CAMELOT FANTASIES

Roger Federer played some amazing tennis today.  Andy Murray played well himself to hang in there, but he said there was nothing he could do with Federer serving so well. Andy had only a single break point in Federer's opening service game and that was it.  You can't win if you can't break.  Federer broke Murray each set at the tail end, and that was all he needed to seal the deal in straight sets. 

Federer's key stats
1st serves in - 76%
1st serves won - 84%
2nd serves won - 55%
Winners - 56
UE - 11

Congratulations to Federer on the 7-5, 7-5, 6-4 victory.  This match was played at a higher level than Djokovic - Gasquet. If Federer can play even close to this well on Sunday against Djokovic and Djokovic doesn't play much higher than he did today, I think Roger gets #18 and Wimbledon #8.  But I think it's hard to repeat great performances at his age, even with his fitness.  But we'll see.  He's playing so well this tournament, winning 6 matches in 10 hours, it's difficult to say he'll have a lapse.  If he serves like today he'll be difficult to beat.

Commiserations to Andy Murray.  He played very well to hang in the match.  Anything less would have been a beat down.  His best moments were holding the 15+ minute 10th game of the second set after saving 5 or 6 set points.  But I believe that effort tired him and Federer wasn't fazed like most players might have been.  Federer came back to serve to love, and then broke Murray in the next game for the 2 set to 0 lead.  Andy played some great tennis at times, but just couldn't get into Federer's service games at all, and was under pressure every set with Federer serving first and eventually folded when Federer upped his level at the end of the sets and played some unbelievable shots to snatch the sets.

General Hercules, your 100 title and 20 slams thread is up again at MTF...

Respectfully,
masterclass