The semifinals for the 2015 Paris Masters, the final Masters Series event of the season, were played on Saturday. Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, Andy Murray, and David Ferrer were all in action seeking a spot in Sunday’s final from the French capital. With the tour finals just ahead, neither semifinal in Paris produced an upset as the top-seeded players in the tournament advanced to the championship match.
The first match of the day featured the World No. 1 as he took on Wawrinka, one of the few players on tour that has been able to take big matches off of Djokovic. However, Saturday belonged to the Serbinator as he defeated the Swiss No. 2 – somewhat comfortably. After dropping the second set, Djokovic regathered and then cruised in the final set.
He made the following comments after the match:
“I thought in the second, even though I lost the set…there were games that were very close,” the World No.1 claimed. “I had close games and break points and I felt I’m there.”
With the final line score being 63, 36, 60 Djokovic acknowledged Wawrinka’s strong play in the middle set: “Credit to Stan for playing a great second set and coming back, winning five games in a row, obviously serving more accurately, playing more powerfully from the baseline, getting more balls back, and it worked for him. He played very well.”
Djokovic also stated that the third set was his “best set of the tournament so far.”
The Serb will next face Andy Murray in the final, a player that has had a strong week in Paris. Murray defeated Ferrer on Saturday in straight sets, a victory that marked the 11th of the Scot’s career over the Spaniard. The line score in that straight-sets victory was 6-4, 6-3.
Murray has a lot of tennis ahead of him still in 2015, perhaps more than any other player. Besides the Paris final, the UK National will play in the ATP World Tour Finals, and the 2015 Davis Cup final against Belgium. While the latter appears to be his main focus, there’s no reason why he would not go all out in Paris on Sunday.
That said, he is 9-20 heads-up against Djokovic and will be considered an underdog. However, winning roughly a third of their meetings, surely the 2015 Paris Masters final could be an interesting one.