For Federer fanatics, you’d have to say that their man’s 7-6 (2), 6-4 victory over Robin Soderling in the Madrid quarters was vintage stuff. Federer withstood an onslaught of big hitting by the Swede—whose first service game comprised of two forehand winners followed by two aces—and seized his opportunities to push his record to 16-1 against Soderling.
The opening set was on serve at 5-4 for Federer when Soderling had to save two set points with a big forehand and an ace. That game went to deuce five times and Federer won three points in it with drop shots to the Soderling forehand, exposing his difficulty in dealing with them because of his extreme grip and his questionable court speed. In Soderling’s next service game, he saved one more set point in a rally that forced him to overcome some bad bounces, before finishing it off with an angled forehand volley winner.
The ensuing tiebreak began ominously for the Swede. Federer belted a gutsy overhead winner from near the baseline on the first point and quickly got a 3-0, two mini-break lead when Soderling made a pair of unforced errors off the ground. He went on to win the tiebreak, 7-2, and could have been up early in the second set, but Soderling saved double break point in the third game with an ace and some aggressive hitting.
Federer returned the favor in the sixth game. Trailing by double break point at 2-3, he hit a forehand winner and benefited from a long forehand miss by Soderling after a somewhat frenzied, hard-hitting exchange. That brought a loud, guttural “C’mon!” from the usually silent Swiss.
The ultimate shift in the match came with Soderling serving at 4-all. He double-faulted at 30-15 and two points later gave up the crucial break after a net cord that fell over for Federer and some nifty shotmaking by the world No. 3—a forehand drop shot to the Soderling backhand followed by a backhand volley winner into the open court. Federer served out the match on four points to wrap it up in an hour and 42 minutes.
Federer backed off the drop shots for most of the second set, relying on some solid serving and his ability to match Soderling from the baseline, while drawing just enough errors to make the difference. Federer’s winners to unforced errors ratio was 24 to 27. Soderling was 22 to 35.
Since saving a match point against Lopez in Wednesday’s opening round, Federer has looked sharper in each outing, something that had needed to happen for him to have any chance of making things competitive in Saturday’s semifinal with Rafael Nadal. His last match against Nadal was a 6-3, 6-2 manhandling by the Spaniard in Miami. Hopefully, he will not again exhibit the downcast demeanor of that occasion. After all, what has he got to lose?
—Tom Tebbutt