Roger Federer had his game face on against Jurgen Melzer in the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters on Friday. He scored a 6-1, 7-6 (4) win over the No. 12-ranked Austrian, and reached the semifinals at the indoor event for the first time. It took just an hour and 10 minutes and there was a sense that finishing as fast as possible was important. If he wins against either Andy Murray or Gael Monfils on Saturday, Federer will have played the maximum number of matches at his four post-U.S. Open events—19 of a possible 19—after losing the Shanghai final and winning Stockholm and Basel. By contrast, Rafael Nadal is 10 of a possible 14 matches since Flushing Meadows, Novak Djokovic is 16 of 20 and Andy Murray stood at 13 of 18 going into Friday’s quarterfinals.
So the older Federer, 29, has to be feeling at least a little weary, even if it doesn’t show. His determination to close out the match in straights was most obvious when he made a successful mid-point challenge on a Melzer forehand in the 11th game of the second set. When the ball was shown to be wide by the slimest of margins, Melzer smiled and looked at his opponent, incredulous that Federer was hawk-eyed enough to have the gall to stop play on such a ridiculously close call. But Federer would not engage him; he was ready for the next point.
Federer was probably so vigilant because there was real danger after such a one-sided opening set. Melzer picked up his serving and began hitting the kind of big groundstrokes, mainly forehands, that did so much damage against Nadal last month (Melzer upset the world No. 1 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 at the Shanghai Masters). He survived a break point with a well-hit serve at 3-3, and once in the tiebreak, blasted consecutive forehand service return winners to go ahead by a mini-break at 2-1. Federer immediately got it back when a mishit forehand passing shot landed good, much to Melzer’s dismay, leveling the breaker at 2-2.
Matters proceeded on serve to 4-all, when a desperation backhand passing shot by Federer hung lazily over the net, waiting for Melzer to kill it. But he botched his forehand volley into the net. A pair of good serves by Federer and he had the victory, while Melzer had only a bent racquet frame in his hand, the result of an angry smash on the court after match point.
While it was not as straightforward as yesterday's 6-4, 6-3 win over Stepanek, Federer ironically had the same winners to unforced errors ratio as the previous day—33 to 13.
In the ongoing, and never-ending, numbers rivalry with Nadal, a win in Saturday’s semifinal will mean Federer has been a finalist in all nine Masters Series events. The Spaniard currently falls one short—he has never been in the Cincinnati final.
—Tom Tebbutt