Roger Federer won a thriller against Juan Martin del Potro 4-6, 7-6(2), 7-5 in a match that the Swiss was behind in nearly the whole way. With the win Fed makes the semifinals of the Year-end Championship for the 11th time - the only time he didn't make it was 2008.
It was a bad start in this winner-moves-on contest, as Roger was broken in the first game. To make matters worse, he lost serve again and went down 5-1. He got one of the breaks back and forced Delpo to serve it out at 5-4, where he had break chances but couldn't convert.
It was another bad start in the second as he was broken in his second service game. This time however he didn't go down the double break and battled for a break back, and he was back in business. The set extended to a tiebreaker where Fed played some great tennis and closed it out with an ace.
Then, just as in the first two sets, Roger started disastrously in the third, getting broken yet again and in the blink of an eye he was three games from defeat with a 0 beside his name. But Roger Federer was not going down without a big fight, and boy did he give us a fight for the ages....
He got the break back to level at 3-3 and then had to serve to stay in the match at 4-5, which he did. He forced a break of serve and saved a break point of his own. Two points later, he fired an ace up the T for a huge victory that showed us all he still has the heart of a champion.
Despite being behind in all three sets, it actually wasn't a bad match statistically from Roger. 39 winners to 36 errors, 22/29 at the net, and 10 aces (to Delpo's 7). But it was certainly a match that will only be remembered by Fed's fighting spirit. He played this match as if it was a Grand Slam final - and after this hard season, I couldn't be happier as a fan to see him pick up this enormous victory in the fashion that he did. Winning in such a gutsy, scrappy style is more enjoyable for me to watch than to see him put on a clinic. Champions are made of matches like these, when your back is up against the wall and all you can do is fight. And he fought hard for sure, proven by the fact that he won 7 of the final 9 games after going down 3-0 in the decider.
6 months ago, Roger could not have won a match like this because his body would have broken down. But now, being as healthy as he's been all year, he defended like a much younger man, and displayed the brilliance we so often witnessed in his best years. I have said for a long time that when Fed is healthy, he is so much better off because he can remain patient and rely on his body to win the long, side-to-side, back-to-front (and back again) points.
I think his resilience gave the Argentine a lot of problems, because Fed forced him to hit one more ball, point after point, just as we would normally see from Nadal or Djokovic. Besides that, he used his slice backhand like a dream and approached the net often, to great success, hitting many beautiful volleys that are among the hardest shots to execute in the game.
In the semis Nadal waits for him, and without a day off it will be critical that bounce back strong because you know Rafa will just try to wear him down to test out his legs.
However, if this win doesn't give Roger a ton of confidence to go out there and play free, I don't know what will. And perhaps most importantly, he knows how to beat the Spaniard on this court, as he's done so twice before (and twice in Shanghai). He knows the game plan, and it's up to him to execute it. (The game plan as I see it: serve well, attack Nadal's backhand and hit short angled backhands of his own to the forehand side.)
Rafa is the favourite and for good reason, but Fed has a great chance to win. He must cut down on the lapses in concentration, but at the same time, he has to play with the same fire and spirit that he played with today against Delpo. It means the world to him to have won this match, and he needs to carry this momentum he has going to get ahead early and put some doubt into Rafa's mind.
This is your time Roger, we believe in you.
No comments:
Post a Comment