One hopes, for his sake, Roger Federer does not have nightmares about squandered forehands, for it was this shot — his great, majestic forehand — which cost him any chance of beating his great Grand Slam nemesis Rafael Nadal in the semifinal of the Australian Open here at Melbourne Park.
Nadal, who has not lost to Federer in a Slam since the Wimbledon final of 2007, prevailed yet again, winning a match of mood swings and tactical changeups 6-7 (5), 6-2, 7-6 (5), 6-4 in just under four hours.
Federer ended up with 36 forehand errors. More than the total, it was the timing of those missed forehands that cost him so dearly. The whole match started to unravel for him when he lost four consecutive points with forehands that floated long or wide while dropping serve to give Nadal a 5-2 lead in the second set.
Then we had the traditional interruption for fireworks because this is Australia Day and the distraction is such that play stops for almost 15 minutes. When it resumed, it was Nadal who came bouncing back onto court before his subdued opponent and reeled off 11 straight points. Psychologically, it was a setback from which Federer never properly recovered.
That is not to say he did not try. Knowing that he had to take the attack to Nadal, Federer tried to rediscover the touch and timing he had displayed in the first four games of the match, which he won with a brand of tennis that left the many ex-players sprinkled around the Rod Laver Arena — including the man himself — shaking their heads in disbelief.
There had been sweeping backhand cross winners, volley placements, drop shots and, yes, forehand winners down the line that left Nadal standing. But it was too good to last. Nadal broke back with a great cross pass of his own, and, in the end, Federer was happy to escape with the set, edging ahead in their career tiebreaker record 10-9.
By the time they played the second breaker, Nadal was so much in charge that he raced to a 6-1 lead. To his credit, Federer found a way to save four consecutive set points, the third with a smash and the fourth with an ace. But at 6-5, Nadal stretched him on the forehand side and he netted.
Down two sets to one, Federer was flying in the face of history. The man winning the third set in a best-of-five contest has always gone on to win when these two meet, and so it proved once again.
But it could have been different. At 4-4, Federer, pressing all the time and trying to get to the net whenever he could, reached break point. The ball sat up in his left-hand court; he moved his feet well enough and got in position for the off forehand put away. And then hit it a foot out of court. If that doesn’t haunt him, nothing will.
Previously, the forehands had been missing, time and again, by inches as they clipped the tape because the Swiss was hitting the ball flat, knowing that this was his only chance of getting a shot out of the reach of an indefatigable opponent whose lunging elasticity continually drew gasps from the crowd.
Even when Nadal broke and served for the match, Federer was not quite done. Twice, he reached break-back point. But on one, Nadal made yet another eye-popping get way behind his baseline, throwing up a lob that landed right at Federer’s feet. But, taking the smash off the bounce, Federer curled it wide and another chance was gone.
Fittingly, it was a wayward forehand that cost him the second match point.
“I’m always going to miss forehands because I have to go after the ball,” he said afterward. “I hit the ball flatter than Rafa, so it’s always going to happen. I thought he played well from start to finish, doing a good job of getting a lot of balls back and staying in the points.”
Needless to say Nadal was well satisfied.
“Even in first game of second set, when he broke while playing with the wind in his favor, I felt my level was close to his,” Nadal said. “It was very important to have break back immediately.”
Nadal then revealed a pre-match plan that worked.
“When I started to play my game, I had chances to move him,” he said. “Didn’t want to play all the time to his backhand, as I have in the past. I really wanted to do that before the match. In London (where Nadal had lost in straight sets in the ATP Finals), he was very inside the court and very difficult to move. Even at Roland Garros (where Nadal beat him in the final), he was inside and aggressive. But this time, I played to his forehand, too. And, in my opinion, it worked well.”
Federer was more relaxed and philosophical about this defeat than he has been at times in the past. Asked how he kept his equilibrium in moments like this he answered with a little smile: “You look at the fact that you haven’t lost for five months or something. It’s not that bad. Don’t feel too sorry for me. It’s been one of the most successful tournaments in my life here. It’s the ninth time straight I am in the semifinals. Clearly, I’m disappointed. The important thing is the reaction from here. Start planning other trips and have a good reaction like I did after the US Open.”
