Roger Federer made his debut at the Paris Masters in 2000. He had a hard time showing his best tennis despite having everything in his arsenal to achieve a remarkable result under the roof of Bercy. Roger’s first semi-final at the Paris Masters came in 2010, when he squandered five match points in a thrilling clash against Gael Monfils.
The Swiss returned a year later, wanting to pursue the title that was missing. Federer won the Basel title the week before, gathering momentum and performing at a high level in the French capital. Roger defeated Adrian Mannarino, Richard Gasquet and Juan Monaco to advance to Paris Bercy’s second consecutive semi-final against Tomas Berdych.
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Serving at 70%, Federer lost ten points in nine service games, facing no break points and mounting pressure on the other side. Tomas couldn’t keep up, struggling on the second serve and receiving three breaks that propelled the Swiss into the title match.
Roger hit over 30 winners and ten unforced errors, mastering his own shots and longer rallies to rise to the top and stay on the title trail. Tomas made a forehand error in the first game of the match and suffered a break before Roger held serve with a volley winner and got into a good rhythm.
Berdych survived two break chances in the third game to stave off an even bigger deficit and hit an ace to put his name on the scoreboard. With the fury of serve and forehand, Federer pulled off one good hold after another and a service winner to open a 5-3 gap.
Two points from losing the set, Tomas hit two powerful serves to close out the ninth game and reduce the deficit. Federer kept his cool and closed out the first game with a forehand winner in game 10 for 6-4 after 45 minutes.
Berrettini opens up on Federer
Matteo Berrettini spoke about his idol’s kindness while speaking to HELLO recently, claiming that 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer has been his idol since he started playing tennis.
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“Roger has been my idol since I started playing tennis. When I tried to become a professional tennis player and was on tour, I was following him and tried to learn from him but not to be like him because that’s impossible,” Berrettini said.
“I can only try to be as good as him. Roger has brought so much to the sport, he doesn’t need to prove anything anymore,” Berrettini added.
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