With a swollen knee, bruised ego and a recurring question in his head about how it went wrong, Roger Federer limped home, shoved on his way by a man with a missile for an arm and a Wimbledon final on his mind.
And who would now wager against that guy, Milos Raonic, when he has the tennis equivalent of a puncher’s chance and plenty of skill to go with the knockout power?
This win was about all that and yet so much more, namely the 25-year-old’s ability to not blink in front of a crowd that spent the better part of three and a half hours calling for the other bloke. That is a fine skill that could yet come in handy against Andy Murray on Sunday, as is an apparent willingness to be the wrecker of dreams and fairytales.
This was meant to be Federer’s day, and Federer’s crusade to do at 34 what used to come so naturally. Instead, in a wonderfully dramatic five-set match on Centre Court, Raonic came of age and Federer showed his.
The mystery of how Raonic did it is not easy to solve, particularly for Federer, who fought back from losing the first set to take the second and third. But from a position of comfort in the fourth he unravelled dramatically and Raonic finds himself in a first Slam final.
‘It's an incredible comeback for me,’ Raonic said. ‘I was struggling but I managed to turn it around and played a really good match.
‘It's such a great feeling to be giving myself a chance to play in my first final.’
Raonic was still grinning hours later, having overcome the man and myth in front of him. He added: ‘Playing Roger, you know he has the most decorated achievements and successes in tennis, more than anybody by a good amount at this point.
‘But you're playing who Roger is today, not who he's been the past few years. So you try to focus in on that and what you need to do, try not to spend too much time and attention thinking about him.’
It was a trick of the mind that worked a treat for the player mentored by John McEnroe.
For Federer, there was only confusion. He tried numerous times to explain what happened before conceding he was simply ‘angry’ with himself.
‘It’s something I want to forget about,’ he said. ‘He deserved it. He earned it at the end. But I helped him so much to get back into that game.
‘This one clearly hurts because I felt I could have had it. It was so close. It was really so, so close. It clearly hurts.’
The raw facts are that the seven-time winner of this tournament was going along smoothly. His play in the third and fourth sets was quite brilliant, with Raonic booming down serves at upwards of 140mph but Federer getting almost everything back.
His play was so consistently good that in the second and third sets combined he made only three unforced errors. And then, in the fourth set, it went so horribly wrong. The chances he normally takes stopped being taken; the break points kept being missed.
Crucially, he led 15-40 at 2-2 and 30-40 at 4-4. But he didn’t take any of those three chances and then, somehow, blew it from 40-0 up at 5-6. Raonic broke and with it took the set. A match that was in Federer’s hands was level and then worse, with him requiring treatment on his right knee before the decider.
From there, Federer tripped to the ground at 2-1 down and needed more medical help. He was broken in that game and never got back.
This win was about all that and yet so much more, namely the 25-year-old’s ability to not blink in front of a crowd that spent the better part of three and a half hours calling for the other bloke. That is a fine skill that could yet come in handy against Andy Murray on Sunday, as is an apparent willingness to be the wrecker of dreams and fairytales.
This was meant to be Federer’s day, and Federer’s crusade to do at 34 what used to come so naturally. Instead, in a wonderfully dramatic five-set match on Centre Court, Raonic came of age and Federer showed his.
The mystery of how Raonic did it is not easy to solve, particularly for Federer, who fought back from losing the first set to take the second and third. But from a position of comfort in the fourth he unravelled dramatically and Raonic finds himself in a first Slam final.
‘It's such a great feeling to be giving myself a chance to play in my first final.’
Raonic was still grinning hours later, having overcome the man and myth in front of him. He added: ‘Playing Roger, you know he has the most decorated achievements and successes in tennis, more than anybody by a good amount at this point.
‘But you're playing who Roger is today, not who he's been the past few years. So you try to focus in on that and what you need to do, try not to spend too much time and attention thinking about him.’
It was a trick of the mind that worked a treat for the player mentored by John McEnroe.
For Federer, there was only confusion. He tried numerous times to explain what happened before conceding he was simply ‘angry’ with himself.
‘It’s something I want to forget about,’ he said. ‘He deserved it. He earned it at the end. But I helped him so much to get back into that game.
‘This one clearly hurts because I felt I could have had it. It was so close. It was really so, so close. It clearly hurts.’
The raw facts are that the seven-time winner of this tournament was going along smoothly. His play in the third and fourth sets was quite brilliant, with Raonic booming down serves at upwards of 140mph but Federer getting almost everything back.
His play was so consistently good that in the second and third sets combined he made only three unforced errors. And then, in the fourth set, it went so horribly wrong. The chances he normally takes stopped being taken; the break points kept being missed.
Crucially, he led 15-40 at 2-2 and 30-40 at 4-4. But he didn’t take any of those three chances and then, somehow, blew it from 40-0 up at 5-6. Raonic broke and with it took the set. A match that was in Federer’s hands was level and then worse, with him requiring treatment on his right knee before the decider.
From there, Federer tripped to the ground at 2-1 down and needed more medical help. He was broken in that game and never got back.
No comments:
Post a Comment