In my preview of the tournament, I wondered if this year’s Wimbledon might end up being tennis’s version of Groundhog’s Day V. Little seemed to be standing in the way of a fifth straight Grand Slam final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. As we know, that movie was canceled rather abruptly last night, when Nadal went out to an extra on the set named Lukas Rosol. Twenty-four hours later, by the time Julien Benneteau had won a second-set tiebreaker over Roger Federer under the same roof where Rosol had worked his mad magic, the men’s draw was starting to feel like a sporting sequel to The Towering Inferno—the great ones were going down in flames.
In the end, though, this one did end up reminding me of many other matches from recent years. More specifically, it reminded me of many other matches involving Federer on the winning side, and a flashy non-closer from France on the other. We were treated to versions of both just last month in Paris, when Federer came from two sets down to beat Juan Martin del Potro at the same time that Benneteau’s countryman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, squandered four match points in his quarterfinal loss to Novak Djokovic.
Federer and Benneteau played their parts and stuck to the script. The Frenchman’s shot-making was brilliant for the first two sets, and again in the fourth. He slapped through his two-handed backhand for crosscourt winners and unlikely passes, finishing with 59 winners against just 32 unforced errors.
As for Federer, he scrambled to keep up, and had trouble fighting out of his backhand corner. He was particularly annoyed, he said, with the way he gave back a break of serve in the second set. Most noticeable today, though, was his poor volleying. He was casual with his footwork and content to stab at Benneteau’s (admittedly very good) passes. Federer won just 22 of 39 points at net. Even when he tried different looks—an extreme slice here, some sidespin there—Benneteau handled it. It appeared that Federer would get back in the match when he held three set points on Benneteau’s serve late in the second, but the Frenchman had the goods again. He saved one of them with a neat backhand drop shot that Federer couldn’t track down.
“I hit the ball very well today,” Benneteau said. “I knew that if I wanted to have one chance to win, I should take control of the rally and not let him play and direct the rally with his forehand.”
Serving big, Benneteau won the second-set tiebreaker going away. When he walked to the sideline nodding his head and clenching his fist, he began to remind me a little of the cocky Rosol from the previous night, taking it to a legend. Had something changed in the indoor air around Centre Court? Had Rosol given everyone new hope? Was Benneteau refusing to play his assigned role in this after all?
It didn’t take long for us to get our answer, and for the players to returned to the comeback script. Serving to start the third, Benneteau slipped while racing toward the net and landed on his arm. It shook him up for a while, he said—”it was important in a negative way.” Whatever happened, cocky Julian vanished as quickly as he had appeared. Federer, as usual, took advantage of his opponent’s lapse, running out the third 6-2. His comments afterward were interesting; it was actually when he got down two sets that he claims he able to calm down.
“I was more panicky midway through the second set,” Federer said. After losing that set, “I guess when I sat down, I said, All right, here we go now. Match has only just started. I tried to stay calm, and I was.” Federer credited the fact that he had been in that situation so many times before, though the identity of his opponent—Julien Benneteau, rather than, say, Novak Djokovic—might have had something to do with his positive attitude.
Give Benneteau credit for gathering himself for a valiant fourth-set push, and giving this match a true dramatic peak. Unfortunately for him, all it did was offer Federer a chance to show what has made him so tough to finish off even after 13 years on tour, even when he no longer dominates so routinely.
It began with Federer serving at 5-6, 0-15, three points from an unwelcome trip home. For Federer, that meant it was “cue the clutch serves” time. At 0-15, he hit a service winner. At 15-30, he won the point after a good wide serve. At 30-30, he hit an ace. At deuce, he hit another service winner. Benneteau had been two points from the match twice, and if he had had a chance to rally, it felt like he was the superior player from the ground. Federer never gave him that chance.
It was more of the same in the tiebreaker. At 1-1, forced to hit a second serve, Federer came up with a gem of a kick that Benneteau couldn’t handle. At 3-3, reeling from another bad volley and forced to hit another second serve, Federer did it again, getting his kick to bite just a little more than normal. Again, Benneteau missed the return.
From there, the breaker was a dramatic masterpiece. All-court brilliance alternated with all-court nerves. Benneteau gagged two backhands—a shot he had hardly missed all day—yet also came up with excellent serves and passes. He didn’t totally choke. But the final twist, the subtle masterstroke, was left, as we knew it would be, for Federer. At 6-6, with his father unable to watch in the player's box, with the Evening at Wimbledon crowd fired up, Federer reached for a seemingly ungettable Benneteau serve up the T. He not only got it, but sent it back close to the baseline. Benneteau thought about taking it out of the air, but rallied instead. With a good look at a backhand, he jumped, swung . . . and hit it just over the baseline. Instead of match point, it was set point for Federer. The Frenchman never recovered.
Benneteau remembered the point later. It wasn’t his missed backhand he mentioned, but Federer’s return. “At 6-6 in the tiebreak,” he said, “I have a good first serve, but he return. Maybe I should have played a forehand volley, but it’s the only return he made like this during the match. When he was chip returning, it was shorter, not as good as this one.”
In that return, and in the two kick second serves he came up with earlier in the breaker, the true genius of Federer is revealed. It isn’t about elegance as much as it is about resourcefulness. He hit his best return of the match when he needed it most, and he found a different serve, a new wrinkle, after almost three hours on court. Federer is lauded for his variety because it’s easy on the eyes, but as a tactic versatility can be overrated—the best plan is usually to keep doing the same thing until it stops working. With those two kick serves, which may have won him the match, Federer—starring in his own version of Groundhog Day—reminded us of what has always made him special. He reminded us that creativity, variety, artistry in tennis don't have to be just for show.