We booked tickets for the second semi-final, way back in the middle of the year, obviously not knowing who we would be seeing, but hoping that we would be lucky enough to see either Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal. As it turned out, Federer and Nadal both won all three of their respective pool matches. Nadal drew Andy Murray in the first semi-final and Federer drew world number 3 Novak Djokovic in the second semi-final. We were so delighted to be able to see Federer play live. We had previously seen Nadal live at the 2009 French Open, but we had never seen Federer play before.
Nadal beat Murray in a thrilling three-set match in the first semi-final, so the chances of yet another Nadal v Federer final spiced up our match even more. We got out to the O2 early and met up with Neena and Kristen, who also had tickets to the second semi-final. We had a drink in one of the bars at the O2 and then grabbed some thai for dinner.
Then we settled in to watch the match. The atmosphere was quite different to a grand slam event. Obviously it's indoors, which is very different, but there was a lot of music, special effects and lighting, which made it seem a little more like a heavyweight boxing fight than a tennis match. And it wasn't far off it in tennis terms - world number 2 v world number 3, two players in brilliant form and a surface that favoured attacking shots.
The final score suggests that Djokovic copped a hiding, but in truth, both men played brilliantly. Federer was just a step above the Serb. He was so clinical in everything he did that Djokovic had no chance. Federer won 6-1, 6-4 to progress to the final. We would have liked to see a longer match, but we were certainly treated to some sublime tennis and it was pretty special to watch the greatest tennis player in history at the top of his game. And it rounded off a fantastic year for sports events, after we also visited the home of golf, St Andrews and saw Tiger Woods in the British Open.
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