NEW YORK, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Five-times champion Roger Federer weathered a mighty Swedish storm before beating 12th seed Robin Soderling 6-0 6-3 6-7 7-6 to reach the semi-finals of the U.S. Open on Wednesday.
Gusting winds and the magic of Federer threw Soderling off course in a first set that flashed by in just 25 minutes.
Soderling won his first game of the contest to hold for 1-1 in the second and by the third set he had warmed up and fought back from 0-4 down in the tiebreak to snatch it 8-6.
The Swede, who had lost all 11 of his previous encounters against the world number one, had a set point to stretch the contest into a fifth set but Federer kept his eye on the ball to secure victory at 12.09 am local time.
Federer extended his own incredible record by reaching his 22nd consecutive grand slam semi-final and will take on fourth seed Novak Djokovic for a place in Sunday's showpiece.
Source: reuters.com
There's that #9 again! (see previous post on 09/09/09), unlike for Japan though it turned out to be lucky for Roger. But what a close one!.
I honestly thought we were headed for a fifth set. In which case who knows what would have happened.
But thankfully Roger being the champ that he is spared all his fans that particular drama and clinched it just in time.
Good thing too, any longer and I wouldn't have had any nails left *lol*.
Little too close for comfort, but at least the crowd got their money's worth.
Huge credit to Soderling for really picking up his game and making all the Fed fans sweat.
So it'll be Djokovic and RFed again in the semis.
Should be another interesting match. And with the way Djokovic is playing another possible challenge for the defending champion.
With a possible meeting between Federer and Nadal in the final he's certainly got his work cut out for him.
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