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Friday, 30 December 2011

Djokovic Slams Federer in Abu Dhabi



World number one Novak Djokovic brushed aside Roger Federer in straight sets to book himself a place in the final of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship exhibition in Abu Dhabi.


Djokovic had complained of feeling rusty heading into the event but showed little sign of lethargy as he routed Federer for the loss of just three games.


Indeed, such was the Serb's dominance he needed less than an hour to complete victory, wrapping up a 6-2 6-1 success in just 44 minutes.


Djokovic broke Federer twice in the first set and, at one point, reeled off nine games on the trot as he raced through a one-sided second.

The end came when a lacklustre Federer drilled a forehand long, one of a string of unforced errors from the Swiss.

Djokovic will now face David Ferrer in Saturday's final after he emerged an equally convincing winner in his all-Spanish semi against Rafael Nadal.

Nadal was unable to live with his compatriot as he, like Federer, slumped to an emphatic straight sets defeat, Ferrer winning 6-3 6-2.

Ferrer raced out of the blocks and into a 5-0 lead in the first set before Nadal clawed back one of the breaks with a cross-court forehand winner to make the score 5-2.

But, although he held again, Ferrer fought back from 0-30 down in his next service game to close out the set with four straight points.

The Valencia native made an equally blistering start to the second set, another double-break handing him a commanding 4-0 advantage that he never looked like squandering.

Nadal did get on the board with a couple of holds, but the game was up when he fired a backhand long to seal his own fate.