Great line up for the semis at the 2012 Olympics. We just miss (a lot) Rafa, but Delpo is a very good presence indeed! The Olympic semis will be the 15th chapter of Roger-Delpo rivalry.
FEDERER – ISNER 6-4 7-6 (5)
As many other players, Roger hates playing with tall-huge-serve guys such as Karlovic, Raonic and Isner. Karlovic plays a game of his own with an incredible service, but with below the average groundstrokes. Raonic has great movements and he can be a real star in the near future (he has to mature a bit). Isner struggles with his movements on fast and slippery courts, but he has a great service and a wonderlful volley. The American Giant is almost infallible in tiebreaks (not this time though).
So with Big Johny the rule of the game was not to lose your service and try to put the ball down (possibly with a low “slicy” backhand) and play a rally where Roger on the grass is better than the American. Easy? Well… not really, but the world no.1 managed to do that. Roger got just that crucial break in the 1st set to win it 6-4. The 2nd set was much more even with Isner not conceding a single break point to get to the tiebreak (his speciality). In the first point of the tiebreak Roger got immediately a minibreak with a great backhand passing shot to then being immediately “mini-broken”. The duo went on without losing a single point on their serve till Roger got to a 6-5 lead (and match point!). Time for Big Johny to blast a powerful service that Roger returned with a lucky backhand: the ball touches the net and dies down in the American’s half. Roger gets to the semis.
“I think I am playing my best,” said Federer. “I don’t know if I can play a whole lot better. Overall, I’m extremely happy. Obviously, being in the medal matches, at least I’ll get two shots. That’s why I looked at this match as a final. You can imagine the relief and happiness I feel right now.”
Talking about Isner the Maestro said “I think he’s got a great game. He’s now a solid Top 10, Top 15 player, and I expect him to stay there. He’s got the game to go deep in every tournament he plays every surface. It’s nice to see him improving, but it makes it so much tougher for us facing up against him.”
DEL POTRO – NISHIKORI 6-4 7-6 (4)
It is always nice to see Delpo advancing in important tournaments. This time the Argentine didn’t have an impossible challenge as he confronted a very good player that may be not so at ease on the grass. The Japanese came to the quarters defeating Ferrer (and that was a very nice present for Delpo), but he could not do much against the Tower of Tamil. Delpo won the 1 set squandering an early 2-0 lead to then break again the Japanese and win the opener 6-4. In the second set the Argentine went to serve for the match when he was leading 5-3 to lose his service game and then win the tiebreak at 4. The impression is that Delpo was clearly superior on this surface, but he has to be more carefull not to lose the focus with Federer as he did with the Japanese twice in the match. That can be lethal for him.
Head to Head
Head to Head is 12-2 for Federer. They played only once on grass in the second round of Wimbledon 2007 when Roger won 6-2 7-5 6-1.
This year they have already played 5 times. Roger won all matches, without dropping a set with the exception of the Roland Garros where the Swiss had to recover a 0-2 sets down deficit.
