ATP Miami - Sunday Schedule: Roger Federer faces John Isner in the final
Roger Federer and John Isner will face each other for the eighth time on Sunday in Miami. The Swiss player leads head to head meetings 5-2, as he won at 2007 US Open, 2010 Shanghai, 2012 Indian Wells, 2012 London Olympics and 2015 US Open. Isner prevailed at the 2012 Davis Cup tie and in their most recent meeting dated back to 2015 Paris Masters when Federer was coming from his triumph in Basel. The Basel native seeks his 101th career-title including the fourth one in Miami, where he last won in 2017. Isner is a defending champion and he has won all the last 11 matches played here.
In an on-court interview following his semifinals win over Denis Shapovalov, Federer commented on how the match went. The first game lasted 11 minutes. "The first game definitely helped me to get a bit of a read on his serve because I know he has got a nice swinger, a nice kicker, it's got a real elastic arm so it was a good first game for me, I played really good today, not that simple to come out and play a good against a lefty right away but it worked tonight and I needed it because Denis is a great player already and he will be even better in the future", said Federer. "I still took it as a positive, that I actually came out of the blocks well and I also protected my serve well after that so I felt like it was maybe closer but I know it does not mean much, the feelings sometimes are crucial and i did some minor adjustments maybe knowing when to come over, when to chip, and how to play off the baseline. So it was quite maybe a tactical match by me, not sure, but I am happy I was able to play in variation today and I had to because he has the power."
Federer then revealed a funny anecdote reflecting on the 18-year-old Shapovalov's serve: "I told my daughters before I walked out tonight that he was not even born yet when I actually played on the Pro Tour and they were like, What? Hold on a second. They did a calculation and they are like, This guy is really young! And I am like, I am really old! But it's all good and it's definitely an extra pep, no doubt about it."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2HO6Ln5
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