Five years and counting. That’s how long Roger Federer has been making Grand Slam semifinals. That’s five years of staying healthy, never retiring, and winning. Roger Federer used to fear powerful baseliners, players like Lleyton Hewitt and David Nalbandian. He even got intimidated by other serve-and-volleyers like Tim Henman.
But Roger Federer worked hard to improve his ground game, so much so that he rarely serves and volleys anymore.
So when it came to his quarterfinal match against Robin Soderling (again), you knew that Roger Federer would come out playing top notch tennis. Somehow, no matter how bad he looks in the early rounds, Federer knows he’ll play better as the tournament progresses.
Robin Soderling is one of a group of many players that have zero wins against Roger Federer. If Roger Federer wins the US Open, Soderling may very well say that all Slams go through him. They met in the French finals, Wimbledon fourth round, and US Open quarterfinals. Soderling must be tired of seeing Roger in every Slam.
The match started off with Roger Federer in total control, blowing by the first set 6-0, leaving Soderling wondering what had hit him. By the second set, Soderling was starting to at least win games, but it still went by quickly, 6-3. By the third set, Soderling showed the kind of toughness that got him to the French final, as they played even all the way to the tiebreak. Roger Federer looked to take the match with a 5-2 lead, when Soderling started to take chances. Blasting second serves with the pace of first serves, and taking chances off the ground, Soderling strung enough points together to take the third set, and make Roger, who had pretty much cruised so far, work for his paycheck.
The fourth set also went even all the way to a tiebreak, and it seemed, perhaps, that Roger might have to go to a fifth, a thought that seemed impossible to believe at the start of the match. Federer had been hitting the ball cleaner than any match he’s played. No more shanking. He would flick strokes in the tiniest of openings finding daylight where other players would find nothing. It’s not so much Federer’s play went down, but Soderling managed to raise his game, and make Roger work for it.
But if Roger has learned something since his record-breaking 22 Grand Slam semifinals, it’s mental toughness. Outside of Rafa, there may be no guy more mentally tough even when the chips are down. Although Soderling had set points, Roger was in such a rhythm that he was bombing aces during the tiebreak, as was Soderling. Eventually, a long baseline exchange at match point for Federer lead Soderling to play a shot too wide, trying to be aggressive, something that helped him win the 3rd set, but helpless to prevent Roger from a destined semifinal berth.
The match was played at a pretty high-level, but lacked the insane athleticism of Nadal vs. Monfils. Soderling didn’t paint as many lines, didn’t club the ball with Monfils ferocity, and didn’t have the Mallorcan backboard spinning ever strike back again and again, but as far as Roger is concerned, it doesn’t matter. Roger is hitting well and at the right time in the tournament.
Maybe this only happens to women, but ever go on court and look at the other guy and think “I should have worn a different shirt?”. Somehow, both Novak Djokovic and Fernando Verdasco wore orange Adidas soccer-style shirts. That’s orange as in orange juice orange, not the dark orange that you find in a crayon box, but the yellowish-orange of real juice. The biggest difference was Verdaco’s giraffe back shirt mottled with dark brown spots as if he’d escaped from the local jungle safari ride (and picked up a tennis racquet along the way).
Ever since Verdasco’s scintillating run at the Australian Open, one where he beat Andy Murray, then took Nadal to the brink, in a hard hitting 5-setter that saw two Spanish lefties belting ball after ball, only to have one man standing, Verdasco has been expected to move up the ranks and contest in the top 10. It hasn’t quite worked out that way. His style of play is predicated on risk, taking chances with his lefty forehand, and with it comes errors. On good days, he can hit his opponents off the court. On bad, the shots won’t fall and he can look a bit ordinary.
Still, Verdasco made a last minute surge. He played in New Haven where he won the event by beating Sam Querrey in the finals.
But could Verdasco beat Djokovic? Djokovic has had, by his lofty standards, a disappointing 2009. He reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and wilted under the hot Aussie sun and had to retire against Andy Roddick. In the French, perhaps still reeling from his heartbreaking loss to Rafael Nadal in a three set thriller at Madrid, Djokovic bowed out tamely in the third round. At Wimbledon, Djokovic again lost in the quarterfinals, this time to Tommy Haas, who had beaten him several weeks earlier at Halle, one of the grasscourt tuneups.
Two quarterfinal appearances may seem like a great year for any player, but Djokovic has been used to much more. In 2008, Djokovic won the Australian Open, reached the semifinals of both the French Open and the US Open. At the end of 2008, Djokovic made a move that may have hampered him for a few months. Djokovic signed a deal with Head racquets after using Wilson during the past few years. Switching to a very head-light racquet, he seemed uncomfortable with his racquet throughout the Australian Open and the early hard court season (Indian Wells and Miami). He didn’t seem truly at ease until the clay court season.
Djokovic went into the US Open thinking this was his last chance to have a good Slam to make up for a good, but not great year. But today, it was Djokovic, not Federer, who was having problems controlling his forehand. Although Verdasco had chances to win the first set, Djokovic eked it out in a tiebreak. Verdasco then rolled in the second set taking it 6-1. The third set was played more even until Djokovic made a late-set break, then took the fourth set in relative comfort. Djokovic reached his first Slam semifinal this year.
There are still two quarterfinal matches left. Nadal will play Fernando Gonzalez. Despite Gonzalez’ fearsome forehand, Nadal has owned Gonzalez lately. Nadal leads the head-to-head 6-3, but Nadal has won the last 5, and has not dropped a set. Gonzalez plays Nadal a bit like Monfils played him. He goes for huge shots and angles and hopes to blast Nadal off the court. But if Nadal can reach the ball, he can usually get it back, which has to be infuriating for Gonzalez. Federer at least aims his winners off to the side, where Nadal can typically not run it down. Given Nadal’s greatly improved play, the only way Gonzalez can win is if he’s on, and Rafa is off. The one hope for Gonzalez is attacking Nadal’s serve. With Nadal’s abdominal injury, he hasn’t been serving as big as he could, but Nadal tends to spin the ball a great deal on serve, making it harder to attack.
In the other quarterfinals, Juan Martin del Potro plays Marin Cilic in the battle of two 6’6″ players. Cilic has been hanging around the top 20 for a while in that next tier of players that haven’t quite broken through. Cilic is a bit like del Potro lite. He doesn’t possess del Potro’s monstrous forehand or serve, and so has had to play steadier than the other big guys. Cilic sometimes looks shorter than he is because he covers the court so well. Still, del Potro has played so well in this tournament, it would be quite an upset if he didn’t get past Cilic. The two have only met once at this year’s Australian Open and del Potro won in 4 sets. del Potro is one of the few guys that has had more than one victory against Nadal this year, beating him at Montreal and at Miami.
We’re heading into the endgame at the US Open with potentially two great semifinals looming. Of course, this means whispers of another Federer-Nadal final. The US Open is the only Slam that Nadal has yet to reach the finals, and thus, the only Slam that Federer has not met Nadal in the finals. Both have their work cut out for them. Djokovic recently lost to Federer, but certainly feels he can give Roger a battle. Nadal still has to get through Gonzalez and potentially del Potro which is not a foregone conclusion.
Get ready for some great tennis ahead!
