“It’s a privilege to be there,” he commented at the start of The Championships. “I was trying to think how many times I've played there now. I don't know. I know it's been often. Still every time it feels like it's a special occasion.”
And yet the No.2 seemed awfully keen to make his latest visit to the court a quick one, the Swiss star taking just an hour and 25 minutes to defeat Roberto Bautista Agut 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 to move into the Wimbledon quarter-finals for a 13th time.
“It was nice to play a baseliner after two big servers. I did a nice job making the transition,” said Federer, who overcame Sam Querrey and Sam Groth in the previous rounds.
Clearly I felt I had more time on the return (and was) still able to play aggressive tennis, committed on the return as well. It was a good match. I got off to a good start and kept rolling.”
That’s something of an understatement for a man who played such statement tennis.
Federer’s masterful efficiency was most evident in the 21-minute first set, where the No.2 seed dropped just two points on his own serve. With the winners flowing, Federer secured his first break point in the fifth game and his next in the seventh, closing out the set by winning five consecutive games.
The second set started in similar style, Federer easily holding serve and claiming his seventh game in a row with another service break. Bautista Agut’s struggles intensified when he suffered a heavy fall as Federer served in the sixth game. After treatment for an ankle injury, the Spaniard – who hadn’t won a set against Federer in two previous outings – had little hope of reversing the one-sided result.
“Obviously maybe Roberto wasn't at his very best,” Federer conceded. “Still, he was out there and he was actually still moving okay, so I had to put him away, which I was able to do.”
The numbers told a pleasing story for the prolific champion, who hit 38 winners compared to 14 from Bautista Agut and recorded six less errors than his opponent’s 18. There were also seven aces, adding to a remarkable statistic of Federer having held serve for more than 100 games, his last such complication occurring against Philipp Kohlschreiber in the opening round of Halle.
“I’ve got things figured out at the moment,” said Federer. “Clearly having the extra week helped me be perfectly prepared for Wimbledon. So I think less question marks going into this tournament.”
If there was one disappointment in his fourth round – aside from Bautista Agut’s – it was for the enraptured fans who would have loved to see more of the history-making champion at his free-flowing best. Fortunately he’s playing a style of tennis that suggests there will be many more Centre Court outings yet.
“It's been a good run now. I'm happy to be back in the quarters here,” he said. “This is really when it gets much more interesting, when you can look ahead a little bit without doing that too much because obviously your opponents are going to get tougher and tougher.”
The next one is Gilles Simon, who Federer has defeated five times in seven meetings. None of those matches have occurred on grass, making him understandably wary of the Frenchman, who advanced with an upset of Tomas Berdych.
“I'm not going to look further than Simon who has caused me difficulties in the past. I played him tough in some of the majors, Australia, French Open, we played five sets both times there. That's my focus really right now,” he said.
Still, as the man who holds the Open era record for most career grass court titles –with 15 of 86 titles won on this surface – Federer can reasonably target more success in his most successful Slam and the pleasing awareness that a dozen years after claiming his first Wimbledon title, he can still produce his awe-inspiring best.
“It's definitely been a good run here and Halle,” he said. “I hope to keep it up.”
No comments:
Post a Comment