Fish stuns Federer in straight sets
Great day … Fish’s performance belied his low ranking. AFP Fish stuns Federer in straight sets 
From correspondents in Indian Wells
Former Australian Captain March 23, 2008
WORLD No.1 Roger Federer was stunned by unseeded American Mardy Fish after Rafael Nadal’s Pacific Life Open title defence came to an abrupt halt in the semi-finals.
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 No.3 seed Novak Djokovic.
“It feels pretty good,” Fish, 26, said in a courtside interview. “I couldn’t have dreamed up a better scenario than that.
“You guys are getting right behind me and I thank you so much for that,” he added, pointing at the crowd packed around the Stadium Court.
Ranked 98 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 the 26-year-old 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,” Federer told reporters. “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.”
Earlier, Australian Open champion Djokovic, 20, broke Nadal twice in each set to secure victory in one hour 28 minutes.
In a rematch of last year’s final, 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.
Djokovic also broke in the eighth game with a favourable net cord bounce to lead 5-3 before holding serve to wrap up the first set in 41 minutes.
Djokovic grabbed the initiative in the second by breaking in the fifth game when an ambitious forehand by the Spaniard flew wide.
A protracted seventh game featuring several rallies of high quality finally ended in another break by the Serb when Nadal netted a poor attempt at a drop shot to trail 5-2.
Djokovic calmly served out to seal victory before raising his right arm skywards to pump the air in celebration.
Agence France-Presse