Serena out. Sorry my dear.
Roger in the semis. Twenty straight semis. Unbelievable.
Yes, and I believe he has not been absent from any major, making that 20 straight semis AND 20 straight played Grand Slam tournaments, which is rather rare itself.
Federer hasn’t missed a major since 1999. He lost in qualifying for the US Open that year and I don’t know if that counts as missing the event. If that counts, he’s played in every slam since the 1999 Australian Open.
But the 20 straight semifinals is amazing and that’s going to be one of those amazing records that people never talk about very much. Making a semi isn’t as impressive as winning, but to make 20 in a row (winning 11, or 12 if he does it here) is a stunning level of consistency. Sampras won a hell of a lot of slam events but because of his poor showings in Paris, he never made more than three in a row. The old record was 10!
Knew I shouldn’t have posted about Murray! Who can I jinx now? Hmm… Fed’s looking shaky, don’t really rate him on clay ;).
Yes the 20 semis record is utterly amazing. Anyone know what the next best is? Nadal’s early exit here is a good indicator of how difficult it is to perform consistently in grand slams year after year.
If Federer reaches the final he will equal Lendl’s record for the most grand slam finals:19. And of course if he wins he will equal the 14 grand slam titles of Sampras.
Someone earlier said the next best was 10. My guess was that this had to be Ivan Lendl, and sure enough, second is Ivan Lendl with 10, and third is ALSO Ivan Lendl with 6.
Lendl was a badass.
Safina is through to the final again!! This is going to be her year. She isn’t quite completely over her head issues, but she has had a good run lately. I don’t think it will be an easy match, Kuznetsova is a fierce competitor.
I wonder if Marat will be there to cheer Dinara on. I don’t think I have ever seen him at one of her matches before. Then again, I don’t know that she goes to his matches either.
It was great to see Monfils fall apart against Federer. I just don’t care for his on court antics. I have no doubt he will mature and grow out of it, Andy Murray seems to be, but for now, I just don’t like him.
The Open has been fun this year. Very unpredictable.
Agreed. I will take exception to his tactics, though. Anybody who lubes up a ball pre-serve by mopping it through his sweaty hair is a jerk.
Are you just talking about the Men? I would imagine that Evert, Navratilova, or Graf would have to be in that neighborhood.
Even Margaret Court had quite a run back in the 60’s. Of course, skipping the Aussie Open was more common years ago than it is now.
Lendl skipped Wimbledon a couple times, citing allergies to grass. And then he went and played golf. :dubious:
FTR, Lendl has two daughters playing amateur golf. And ranked too!
Great interview with Lendl.
Court’s best semi-final sequence was 9 between 1969 and 1971.
Evert reached 11 consecutive semis in the period 1980-1982, and another 12 off the reel between 1983 and 1986. Graf surpassed this with 15 successive appearances from 1987 to 1990.
Navratilova betters Graf’s efforts by reaching 18 semi-finals hand running, starting in 1983 and ending in 1988. She made every final from the French in 1984 to the US in 1987, a total of 14 on the trot.
Kuznetsova can also be mentally weak at times. I think this is Safina’s time. The depth she gets on her shots is terrific.
That IS a great interview. I have a soft spot in my heart for athletes who just go out and play the damned game without always having a clever thing to say to the media afterwards.
Soderling escapes Gonzalez in five sets! He won the first two, then dropped three and four and was down 0-3 in the fifth, so I thought he was giving it away under pressure. But it seems like he’s really put it all together this time and he’s got a chance to win it and not just be remembered for a flukey win over Nadal.
The final was 6-3, 7-5, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4 to the 23 seed.
Federer is up next.
Following the Fed match online and it appears to be a very odd match. I really want to see Fed get one more!
Looks like Federer is up a break in the 5th, but the IBM FO site is kinda oogly so I can’t be certain.
ETA: Now I’m certain. Del Potro serving to stay in the match at 3-5.
How on earth did Fed lose the third set 6-2 then take the fourth 6-1?
Fed serving for the match!
Fed wins! Fed wins! Everybody who picked Federer-Soderling in the final, please collect your bets!
That’s tennis- you never know how or why a match is going to turn around. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen one player do poorly, come very close to losing his serve, play a game to a couple of deuces, and then you think “well, he nearly lost, and he’ll lose the next one for sure.” But instead he breaks the other gut at love and serves out the set.
Yes, but that’s tennis between human players*. Federer isn’t human.
*I fondly remember Boris Becker’s last win at Wimbledon, in… 1995, maybe? He was in the semi-final against Agassi, and getting trounced. I think he was down two sets and down a break in the third… and Agassi had been playing well all tournament and had just won the Australian. I was sure Becker was done, but he made by far the most amazing comeback I’ve ever seen in tennis (and maybe in any sport).
I should have taken the 4/3.