Three-time former champion Roger Federer, the fourth seed, leads fifth seed Dominic Thiem, a finalist at the Mutua Madrid Open for the past two years, 6-3 on Friday at the Caja Magica, venue of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament. Federer, who is playing his first clay-court tournament for three years, last beat a Top 10 player on red dirt at the 2015 Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome (Stan Wawrinka in the semi-finals).
Thiem, who has beaten Reilly Opelka and No. 10 seed Fabio Fognini this week, defeated Federer 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the BNP Paribas Open final for his first ATP Masters 1000 crown on 17 March. Read Report & Watch Highlights
The winner will play World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, the 2011 and 2016 champion on Saturday. Federer has a 22-25 record against Djokovic in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, while Thiem is 2-5 against the Serbian, but has won their past two meetings in the 2017 Roland Garros quarter-finals and last year’s Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters third round.
Just like against Gael Monfils on Thursday, in the 1,200th match win of his career, Federer got off to a fast start by taking a 3-0 lead — breaking serve when Thiem made a forehand error in the second game. After five service games, Federer had lost five points and Thiem was treading water too deep behind the baseline. Federer wrapped up the 30-minute opener when Thiem struck a forehand long (his 11th error).
from Tennis - ATP World Tour http://bit.ly/2VR7RFd
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