By Chris Oddo | Saturday, May 16, 2015
Novak Djokovic won his 9th consecutive match over David Ferrer--and 21st overall--to reach his 6th career Rome final on Saturday.
Photo Source: AP
For the first time in four matches at the Internazionali BNL D’Italia in Rome, Novak Djokovic did not need to go the distance.
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But he still needed to work hard. The Serb battled past the ever feisty David Ferrer, notching a decisive break in each set, and saving all three he faced, to earn his 21st consecutive win, 6-4, 6-4.
Djokovic, who has not lost since February 28 when he dropped the Dubai final to Roger Federer, improved his lifetime record vs. Ferrer to 15-5, which includes victories in their last nine battles.
The Serb will face either Roger Federer or Stan Wawrinka in Sunday’s Rome final.
After breaking Ferrer in the third game of the first set, Djokovic needed to fight off the Spaniard while serving for the set. Some trademark sparkling defense enabled him to save a break point, and he converted his third set point when he extracted a backhand error from Ferrer.
Ferrer committed 17 unforced errors on the day against 17 winners, while Djokovic hit 26 winners against 24 unforced errors.
In the second set Ferrer kept up the chase, saving two break points to hold for 1-0, and creating two break opportunities in the sixth game, which would have given him his first lead of the match at 4-2.
But Djokovic was able to extract two more errors from Ferrer to escape damage and hold for 3-3. Two games later it would be Djokovic’s turn to turn up the pressure. He earned triple-break point at 4-all then gambled with a drop shot from far behind the baseline. Executed to perfection, the tactic worked as Ferrer frantically chased the ball down but could only shovel it wide.
For Ferrer, who was bidding to become the second active player to hit the 300-win mark on the surface, the opportunities had run out. Djokovic served the match out to keep his bid for a 4th Rome title alive.
The Serb is bidding for his tour-leading 5th title of the season, and his 24th at the Masters 1000 level.