JOIN USOn-song Ferrer destroys Djoker
While Nadal's place in the semifinals is still in doubt after his thrashing at the hands of Roger Federer on Tuesday, world number five Ferrer made sure he will be around at the weekend with a 6-3, 6-1 defeat of the year's outstanding player.
In the day's other match, Czech Tomas Berdych saved a match point against Djokovic's fellow Serb Janko Tipsarevic to seal a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 victory which means the calculators may be needed to decide who finishes runner-up in Group A on Friday. The complications mean Djokovic could beat Davis Cup team-mate Tipsarevic, a stand-in for injured Briton Andy Murray, and still fail to go through while a defeat, providing Ferrer beats Berdych, would see him survive. Whatever the maths, Djokovic said he would need to play "50 percent" better in his next match. "I have no words to explain this match," Djokovic, who went on a 41-match winning rampage at the start of the year and claimed three of the year's four majors, told reporters.
Djokovic began solidly enough as the first six games of the match went with serve. However, when the terrier-like Ferrer raced across court on break point to whip a forehand down the line that caught his opponent flat-footed at the net, the match ceased to become a real contest as the 29-year-old from Valencia ran way with it.
He broke the Djokovic serve again to win the opening set and he needed nothing spectacular in the second set as Djokovic offered little resistance. The Serb's mounting unforced error tally spoke volumes.
World number nine Tipsarevic can no longer reach the semifinals after his defeat by Berdych although he can content himself with his $70,000 fee for being an alternate and the $120,000 participation fee after replacing the injured Andy Murray.
A skewed volley on match point in the deciding set tiebreaker proved extremely costly fpr the Serb. Berdych looked set for a second consecutive defeat, after his three-set loss to Djokovic on Monday, when Tipsarevic turned the breaker round to lead 6-5 on serve. He was lucky though as Tipsarevic let him off the hook. First the bearded Serb's backhand volley went inches wide of the sideline on match point. He followed that with a crazy double fault and the match.
Bopanna-Qureshi lose
The Indo-Pak Express of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi ended their campaign on a disappointing note, losing 2-6, 1-6 to Poland’s Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski.
The Polish duo ended their Group B round robin campaign with a 2-1 record while the Indo-Pak duo failed to notch up a single win.