Murray, Djokovic set up mouth-watering Shanghai final

By Liu Shiwen

Novak Djokovic vs Andy Murray for Shanghai Masters title

SHANGHAI, China (TheSportsNEXT) October 13, 2012: Defending champion Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic of Serbia set up a mouth-watering final at Shanghai Masters on Saturday after winning their respective semi-finals in straight sets.

 

Olympic champion Andy Murray continued his mental advantage over world number one Roger Federer as he raced to victory with score of 6-4 6-4 in the second semi-final.

In the first semi-final, Novak Djokovic of Serbia outclassed Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic by 6-3 6-4.

The Shanghai Masters final will be played on Sunday.

The Shanghai Masters final would be a rematch of the US Open 2012 final where Andy Murray won his first Grand Slam title at Flushing Meadows last month.

This is the 10^th time this season that Novak Djokovic has entered final of an ATP tournament and this time he smashed fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych ferociously.

In its tour-leading 69th victory of the year, Djokovic hit 25 winners and converted all three of his break points to improve his head-to-head record against Berdych to 10-1.

Novak Djokovic, who is in search of his fifth title this season, looked in great touch as he gave no opportunity to the Czech Berdych to regain the advantage and seemed all set to win back-to-back titles after his last week’s title triumph in Beijing.

Novak Djokovic told reporters, "Movement today was very important from my side, to be on a very high level so I can try to get into the longer rallies where I find more chances on my side to win the rallies. I played tactically right. I was putting a lot of returns into the court, making a lot of pressure on his serve."

On the other hand, Tomas Berdych said, "First of all I need to give credit to Novak, he started really like a champion. He started really, really great, and didn't give me a chance at all."

"He's the second player in the world, chasing for the first place. It's really tough to find the way and have a positive record with him”, Berdych added.

In the other semi-final, Andy Murray continued enjoying mental advantage over Roger Federer which he got after the Olympic victory in London earlier this year as he needed only two sets to complete the win.

Game looked all tight and stiff until fifth game of the first set when Andy Murray broke Roger Federer for the first time but from that moment on he never looked back and despite of a couple of rain breaks, he completed the victory in two sets.