Federer survives Karlovic 33 aces

By
-

Tough match for Roger Federer in Basel semifinal.

The Maestro doesn’t really like playing Ivo Karlovic even if he has a winning record against him (now 12-1). According to the Swiss, playing Ivo is like having a penalty shoot-out… you just pick a side and you need to be lucky if you want to break him.

Roger won the first set at the tiebreak after saving 2 set points. In the second set Roger was broken in the 8th game after a couple of shanks. That was enough to give the set to Karlovic (6-3). In the third set the key moment was in the 4th game when Ivo served rather poorly (he was almost perfect till that point) to be broken (3-1). Federer did hold serve till the very end to finally win the match 7-6 (8) 3-6 6-3 after 1 hour and 43 minutes.

Karlovic fired 33 aces hitting 50 winners (most of the aces) with 29 unforced errors. Everything for Roger was about taming Ivo’s incredible serve… he did it, but it wasn’t easy.

Federer: He served his best ever against me

Roger acknowledge that Ivo’s service was something out of this world “I think he served his best against me ever,” Federer said. “It was very impressive for how long, how big he served. It was close, I didn’t expect to break anymore in the third set, so I was very happy to get that and then bring it home.”

“I’m unbelievably happy,” Federer added. “I never thought I would be this successful ever at this tournament. So clearly I’m overjoyed and I hope I can play another good match tomorrow and enjoy the final.”

The final vs. Goffin

Roger will play Goffin in the final. The Belgian is having an incredible second part of the season and he will definitely be huge threat for Roger. Head to head is 1-0 for Roger that will try to win this tournament for the 6th time after being the runner-up for the last 2 years (both times defeated by Del Potro).