Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal inched closer to highly-anticipated title match at the Swiss Indoors Basel on Friday, but neither one did it the easy way. A disgruntled Federer even incurred a ball-abuse warning during his loss of the second set to David Goffin.
The 34-year-old Swiss ultimately got the best of Goffin 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
“I know David quite well, even though we’ve only played three times now,” Federer commented. “He came to Dubai last year and we practiced together. I knew what he could do, so I wasn’t surprised in the match today when he was returning easily, taking the ball on the rise and distributing it left and right with the forehand. We found great rhythm in the second set and in the third it was up to me.”
Nadal fought back from a set and a break down to beat Marin Cilic 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
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Somebody will soon make up a story that Fed whacked the ball into the crowd BECAUSE he was distracted “by their oohs and aahs.”
(Like Mr. Steve T. made up a story that Fed yelled “Shut up!” to the crowd during the French Open BECAUSE he was distracted “by their oohs and aahs” – i.e. because of their worship!).
LOL
I was intrigued by the eerie similarity between his matches on Thursday and Friday. Both men pushed him hard, disrupted his rhythm and caused him to lose his cool. Both evenings he served poorly (by his standards) and leaked UEs for two sets – shocking the spectators into stunned silence. However, with a frenzied crowd urging him on, he mounted a late comeback with a dramatic improvement in his serve to pip Kolbi in the closing stages on Thursday and grind Goffin into the ground last night.