Federer Beats Berdych To Reach Paris Final; Next Plays Tsonga

© AFP/Getty ImagesRoger Federer has now reached every ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final.

Third seed Roger Federer beat fifth seed and 2005 champion Tomas Berdych 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday for a place in his first BNP Paribas Masters final in Paris.

Swiss superstar Federer, who now has 801 career match wins, advanced to his 30th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title-match (17-12 overall) with victory in 81 minutes. He will next meet sixth-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

"The way I played today was really nice," said Federer. "And then on top of that, getting the 800th win and today making my first [Paris] final and being the first player to do all of those nine [ATP World Tour] Masters 1000 [tournaments].
 
"I thought the match was tough. I took advantage of Tomas being a touch slow maybe in the first couple of games, because once that machine is warmed up he's a very dangerous player. But I really played great today. I didn't give Tomas much. I was able to play aggressive and serve good, so it was overall a wonderful performance."

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In the pair's 15th meeting, Federer opened up a 2-0 lead and maintained the break advantage to take the first set in 46 minutes, having dropped just six points on serve.

Federer once again took a 2-0 lead in the second set and despite Berdych's best efforts to come back into the match his 30-year-old opponent proved too strong, breaking the Czech to love in the final game to advance to his fifth final of the year. Federer hit 34 winners and committed 13 unforced errors, while Berdych hit 10 aces and made 20 errors.

Last week, Federer lifted his fifth trophy at the Swiss Indoors Basel. He has a 58-12 match record this year (40-7 on hard). Berdych, 26, drops to a 51-21 season mark and will next compete at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London from 20 November.

"I would say, and I'm pretty confident to say, that that's the old Roger," said Berdych. "You know, the years that he was really winning everything. We can count the unforced errors that he hit, like maybe, on the fingers on one hand, which is incredible. He started every set really great and just didn't give me any chance at all."

When asked about when he will travel to London, Berdych said, "I am going to come to London probably [on] Wednesday or something like that and getting used to their courts and just start practising there."