This one was an ambush. Novak Djokovic must have known that his opponent, David Ferrer, would be, as they say, a tough out. He must have known that he would need to play well, with aggression and margin and consistency, from start to finish. He must have known that Ferrer, the ever-energized, ever-hopping, ever-grinding, ever-trying Spaniard, would make him work for everything he got. But Djokovic probably didn’t expect his opponent to be quite this good. In the end, Ferrer’s performance was good enough to be called Federer-esque. He upset world No. 1 Djokovic 6-3, 6-1, giving up just one more game than Federer had the day before against world No. 2 Rafael Nadal.
Ferrer was indeed hopping from the start, but today he seemed buoyed by an even more positive and proactive attitude than normal. He retrieved doggedly as always, and he must have made the court look incredibly small to Djokovic. But Ferrer also dictated play. He moved Djokovic in simple, safe, effective crosscourt patterns, forcing his opponent to hit on the run, early and often. When Ferrer prevailed in a long rally in the first game, beating him must have looked like a daunting task.
Djokovic, game-wise and patience-wise, wasn’t up to it. He didn’t pull the plug mentally, but he never found his range or roused himself toward any kind of a comeback, either. He made 33 unforced errors to 11 by Ferrer. At times, mid-rally, as Ferrer was busting all over the court, it appeared that Djokovic had nowhere to go with the ball. Openings were quickly closed.
The match progressed in nearly identical fashion to Federer-Nadal the previous day. Ferrer and Djokovic held serve to 3-3, and the Serb even had a sniff at a break when he went up 0-30 on at 1-2. But Ferrer used his serve to bail himself out, and that shot only grew stronger as the match went on. By the time he went up a break on Djokovic in the first set, Ferrer was doing everything, from covering the baseline to pushing forward with his forehand to ending points at the net (he was 5 for 5 up there on the day), with the same kind of upbeat self-assurance. When, like Federer yesterday, he broke again early in the second with a blistering forehand winner, the writing was on the wall.
Djokovic didn’t throw in the mental towel, but unlike in the vast majority of his matches this year, he was powerless to reverse his opponent’s momentum. Ferrer outhustled him and took the match to him. We’ll see what happens when Djokovic faces friend and countryman Janko Tipsarevic in his final round-robin match (despite their relationship, that’s by no means a gimme), but for the moment this is a different Nole than the one we’ve seen for most of 2011. The confidence and the hunger have been diminished since the U.S. Open, as if his own greatest season can’t end soon enough.
Still, this was a day to credit the winner, rather than wonder about the loser. Twenty-four hours after his own countryman, Rafael Nadal, had played in a daze, David Ferrer kept doing what he always does—hopping and hitting. He’s into the semis. He hasn’t lost a set. Any player who saw his performance today shouldn’t let himself be ambushed. He should know what’s coming.
—Steve Tignor