Only Jerzy Janowicz, the untried qualifier on a miracle run, stands between David Ferrer and the biggest title of his career. Michael Llodra became the second French semifinalist to fall on Saturday, edged by Ferrer this evening in Paris, 7-5, 6-4.
It’s such a cliché to talk about how different Ferrer’s career trajectory might have looked in a less star-studded era, but I don’t think any stat can underline that point better than the fact that the Spaniard, at 30, has never won a Masters title. By far the highest ranked and experienced player left in the tournament at the semifinals stage, Ferrer seemed all too conscious of how close he was to a career milestone as the match began. Combine that with a sparkling performance from Llodra at something near his old-school best, and an all-too-rare contrast of styles between the players, and it added up to a long first set which Ferrer stole from under his opponent’s nose by sheer strength of will.
Coming into this match, Llodra had held serve for 43 straight service games. He was all over Ferrer from the start, earning two break points in the Spaniard’s first service game and five in his second. But Ferrer held, though it took 23 minutes to reach a 2-1 lead. Llodra attacked the net at every opportunity, playing some utterly exquisite volleys and stepping in to rip his one-handed backhand cross-court when he was pegged on the baseline. Ferrer was not serving or returning well enough to make it truly testing for a volleyer of Llodra’s skills, and couldn’t quite get his passing shots working.
Still, Llodra could not break through, as Ferrer consistently came up with his strongest serves when break point down. And slowly, Ferrer worked his way into the match, saving break point No. 8 on his serve at 2-2, as his backhand passing shots began to click. Break point No. 9 at 3-3 looked promising for Llodra as he got into a long rally, but an impatient cross-court backhand wide cost him perhaps his best opportunity to break. All Ferrer’s tenacity and ridiculously dogged defense combined to blunt the edge of Llodra’s sharp attacks, and after fighting off 10 break points on his own serve, he put in two magnificent returns for 0-30 while returning at 5-6. It was enough to get a solitary break -- and set point -- as Ferrer snatched the set out from under Llodra’s nose with another return winner.
Understandably deflated and struggling with a back injury which has troubled him all season, Llodra quickly sank down 0-4 in the second set. The veteran revived briefly, taking one of the breaks back with some of the gorgeous tennis of the first set, but Ferrer was too far ahead and too good, punishing Llodra’s every attempt to come to net with low, testing balls and running around returns for easy winners. Neither the crowd nor Llodra could do anything to stop Ferrer’s march towards victory, and he served the match out to book his place in the final.