One out of Boks: Fed fluffs lines in marathon
Roger Federer has a way of making things look inevitable. When he lifts a title, he usually does it so serenely and artistically that you can’t imagine any other outcome.
And Federer has been lifting a lot of slam titles lately — three in the last six, to be precise. So it felt like a significant disturbance of the spacetime continuum when he lost 2-6, 6-7, 7-5, 6-4, 13-11 to South African Kevin Anderson at Wimbledon yesterday.
“One point can change the outcome of a set,” he had said on Tuesday, in a quote which could be taken as the epitaph of his Wimbledon.
Yesterday, one point changed the outcome of this match, and perhaps even this tournament. It came 1hr 55 min into this 4hr 14 min epic.
Anderson found himself match point down in the 10th game of the third set, but as he came to the net behind a big serve and forehand, Federer framed his backhand passing shot outside the tramlines. “I had my chances and blew them,” he said later.
But tennis’s golden generation are not done just yet. As Anderson inched his way home, Rafael Nadal was fighting out a humdinger with Juan Martin del Potro on Centre Court, the arena Federer might have expected to play on instead. Nadal finally prevailed by 7-5, 6-7, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in 4 hours, 48 minutes — the longest match of this tournament.
Thus it is that the Spaniard still has a chance of closing the grand slam gap — 20-17 in Federer’s favour — to just two majors.
The king of Wimbledon might have gone but there is everything still to play for.
Nadal will face Novak Djokovic next in a rematch of the 2011 final, after the Serbian advanced to the last four at a grand slam for the first time since 2016 with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Kei Nishikori.
John Isner reached his first slam semifinal on his 41st appearance — the big-serving American besting Milos Raonic, of Canada, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 to set up a meeting with the industrious Anderson.