TENNIS FRENCH OPEN:AFTER THE seismic shock of Rafael Nadal, the four-times champion and world number one, losing to Sweden's Robin Soderling in the fourth round of the French Open, it seemed Roland Garros was about to be shaken by an aftershock of similar intensity yesterday when Roger Federer, runner-up for the last three years, fell two sets behind against Tommy Haas of Germany. Pulses were checked and faces pinched hard, just in case the tournament had slipped into an Alice in Wonderland world of contradictory happenings.
But all was well. Federer, yet to win this title despite 13 assorted grand slam tournament wins, managed to get it into his head that with Nadal gone this was his big opportunity and that Haas had an unenviable record of losing from a winning position. With a third-set break point against him at 3-4 down, the Swiss hit an inside-out forehand, best described as vintage Federer, and so this fourth-round match turned and the world number two recovered to win 6-7 (4-7), 5-7, 6-4, 6-0, 6-2.
“I said: ‘That’s the turnaround’. I was in a tricky position but that’s when I thought I had all the assets in my hands to change things,” said Federer, something he has rarely if ever experienced when playing Nadal on the Roland Garros clay.
In last year’s final he won only four games. Those around him had rarely seen him so nervous before playing Haas. Federer knows only too well that history is here for the making. If he wins the title he will become the sixth player in history to win all four grand slam events and would equal Pete Sampras’s record of 14 majors. Small wonder the butterflies had taken wing. No Nadal, no excuses.
And so the mind games increased. Since Andy Murray beat Marin Cilic on Sunday he has seen Nadal, on his side of the draw, bounced out and Federer teeter. Today the Briton plays Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez for a place in the semi-finals against either Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko or Soderling.
Federer chose to accentuate the Russian’s chances of reaching the final: “I’ve been disappointed I have not heard much about him here because he is a great player.”
Could this be because he has won all his 12 matches against the Russian, whereas against Murray he lost five of their last six meetings? No need to answer.
Murray knows reaching his second grand slam final here will stretch him physically and mentally, for in last year’s US Open the effort of beating Nadal in the semi-final over two days left him drained for the final against Federer. This time he feels better prepared even though clay presents added difficulties.
“The courts are very slippy,” Murray said. “All the players have been having problems and falling over. They are not really watering them much. I’m playing better than at the start of last week but I’ll need to because it’s getting tougher.”
Murray has played Gonzalez only twice before, winning their last match in the third round of the US Open over five sets. But that was in 2006, and coincidentally he lost against Davydenko in the next round.
Gonzalez’s big moment came two years ago when he reached the Australian Open final, losing to Federer. He has played two previous quarter-finals at Roland Garros, losing against Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero in 2003 and Federer last year.
Murray watched the latter stages of the Nadal match on TV: “It would have been a great challenge to play Rafa and a great experience but I believe I could beat anybody if I play well. For some guys these kinds of shocks make a big difference, but I always try to focus on just winning the match in front of me.”
Federer is trying desperately to do just that, though for a man with his huge experience he is finding it increasingly difficult. But then there is a huge amount at stake.
Fifth seed Jelena Jankovic completed a miserable three days for the Serbs when she followed compatriots Novak Djokovic and 2008 champion Ana Ivanovic out with a 3-6, 6-0, 9-7 defeat by little known Romanian teenager Sorana Cirstea.
The final stages of the encounter were tortuous for Cirstea, who needed three match points to finally get over the line as the tenacious Jankovic dug in. The Serb admitted afterwards she had been struggling with abdomen and toe pains during the match.
Serena Williams is bracing herself for a testing quarter-final against in-form Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova after easing through her fourth-round match against Aleksandra Wozniak.
The American needed just 53 minutes to record a 6-1, 6-2 win on Philippe Chatrier court.
Kuznetsova, the seventh seed, found things more tricky in her triumph against Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska but the set she lost in the 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 victory was only the first the Russian had dropped in this tournament.
- Guardian Service
