Los Angeles Times

Federer hatches non-exit strategy

A day after Nadal’s loss, he avoids upset, erasing two-set deficit to beat Benneteau.

-

WIMBLEDON, England — A day after Rafael Nadal’s stunning exit at Wimbledon, the only other men who have won the tournament since 2003 — six-time champion Roger Federer and defending champion Novak Djokovic — found themselves trailing far-less-accomplish­ed opponents too.

Here we go again? Not quite.

Federer sure came close to following Nadal out the door, though. The owner of a record 16 major titles, and a quarterfin­alist or better at 32 consecutiv­e Grand Slam tournament­s, the thirdseede­d Federer dropped the first two sets against 29th-seeded Julien Benneteau of France, then was two points away from losing six times, before coming all the way back Friday to pull out a 4-6, 6-7 (3), 6-2, 7-6 (6), 6-1 victory in the third round.

“Oh, my God, it was brutal,” Federer said. “The thing, when you’re down two sets to love, is to stay calm, even though it’s hard, because people are freaking out, people are worried for you. . . . You don’t have many lives left out there. You just try to play tough and focus point for point.”

This was the eighth time in Federer’s illustriou­s career that he worked out of a two-set hole, including against 2009 U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro in the French Open quarterfin­als 31⁄ 2weeks ago.

“Mentally, he’s a rock. He’s two sets down and he doesn’t show anything. And after that, if your level is a little bit lower — right here, right now, he takes the opportunit­y,” Benneteau said. “At the beginning of the third set, I was not as good as I was in the first two sets, and in five minutes, it’s 4-0.”

Actually, that took about 10 minutes. Still, it hardly was the last key moment. With Federer serving while down 6-5 in the fourth set, Benneteau hit a forehand winner to get to 15-30, putting him two points from the upset. Federer hit a forehand winner that made it 30all, still two points away for Benneteau. The game had two deuces, too — each one placing Benneteau that close again. But Federer held there, the crowd roaring with each point he won.

In the tiebreaker, Federer was two points from being gone at 5-5, then 6-6. But on the latter, a nine-stroke exchange ended with Benneteau netting a backhand. That gave Federer his second set point, and a powerful forehand forced a Benneteau forehand error.

That was the beginning of the end for Benneteau, and it allowed Federer to avoid the sort of surprise that befell the second-seeded Nadal, whose five-set loss Thursday to No. 100 Lukas Rosol was still reverberat­ing at the All England Club.

Like Federer and Nadal, Djokovic fell behind in a match he was expected to win easily, ceding the first set to No. 28 Radek Stepanek, Rosol’s Davis Cup teammate for the Czech Republic. But quick as can be, the Serb turned things around for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 victory that moved him closer to a semifinal showdown against Federer.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States