Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal
And it’s Roger vs. Rafal in the French Open final once again. Ace Novak Djokovic’s perfect season and 43-match winning streak were ended by Roger Federer in the semifinals at Roland Garros. The 16-time Grand Slam champion beat the second-seeded Serb with 7-6 (5), 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5) in four sets and will face Rafael Nadal in the final for the fourth time in six years. And it turned out to be a pleasant birthday surprise for him too.
“I’ve trained a lot during my whole life for these kinds of matches,” Federer said. “There was an enormous amount of pressure on Novak and he really played well. Beating Novak today was maybe a good birthday gift for him because he lost his four previous matches against Novak,” Federer said of Nadal, who turned 25 on Friday. “I’m going to play against Nadal, my main rival, in another Grand Slam final. We live for these moments.”
In the finals, Nadal has to beat Federer for the sixth time in eight Grand Slam finals. If he succeeds in this he will prevent Djokovic from taking his No. 1 ranking.
Djokovic was the most jeweled man to enter the French Open. He was the hottest man of the hour as he had won every tournament he had played in 2011, including earning his second Grand Slam title at the Australian Open after beating Federer in their second straight major semifinal.
But Federer, it was three times shy. He had an answer to just about everything Djokovic could muster and implement on the court, sending back shot after shot and waiting for his opponent to make the mistakes. But even then Federer finished with 46 unforced errors; a gross five more than Djokovic.
The two had traded a pair of breaks in the first set, and then Djokovic had been leading with 5-4 in the tiebreaker. But three unforced errors – a backhand and two forehands – gave Federer the set.
“The first set was monstrous,” Federer said, “and in the second set we were both tired because the pace was unbelievable.” In the second set, Federer took the advantage of Djokovic’s serve to jump ahead with 4-1 and held on to win it despite wasting nine more break chances.
Djokovic got the early break in the third and ran out to a 3-0 lead. He also led in the fourth, and served for the set at 5-4. But Federer got his fourth break to soon and ended it up with a tiebreaker.
Once there, he took a 6-3 lead by winning three straight points, the latter two with an ace and service winner. He then won the match with his 18th ace of the match.
Tags: Final, French Open, Grand Slam, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Roland Garros, Tennis
