Federer cruises into his 120th career final, to meet Tsonga
Montreal/Toronto: Venus Williams upset little sister Serena 6-7(2) 6-2 6-3 to register the first win over her top ranked sibling in five years and move into the Rogers Cup final in Montreal.
The meeting marked the 25th time the sisters had squared off but the first time Venus had come out on top since a 2009 semi-finals encounter in Dubai.
World number one Serena holds a 14-11 lead in their head-to-heads after coming out on top in their previous five encounters, including the 2009 Wimbledon final.
Clashes between the pair, which at one time were an almost regular and welcome occurrence on tennis courts around the world, have become rare and their meeting in Montreal was just the second since the 2009 Tour championships.
“It was a tough match out there,” said Venus, who will meet Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska in Sunday’s final. Third seed Radwanska beat Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 7-6(1) 7-6(3) to advance to her second final of the year.
“I don’t think we played for a number of years, as well. It’s not like we’ve been playing year in and year out,” added Venus.
Meanwhile, Roger Federer eased into the final of the Rogers Cup with a 6-3 6-4 win over Spain’s Feliciano Lopez putting the Swiss maestro on the brink of a landmark 80th career title.
Standing between Federer and another trophy is Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who claimed his third straight yesterday upset by dispatching seventh-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 6-3.
After knocking off world number one Novak Djokovic in the third round, twice champion Andy Murray in the quarters and Dimitrov in the semi-finals, the powerful Frenchman will need to produce one more upset to deny Federer a third Canadian title.
It will be Federer’s 120th career final while Tsonga will be playing for a title for the 20th time.
Federer said Tsonga would be on a high after his series of upsets in Toronto.
“I think it was a matter of time that he got it all together again, especially in terms of confidence,” said the second seeded Swiss, who is looking for his third title of the season.
“So for him to beat Murray and Djokovic… it’s a really good effort,” the Swiss champion added.
Federer, who celebrated his 33rd birthday on Friday, was in imperious form, dropping just four points on his serve in taking the opening set.(Reuters)