You get the feeling the preliminaries are now over and that the real Dubai Duty Free tournament will start for Roger Federer in Friday’s semifinals, when he takes on either Gilles Simon or Richard Gasquet.
In the first three rounds Federer faced players he had never played before, which is fairly novel in and of itself, and won all three by similar scores—6-3, 6-3 against Somdev Devvarman and identical 6-3, 6-4 results against Marcel Granollers and Sergiy Stakhovsky, the latest coming in Thursday’s quarterfinals. Each of the matches were between an hour and 10 minutes and an hour and 15 minutes, so Federer has been able to ease back into competition after his semifinal loss to Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open without too much stress.
Federer admitted after Wednesday’s win over Granollers that his mind occasionally wanders, which might explain some sketchy patches against Stakhovsky. Federer lost his serve in the opening game with some sloppy play and, while he was able to immediately break back in the second game, was quickly down 0-40 in his second service game. He then produced his finest moments of the match. After Stakhovsky missed a return to make it 15-40, Federer coolly hit four aces in a row and closed out the game. He eventually broke serve to lead 5-3, and wrapped up the set in 29 minutes.
The second set featured some more erratic play from Federer after he broke serve in the third game, facing break points while serving at 3-2 and then 4-3. In the latter game, Stakhovsky badly missed a forehand return on a second serve, on break point, that could have made matters a little more interesting.
Federer made a clear and concerted attempt to conclude more points with the volley, and while his net approaches worked well for the most part, a superior opponent would have probably had more success with passing shots and posed more of a test. His uneven performance could partly be attributed to Stakhovsky’s rather casual approach to the match. He seemed to be enjoying himself, frequently smiling and not giving the impression he believed he really could win. It may have contributed to Federer losing focus, facing a guy who just seemed to be along for the ride.
Federer has not lost to a player ranked lower than No. 40 since being upset by No. 49 Julien Benneteau at the Paris Masters in November 2009, a span of 21 tournaments. It was unlikely to happen against Devvarman (No. 79), Granollers (No. 53) or Stakhovsky (No. 43), but Simon (33) and Gasquet (28) both have wins over him in the past, and either should provide a tougher test before potentially facing either Novak Djokovic or Tomas Berdych in the final.
—Tom Tebbutt