Roger Federer and Kevin Anderson will be going head-to-head for the fifth time in their careers when they battle for a place in the Wimbledon semifinals on Wednesday.
All four of their previous encounters have gone the way of Federer, who is 8-0 in total sets against Anderson and has never even been pushed to a tiebreaker. The two veterans have not faced each other since 2015, when the Swiss prevailed 6-3, 7-5 on the red clay of Rome and 6-1, 6-1 on the hard courts of Cincinnati.
It is no surprise that they are finally meeting again in this setting, the quarterfinals a the All-England Club. Federer, of course, is an eight-time champion of Wimbledon with a 96-11 lifetime record. The current world No. 2 did drop a single set en route to last year’s title and he has not come close to doing so this fortnight. Federer punched his ticket to the last eight by soundly defeating Dusan Lajovic, Lukas Lacko, Jan-Lennard Struff, and Adrian Mannarino.
Anderson is an all-court player whose best Grand Slam result has come at the U.S. Open (2017 runner-up), but he is perhaps most dangerous on grass. This marks the eighth-ranked South African’s fourth appearance in the Wimbledon second week (all in the last five years) and first trip to the quarterfinals. Anderson, who is a stellar 27-10 this season, has not lost at Wimbledon in less than five sets since 2014–to Andy Murray in the fourth round.
“One of my many goals was to try to get a personal-best achievement here,” Anderson commented. “(I have) lost in the round of 16 a few times…. I can definitely feel good about making it through to the last eight here for the first time.
“I am really looking forward to [the quarterfinal against Federer]. Obviously it will be a tough challenge. I think it’s a pretty exciting opportunity to play Federer here at Wimbledon.”
It may be a memorable moment for the underdog, but it probably won’t be fun while it is actually in progress. Federer has been absolutely trouncing people and he has always been known to raise his level even higher in the latter stages of big tournaments when the competition level ratchets up–which it does in the form of Anderson. A couple of sets could be competitive because of Anderson’s serving prowess, but the 36-year-old should not have too much trouble improving to 5-0 in this matchup.
Pick: Federer in 3 with at least one tiebreaker
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At the expense of sounding bitter, I find it hard to believe all these good wishes for Fed fans are genuine. When he’s a threat and alive in the tournament, there’s non-stop talk about PED, rigged draws, rigged organizers favoring him with roof closures, only winning in a weak era, him being arrogant etc. All these are used to attack Federer fans. Now that he is out of the tournament and not a threat, it’s so easy to be empathetic. It’s kinda like the Ferguson-Wenger rivalry in soccer. They’d hate each other when Arsenal were winning. The moment Arsenal stopped being a threat, Ferguson would talk in gushed tones about him.
P.S. I’m not merely ranting. As for Federer, I did expect Cilic to do what Anderson did today and was hoping Federer would somehow sneak through, but it was not to be. His overall level of play ground strokes wise was not very high in the pre-tourneys and this tournament itself. I don’t see a reason to change the Djokovic pick though.
As a matter of fact, you do sound bitter. What are we supposed to say? Should we gloat? No matter what we say, it’s no good. I don’t see anyone piling on here. I can’t say the same when Rafa loses.
Should I take back my commiserations? Okay, I take it back. Does that make you feel better? Rafa fans have had to read post after post about how inevitable it was that Fed would win, how Rafa would be humiliated if he faced Fed. There is a lot I could have said here after Fed’s loss, but I did not see any reason to do it.
NNY, Fedfan doesn’t speak for all of us don’t worry. At least not for me lol
Also, whoever said Fed would “humiliate Rafa” also does not represent the majority of the Fed fanbase. Any reasonable Fed fan (or any fan) would have expected a classic similar to that of Wimby 2008 or AO 2017 had Fedal met in the final.
No one’s asking you to gloat. There’s other ways to having a conversation than gloating or insulting all the time. The tone here usually is “he is on drugs”, “he’s a fake”, “he’s won in a weak era” to “Aww, I feel sorry for your loss”. I mean you can’t yo-yo between such extremes. Discussing a players level of play can be done without always implying malice.
And if you’ve followed tennis for a while, I don’t think any sane tennis follower is likely to say Fed will humiliate Rafa given their respective styles of play and their matchup and history. New people starting following the sport every year, and for them maybe the Federer nadal rivalry has always been like 2017, when it clearly hasn’t been the case.
Hawkeye is the only one here who’s ever said anything about Fed using PEDs. And that’s to get back at all the Fedfans (NONE of whom post here to my knowledge) who have accused Rafa of using since he first appeared on tour. Way too many tennis fans seem to get ego boosts when their favorite wins, like they had something to do with it. And some of them just can’t stand it when their fave loses (or even has a tough match in some cases) and start blaming him (I’m as big an offender as anyone, I just don’t post about it). The players, on average, do SO MUCH BETTER than their fans. They’ve learned to win and lose and it’s all between “friends” for the most part. They like and respect most of their opponents.