WIMBLEDON, England – With Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal playing back-to-back for the first time this Wimbledon, ticket holders on Centre Court had good reason to expect a prodigious display of tennis.
And they got it yesterday.
Rocket forehands, grass-cutting slice backhands. Aces. Deft volleys. Crashing overheads. Drop shots. And every other nuance, it seemed, in the repertoires of these two great practitioners.
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Wimbledon | Day 10
Men's quarterfinals: No. 1 Roger Federer def. Mario Ancic; Marat Safin def. No. 31 Feliciano Lopez; No. 2 Rafael Nadal def. No. 12 Andy Murray; Rainer Schuettler vs. Arnaud Clement suspended because of darkness, tied at a set apiece.
Today's women's semifinals: No. 5 Elena Dementieva vs. No. 7 Venus Williams; No. 6 Serena Williams vs. Zheng Jie.
Stat of the day: 0 – number of break points faced by Federer and Nadal in their quarterfinals.
Quote of the day: “I'm surprised I'm still here.” – Safin, after reaching his first Wimbledon semifinal.
TV: Noon, Ch. 7/39; 4 a.m. (Friday), ESPN2.
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At the end of a day that saw only the second and third rain stoppages of the tournament, Federer and Nadal were into the semifinals, one step away from a third consecutive meeting for the championship of this most prestigious of Grand Slams.
Mario Ancic, the 6-foot-5 Croatian who plays serve-and-volley, never had a a chance against Federer, who methodically took him down 6-1, 7-5, 6-4.
Then, on came Nadal amid the hollering and near-hysteria of about 14,000 Britons who were determined to inspire their man, Scotland's Andy Murray, to a monumental upset. It was never close.
Unable to get his first serve in and having almost no reply for Nadal's vastly improved serve, Britain's only hope was steamrollered 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
“His forehand was ridiculous,” said Murray, half in awe, half in frustration when this 1-hour, 55-minute tour de force was in the books.
“He's hitting the ball so close to the line, so hard, that it was difficult for me to get into a rhythm. I felt rushed on every point.
“In the past when I played against him I felt like I had a chance to sort of dictate the rallies because he used to play topspin quite high over the net and the ball was bouncing up a bit.
“But now he's hitting the ball . . . I mean . . . it's amazing how fast he moves his arm and how much control he has over it,” Murray said.
These two performances were so good it was easy to forget, at least in the moment, that two other quarterfinals were played.
Unseeded Marat Safin, undergoing yet another reincarnation here, rallied past Feliciano Lopez 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-1), 6-3, to win a meeting with Federer tomorrow. Two more unseeded players, Rainer Schuettler and Arnaud Clement, had split the opening two sets when darkness dictated a suspension of their match until this afternoon.
The winner, of course, faces Nadal.
Ancic's only hope was to have a hot day serving and an even hotter day volleying. But he doesn't have the combination of service speed and location to force Federer into defensive returns. The five-time Wimbledon champion, getting good looks at many of Ancic's first serves, continually dropped returns inside the service line and at the feet of his onrushing opponent.
Instead of playing serve-and-volley, Ancic was forced to play serve-and-half-volley, and not effectively.
“I played smart today,” said Federer, who hasn't lost on grass since Ancic beat him six years and 65 matches ago. Ancient history.
“I feel so comfortable on this Centre Court that my confidence level is obviously very high,” Federer said after committing only six unforced errors to 40 winners.
As beautifully as Federer played, Nadal played more impressively, and against a more difficult opponent, the No. 12 seed.
Murray is supposed to be among the game's best service returners, but Nadal won 55 of his 65 service points, and Murray never had a break point.
