Fed Express rolls on as seeds crash

Swiss master in a class of his own among Big Four

WHILE the rest of the field collapses about him, Roger Federer marches serenely on, the last of the Big Four still standing.

Rafael Nadal was knocked out and both Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic are confined to the the treatment room.

Federer’s victory in his quarterfinal engagement with Milos Raonic on Wednesday was so routine only those anxious to part with their money would bet against him still being there come Sunday evening.

For one thing, those left in contention cannot rely on age to wither him. After swatting Raonic aside in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, 7-6, Federer became, at 35, the oldest man to reach a semifinal since Ken Rosewall in 1974 and he now stands at the very pinnacle of Wimbledon achievement as the only man ever to play in 12 semifinals there.

“It’s coming along nicely, to be quite honest,” he said, with telling understatement.

Because the thing was, from the moment he walked out for this quarterfinal, no one thought there could be any other outcome. Raonic had done his best to confuse the Roger worshippers gathering in Centre Court by coming out dressed as their hero. Wearing the same arrangement of bandanna and wristbands, he might have been described as Federer’s mini me. Well, apart from the fact he is 6ft 5in tall (almost two metres).

But any possible confusion ended with the clothing. While Federer is all rubber-wristed subtlety, Raonic is a foghorn thwack merchant. From the start the Canadian’s tactics were clear as he dispatched a 140km/h howitzer serve in the first game.

The odd thing about Federer, however, is that while his serve may lack the sheer pace of the young gunslinger’s, it is much more difficult to return. Time and again, his service games were over before you noticed they had begun, won in a flourish of line-hugging aces, whereas, from the start, Raonic was struggling to hold his. And soon the stands were echoing to the sighs of Roger-love as pinpoint backhands lasered down the line.

Raonic has long carried an air of the mechanical. It is not just that he looks robotic in his movement, like the world’s first animated Ken doll. Everything he does appears to be preplanned, thought-through.

The trouble was, when Fed kept returning his boombang serves, he did not look programmed to know what to do, particularly when he charged to the net and was obliged to duck to avoid the sizzling, chipped forehand return which secured the first break of the match.

This was Federer’s 100th match at Wimbledon and it quickly developed into the pattern of so many that have come before. It was a schooling for his opponent. Raonic could only watch as, to a soundtrack of cooing and purring from the stands, Federer demonstrated his utter mastery of the court’s geometry.

Time and again Raonic was left looking rather puzzled as the ball found with unerring certainty the one part of the court he could not cover.

Watching this dismantling, it was hard to appreciate that the Canadian had beaten Federer in the semifinal last year. The memory of the Swiss lying face down on the turf in the fifth set seemed entirely false.

But back then the fact was he was carrying an injury in a knee, one which required surgery to correct. As his victory in the Australian Open demonstrated, his surgeon should use him in all his advertising material as the perfect example of success under the knife. He had won the first set within 31 minutes, sending down 14 winners, while recording just two unforced errors.

“I’m much better prepared for Wimbledon this year,” he admitted. “I felt I could see that in Milos’s game, as well, he was not playing as well as he was last year.”

When Raonic punched his final shot wide of the line, Federer celebrated with uncharacteristic lack of inhibition. He knows how close he is to his 18th Grand Slam title.

Now he faces Thomas Berdych in the semi, with the prospect of Sam Querry or Marin Cilic in the final. They might as well give him the trophy now. —