Fish sinks Federer

INDIAN WELLS, California. — World No. 1 Roger Federer was stunned by unseeded American Mardy Fish after Rafael Nadal’s Pacific Life Open title defense came to an abrupt halt in Saturday’s semifinals.

Federer lost to an American player for the first time in 42 matches when he was crushed 6-3, 6-2 by Fish in a match lasting just over an hour at Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Fish, who had never beaten Federer in five previous meetings, outplayed the Swiss on a sun-drenched afternoon to book a place in Sunday’s final against third-seeded Serb Novak Djokovic.

Australian Open champion Djokovic swept aside second-seeded Spaniard Nadal 6-3, 6-2 in an earlier match on the showpiece Stadium Court.

"It feels pretty good," Fish, 26, said after an aggressive display featuring 28 winners and seven aces. "I couldn’t have dreamed up a better scenario than that.

"This wasn’t obviously Roger’s best day, but hopefully I had a little something to do with that. I tried to beat Roger with pace today, up the line and crosscourt. It seems to be working."

Top seed Ana Ivanovic will take on Svetlana Kuznetsova in the women’s final on Sunday.

Ivanovic beat fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic 7-6, 6-3 while Kuznetsova downed fellow Russian Maria Sharapova 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 in the semifinals on Friday.

Ranked 98th in the world, Fish set the tone for the biggest win of his career by breaking Federer in the second game before sweeping through the opening set in 34 minutes.

With Federer strangely out-of-sorts and Fish in prime form, the American again broke in the first and fifth games of the second before serving out to secure victory in the eighth.

"I have a great record against him and I have always controlled matches against him," said Federer, 26.

"Today was different, a tough result. He came up playing very, very well.

"He took everything on the rise and hit winners. I just couldn’t get to his second serve and that was the disappointing part of today.

"I could have served better, sure. I could have returned better, sure. But the guy was on top of his game. He took his chances and it was over in a heartbeat."

Earlier, Djokovic, 20, broke Nadal twice in each set to secure victory in one hour 28 minutes.

In a repeat of last year’s final, the left-handed Nadal broke in the third game of the opening set when Djokovic hit a forehand long but the Serb broke back to level at 2-2.