John Isner upsets Novak Djokovic at Indian Wells

John Isner

John Isner upset world No. 1 Novak Djokovic 7-6 (7), 3-6, 7-6 (5) in a semifinal match at the BNP Parbias Open.

The victory will move Isner into the top 10 of the next ATP rankings. He'll have a chance to add to his point total on Sunday, when he'll face either Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal in his first-ever Masters 1000 final.

Isner utilized his game plan to perfection. With his powerful serve, the 6-foot-9 American was able to hold serve with ease and extend both his winning sets to tiebreaks. Isner is 10-4 in such sets this season, a record that's not unexpected when you're hitting 144-mph third-set serves, as he did on Saturday.

"It's a lot of pressure knowing that somebody serves that well," Djokovic told reporters after the match.

The 26-year-old Isner also used a deft touch at the net in the victory. He's surprisingly nimble when coming in for volleys and the angle at which he hits those shots makes them difficult to return.

Djokovic was the defending champion at Indian Wells. It was his second semifinal loss in the past two weeks. Much like his other defeat against Andy Murray, this one had more to do with the opponent than any poor play from Djokovic. If his game has slipped at all since last year's historic start, it's only slightly. His peers are improving.

Isner's was the first victory for an American over a world No. 1 since James Blake defeated Roger Federer at the 2008 Olympics.

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Roger Federer reaches 100th career final

Roger Federer

LONDON— Every time Roger Federer steps onto the court, another milestone seems to be within grasp.

He seized another one Saturday, reaching his 100th career final by beating David Ferrer 7-5, 6-3 in the semifinals of the ATP World Tour Finals. Federer could add a few more Sunday. He's in position to win his 70th title overall and a record sixth at the season-ending tournament for the world's top eight players.

"It's obviously a special occasion for me," said Federer, who will play Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final.

Tsonga beat Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 in the late match, putting the sixth-seeded Frenchman into the final of this event for the first time, in only his second appearance.

"Roger is the best player for the moment indoors," Tsonga said. "It's going to be really special here, for my first final here. It's going to be an amazing atmosphere on court, and I like that. ... I know it's the last match (of the year) so I will give it everything."

The victory over Ferrer sent Federer past Andy Murray to No. 3 in the year-end rankings, trailing No. 1 Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

Djokovic and Nadal were eliminated after losing two of their round-robin matches this week, both saying their minds and bodies weren't up for top-level tennis following another grueling season. Murray pulled out injured following his opening loss to Ferrer on Monday.

Federer — who holds a record 16 Grand Slam titles — is tied with Ivan Lendl and Pete Sampras with five victories at the ATP Finals, formerly known as the Masters Cup. A win Sunday would also tie Lendl's record of 39 match victories in the event.

Federer became the fifth player to reach 100 finals in the open era, joining Jimmy Connors (163), Lendl (146), John McEnroe (108) and Guillermo Vilas (104).

"I'm shocked every time that I've reached so many finals or won against so many players or whatever record it is," Federer said. "It strikes me and makes me obviously very happy and very proud that I've been able to do it for so many years at the highest of levels."

And with his 806th victory Saturday, Federer moved into a share of sixth place on the career list with Stefan Edberg.

"Stefan was my idol," Federer said. "So to achieve something that he achieved is obviously very nice. I don't think it matters much, but it's still very nice to get reminded that you equaled your idol's or hero's achievements."

In a tournament where his biggest rivals complained of fatigue after failing to make it out of the group stage,Federer showed no signs of slowing down. The 30-year-old Swiss star extended his unbeaten streak to 16 matches after winning titles in Basel and Paris before coming to London.

Federer has played some of his best tennis of the year in London, and while he did not look as sharp against Ferrer as he did in his three group-stage victories, he never faced a break point. He broke the fifth-seeded Spaniard twice in the second set and converted his second match point with a forehand winner.

Ferrer came within two points of the first set six times in Federer's service game when the Spaniard led 5-4. But he never earned a break point in a game that went to deuce five times, and Federer finally held when Ferrer sent a backhand passing shot wide. That marked a turning point, with Federer winning the next four games as well to take control.

"Obviously it was a key 5-4 game for me," Federer said. "That was a crucial sort of 15, 20 minutes for me. I'm happy I was able to decide the match right there."

Ferrer dropped to 0-12 against Federer. The Spaniard started the week by beating Murray and Djokovic convincingly, but couldn't keep up that level of play less than 16 hours after losing a three-set match against Berdych on Friday.

"Maybe I didn't have really time to relax, but (that) is not the excuse here," Ferrer said. "He played better than me."

Berdych also struggled against the rested Tsonga, landing just 53 percent of his first serves and double-faulting five times — including on break point to go down 4-3 in the second set.

The Czech broke back immediately but then lost serve again to let Tsonga take a decisive 6-5 lead, and the Frenchman served out the match with an ace.

Tsonga will play Federer for the third Sunday in a row, after losing to him in the Paris final two weeks ago and their first round-robin match in London last weekend.

In doubles, Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Daniel Nestor of Canada reached the final, beating American twins Bob and Mike Bryan 7-6 (6), 6-4. They will play Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski of Poland, who beat Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes of India 6-4, 4-6, 10-6.

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Masters Women's Tennis: Wozniacki beats Radwanska.

Womens Tennis

AFP - Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki, World No.1, beat Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, N.8 world in straight sets, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4, in the second game of the group's red female Masters Tuesday in Istanbul. In the same group, the Czech Petra Kvitova, N.3 world, beat Russian Vera Zvonareva (N.6) in straight sets 6-2, 6-4, in the first game of the same group. The first day of Masters Women must end with the meeting between Maria Sharapova (RUS/N.2) and Samantha Stosur (AUS/N.7), on behalf of the white group.

Nadal crashes out in Shanghai to Germany's Mayer

 (CNN) -- Top seed Rafael Nadal crashed out of the Shanghai Masters Thursday to Germany's Florian Mayer, beaten in straight sets 7-6 6-3.

The Spaniard could not recover from losing the first set tiebreaker 7-5 and was broken twice in the second set by his 15th-seeded opponent, who said it was the "biggest win of his career."

Nadal summed it up after the match: "He played really well, I didn't," he told AFP.

"I felt that I was not playing badly from the baseline. But my return, when he was serving the first serve, was terrible tonight. I only won four points in the whole match on his first serve."

Earlier, defending champion Andy Murray had to battle past 13th seed Stanislas Wawrinka in a bad-tempered three-set match with the beaten Swiss player warned for racket abuse.

World number four Murray raced through the first set but was broken in the second as Wawrinka leveled.

Murray then raced to a 5-0 lead in the decider and despite losing his service again closed out a 6-4 3-6 6-3 win as he bids for his third straight title after winning in Thailand and Japan.

"I got myself pumped up right at the beginning of the third set. I think it was important," said Murray.

Spain's David Ferrer beat compatriot Juan Carlos Ferrero 1-6 7-5 6-2, saving three match points in the second set. The victory means he becomes the fifth player to qualify for the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals.

Andy Roddick of the United States beat Spanish seventh seed Nicolas Almagro of Spain 6-3 6-4 to continue his fine form in China, while Ukrainian 12th seed Alexandr Dolgopolov ended the run of Australian teenager Bernard Tomic as he won 5-7 6-1 6-0.

Tomic's fellow Australian Matthew Ebden had better luck as he upset eighth seed Gilles Simon of France 6-2 2-6 7-6.

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