No French for Federer!!!

It seemed like the Australian Open would be the only one to escape his grip this year but Roger Federer has lost in another Grand Slam semifinals and I am reminded of the English newspaper headline proclaiming the Don's failure, when in a tour match he fell after only a century. He has seemed as invincible as the great Don and as prolific in collecting records the past year that his defeats (this is only his 3rd this year) are so disappointing. Federer, seeking to fill the empty space in his trophy cabinet where a Paris souvenir should be, stumbled and fell today at the French Open, to the hard-hitting teenager from Mallorca, Rafael Nadal. It was like deja vu, as Federer, who had lost the Australian Open semis to birthday boy Safin, found in Nadal a spirited customer on clay on his 19th birthday. The 6-3,4-6,6-4,6-3 win meant Nadal entered the finals with the chance of being the first man in 23 years since the Swede Mats Wilander to win the French Open on debut. It also meant that the Federer Express had halted once again in the sluggish red clay of Paris and would have to wait a year before another attempt at a career slam.

I had put a night-out to watch the match, touted as the match of the season already, given the incredible form the two players have been in this year. Nadal was coming in on a 22 match streak with 5 clay titles and a 46-6 record, while Federer was on a 11 match, 28 set streak, with a 46-2 record. The previous meeting in Hamburg had been a close call for Federer, who was just two points away from losing the Masters Series Title, before he shifted gears and zoomed past a tired Nadal. The two men were also paired up nicely in their skills and strengths with booming forehands and lightning racket-speeds and were the most exciting players in the Tour.

Anyways I was quite excited about the match-up in spite of it being on the boring, slow clay when the beautiful, fast grass of Wimbledon was my favourite. NBC were telecasting the match at 10ET according to the TV schedule but I had no clue as to whether we were on ET or CT (yeah even after 2 years here :(). At 10 though(the correct time!), there was still the earlier semifinal going on owing to a 90 minute delay due to rain. This match (Davydenko vs Puerta) dragged on into the 5th set while I managed to catch a good half-hour's sleep and then the stage was set.

The very first point was awesome with Nadal hitting a looping forehand winner down the line on the slide to a lazy but precise Federer approach shot. It was as if the players had been on court for a couple of hours, both finding their groove so early. But that was only the beginning. From then on, the match oscillated between the sublime and the ridiculous with both players coming up with some beautiful shots and some outrageous errors. Federer was not his usual serving self, with only around 65% 1st serves in, in the first set, and was broken 4 times while Nadal himself was broken once. But after about 45 minutes of huffing and puffing interspersed with a few imperious forehand winners on either side, Nadal took the set 6-3.

Federer was expected to fight back and fight back he did, racing to a 5-1 lead in the second, with quite a few winners and a higher 1st serve pct of ~80. Nadal put up some resistance but it was too late and Federer took the set 6-4. Nadal seemed to have lost it in the middle of the set when a slight drizzle forced a short delay and Federer got his act together with 10 winners and fewer errors.

Now the contest was heating up and a fight-to-the-death was what the crowd had paid for. Honors were even with a break traded apiece until 5-4 when Nadal came up with a great defensive lob on the stretch that Federer could only bat down into play after some backpedaling, setting Nadal up for a great forehand after a couple of shots. Set: Nadal. Score: 2 sets to 1 Nadal.

It was all Nadal now and Federer was just fighting to stay in the match. It was getting dark and if Federer won the set, McEnroe predicted that the final set would be played tomorrow. Federer struggled to stay on serve with Nadal and was constantly looking at the chair umpire to get out of the darkening court. He had lost his serve completely with only about 20% 1st serves in and was trying his best to put up a decent fight. The crowd was now fully behind Nadal and a fan's heckling caused a momentary lapse in concentration as Federer double-faulted in the 8th game to give Nadal the crucial break. After that, it was all over and Nadal wrapped up the set in the next game on his 2nd matchpoint, to enter the finals, a strong contender for the crown against the unseeded Argentine Mariano Puerta.

I was disappointed that the projected heavyweight showdown turned out to be a damp squib as there was lots of spraying the ball around, especially by Federer who compensated for the 40-odd winners he hit with 40-odd unforced errors. Nadal was consistent most of the time, forcing Federer to hit 2 or 3 winners often to get one point: conceding nothing and playing for his life literally. Federer was unlucky too a few times when the ball clipped the net, once surprising him in his volley and a couple of times setting up Nadal for a winner. The match was scrappy and in the dog-fight-dog competition, Nadal proved more tenacious and deserved to be the winner. He is also bound to win the final against unsung Puerta, unless many planets go awfully out of orbit, and that will be one match I won't lose sleep for.