Really?!
MELBOURNE, Australia — Even after winning 12 Grand Slam singles titles, Roger Federer can still catch spectators off guard.
It happened as Federer was facing James Blake of the United States in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open Wednesday night. Federer was down by 1-2 in the second-set tie breaker and had just played a poor defensive point, looking off rhythm and in a mood almost dark enough to match his black socks.
Up he trudged to the service line and then, out of his funk, came nothing less than tennis magic: he half-volleyed a typically huge return from Blake, then easily handled the next parry, a blistering approach shot, and then, to finish off, whipped a forehand passing shot crosscourt for a winner.
“Those are the points you like to see on replay later,” Federer said.
With no time to think or fret, it had all been about instinct, and just like that, Federer was on his way to a higher level, as if someone had pushed the fast forward button on a DVR. He took the next point, another extended delight, with an overhead winner off a high bouncing lob from Blake that landed near Federer’s baseline.
Blake put hand to strings and clapped, not nearly as stunned as the 15,000 fans in Rod Laver Arena. “Nothing he does surprises me,” Blake said after Federer’s 7-5, 7-6 (5), 6-4 victory. “It frustrates me, but nothing surprises me.
“I played two unbelievable points at 2-1. I couldn’t have hit those balls any harder, couldn’t have put him on his back foot anymore. He just flicks his wrist, puts it back to neutral. It’s tough to deal with. Really, the only person I ever played that could do that was Andre. And Andre couldn’t move the way Roger does. Andre didn’t serve the way Roger does.”
Andre would be Andre Agassi, the now-retired American champion who didn’t have much luck against Federer either in the final years of his career. But Blake, a former Harvard student, is, to his continuing chagrin, well placed to analyze Federer’s talents. Wednesday’s defeat was his eighth in eight attempts against tennis’s multi-tooled equivalent of a Swiss army knife.
It was hard to escape Federer’s shadow. Asked if he felt unfortunate or fortunate to play in the age of Federer, Blake mulled it over. “I’m sure the guys in years past are wondering how their games would match up against him,” he said. “So at least I know mine clearly doesn’t match up very well.“It’s frustrating that some of us maybe feel like we could have one or two or more Grand Slams if Roger wasn’t around.”
Federer has not been at his flowing best here, going five sets with Janko Tipsarevic in the third round and looking edgy at times. Federer plays the No. 3 seed, Novak Djokovic, 20, in the semifinals on Friday and could end with No. 2 Rafael Nadal — who meets the unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga — in the final on Sunday.
Neither Djokovic nor Nadal has lost a set here.
“He’s still my favorite to win the tournament,” Blake said of Federer, explaining that he would only believe Federer was not the favorite after someone had beaten him consistently on hardcourts the way Nadal has on European clay.
For now, Federer is back in his 15th straight Grand Slam semifinal, a record by a wide margin. And his victory against Blake also guaranteed that Nadal, even with the trophy in hand, cannot pass him to become No. 1 in the rankings after this tournament.
Djokovic, who has lost five of six matches to Federer, raised eyebrows this week by referring to Federer’s dominance in the past tense. “The players start to feel that he’s beatable,” he said.
Asked for his reaction, Federer chose to play it cool. “Heard it before and don’t read it anymore, because it’s the same thing over and over again,” he said. “You’re coming here to hopefully do well, and then win the tournament if you’re one of the top 10 guys. That’s reality. That’s nothing new. That’s not cocky. That’s confidence.”
