Saturday, April 19, 2014

Roger Federer vs. Novak Djokovic: Monte Carlo semifinals live

No. 4 Roger Federer will meet No. 2 Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of the Monte Carlo Masters on Saturday. The match, which will follow the semifinal between Stanislas Wawrinka and David Ferrer, is scheduled to begin no earlier than 9 a.m. ET.

Federer has never won the Monte Carlo title and is in his first semifinal of the Masters 1000 tournament since 2008; he didn’t play in 2010, ’12 or ’13. The 32-year-old Swiss was two points from losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals on Friday but came back to win 2-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1 despite failing to convert his first 15 break points. That was Federer’s 950th victory – third most in the Open era, behind Jimmy Connors (1,253) and Ivan Lendl (1,071).

Djokovic, the defending champion, also had to rally in his quarterfinal, surging past Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. The 26-year-old Serb has won 13 consecutive matches. He’s two victories from winning his fifth Masters 1000 title in a row.

Federer and Djokovic have played twice this year, splitting the two meetings – the former won in the semifinals of the Dubai Championships and the latter won in the final of the BNP Paribas Open. This is their first match on clay since the 2012 French Open. Federer leads the overall head-to-head 17-16 and they’re 3-3 on clay.

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