The Djoker and the King; Roger Federer takes on Novak Djokovic in the semifinal
The semifinal of the ATP Tour Championships, the semifinal of the US Open, the semifinals of both the Shanghai and Toronto Masters, and the final of the Basel Open are all the matches Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic played against
each other in 2010. All of them were on hard courts in major tournaments and they were all important matches. Two players of such a high calibre rarely meet in matches less momentous, but it is their very level of play that makes important matches so memorable.
In all their meetings last year, except at the US Open, Federer came out on top. Two of those victories came in straight sets, including the most recent one at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Based on just that, the upcoming
semifinal at the 2011 Australian Open should be an easy victory for Federer.
In the real world though, it is almost never quite that simple. During their last meeting at the Rod Laver Arena, back in 2008, Djokovic swept aside Federer in the semifinals on his way to the trophy. The score that night was 7-5,
6-3, 7-6, and many a Federer fan cringes at the memory of that encounter. This statistic loses value when one considers that three years have passed since then, but there is one important point to take from it. Novak Djokovic has a winning record against the
King at grand slam semifinals. Moreover, not just games lost in antiquity, but also the one at the 2010 US Open.
When weighing the odds for the upcoming encounter, one needs to consider that particular match carefully. It was a match that Federer had well in hand; he was leading two sets to one when Djokovic bulldozed him 6-2 in the fourth
set and then continued on to take the match 5-7, 6-1, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5. While the comeback by the Djoker was heroic and very much to his credit, Federer dropped the level of his game quite a lot as he succumbed to his opponent’s onslaught. He gave several more
break point opportunities than he received in return, his serving progressively got worse and his game generally became full of holes that Djokovic exploited.
What this shows is that Federer has had the tendency to succumb to pressure in grand slams, at least since last year. Going out, almost unthinkably, in the quarters twice at Wimbledon and Roland Garros and then in the semis at
the Arthur Ashe stadium, last year was his worst in recent memory, as far as grand slams are concerned. The question that must be raised is that will Roger Federer, like last year, fall to the pressure that playing a world class opponent in a grand slam brings
on?
Even if the pressure fails to affect him, the game on his hands is tough enough. Novak Djokovic is on fire. He dismantled Tomas Berdych in the quarters, has lost only one set in the entire tournament and has been playing the best
tennis of his life. His movement has been wonderful, his ground strokes have become stronger than ever and best of all, his serve has improved to unprecedented levels. Federer has struggled in the tournament somewhat, almost going out to Gilles Simon in the
second round. However, as is his wont, his play improved drastically in the quarters. All of last year, that sudden jump up in quality was the missing ingredient. In the game against Stanislas Wawrinka, we saw all the elements of the Federer of old, the man
who has taken the game of tennis to a whole new level. If Federer can reproduce the kind of game-play he exhibited then, Novak Djokovic must fight very hard indeed to match him and that is just the type of situation that produces memorable tennis.
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