Friday, August 15, 2014

Federer marches through the draw in Cincy




Roger is once again into the semifinals of a Masters 1000 tournament.  Wow, what a year this has been so far for our 33-year-old hero.  He has the most wins of anyone at this point for 2014 (including having more wins already than he had all of last year) as well as having the most top 10 wins.  He continues to have such a passion for the game, fighting through when he's down, finding ways to turn things around.  He has played a lot of three set matches lately when his levels drops a little but he is finding a way to win once again.

His match against Andy Murray certainly looked like it was going to go three sets when he got down not one but two breaks in the second set, making too many errors as Murray lifted his level.  But he didn't give up and when he got one break back he believed he still had a chance in the set.  Being that Murray is struggling a bit with his level, he let Roger back in and he not only got both breaks back, but broke again to win the match.  Even though he said he felt like he stole the second set, we'll take it!

He now plays an in form Milos Raonic in the semis, who he has a 5-0 head-to-head against.  They unfortunately have the late night match, which will probably start at 9 p.m. or after.  This is what happened to him in Toronto also, so if he makes the final he will have a quick turn-around after a late night, plus very different conditions of play in the daytime.  But even though he has admitted to being tired, he knows the end is in sight with a rest next week before the U.S. Open.  If he can pull off a win again, hopefully his experience last week in Toronto will help him be able to deal with the different day-night conditions, and knowing he will be able to have some rest will hopefully keep him pushing through.  If not, all the more rest for him before the last grand slam of the year.  Regardless of how the next match goes, he has done tremendously, to get this far in two huge tournaments against quality opponents.  It's so encouraging to see a healthy Roger for 2014!

No comments: