That was a very difficult match for Roger Federer!
The Maestro started in great fashion showing amazing tennis till he was on a 2-2 score-line against Tsonga. Then the Swiss disappeared to lose the opener 6-2 with the Frenchman at his very best. In the second set Roger wasted an incredible amount of break points. Federer was then rather close to defeat when he was 0-30 4-5 down on his serve to eventually manage to bring the set at the breaker. The tiebreak was another drama. Roger squandered a 6-3 lead (2 sets point were on his serve) to finally win 8-6. Then game over. Jo disappeared and Roger won the decider 6-1. Final Result 2-6 7-6 (8) 6-1.
The most incredible stuff was the lousy break point conversion for Roger that broke Jo only twice on 19 break points (!!!) while Tsonga broke Federer twice on 4 break points. Match Stats
Roger: I was calm the entire match.
Federer commented “The confidence is there. I played well from the baseline. My serve was consistent. I’m very happy that I have this foundation for my game. Sometimes you feel you have no foundation. But having it helped me to remain very calm during the whole match. I really believed that eventually I was going to come through. It’s not possible to go through that many break points. I was playing good enough to make the break and then serve my way home. That’s exactly kind of what happened.”
Next vs. Djokovic
Roger will play Nole in the semifinals. Head to head is 17-16 for Roger, 3-3 on clay.
