Stan Wawrinka had made some big changes.  He had hired Peter Lundren, an early Federer coach.  This had lead to a title at Chennai.  He had thumped Andy Roddick.  Although the thinking was Wawrinka could beat Federer, the ESPN announcers knew that Roger wasn’t Andy.

Even Andy knew he wasn’t Roger.  For one, Roger is one of the greatest players ever, and that alone would be enough.  Then, he has a pretty gaudy head-to-head over Wawrinka.  Finally, Roger is more aggressive, willing to come forward than Roddick.  Finally, Wawrinka had played his last two matches at night where it’s cooler and the conditions are slower.  And while it wasn’t hot, the conditions were warm enough for the ball to move fast enough that Wawrinka was surprised at the pace.

Pam interviewed Paul Annacone, who said that the game plan was to mix up the pace so Wawrinka wouldn’t get a rhythm.  The ESPN announcers had said that Roddick let Wawrinka block returns back.  Roger came to net and put those shots away.

By halfway through the second set, Wawrinka looked like a defeated man.  He had no ideas how to beat Roger and was having a hard time competing.  It must have frustrated him to have played so well, and come in expecting to give the former number 1 a tough challenge, only to be swept away like so many Federer opponents.  At that point, it was only a matter of time before Roger reached yet another Australian Open semifinal where he now awaits the winner of Djokovic-Berdych.

Roger was so relaxed that he was hitting tweeners (almost hitting it twice in one point).  Roger even remarked that he had done that to Wawa once, but he had crowded the net so much that he cut off the angles.  Roger decided to do a tweener lob instead.  Wawa did reach it, and dropped the ball, which Roger chased down, and Wawa lobbed and Roger attempted another shot (not a tweener), but he did have chances to win.  When Roger is hitting that easy, it’s just a matter of time.

In the end, he did not exult.  He knew Wawrinka was a beaten man.  At one point, Wawrinka crushed his racquet in amazing fashion.  He shook hands, and thanked the crowd.  Jim Courier, in a post-match interview, joked about Roger “stealing” Australian Open towels.  Roger said he was taking about 4 towels a match.  Surely, the organizers would give him a hundred towels if he so desired.  But, Roger smiled instead and left for the hotel, awaiting the next match while barely breaking a sweat.