ATP World Tour Finals 2013 Day 6: Federer sets up Nadal semi

Wimbledon.com's highlights from the sixth day of the  Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at London's O2 Arena...

Federer sets the tone with Del Potro win
Roger Federer qualified so late for this event, that his face is not as prevalent among the tournament collateral as it has been in the past. But he proved that he deserves to be at the final showdown more than ever, defeating Juan Martin Del Potro in three thrilling sets, 4-6, 7-6(2), 7-5 to reach the semi-finals for the 11th time in 12 appearances. 

Federer trailed Del Potro by 1-5 in the opening set before recovering to 4-5, only for the Argentine to sneak the set. But the Swiss came back from a break down in both the second and third sets to eek out the win, his achievement putting him one semi-final showing behind Ivan Lendl's record of 12.

"I was probably slightly angry more than thinking it's going to be over soon," said Federer, when asked about how he felt at 0-3 in the third set. "It's one of those moments today, because I kind of fought back the whole match – the first, second set. Here we go again."

 The result will be a blockbuster meeting with Rafael Nadal in the semi-final day session on Sunday, after Nadal made it three wins out of three with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 win over Tomas Berdych on Friday night. 

"I [attained] my goal," said Nadal. "I am in the semi-finals without losing a match. So that's most important thing for me."

Nadal will play his fourth semi-final, having reached the final just once before in 2010, a match he lost to Federer. 

Wawrinka and Djokovic ready to show-down
Stanislas Wawrinka continued to make the best of his first appearance at the season finale, defeating David Ferrer  6-7(3), 6-4, 6-1 on Friday to reach the semi-finals. 

He will play Novak Djokovic, who also finished top of his group with three wins out of three, the final win coming against Richard Gasquet, 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3, on Saturday evening. 

Djokovic is now on a 20-match-winning streak, seeminly in his forte at this stage of the season. 

And in the doubles...
Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo finished round robin play with a 7-5, 3-6, 11-9 victory over fifth seeds Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer in 84 minutes. 

Dodig told BarclaysATPWorldTourFinals.com, "It's the last [group] match, so we tried to play and relax, but we knew it was going to be a very tough match and the guys were playing good. Every match here is really open. It makes the doubles very exciting and we are happy to win this one. We're looking forward to the semi-finals."

Melo told Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.com, "Since the first match we've been playing unbelievable. Since Wimbledon we've been improving as a team. We are so happy to come here for the first time and win three matches."

They join Alex Peya and Bruno Soares and Fernando Verdasco and David Marrero in the semi-finals. 

The final spot was claimed by the nine-time year-end No.1 pair the Bryan brothers, who lost just five of their first service points to beat Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 4-6, 6-3, 10-5.

"In the first set we were playing a straight up formation, so we threw them more i-formations and made them think, 'where do we turn?'. Hopefully that threw them off," Bob Bryan told BarclaysATPWorldTourFinals.com

Nadal receives No.1 trophy
The O2 was on its feet for Rafael Nadal on Saturday afternoon as he received the year-end world No.1 trophy. 

“One year ago, if you had told me I would have come back to be here... it's been an amazing year,” said Nadal, who has won five ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophies and two Grand Slams. “I can just thank my family. Without their support, this wouldn't have been possible.”

“It's been a very emotional year and ending here with so much support at The O2. It's fantastic after what happened last year.

“I never had the feeling [that I am the best player in the world]. Being No. 1 is one of the most difficult things to do in our sport. You have to play well from the beginning to the end and there are lot of fantastic players. For most of this year, I played the best tennis of my career. It was a big surprise for me and I'm very happy.”