Roger Federer edges past Juan Martin Del Potro into the final – London Olympics
Top seed, Roger Federer of Switzerland, reached the Olympics Gold Medal match in Singles for the first time in his career by overcoming Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro in an epic semi-final in Friday.
Federer fought back after losing the first set to win the longest match by duration in the history of Olympics tennis with a score line of 3-6, 7-6(5), 19-17 in four hours and 26 minutes.
There was no break of serve in the opening seven games of the match, taking the score to 4-3 in favour of Del Potro. The Argentinean managed to secure breakthrough in the eighth and capitalised on it to win 6-3.
Del Potro and Federer put on a brilliant display of serves in the second set, as they did not allow each other to break even once till the end, levelling the score at 6-6 and taking it to a tie-breaker. The Swiss Maestro pocketed
four of the first five points to go up 4-1 and then made the most of his lead to grab it 7-6(5).
There was an epic battle between both players in the decider, as they did not drop their serve in the first 18 games to square off the proceedings at 9-9. As it was the final set of the match, that is why there was no tie-breaker
rule. Federer succeeded in hitting a blow to the Argentinean in the 19th game but he lost his following serve to love, equalling the score at 10-10. None of the two players managed to strike in the following 14 and took the score to 17-17. At last,
the Swiss Maestro claimed breakthrough in the 35th game and served it out to win 19-17.
As Federer was serving second in the final set, he was continuously under pressure to stay in contention. Talking to the reporters during the post match conference, the 17-time Grand Slam champion said, “I'm extremely drained from
serving against a match so many times, basically being down in the score for the entire match except the one time where I served for it.”
The Swiss star praised his Argentinean rival by saying, "The level of play throughout was amazing, especially from Juan Martin. I've never seen him play so well, to be honest, from start to finish, particularly on grass. He should
be very proud of his performance.”
Federer will take on the home favourite, Andy Murray, in the Gold Medal match. The Swiss legend defeated Murray in the Wimbledon final four weeks back on these same grass courts of the All England Club. The 30-year-old is bidding
to capture the only laurel missing from his career by winning the Gold Medal here.
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