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A18 SPORTS
Friday 11 OctOber 2019

Roger Federer of Switzerland prepares to hit a return shot against
David Goffin of Belgium during their men's singles match at the
Shanghai Masters tennis tournament at Qizhong Forest Sports
City Tennis Center in Shanghai, China, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019.
Associated Press
Federer joins

Djokovic in Netherlands' Frenkie de Jong, left, challenges for the ball with Northern Ireland's Paddy McNair

during the Euro 2020 group C qualifying soccer match between The Netherlands and Northern
Ireland at De Kuip stadium in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019.
Shanghai QFs Northern Ireland bid to
Associated Press

SHANGHAI (AP) — Rog- 6-3 win. Isner's nine aces
er Federer saved five set against Djokovic took him stifle De Jong falls short
points in the first set as he to 1,007 for the year.
scrambled to a 7-6 (7), 6-4 Top-seeded Djokovic is on
win over 13th-seeded Da- a 24-0 sets winning streak ROTTERDAM, Netherlands Koeman's team. ons League semifinal and
vid Goffin on Thursday and in Asia dating back to last (AP) — Northern Ireland It was a measure of the re- Dutch league title.
advanced to the Shanghai year's Shanghai Masters. defender Paddy McNair spect Northern Ireland had He is already making his
Masters quarterfinals. He won his inaugural ap- snapped at the heels of for De Jong that coach mark in a midfield at Camp
Second-seeded Federer pearance at the Japan Netherlands midfielder Michael O'Neill effectively Nou long bossed by Sergio
holds a 10-1 winning record Open last week without los- Frenkie de Jong for 93 posted McNair in his for- Busquets, the veteran with
against Goffin, including ing a set. minutes. It still wasn't quite ward line just to shadow more than 540 Barcelona
all three matches they've "It's always a big chal- enough. the rising star. appearances to his name.
played this year. lenge returning the serve," Deep in stoppage time, De "Very much our game plan In an indication of a chang-
Despite the outcome, Fe- Djokovic said. "He's got one Jong sprinted past an ex- centered around trying ing of the guard, De Jong
derer didn't feel in control of the biggest serves of all hausted McNair and into to keep De Jong quiet," was in Barcelona's starting
of their Round-of-16 game. time." the heart of the Northern O'Neill said. lineup as holding midfielder
"I never really felt like I had Djokovic will play sixth- Ireland defense before lay- The tactic of stifling the Bar- and 31-year-old Busquets
the upper hand over Da- seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas ing off a perfectly weighted celona midfielder almost began on the bench for the
vid today," Federer said. "I of Greece in the quarterfi- pass for Memphis Depay to worked to perfection as 4-0 thrashing of Sevilla on
thought he took really a lot nals. Tsitsipas defeated Hu- score his second goal in 15 Northern Ireland frustrated Sunday, a switch allowed
of good decisions, and he bert Hurkacz of Poland 7-5, minutes and seal a 3-1 win the Dutch for most of the coach Ernesto Valverde to
was super fast on his feet 3-6, 7-6 (5).v for the Dutch in Thursday's night at De Kuip stadium start Arturo Vidal in a more
today, which I think made Third-seeded Daniil Medve- European Championship and even took an unex- attacking midfield position.
it really hard for me to get dev continued his quest to qualifier. pected lead when substi- Speaking ahead of Thurs-
my freebies and winners off reach a sixth consecutive It was a trademark De tute Josh Magennis head- day's match, De Jong said
the baseline." ATP tour final after beating Jong move - gathering the ed in at the far post in the he isn't doing anything radi-
Federer will play fifth-seed- Canadian qualifier Vasek ball while going forward 75th minute. cally different at his new
ed Alexander Zverev of Pospisil 7-6 (7), 7-5. at pace, looking around After Depay had equal- club. "You play with differ-
Germany on Friday in the Medvedev's frustration got to assess where his fellow ized, it was De Jong who ent players, get into certain
quarterfinals. the better of him when orange-clad players were quickly placed the ball situations more often - that
Zverev beat Andrey Rublev Pospisil led 4-2, 40-30 in the and finding one of them back on the center spot makes you better and, of
of Russia 6-0, 7-6 (4) in the first set, which led to him with pin-point accuracy. and urged his team to get course, you learn from it,
last match of the night. smashing his racket repeat- The victory took the Nether- a move on in the hunt for a that seems logical to me,"
The German served for the edly into the ground at the lands, which did not qualify winner. he told Dutch daily Alge-
match at 5-3 in the sec- baseline. for the last two major tour- De Jong arrived at Barcelo- meen Dagblad.
ond set, but couldn't nail "I usually don't like to do it, naments, to top of qualify- na this season on a 75-mil- Koeman complimented
down the victory until the to break the rackets, be- ing Group C. lion euro transfer follow- the prodigy for his staying
tiebreaker. Earlier, John Is- cause it's never beautiful," De Jong, the 22-year-old ing a standout year with power in the match in final-
ner served his 1,000th ace Medvedev said. "But it's Barcelona midfielder who Ajax, when his vision and ly shaking off McNair.
of the season but it wasn't true that sometimes it may- only made his international pinpoint accurate pass- "You see as the game pro-
enough to stop defending be can help to get some debut just over a year ago, ing from midfield helped gresses that he becomes
champion Novak Djokovic emotions out and get also has been at the heart of lead the Amsterdam pow- more decisive and finds
from advancing with a 7-5, the stress out."q the resurgence of Ronald erhouse to the Champi- freedom," Koeman said.q