NEW YORK—Maybe Roger Federer got too much time off between U.S. Open matches. This much is certain: He won’t be playing again at this year’s tournament after losing to Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals.
Five-time champion Federer departed Flushing Meadows before the semifinals for the first time since 2003, stunned by the sixth-seeded Berdych 7-6 (1), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 on Wednesday night.
“I just didn’t come up with the goods tonight,” Federer said. “It was unfortunate.”
His famous forehand was way off for much of the evening: 24 of his 40 unforced errors came off that wing. The six-foot-five Berdych, meanwhile, kept pounding serves and groundstrokes right where he wanted them, finishing with a total of 14 aces, 30 winners and only 21 unforced errors.
“There is no better moment than this one so far,” said Berdych, who will face Olympic champion Andy Murray in the semifinals Saturday.
It was Berdych’s fourth victory in his last seven meetings with 17-time Grand Slam trophy winner Federer, including in the 2010 Wimbledon quarter-finals en route to a runner-up finish to Rafael Nadal at the All England Club.
Federer hadn’t played since Saturday, and he looked rather rusty, particularly for the first two sets. The man he was supposed to face in the fourth round Monday, Mardy Fish, withdrew because of a health scare.
In dark sneakers bearing a tiny gold trophy with a black “5” etched on it — representing his title count at the U.S. Open — the top-seeded Federer failed in his bid to reach the semifinals in New York for a ninth consecutive year.
He won the championship every year from 2004 through 2008, but his 40-match winning streak at the hard-court major tournament ended with a loss to Juan Martin del Potro in the 2009 final. Federer then was beaten by Novak Djokovic in the semifinals in 2010 and 2011.
This year, Federer took another step backward, bothered by another big hitter.
On a day when much of the attention was on Andy Roddick’s loss to del Potro, Roddick’s final match, Djokovic and Janko Tipsarevic advanced to the quarter-finals. Djokovic moved on when opponent Stanislas Wawrinka pulled out because of illness and fatigue, down two sets and 3-1 in the third. Tipsarevic beat Philipp Kohlschreiber in a rain-interrupted match, 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-2.
Murray was the first male to reach the semis, coming all the way back after being one point from facing a two-set deficit to beat No. 12 Marin Cilic 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-0.
On the women’s side, Serena Williams shared a thought the other three semifinalists in the U.S. Open certainly won’t want to hear.
“I feel like I’m going to get more focused and serious and start playing Serena tennis,” she said.
Whatever brand she’s been playing so far has been pretty good, too.
Fourth-seeded Williams served 12 aces Wednesday night to bring her total to 41 for the tournament and move to the semifinals with a typically overpowering victory, 6-1, 6-3 over Ana Ivanovic.
Williams got 29 first serves in and won the point on 26 of them. She faced two break points and saved both of them. She has lost a total of 16 games through five matches. When No. 12 Ivanovic held serve to make it 3-1 in the first, it snapped a string of 23 straight games Williams had won, starting at the end of her third-round match last Saturday.
“I think the quality of tennis compared to last year, it was much higher I think from both of us,” said Ivanovic, a 6-3, 6-4 loser to Williams in the fourth round last year. “I mean, she was serving unbelievable. She was hardly missing serves. That puts a lot of pressure on opponents’ own service games.”
Next up for Williams, 10th-seeded Sara Errani, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over her Italian doubles partner, Roberta Vinci. Errani will be the first Italian woman in the semis since the Open era began in 1968.
On paper, that semifinal looks like a mismatch, with five-foot-four Errani’s serve maxing out at 81 m.p.h. Wednesday, while five-foot-nine Williams was consistently in the 110s. But Errani is the French Open runner-up and has lifted her ranking into the top 10 after starting the year at 45.
“A lot will depend on her,” Errani said about the matchup. “I will try to play my game, try to get her off balance. I still need to study up and prepare.”
Also advancing Wednesday was third-seeded Maria Sharapova, who was trailing 4-0 when play resumed after being suspended because of rain Tuesday. Given nearly 24 hours to think about things, Sharapova rallied for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 11 Marion Bartoli. She improved to 12-0 in three-setters this year.
“It’s a great statistic,” Sharapova said. “It shows that I enjoy the battle no matter what the score is. The third set, it’s the last set out there, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t put everything out there. That’s how I treat those situations.”
Sharapova will play top-seeded Victoria Azarenka, who got the day off after her three-set victory over defending champion Sam Stosur on Tuesday.
The Williams match was in doubt only for a brief time, with Williams serving in the second set, ahead 4-3. The game went to three deuces. Williams closed it out with a pair of service winners clocked at 119 and 105 m.p.h.
With Ivanovic serving to stay in the match, Williams won the second point of the game, when she hustled to the net to return Ivanovic’s dink shot, hit a backhand winner, then skidded and fell on her backside.
“I don’t know why that happened,” Williams said.
Eight points later, the match was over.
No comments:
Post a Comment