PARIS, (Reuters) – World number two Roger Federer kept his dream of a maiden French Open title alive when he battled past Argentine fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro 3-6 7-6 2-6 6-1 6-4 in a nail-biting semi-final yesterday.
The Swiss, playing in his 20th consecutive grand slam semi-final, was one set from defeat when he turned on the style to set up a final with Swede Robin Soderling, who ushered out four times champion Rafael Nadal in the fourth round.
“I am a bit lucky but I fought,” said Federer, who will tomorrow equal Ivan Lendl’s record of 19 grand slam final appearances.
“I have an outstanding record against him (Soderling) but he played a fantastic match against (Fernando) Gonzalez,” he added after the Swede earlier won in five sets against the Chilean. “He (Soderling) has a lot of credit since he is the one who knocked out Rafa, who was the man to beat in this tournament,” added the 13-times grand slam champion, who has beaten the Swede in all their nine previous encounters.
Federer, looking to equal Pete Sampras’s record of 14 grand slam titles, got off to a miserable start as Del Potro relied on his big serve and punishing forehand to dictate the play.
Backed by a 15,000 capacity Centre Court crowd, he prevailed after three hours 29 minutes on his second match point to book his place in a fourth consecutive final on the Paris clay.
Federer had started confidently, moving Del Potro around the court and setting up two break chances in the second and fourth games.
The Argentine saved them with an ace and a service winner before taking control of the match, stepping into the court to dominate the points.
He broke for 3-2 when Federer netted a forehand and the same error from the Swiss in the ninth game gave Del Potro the first set after 38 minutes.
The 20-year-old Argentine had never taken a set from Federer in five previous matches.
The Swiss forced a tiebreak in the second after all games went with serve and that is when he showed glimpses of his brilliant best.
He won the tiebreak 7-2 when Del Potro sent a forehand long, triggering a prolonged roar from the crowd.
It failed to unsettle the towering Argentine, who broke in the first game of the third set and continued to look comfortable on his service games.
At 15-15 in the seventh game, it looked like Federer was warming Del Potro up at the net, simply feeding the Argentine with the ball instead of finding a passing shot.
Del Potro won the game when Federer sent a chipped forehand long. As the clock ticked past the two-hour mark, the Argentine bagged the set, his Swiss opponent firing a forehand wide.
Federer then started to mix up his game with sliced shots and was rewarded for his tactical change when the Argentine dropped serve in the fourth game of the fourth set by firing a forehand long to the delight of the partisan fans.
He broke again in the sixth game, following up on serve to send the contest into an unpredictable decider.
With his teeth now sinking firmly into his prey, Federer stole his opponent’s serve in the first game of the fifth set as Del Potro’s game continued to crumble. The Argentine briefly regained his poise in time to break back for 3-3, only to drop serve again with a double fault.
Federer could sense victory and kept his composure. Del Potro saved one match point on his own serve but was helpless on the second when Federer followed a big first serve with a forehand winner to end the match.
Fierce
Soderling withstood a fierce fightback from the Chilean 12th seed to march into his first grand slam final.
As the cheering crowd, including six-times champion Bjorn Borg, rose to their feet, Soderling sunk to his knees and covered his face.
“It’s a great feeling (being in the) final of a grand slam. The biggest tournament in the world, and on clay. If you’d asked me a couple of years ago which grand slam I’d play a final in 2009, I wouldn’t have said Roland Garros,” 23rd seed Soderling said. “I always knew before that when I play well, when I play my best tennis, I can beat anybody. I feel like I’ve played very, good tennis for many, many matches in a row, which is great.”
The match had been built up as the battle of the big forehands but the Chilean was left a breathless wreck during the first two sets as time and again he had to chase Soderling’s rasping winners. Gonzalez, however, was unlucky during the last two sets of a nail-biting contest lasting almost 3-1/2 hours, with many close calls going against him.
At 4-4 15-15 in the fourth set, French umpire Emmanuel Joseph climbed off his chair but was unsure about where he should be looking when he approached the far side of the court.
He summoned the linesman to confirm where Soderling’s shot had landed and to Gonzalez’s annoyance, they appeared to examine the wrong place and the point was awarded to the Swede.
Convinced the two officials were wrong, the incensed Chilean sat down on the offending mark on the clay to wipe it away with the seat of his pants. Television replays showed Gonzalez had been right — the ball had been wide.
“I was really pissed off,” said Gonzalez, who had been bidding to become the first Chilean to reach the Paris final since Luis Ayala in 1960.
“I saw the ball out. I showed it. The line judge comes. He shows nothing. That drove me crazy. I said ‘Show me the mark’ and the umpire showed me nothing.
“The ball was out but I can’t complain about one point when there were more than 200 in the match. That wouldn’t be very fair play for me to complain, but it was hard,” added Gonzalez.
Despite the setback, a fired up Gonzalez looked to have one foot in the final when he captured the fourth set and led 4-1 in the decider but Soderling hung on to level for 4-4.
At deuce on the next Gonzalez service game, umpire Joseph, in consultation with the linesman, again appeared to award Soderling the point incorrectly.
Although Gonzalez saved that break point, he was clearly rattled and surrendered his serve two points later.
Gonzalez became the fourth seeded player to fall under the spell of Soderling, whose list of victims also includes 14th seed David Ferrer and number 10 Nikolay Davydenko.
