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[Vibhu batra]

Roger Federer advances in to Shanghai Masters semi-final by defeating Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-4

It took 36 minutes for Roger Federer to win the first set 6-3.

Federer was in no mood to give the early advantage to Cilic. So, Federer began aggressively & broke Cilic in the first game in 8 minutes. That pretty much set the tone for the set & in fact, the match.

Amazingly, after this first break by Federer, even the ever so serious coach of Roger Federer Paul Annacone smiled & here is a rare picture of smiling Paul Annacone after Roger Federer broke Marin Cilic in the first game of their quarter-final match at Shanghai.

How ever, there was a mini hiccup when Federer got broken at 2-1 & it was 2 all.

But, Cilic failed to capitalize & got broken immediately after two blistering forehands by Roger Federer & it was 3-2 in favour of Federer.

Then, the next three games went on serve, but, Cilic serve again faltered in the 9th game when he was serving 3-5 down & on the second break-point, Roger Federer in 36 minutes won the first set 6-3.

As the first set stats will show you, Federer's forehand, backhand were all working fine & unlike, the Wawrinka match, even unforced errors were in control.

On the other hand, Cilic service faltered under pressure & he got broken thrice. Putting up more details in a few minutes. Stay Tuned !!!

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[Vibhu batra]

The Second set started with Federer making 2 unforced errors to give Cilic 2 break-points in the first game but Federer served two big serves(one of them being an ace) to ensure that Cilic didn't get the first break & advantage....

In the fourth game, Cilic service again faltered under pressure & on the first break point, Federer produced a magical on the run forehand to make it 3-1.



At this point of time, the match was looking like a Clinic with every thing going in Federer's favor. It was looking Federer could nothing wrong, his backhand, forehand, net play & even the Net cord was working in Fed's favor.


As Rob Koenig said, all these strokes that Federer are producing are true strokes of Genius.




Thou, Cilic had half chances as twice Federer trailed 15-30 but Cilic just didn't have the consistency to break Federer.



Thou, when Federer was serving for the match at 5-3, there was a slight twist in the tail as Federer got broken after saving one break-point & then, Federer double-faulted to give Cilic another break-point which some how, Cilic capitalized to every one's surprize.




All of a sudden, it looked as if new oxygen has been pumped in this dead rubber & Cilic all of a sudden looked pumped up.



But, all that was to last for a few minutes, and Cilic's service game on 4-5 again faltered because of some excellent shot making by Federer & his own unforced errors at wrong time.



The ending proved to be absolutely anti-climax as Cilic made another unforced error to hand over the set 6-4 to Federer.




In the end, score-line read 6-3, 6-4 in favor of Roger Federer & it took 82 minutes for Federer to advance to yet another ATP Masters semi-final where he will clash against Andy Murray on saturday.

As the over-all match stats will show

The real difference between the two was Federer's amazing service & his ability to hit winners from both corners.

[Roger Federer Fans]

Here are a few match pics for you all----------

Roger Federer hitting a tweener during the match, there was a huge cheer from the crowd but this was after the service by Cilic was a let

[Roger Federer Fans]

Federer coming to the court before the match

[Roger Federer Fans]

[Roger Federer Fans]

Cilic & Federer shaking hands after the match at Shanghai

[Roger Federer Fans]

[Roger Federer Fans]

Here is a picture of Wilson RF bag

[Roger Federer Fans]

Federer also spoke a couple of lines in Chinese & the translation of that is , "I am so handsome & I love my fans."

If you want to see the video of Federer speaking in Chinese, "I am so handsome & I love my fans", jump straight to this post ----



http://www.rogerfede...t__20#entry7530

[Roger Federer Fans]

[Roger Federer Fans]

[Roger Federer Fans]

[Roger Federer Fans]

[Roger Federer Fans]

[Roger Federer Fans]

[Roger Federer Fans]

[Roger Federer Fans]

[Roger Federer Fans]

Here are the match highlights ------------

[Roger Federer Fans]

The last game with Fed's interview

[Roger Federer Fans]

The match point video