When the 2nd spot is at stakes

Once again the Big Three are in the Semi-final of a tournament, it already happenned 3 times this year, in Australia, Indian Wells and Monte-Carlo. The 4th men is the Italian Andreas Seppi who reach his first Semi-final of a Masters Series event in his career.

ATP World No. 1 Roger Federer (pictured) shone through the rain at Masters Series Hamburg presented by EON Hanse on Saturday as he fired into his fifth final with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Italian Andreas Seppi. Federer broke for a second time to lead 4-1 and, with Seppi later serving at 1-5, Federer was quick to put the Italian under pressure, converting on his second match point at 30-40 as Seppi sent a forehand long after less than 80 minutes.

It is the 14th straight ATP Masters Series event that one of the Top 3 players in the South African Airways ATP Rankings has featured in the final. Between them, they have accounted for three of the four ATP Masters Series events already played in 2008; the only exception was Nikolay Davydenko’s victory over Rafael Nadal in Miami.

Rafael Nadal overcame Novak Djokovic in a titanic battle 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 after more than 3 hours Saturday to keep his No. 2 spot in the South African Airways ATP Rankings and set up a final against No. 1 Roger Federer.The 21-year-old Nadal, who has ranked No. 2 behind Federer for a record 147 consecutive weeks, wasn't ready to leave this spot to somebody else yet.

Nadal was made to work hard for his final place. In a first set featuring five breaks of serve under the roof on Center Court, Djokovic began in blistering form, breaking Nadal early to lead 3-0. The lead was short lived though as Nadal went on to break back with a forehand winner to level. The Spaniard looked to have got the upper hand as the pressure began to tell on Djokovic, and Nadal broke again to lead 5-4. However, with Nadal serving for the set, Djokovic relaxed, went for his shots and it paid off as he leveled for 5-5. With the atmosphere rising, Nadal found more outstanding tennis and a forehand pass broke Djokovic’s serve again and gave Nadal the 6-5 lead.

Both men continued to produce their finest tennis for much of the second set, before Djokovic was able to edge out a break of serve to lead 3-2 with some deep, aggressive hitting bullying Nadal into errors. With Nadal serving at 2-5 15-30 a reflex volley from Djokovic set up two set points and the pressure told on Nadal as he put a forehand wide for Djokovic to level the match.Djokovic was unable to capitalize on his momentum though, as Nadal immediately earned a break of serve in the third set with a wonderful backhand cross court pass to lead 1-0. After failing to convert break back chances, Djokovic’s resistance began to crumble and he surrendered his serve again to trail 2-5. In an epic final game, Nadal missed four match points and saved four break points before closing it out on his fifth match point as Djokovic’s drop shot failed to make it over the net.

It will be the 16th career meeting between Federer and Nadal and the 9th on clay with Nadal leading the Head-to-head 9-6 and 7-1 on clay. He has won 105 of his last 107 matches on clay since Monte Carlo 2005.