FEDERER BACK IN DREAMLAND
Swiss star going for eighth title and even he can’t believe it!
THE headband may be camouflaging a slightly receding hairline, but nothing else betrays the ageing process in Roger Federer.
He is into his 11th Wimbledon final at 35, and will try to defy nature again tomorrow when he attempts to beat Marin Cilic and win an eighth title, 14 years after his first.
The figures just tumble out when considering the greatness of Federer at Wimbledon, but the only ones that mattered yesterday evening were those constituting a 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 scoreline that saw off the challenge of Tomas Berdych.
Nor can mere numbers describe the ease of movement around the court, or the fluency of groundstrokes that were too good even for the admirable fight mounted by the Czech.
It was Beauty and the three baseline Beasts in the Wimbledon semi-finals, and the odd one out was the player the Centre Court wished to savour while he is still around.
Federer becomes the oldest man to reach the final apart from the watching Ken Rosewall and, unlike the nuggety Australian, he is likely to be holding the trophy — his second Grand Slam of the year — come Sunday teatime. ‘I feel very privileged to be in another final, I almost can’t believe it’s true again,’ said Federer. He will go into the final with a 6-1 record over Cilic, although the rangy Croat nearly knocked him out at the quarterfinal stage last year.
That was a different Federer to the one we see now. His knees were bothering him sufficiently to lead him to pack in his season immediately after his semi-final defeat.
That break, and the one he took over the clay-court season this spring, have paid spectacular dividends. Not only has he only been broken four times this fortnight, he has not lost a set.
Berdych came in knowing he was going to have to stem a sevenmatch losing streak, although the last time they met — at the Miami Open — he forced two match points before losing a suddendeath tiebreak.
Having been a perennial bridesmaid to the ‘Big Four’, the Czech is a distinctive figure, although having run out of grass-court shoes that fitted properly, he was issued with a pair that bore the face of Novak Djokovic on the tongue.
Federer had an early break point but it was not until the fifth game that he converted, hitting a drive forehand volley that had the Centre Court in raptures. Demoralisingly for his opponent, he followed it up with a hold of serve that took just 48 seconds.
What remains so astonishing about Federer on grass is the way he is able to nimbly make tiny adjustments at the last nanosecond, and never has that been more valuable on what is now a distinctly rickety surface.
Everything was looking so smooth until his first serve stopped working at 4-3 and he was broken back, thanks to two double faults met with two sulky, unsuccessful, challenges to HawkEye.
It has always seemed possible that if anything might derail him this year it is the nerves that come with believing he can win a 19th Grand Slam, and they were tested in the opening tiebreak.
Berdych, however, is not known to be the strongest in this department, and helpfully slapped a short forehand into the net to give the Swiss the advantage at 4-2, which he held on to.
The Czech, though, had come to compete and played smartly within himself rather than overpressing, which is sometimes the case. He forced a break point at 3-3 that he was saved with a raking cross-court forehand before they steamed on to another tiebreak — another test of Federer’s nerve.
This time it was death by forehand for the Czech, as Federer reeled off one after another to go 5-1 up. There was another edgy double fault but by then the cushion was too big and again it went 7-4 in the Swiss’s favour.
Still Berdych would not go away, and he forced two break points at 2-3. The response from the most accurate server of all time was to ping down four unplayable deliveries, including three aces.
This saps opponents and the dejection told, with a break forced in the next game as the Czech, for all the easy power at his disposal, could only shank the ball into the tramlines. Federer wrapped it up after two hours and 18 minutes.
So far Federer has made Wimbledon look as easy as Rafael Nadal in Paris. It is like we are in 2007 all over again, and we will be if the Swiss triumphs tomorrow. That was the last time the first three Grand Slams of the season went Federer – Nadal – Federer.