Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/497863
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 19 APRIL 2015 37 NOVAK Djokovic moved into po- sition for a potential fourth trophy this season as he reached his fourth career final at the month Carlo Masters yesterday with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Rafael Nadal. Djokovic, the world number one and form player this season with titles from the Australian Open plus the first two Masters 1000 events of 2015 at Indian Wells and Miami, advanced into his 33rd Masters final with a 97-minute winning display. He has won his last 16 matches. Nadal, eight-time champion in the principality, played with en- thusiasm but appeared to still be suffering from the lack of confi- dence and elite fitness which has bothered him for months. Djokovic will today take an 18-2 record into the final against Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych, who def lated the finals dream of Gael Monfils 6-1, 6-4. Djokovic said he needed a top performance to go through against Nadal as he won his fifth match from the last six played between the two longtime rivals. "I'm very happy with how I played against such a tough opponent. Rafa is the all-time best on the clay, it was not an easy match," the Serb said. "I played well, it was a relief to get this win. There was a lot of ten- sion, it was tough to keep it all un- der control. I know the final with Tomas will be a different kind of match, but I'll do my best to re- cover and get ready." Djokovic won the opening set after coming back from an early break down against Nadal, with the top seed claiming the set on a third set point. The second pivoted on a massive 11-minute seventh game, which Djokovic won on a break for a 4-3 lead after Nadal lost a 40-0 lead. Djokovic closed out the victory two games later with another break of the Spaniard as Nadal saved a match point before falling victim to a cross-court winner. "In mo- ments I was playing at a very high level, but he played great," said an upbeat Nadal. "He's winning al- most every match of the year. "For me it's a very positive week, the most positive week of the sea- son, without any doubt. If I'm able to keep doing that in the next tour- nament in Barcelona, I will say that I am very well again. The way that I played yesterday (against David Ferrer) and for moments today is the way that I want to play." Djokovic is bidding to become the first man to win the opening three Masters tournaments of a season and would win his fourth in a row – levelling with Nadal in that category – after also winning in November 2014 at Paris Bercy. Against Berdych, Monfils showed little of the surprising form that took him to upset wins this week against second seed Roger Federer and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. Instead, the Frenchman slumped to 23 unforced errors and lost serve four times. The first set was a command performance for Berdych, the Czech emerged with the 2-1 lead as the second set began with three straight breaks and took victory in 68 minutes. Berdych will be playing in his third final of the season after los- ing title bids in Doha and Rotter- dam. Berdych will be competing in a fourth career Masters 1000 final and first since losing to Federer in Madrid three years ago. His only title in the series came at Paris Bercy in 2005. "This year is going pretty well, I'm missing a trophy but I have an- other chance tomorrow," said Ber- dych. "I've put myself in the best possible position to be ready for it, be prepared. "I'm having a great week so far, it's all good and positive," said the Czech who kept Monfils from be- coming the first Frenchman into the final in the principality since Cedric Pioline, champion in 2000. The win was the sixth out of sev- en for Berdych over Monfils. Berdych has reached the final without losing a set as he plays the tournament for the 11th time. Sport TENNIS RUGBY MIKE TURNER Israel ................... 3 Malta ................... 16 IN the end Malta managed to secure a scrappy home win in a match where they were the better team but could not break through a solid Israeli defence who went through some intensive prepara- tion ahead of the match against our national team. Malta took the lead with a pen- alty by O'Brien, but Israel hit back with a try to lead 5-3. Malta had much of the possession and terri- tory, but the Israel defence seemed to be assisted by a generous version of the offside law by the referee, and Malta's fast running attackers were stif led again and again. They did not help themselves by insist- ing on charging runs into tacklers instead of their usual wide run- ning speedy attacks to stretch the defence. Malta retook the lead with another penalty by O'Brien, 6-5. O'Brien then seemed to lose his accuracy and missed a penalty, after which the Malta forwards drove over to score their first try and stretch to 11-5, O'Brien miss- ing the conversion. Israel clawed back in the game with a penalty but Malta scored a further try after long pressure, O'Brien missed the conversion again, having seemed to lose his confidence. At last Malta had an eight point lead with only a few minutes to go. Nevertheless Israel fought to the last and scored a fi- nal unconverted try but it was too late and Malta scraped home in a match where they were clearly the better side. They will have to do better against the tough Swiss next week. Malta Marauders ..... 45 Derby RFC Veterans .. 22 In a rather tedious match, Ma- rauders, the Malta Veterans, ran out easy winners against Derby Vets who never got go- ing throughout the match. The Malta backs were a superior side and Derby seemed determined to play only a driving forward pat- tern. The outcome of the game was made worse by a clear deci- sion by Malta not to challenge in the lineout, giving Derby free rein to dominate possession from this play. Debiere, Borg and Doublesin were the most effective attackers for Malta, who were never in dan- ger of defeat, although it was only in the last quarter that the lead stretched out. Czechs take charge in Fed Cup REIGNING champions Czech Re- public are within touching distance of a fourth Fed Cup final in five years after taking a 2-0 lead against France in Ostrava. France had won the previous three meetings between the nations but the last of those came in 2006 and these days the Czechs are a formida- ble force in the competition. They had a huge scare in the open- ing rubber on Saturday, though, with Lucie Safarova having to save five match points before recovering to beat Caroline Garcia 4-6 7-6(7/1) 6-1. Then it was the returning Petra Kvitova's turn to take to the court at the Cez Arena and she had far fewer problems in seeing off Kristina Mladenovic, the world number four winning through 6-3 6-4. Kvitova, just back after a two- month sabbatical, said on www.fed- cup.com: "I'm very happy of course. I was really nervous and didn't know what to expect. "After a long break it's difficult to come back as the leader in the team and everyone is expecting at least two points from myself. I'm glad I can bring the first point. I'm happy to be back." Kvitova is now set to face Garcia first up in the reverse singles on Sunday with the chance of giving the Czechs an unassailable 3-0 lead, although France can take hope from their World Group First Round in February when they fought back from 2-0 down to beat Italy. Russia are in a similarly strong po- sition in the other semi-final after winning both of Saturday's singles matches to go 2-0 up in the five- match tie. The Russians, who won the Fed Cup four times between 2004 and 2008, were missing world number two Maria Sharapova through in- jury but it made little difference as Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova both won in her ab- sence. Kuznetsova gave the hosts a flying start on the Sochi clay with a straight-sets win over Julia Goerges, the former US Open and French Open champion triumphing 6-4 6-4. Pavlyuchenkova had a much tougher test of it against Sabine Li- sicki but, like Safarova in her match, she recovered from a set down and a second-set tie-break to snatch a 4-6 7-6(7/4) 6-3 victory. Pavlyuchenkova said: "It's amazing. I'm so happy. Thanks to the crowd, they really helped me through this match. I still believed until the end I could win this one." Germany - who rested their two highest-ranked singles players on Saturday - will now need to win all three matches on Sunday to keep alive their hopes of a first Fed Cup title since 1992. Malta triumph in Israel NOVAK Djokovic moved into po- sition for a potential fourth trophy this season as he reached his fourth Tomas will be a different kind of match, but I'll do my best to re- cover and get ready." took him to upset wins this week against second seed Roger Federer and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. Czechs take charge in Fed Cup REIGNING champions Czech Re- their World Group First Round in Djokovic to face Berdych in Monte Carlo final Novak Djokovic celebrates