rallies. After I got some stuff on it, it loosened up pretty well for the second set."
Ferrer, one of the best returners in the game, had plenty to do with that. He ripped winners from both sides on the run, and punished Roddick when he came in, sending groundstrokes past him or at his feet.
Ferrer broke Roddick for the fourth time to pull ahead 4-2 in the second set, aided by a pair of seemingly impossible crosscourt winners that left the American staring at him in disbelief.
"I felt like, even in the second set I was hitting the ball well, four, five, six times to corners, and to no avail," Roddick said. "That's about as well as I've hit a ball and lost in a set in a while. He's definitely playing with a lot of confidence right now, which will do wonders for you. "
Roddick's last gasp came in the next game when he had triple break point at 0-40 on Ferrer's serve only to see the Spaniard bounce back to hold.
Ferrer showed some nerves while serving for the match, double-faulting at 40-30. But Roddick then sent a forehand long and a serve return into the net to finish it. Ferrer dropped on his back in joy.
Roddick, who was coming back from an injury layoff and looked sharp in winning his first two matches, now will prepare for the Davis Cup final against Russia at the end of the month.
While the round-robin matches and semifinals were best-of-three sets, Sunday's final will be best of five.
