Djokovic sabotages his match, to avoid embarrassment in the finals.

With his pants still wet, after witnessing the destruction and demolition of Canas, Djokovic decided to plug the ‘other’ hole, by subconsciously sabotaging the semifinals.

Djokovic’s match against Ancic, was pretty close to Nadal’s match against Murray. Both these clowns were ultra motivated after the absence, and did stretch their opponents to breaking point, although the score falls short of reflecting that result.

Interestingly, Nalbandian catches both of them, right after those matches. I think, both Nadal and Djokovic took their foot off the pedal, after winning those gruelling matches against very worthy opponents.

That Nalbandian match was the classic ‘trap’ match for both of them, with Nadal looking ahead to Djokovic in the semifinal, and Djokovic ‘eager’ to meet Federer in the finals. With nothing notable coming out of Nalbandian’ racket of late, it was understandable and natural to have those feeling, specially after overcoming a determined opponent in the previous match.

For Nadal it was, on paper, the easiest match so far, where he could get some breathing space, after playing Baghdatis and Murray. Similarly, Djokovic was looking at a washed up player in Nalbandian, after overcoming Verdasco, Ferrero and Ancic.

Conversely, Nalbandian was in better form than he has been all year, and the wins over Berdych and Del Potro, only fueled his confidence to raise his belief bar, as he got deeper in the draw.

So, Nalbandian benefited from a double edged sword, that on the one hand, caught the top dogs off guard, while fanning his own intensity to a new level, on the other.

But now he has been thoroughly exposed, which gives a tremendous edge to Federer, not that he really needs it. Nablandian has slayed the biggest of dragons, back to back, which puts Federer on notice to use caution and not underestimate the opponent.

Nalbandian is on track to repeat what Djokovic did just a month ago at Montreal: Beat the top three jokers back to back in one event. That record stood of over what 20 years? And it is already on the chopping block?

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