Roger Federer made things more difficult for himself than they had to be, but in the end he prevailed 6-3, 6-7(3), 7-5 against Canadian Vasek Pospisil in the semifinals of his home tournament in Basel. He will be chasing his 6th title at the event when he goes up against Juan Martin del Potro.
As was a trademark of Federer's in his glory days, the Swiss started fast and got an early break, which then led to a 5-3 lead when he got another one to close out the set. So far, so good. He carried that momentum into the second set and he broke in the 8th game to serve for the match, but that's when the wheels started to fall off. He was broken and basically let the Canadian right back in the match. The set went to a tiebreak and Pospisil played a solid one while Roger did not. One set apiece when Fed and the whole Swiss crowd must have felt the match should have been over.
In the fourth game of the deciding set, things were going smoothly for Roger, taking a 40-0 lead on his serve. And then he played a catastrophic 5 points to lose serve, and you began to feel that maybe it just wasn't his day.
But then he broke back to love.
A few games later, at 3-4, Roger needed to save a break point and did so, and then he turned up the pressure at 5-5 on the Canadian's serve and he eventually managed to break after a long game. He served out the match in tense fashion, but his final serve wasn't returned, and he won the match to get himself into only his 3rd final of this almost-complete season.
It was one of those great "ugly" wins that Roger has had over the years, and watching it live was very tense to watch as a fan. The first half of the match was pretty smooth and Fed was playing good tennis, and then he really had to fight in the 3rd set to pull through. It seemed like he wasn't just battling Pospisil out there on court, but his own mind as well. He looked unsure of what shot to hit on many occasions and time after time he hit 2nd serve returns right in the centre of the court for Pospisil to hit into a corner. No doubt he's still low on confidence and trying to get himself on the right track, and this week is a big step in the right direction with a few hard-fought victories that he won without playing his best.
So the final is a rematch of last year's, Federer vs del Potro. Every time these two have met Roger has been the favourite but not this time - the Argentine has been on quite a roll since losing early at the US Open, winning the title in Tokyo and making the final of the Shanghai Masters, beating Nadal in the semis and losing in three to Djokovic.
If I was a betting man, my money would go on the big guy, but I know enough that you can never count Roger out. It's a different match and a different day, and he could come out flying and confident, or he could come out flat and tired. Whatever happens, I consider this to be a very successful week for Fed, and there is no shame in losing to Delpo who is basically in the prime of his career.
Hopefully it will be a good match,
Kyle.
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