FEDERER OUT OF WIMBLEDON AFTER DEFEAT TO ANDERSON
▶ Defending champion ‘didn’t see it coming’ as he lets slip two-set lead to No 8 seed
Roger Federer’s hopes of a ninth Wimbledon title ended yesterday after he let slip a two-set lead as he lost to Kevin Anderson in the quarter-finals.
The defending champion lost 2-6, 6-7, 7-5, 6-4, 13-11 as 32-year-old Anderson became the first South African in the Wimbledon semi-finals since Kevin Curren in 1983.
“Down two sets to love, I tried my best to keep fighting. Beating Roger Federer here at Wimbledon will be one I remember, especially in such a close match,” Anderson, the 2017 US Open runner-up said.
“I kept telling myself to keep believing. I said today is going to be my day.”
It was 36-year-old Federer’s earliest exit at the All England Club since his second-round defeat against Sergiy Stakhovsky in 2013.
“Sometimes you don’t feel good, and you try your best. Today was one of those days. I didn’t see it coming,” said the 20-time major winner.
“I think it went in spells a bit also, how I was able to return his serve. I had moments where I was great, I felt like I was reading his serve, other moments where I don’t know where the hell I was moving to.”
Eighth seed Anderson, who won the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi in December, had never been beyond the fourth round at Wimbledon in 10 previous visits.
For the only the second time at Wimbledon, Federer, 36, was beaten after holding a two-set lead, with his previous loss from that position coming against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the 2011 quarter-finals.
It had looked as if it would be business as usual for Federer after he won the opening two sets.
That initial burst gave Federer 34 successive sets won at Wimbledon, stretching back to his dominant run to the 2017 title, which equalled his own record set between 2005 and 2006.
But, playing on Court One for the first time in three years, Federer was unusually error-prone.
Anderson had failed to take a single set off Federer in their previous four meetings.
Yet once he had ended Federer’s run of holding serve for 85 consecutive games – a streak dating back to last year’s semi-final – Anderson’s confidence soared.
Only once before had Federer played more games at a major and on that occasion, he prevailed 1614 in the 2009 Wimbledon final against Andy Roddick.
But this time Federer cracked, serving his first double fault at 1111 in the decider to give Anderson a break point which he then took and he then held his own serve to clinch victory.
Meanwhile, three-time champion Novak Djokovic reached his first Wimbledon semi-final in three years after seeing off Japan’s Kei Nishikori 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. The 12time major winner prevailed despite picking up two code violations and accusing umpire Carlos Ramos of “double standards”.
“I think the first warning was unnecessary,” said Djokovic, who was sanctioned in the second set for spearing his racquet into the court.
“It didn’t harm the grass. Kei did the same in the fourth set but wasn’t warned. The umpire said he didn’t see it. I don’t think it’s fair but it is what it is.”
Despite his anger – and picking up a time violation in the fourth set – 12th seed Djokovic still reeled off 10 of the last 12 games as he continues his return to form after struggling with form and injury for the past 18 months.
Julia Goerges v Serena Williams
Let’s be honest, it was always going to happen, wasn’t it? Serena Williams, competing in only her fourth tournament since returning in March following the birth of her daughter, is on the cusp of an eighth Wimbledon title.
Arriving at the All England Club with just seven matches under her belt, and having withdrawn from the French Open fourth round with a shoulder injury, there were justifiable concerns surrounding her fitness and ability to last the course of a two week tournament.
Those concerns have been laughed out of the All England Club as Williams carved her way through the field to reach the semi-finals. The debate over awarding the American the 25th seeding now only seems to ask the question: Why she wasn’t ranked higher?
Williams, 36, faced her first test in the quarter-finals against Italian Camila Giorgi when she had to recover from a set down, but once she found her range at the start of the second, there was only going to be one winner.
The 23-time grand slam champion now faces her biggest test of the tournament in 13th seed Julia Goerges.
The pair met as recently as the French Open third round last month, with Williams claiming a comfortable victory to extend her unbeaten record against the German to three matches.
But on the faster grass courts, Goerges’ powerful groundstrokes and serve are more potent weapons than on the slower clay. Goerges, 29, has faced – and come through – harder challenges than Williams, so will approach their encounter well prepared. However, Goerges will have to be at her very best to stop Williams, who seems to be gathering speed and momentum at just the right time.
Prediction: Serena Williams to win 2-0
Julia Goerges will end up playing the occasion rather than the opponent and won’t be able to recover from her slow start. It won’t be a blow out, but it will be comfortable.
Jelena Ostapenko v Angelique Kerber
Jelena Ostapenko is the most wonderfully unpredictable player in the women’s game. Capable of sublime shotmaking that will crush any opponent, the 21-year-old Latvian can equally produce such erratic displays that she would see her struggle to beat a club player.
Both sides of Ostapenko have been on show this season. From January to March she never won three successive matches. Then seemingly out of nowhere, she blazed her way to the Miami Masters final.
The same pattern applied throughout the clay court swing and at Eastbourne – a key warm-up tournament for Wimbledon – and again, she arrives at the All England Club and destroys her opponents to reach the semi-finals.
Can Ostapenko, whose first WTA Tour title was none other than the 2017 French Open, maintain her blistering levels for her showdown with Kerber? Or is an error-strewn performance about to rear its ugly head?
There are few players more equipped than Kerber to take advantage of a wayward Ostapenko.
The German 11th seed, who reached the 2016 Wimbledon final, is a supreme athlete, dependable on both wings, and possesses enough punch to trade with power-hitters such as Ostapenko.
Kerber has come through a tough draw unscathed, taking out Indian Wells champion Naomi Osaka, the talented and in-form Belinda Bencic, and rising Russian star Daria Kasatkina.
Of the four players remaining in the draw, Kerber has been the most impressive. But even a player of Kerber’s class and consistency will struggle to contain an all-guns-blazing Ostapenko.
Prediction: Jelena Ostapenko to win 2-1
After a shaky start, the Latvian will start to let her shots go in the second set, and once she’s dialled in, Kerber will not be able to hang with her.