Federer earns a meeting with Croatian wunderkind
Dubai (AFP) - Roger Federer's bid to extend his record of Dubai Open titles to seven carried him into the semi-finals with record-breaking speed and to a meeting with the new wunderkind of tennis.
It took only 20 minutes on Thursday for the 17-time Grand Slam champion to win the first set 6-1 against Richard Gasquet, whereupon the Frenchman shuffled up to the net, offered his hand, and retired, suffering with a bad back.
It was disappointingly anti-climactic but it did create the intriguing prospect of Federer facing Borna Coric, the 18-year-old Croatian who only got into the main draw as a lucky loser, but who has now become the youngest semi-finalist in the tournament's 23-year history.
Coric, described by world number one Novak Djokovic as "definitely one of the most talented players in the world right now", scored a trampling 6-1, 6-3 success over former Wimbledon and US Open champion Andy Murray.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/murray-suffers-shock-defeat-lucky-loser-coric-153351382--ten.html
Be interesting to see if this kid is the real deal, or if his win was more due to a Murray meltdown.
= new reply since forum marked as read
