Roger Federer has fired a warning shot at his potential challengers in the Australian Open final four after a ruthless deconstruction of sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko in their quarter-final on Wednesday.
Despite a poor start that saw Federer lose the first set and face a double break in the second, the world No. 1 surged back into the match and finished off the Russian 2-6 6-3 6-0 7-5 in two hours and 36 minutes at Rod Laver Arena.
The win extends Federer’s remarkable Grand Slam semi-final run to 23 consecutive appearances in the final four. The last time he wasn’t in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam was at Roland Garros in 2004.
After the match, Federer said he was struggling with Davydenko’s intensity and the sun shining across the court early in the match.
“I just tried to stay positive. I knew that hopefully when the sun goes, it may be for the better. It was a surprise to come back that great,” he said.
Federer looked out of sorts in the first set, as he struggled to hold serve in the opening game of the match before dropping it in the third game.
The in-form Davydenko then managed to break the Swiss again to race away with the first set in just 34 minutes, with Federer hitting frequent errors and only managing to feed the Russian fairly straightforward balls up the centre of the court.
The second set looked to be a continuation of the first, as Davydenko broke Federer’s serve and threatened to break a second time at 3-1 up.
However, Federer fought off two break points to hold serve in what would be a turning point in the match.
The world No. 1 then went on a 13-game tear as Davydenko’s error rate increased markedly while Federer’s confidence grew.
After claiming the second set 6-3, the Swiss raced through the third 6-0 in a set where Davydenko managed only seven points.
A break up in the fourth and still feeding off the Russian’s errors, Federer looked like he would close out the match easily. However, Davydenko fought back to break Federer twice late in the last set, adopting a more aggressive style against the Swiss.
Federer was equal to Davydenko’s challenge, though, and broke back to lead 6-5 before serving out the match to love in the following game.
Fast facts
- Both players had 35 winners, while Davydenko had 50 unforced errors to Federer’s 43.
- Federer served nine aces to Davydenko’s one.
- Davydenko converted just five of 19 break-point chances (26 per cent), while Federer capitalised on eight of his 14 break-point opportunities (57 per cent).
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
No comments:
Post a Comment