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Internazionali BNL d'Italia
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Saturday Men's Tennis Summary


Singles - Semifinal: (1) N Djokovic def. (3) R Federer 6-2 7-6(7-4)
Last year, Roger Federer was probably the biggest threat to Novak Djokovic, even though it didn't show in the rankings. But, in this match, Federer played like someone who had had a very long two weeks. He went down a break early in the first set, then another. The second was closer, but obviously he didn't do anything in the tiebreak.
And that means that Federer will leave his fate in Djokovic's hands. If Djokovic wins the final, then Federer will be #2 next week and will earn the #2 Paris seed. But, of course, Djokovic will be facing Rafael Nadal....

Singles - Semifinal: (2) R Nadal def. (6) D Ferrer 7-6(8-6) 6-0
As the first set of this reached the hour and a half mark, we found ourselves wondering if this match would set some sort of modern-day record for length. Then, at 6-6 in the tiebreak, it all collapsed for David Ferrer. The second set took only about a third as long as the first. Ferrer will keep the #6 ranking, for now, but you wonder what he did to himself here. The win for Rafael Nadal means that he will regain the #2 ranking if he can win the final.

Doubles - Semifinal: Kubot/Tipsarevic def. (4) Lindstedt/Tecau 6-2 6-3
The top seeds truly have been jinxed here. Still, this is pretty surprising for Lukasz Kubot -- he hasn't shown this sort of doubles form in a couple of years.

Doubles - Semifinal: Granollers/M Lopez def. (7) Bhupathi/Bopanna 6-4 6-1
This, on the other hand, is no surprise. Granollers and Lopez are pretty good doubles players anyway, and once you throw in the clay, we'd consider this the expected result.