!PicWIMBLEDON, England—Mikhail Youzhny obviously has a Roger Federer problem. Having gone 0-13 against him coming into today's quarterfinal, the Russian, seeded No. 26 here, had won just three sets in those matches. At no time today was he in danger of adding another to that collection, mainly because he played too many of the easy shots poorly, and too many of the difficult ones well, but to no great purpose, as he collapsed time and again exactly when he might have at least held firm.
Thus, a perfectly plausible Federer win—say 6-4, 7-5,-6-3—became a brutal blowout full of moments that made you want to avert your eyes out of sympathy for Youzhny. Federer won it, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
It was so painful an experience for Youzhny that he periodically howled—long protracted howls of rage and impotence—and at one point wandered beneath the Royal Box, delivering a soliloquy intended for special guest Andre Agassi's ears: "Can you tell me what I am supposed to do?", he begged.
Agassi, perhaps significantly, had no answer for him.
This one started badly for Youzhny and got worse. He struggled trying to hold his very first service game in a 10-minute tug-of-war, ultimately lost when Youzhny made a ghastly forehand volley error to present Federer a fourth break point. This was not wasted by Federer; he lashed a service return that Youzhny played with a down-the-line backhand that flew out.
Federer held the next game in a minute and 43 seconds, a typical sprint through his own service games on this day, which contributed to short elapsed time of this match. It never approached the two-hour mark, the duration reading 1:31.
By the sixth game of the first set (with Youzhny serving at 1-4), Federer had as many break points. A brief shower then came to Youzhny's rescue. The interval was a brief 21 minutes, which is plenty of time for a player to think things over, but Youzhny did no such re-grouping. When the match resumed, with Youzhny break point down, Federer a hit a sharp cross-court backhand that the heavy underdog was unable to return in court. With that insurance break, Federer served out the set.
The first game of the second set might have been the most critical of the match—or as close as you could come to such a thing in a one-sided affair like this. Hard-pressed to stop the bleeding, Youzhny just bled more profusely. Down 0-30 in the first game, he made one of his numerous forecourt errors when he mangled a forehand approach following a chip return by Federer.
Down 0-40, an errant lob by Federer caused Youzhny to let out the first massive bellow of the game. He cut loose again following a service winner to the forehand, and threatened to escape his demise. But at 30-40, Federer's backhand return clipped the net, forcing Youzhny to scramble—and stumble—to the ball. He never returned it. That set the tone for the set, which went pretty much like the first.
Youzhny had a chance to take his first lead of the match when he served first in the third set and reached 30-0. Not so fast, buddy, Federer seemed to say. Youzhny made a drop shot error, trying to cut it too fine with Federer miles from the ball. Despite a 40-15 lead, Youzhny was unable to pull it out. It was after a volley error off a terrific Federer backhand pass brought on a break point that prompted Youzhny to take his case to the Royal Box.
But it was too little too late; he hit a double fault to give Federer a break. It was just another example of Youzhny's gluttony for punishment: What Federer was doing was damaging enough; Youzhny was incapable of doing anything but adding to it with mistakes of his own.