Singles Semifinal: [2] Roger Federer (SUI) vs. [8] David Goffin (BEL)
6:0, that was the dominant lead Federer had over Goffin coming into this match; however, it was not as one-sided as their head-to-head record suggested. The Belgian has been able to push Federer and knew if Federer was off his game today he had a chance to pull off the biggest upset of his career.
Goffin was clearly overwhelmed by the occasion and before he could gather his composure, he was broken in his first service game and was broken a second time to quickly lose the first set. Every Federer fan in the audience was ecstatic and probably thought the match was over. I certainly thought there was no way Goffin was bouncing back from this.
Then the first tiny crack appeared in Federer’s game, he threw in a couple of double faults to get broken. Now everyone was stunned. Abruptly, the momentum had shifted to Goffin and suddenly, it was Federer who seemed rattled. Something seemed wrong, was it his back? There was no sting in his serve and he had more double faults than I have ever seen from him in a match.
Although Federer had his chances to break back in both of the sets he lost, he could not do so. It was the diminutive Belgian, who was serving aces to avoid giving away his break lead. Everyone expected Goffin to get nervous as he served for the match, after all, he has shown a tendency to wilt under pressure; however, there was no wilting today. Goffin stepped up to the line and delivered one of his best service games of the match to knock out Federer in an event that he has excelled at over the years.
Goffin won 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 and in the process, knocked out both the number one and number two ranked players en route to his first ATP Finals final.
SOURCE OF IMAGES: serveandrally
