Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012
This is starting to look like the end. After years of relentless Swiss persistence and the minimum of grand slam semi-finals, is the Federer force for good – and glorious tennis, ebbing away?
A careful perusal of the evidence says “Yes”. He’s never quite got to grips with the relentless Rafael Nadal, and now he’s slipping to defeats against alleged mortals, as happened in today’s quarter final with Tomas Berdych. Now Berdych is no fool – oh actually he might be – he has been criticised for not making the most of his talent in the past. Anyway, his 6-4 3-6 6-1 6-4 win sent the Swiss packing unusually early.
Whether or not Federer is fading mentally, he complained of back and leg problems afterwards and even talked about making the last 8 as a good achivement. Berdych was fast and had a formidable forehand – and he’s now made beating Federer a bit of a habit. We love the beautiful way Federer plays, but now it looks like savour it while you can.
Berdych will meet Novak Djokovic, who had little trouble in steamrollering the man from Taiwan, Yen-Hsun Lu. He probably was delighted to be playing a Grnd Slam quarter-final.
The other semi-final is more eye catching. Rafael Nadal versus Andy Murray. Nadal waw 5-0 down inside 20 minutes against the Swede Robin Soderling but came through to win 3-6 6-3 7-6 6-1. Nadal insists he is feeling better and better as he gets into the event. I wonder if his knees agree? The occasionally temperemental Soderling smashed his racket when broken in the third set and the Spaniard exerted his usual brutal dominance.
Murray dropped his first set of the tournament but counterpunched his way past Jo Wilfried-Tsonga 6-7 7-6 6-2 6-2. Had the Frenchman not misjudged a floating return which dropped in in the second set tie-break, the excitable natives may have been disappointed. The Scot then seized control to make the semis for a second year in a row.
Sportnewsbase.com will have a full preview of the semi-finals on Friday.
Rafael Nadal is now the outright favourite at 6/5 with Victor Chandler following Federer’s shock exit despite having the tougher semi-final. Murray rates at 9/4, with Novak Djokovic 4/1 and Tomas Berdych at 11/2. Djokovic at present looks tremendous value.