The Hindu : Sport : Federer on song

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 08, 2006

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Federer on song

Nirmal Shekar

Nadal breezes past Baghdatis

UNSTOPPABLE: Roger Federer had it easy against Jonas Bjorkman in the men's semifinal at the Wimbledon championships on Friday. — PHOTO: AP

London: Once Roger Federer has conducted his final symphony on the Wimbledon lawns, it is quite likely that the Curator of the Musee Du Louvre in Paris will discreetly call the Chairman of the All England Lawn Tennis Club to acquire videotapes of some of the maestro's centre court masterpieces.

If he does that, there is unlikely to be a single pair of raised eyebrows among art aficionados. After all, if like Keats you believe that a thing of beauty is a joy forever, then it must be showcased in the right place, in right company.

And Federer's works — it's a shame to call them matches or contests — belong in the Louvre.

Seldom has a man — or woman — created such breathtaking beauty in pursuit of athletic perfection. Rarely, if ever, has a tennis player fuelled our aesthetic passions as charmingly as does Federer.

What is more, the world champion doesn't need a great opponent across the net from him to force him to dig into the bottomless depths of his creative soul; he does that as a matter of routine, no matter whether he is playing Jonas Bjorkman — as he was on Friday in the men's singles semifinals of the 120th Wimbledon championships, winning 6-2, 6-0, 6-2 in an hour and 17 minutes to make his fourth straight final — or Rafael Nadal, the second seeded Spaniard he will meet in Sunday's final.

Rain delayed

On an afternoon when rain delayed the start by two hours on the centre court, for a brief while it seemed that Federer's genius, like the sun, was under a cloud. But, it didn't stay hidden for long.

The great man hit his stride late in the first set and took control of the match, serving rocks and uncorking passing shots of such pace and precision as to take your breath away. From 3-2 in the first set, Federer, who is yet to lose a set in the tournament this year, won 11 games in a row to go 2-0 up in the third before a relieved Bjorkman won a game on his own serve.

"I mean, yeah, it was flawless,'' said Federer after inflicting on Bjorkman the heaviest ever men's semifinal defeat since records began in 1922. "It's a beautiful feeling, you know.''

It is a beauty that was not lost on Bjorkman. "It was nice to be around and see someone play the nearest to perfection you can play tennis,'' said the Swede. "I had the best seat in the house.''

At age 34, the Swede, who is 10 years older than the champion, was playing in only the second Grand Slam semifinal of his career in singles. If he was overjoyed after his enthralling five set victory over Radek Stepanek in the quarterfinals, then Bjorkman knew what he was up against today.

But, there are times in life and sport when knowledge is of little help. For, effort is genius's poor country cousin. The Swede who had played over 15 hours of tennis to get this far, through three five-set matches, didn't get to spend a whole lot of time on court on one of the biggest days of his life as a tennis player.

Peerless

In shot selection, footwork, court-speed and anticipation, Federer, as always, was peerless as he dismantled the journeyman's game ruthlessly yet with a wondrous delicacy of touch.

Surely, nobody has killed quite as lovingly on a tennis court.

"You always hope you live up to expectations, your own expectations,'' said the seven-time Grand Slam champion. "I was a little cautious in the beginning. But then I got on a roll and played excellent tennis.''

On Friday's evidence, the Swiss master has a great chance of matching one of the game's all-time-great stars on Sunday. The last man to win the men's title here without losing a set was Bjorn Borg in 1976.

That year, after losing to Borg in the final, Ilie Nastase, that lovable rascal from Romania, said of the Swede: "We play tennis. He plays something else. They should send him to the moon.''

Given a chance, every single opponent of His Majesty Roger Federer would gleefully agree to dispatch the world champion to the moon, if only he would agree to the space odyssey and change of residence.

After all, Federer too doesn't play tennis. He composes it — like Mozart composed music.

Later in the evening, the only player Federer has lost to this year — Rafael Nadal — played the big points with tremendous confidence to get past the talented Cypriot, Marcos Baghdatis 6-1, 7-5, 6-3.

Nadal raced through the first set but Baghdatis, who had lost to Federer last January in the Australian Open final, made a match of it in the second with a delightful variety of shots, often leaving the Spaniard stranded with well disguised drop shots. The Cypriot staved off two setpoints in the 10th game but Nadal broke through in the 12th to pocket the set.

From there is was a matter of time as Nadal became the first Spaniard to make the men's final here since Manuel Santana, who went on to win the title in 1966.

In the men's doubles championship, India's Leander Paes and his Czech partner Martin Damm went down 2-6, 1-6, 5-7 to Fabrice Santoro of France and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia.

On Thursday night, Paes and Samantha Stosur of Australia lost to Bob Bryan and Venus Williams in the mixed doubles quarterfinals. The American pair won 7-6(3), 6-3.

Rupesh-Lee in last eight

In boys' doubles, Rupesh Roy and Chinese Taipei's Hsin Han Lee came from behind to upstage third seeds Colombia's Edgar Rodriguez and Jose-Roberto Velasco of Bolivia and moved into the quarterfinals.

After losing the first set tie-breaker, Rupesh and Lee rallied to take the next two sets 6-3, 6-4 and won a meeting with the Croatian pair of Luka Belic and Antonio Veic.

THE RESULTS

Semifinals: Men's singles: Roger Federer (Sui) bt Jonas Bjorkman (Swe) 6-2, 6-0, 6-2; Rafael Nadal (Esp) bt Marcos Baghdatis (Cyp) 6-1, 7-5, 6-3.

Men's doubles: Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan (USA) bt Mark Knowles/Daniel Nestor (Bah/Can) 6-4, 6-7(3), 7-6 (3), 6-1; Fabrice Santoro/Nenad Zimonjic (Fra/Scg) bt Martin Damm/Leander Paes (Cze/Ind) 6-2, 6-1, 7-5.

Women's doubles: Yan Zi/Zheng Jie (Chn) bt Cara Black/Rennae Stubbs (Zim/Aus) 6-2, 7-6(3).

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