LONDON, (Reuters) – A sense of stunned disbelief descended over south west London at 3.46pm yesterday when the unthinkable happened — Roger Federer’s remarkable reign as Wimbledon champion was finally over.
When Tomas Berdych punched away a forehand winner to leave the Swiss maestro two matches short of reaching his eighth successive Wimbledon final, a chorus of 45,000 gasps could be heard around the All England Club and echoed by millions more around the sporting world.
The 24-year-old Czech’s 6-4 3-6 6-1 6-4 quarter-final win thrust a dagger into Federer’s heart, leaving the six-times champion to contemplate going on holiday as he suffered his earliest defeat at the tournament since 2002.
“It was brutal for me. Every time he had a chance, he took it. If there’s anything good about this it’s I’m gonna get some rest,” summed up Federer, who added he had been troubled by a stiff back and right leg injury.
Before this fortnight, however, it seemed as if even a one-legged Federer could not be beaten before the final of the championships.
But after some crisp hitting from Berdych finally brought the man who had won 51 of his last 52 Wimbledon matches to his knees, Britain started to dream that this may be the summer when Andy Murray can finally end the 74-year long wait for a homegrown men’s champion.
The world number four set pulses racing when he dropped the first set but avoided fluffing his lines with a 6-7 7-6 6-2 6-2 win over Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Next up for him will be Rafael Nadal, the only man to beat Federer at the citadel of grasscourt tennis since 2002.
The 2008 champion was eager to make his presence felt after overcoming familiar foe, Robin Soderling, 3-6 6-3 7-6 6-1, but there was only one topic people wanted to talk about.
“Roger did amazing the last seven years here, so someday this must happen… (and it) happened today,” summed up Nadal.
With Wimbledon still buzzing over Federer’s demise, barely anyone noticed Novak Djokovic had already tip-toed into tomorrow’s semi-final or that Venus and Serena Williams’s pursuit of a hat-trick of women’s doubles titles stalled in the last eight.
Djokovic ended the run of Taiwanese chicken farmer’s son Lu Yen-hsun 6-3 6-2 6-2 to set up the unlikeliest of semis with 12th seed Berdych.
A Wimbledon men’s final without the sight of Federer walking out on the second Sunday of the championships was inconceivable only 10 days ago but after a week in which he has struggled to stamp his authority over opponents ranked 152 and 60, Berdych was ready to move in for the kill.
It took him 23 minutes to rattle the top seed as he broke for a 4-3 lead in the first set after Federer looped a backhand long.
At that moment, Federer must have realised that this was not going to be a “one-shirt-change kind of match”.
The Swiss usually has no need to work his way through the 10 shirts and nine rackets he carries on court for his matches but yesterday the pile of laundry and discarded rackets told their own story.
