Abu Dhabi: Top-ranked Novak Djokovic and world No 5 David Ferrer produced some classy tennis in their impressive victories over fancied rivals to set up a mouth-watering final in the Mubadala World Tennis Championship.
A packed Abu Dhabi International Tennis Complex got a glimpse of Djokovic's all-round prowess on the court as he swept aside third seed and last year's runner-up Roger Federer 6-2, 6-1 in the first semi-final yesterday.
Following Federer was, surprisingly, last year's winner Rafael Nadal — the world No 2 falling to fellow Spaniard Ferrer, who posted a 6-3, 6-2 win to battle it out for the winner-takes-all prize of $250,000 (Dh918,262) this evening.
While Nadal's loss to Ferrer confirmed his lack of preparation, Federer's defeat boosted the confidence of Djokovic who starts the defence of the first of the three Grand Slam titles he won in 2011 in January's Australian Open.
Superb in his serves and moving swiftly to neutralise the few times Federer advanced to the net with some dazzling passing winners, Djokovic reeled off nine games in a row to waltz past the Swiss master. After the 44-minute demolition, Djokovic said he was still not 100 per cent ready which is not good news for those gunning to dethrone the Serbian champion.
"Definitely it was an incredible performance, I am happy with my form at this stage of my preparation," Djokovic said.
‘Great preparation'
"Playing against the top players gives me great preparation before what's coming up in Australia. It will give me a lot of confidence if I continue playing like this.
"I need another two weeks before I can be 100 per cent on the court. I do have the power in my muscles but I need to work on some specifics."
Federer, who will take on Nadal in the third-place match at 3pm today, said: "He played really well, did not do much wrong. He took the lead in both sets and that made it pretty difficult."
The second semi-final petered out into a one-sided affair as Nadal, still not fully fit and trying out a heavier racket, could not match the speed of Ferrer.
Ferrer ran up a 5-0 lead breaking Nadal twice and then wrapped up the set 6-3 and again in the second set led 5-1 before eventually winning 6-2.
Ferrer said: "I played better than yesterday [when he beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga]. I think I adapted better to the court here. Of course Nadal was coming back after an injury."
