The round-robin phase of the ATP World Tour Finals has worked out ideally for Roger Federer: three matches played, three matches won, zero sets lost. After a 7-6 (5), 6-3 win over Robin Soderling on Thursday, his games-won to games-lost is a dominating 37-20.
Soderling came out clubbing the ball as hard as he could, trying to rattle Federer. But the Swede couldn't keep it up, losing his serve in the third game. For a minute, it looked as if the match might turn into another Federer romp, akin to the Swiss' 6-1, 6-1 drubbing of Soderling five weeks ago in Shanghai. It wasn't to be, though—Federer started his service game at 4-3 with a double fault and eventually lost it by over-hitting a forehand.
In the ensuing tiebreak, Federer took an early mini-break lead after a patented inside-out forehand (preceded by a weary Soderling chasing balls madly from side-to-side). It was soon 6-4, but Soderling had new life after a Federer forehand caught the net. Soderling appeared to have pushed matters to 6-all when he drilled an inside-out forehand of his own that Federer barely got to. Still, he reached it, looping a high, lame-looking backhand pass through the middle. Fatally, Soderling choose to let it go. It landed in, ending up a set that could have gotten much more complicated for Federer.
A competitive second set went on serve until Soderling held the ball at 3-4. There was little separating the players at this juncture, but Federer put himself ahead—for good—with two outstanding shots. At 30-30, the players engaged in a fabulous rally that Federer abruptly terminated with a flawless inside-in forehand. On the break point, the always-suspect-at-net Soderling approached to Federer’s backhand and got a resounding response. The Swiss unloaded down the line that Soderling was helpless to handle on the forehand volley.
Five more points on Federer’s serve and the match was over in an hour and 28 minutes. It was a textbook statistical performance—65 percent of first serves made, 82 percent of first serve points won, 54 percent of second serve points won, a 23/18 winners to unforced errors ratio and two of four break-point chances converted.
Now, with a day off, Federer could not be better placed as he heads into Saturday’s semifinals, rested and reassured by his fine level of play.
—Tom Tebbutt