Rewind the clock back to 2001, in the fourth round of Wimbledon, and you may recall a match between Pete Sampras and Roger Federer.  By today’s standards, it was a strange match.  Both men served and volleyed extensively.  Pete did so because his body couldn’t take the pounding of playing at the baseline for any length of time, and with a serve as big as his, it made sense to end points at the net.  Federer learned to play tennis during the era of Pete Sampras.  He has no idea that serve and volley was in decline.  When a player ranked in the 30s can pass you with ease, you know serve and volley isn’t viable.

Federer would often say that he went to net against some opponents because he was afraid of their ground game.  In particular, Lleyton Hewitt and David Nalbandian.  Federer worked hard to improve his ground game so he could compete against these two and beat them from the backcourt.  This change lead to a string of Slam victories that is currently unequaled.   Wimbledon, as it turn out, would be the site of those two players duking it out in the finals of the 2002 Wimbledon final.

Since about the mid 2000s, neither player has played all that well, mostly due to injuries.  Hewitt reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 2009, and that was his best Slam result, but since then, he’s been on-and-off injured since then.

Nalbandian has been in the same boat as well.  Of the players of Federer’s generation, he’s considered the best to never have won a Slam, and injuries as well as an older style of play has been to blame.  Nalbandian hits a bit harder than Hewitt, but Hewitt has had a bit better success the last few years.  Nalbandian had a decent run back in 2010 when he helped Argentina upset Russia in Davis Cup without del Potro’s help (del Potro was injured most of that year).  He went on to win the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington DC.

No one expected, when Nalbandian played Nadal, that he would have a chance to win.  The last time they met was last year’s US Open which Rafa won in straight sets, though two sets were close.  Rafa had been playing the best of the top four in Indian Wells.  Even so, Nalbandian did upset Tsonga, so he was playing decent tennis.

Nalbandian took the first set, 64, and he was looking pretty solid in the second set.  Nadal was hitting his fair share of errors, while Nalbandian was hitting shots deep, and moving the ball around well.  Nalbandian is often credited with the best backhand in the game.  Certainly, this was true five or so years ago, and it was in full evidence today.

Late in the second set, Nalbandian was close to breaking and winning in straight sets, but Nadal held firm, broke and took the second set, 75.  You have to give credit to Nadal for fighting.  Nalbandian was starting to make errors he hadn’t.

Nadal opened the third set with a break while Nalbandian seemed unable to bother Nadal and threatened to lose a second serve which he eventually did.  Down 52, it looked over for Nalbandian, but Nadal made a few errors and gave a break back.  This seemed to rejuvenate Nalbandian who held serve.  Nalbandian then had chances to break Nadal again, but Nadal hung tough.  Nadal hit a drop shot that Nalbandian appeared to chase down but it had bounced twice, and the match was over.

Nadal wins 46, 75, 64.

Federer’s quarterfinal was against the resurgent Juan Martin del Potro who spent 2011 trying to get into the top ten and reached a rank off 11.  Since 2012 started, del Potro has made it into the top ten ranked 9 and very close to becoming 8.

Federer started off a little shaky with del Potro threatening to break.  At one point, Federer had apparently missed a first serve, but it was called in.  del Potro challenged, but Hawkeye failed to work and the call stood.  del Potro seemed to be peeved for the next few games and was broken immediately.  Although he settled down, Federer was able to move the ball around as he normally does.  Federer has spent the last few years trying to be more aggressive, coming to net, and he often did so after drop shots because del Potro is a bit slow and stands a fair bit back.

The match ended being much more lopsided than expected with a 63, 62 win.

So that means Federer will meet Nadal for the first time since the Australian Open.  Since the Australian Open, Federer has won two titles: Rotterdam and Dubai.  Despite this, I’m leaning a bit to Nadal.  Nadal still has the psychological edge.  To Federer’s credit, he is hitting the ball very cleanly.  He did struggle in back-to-back matches beating Raonic and Bellucci, but both might have been beneficial to him, especially Bellucci who is a lefty.  And even knowing that Nadal struggled in his match over Nalbandian, I have to give the edge to Federer unless Nadal recently caught the bug that’s been going around.

The other semifinal is Djokovic vs. Isner.  I gotta say I’m very surprised that Isner might break into the top ten.  He’s already at 11, and one has to wonder if Fish can stay in the top ten.