Roger Federer walked on to the court
determined to make his move and take another step towards achieving career
golden slam. Delpotro had a mind of his own as he stepped onto the court to
fight for a spot in the gold medal match. Federer was slow from the start, while
Delpotro was brilliant from the start and after just 36 minutes Federer found
himself down a set and just one set away from defeat. But we all know that
Federer never gives up, and fight he did to take the second set in tie break
and win the marathon 3rd set 19-17. The 3rd set alone lasted 163 minutes.
| Description | Federer | Delpotro |
| Aces | 24 | 11 |
| Double Faults | 2 | 5 |
| First Serve | 68% | 70% |
| Points won on first serve | 75% | 72% |
| Points won on second serve | 62% | 56% |
| Receiving points won on first serve | 28% | 25% |
| Receiving points won on second serve | 44% | 38% |
| Break points | 2/13 | 2/7 |
| Winners | 64 | 51 |
| Unforced errors | 41 | 34 |
Both players played some brilliant
tennis, especially when they were down. Federer broke Delpotro to move ahead
10-9 in the decider and serve for the match, but Delpotro played some of his best
tennis to break Federer at love to bring the match back to serve.
The stats are clearly in favour of
Federer. Federer won 3% more points than Delpotro behind his first serve, and a
good 6% more points behind his second serve.
Federer was the better returner of the
two, winning 3% more points as compared to Delpotro when returning the first
serve and a good 6% more points when returning the second serve.
Delpotro had played a clean match for the
first two sets. The winners-unforced errors differential for Delpotro for the
first 2 sets was +10, while for Federer it was only +3. It was the third set
where Federer made his move, Delpotro was at +7, whereas Federer was at
whooping +20.
This was a great comeback win from
Federer. It reminds me of another great comeback win in the semi-finals of Olympics by another player with a one handed back-hand, it was
way back in 2004 Athens Olympics by Justine Henin. She was down 1-5 in the
decider but went on to win 8-6 against Russian Myskina. Myskina went on to
loose the bronze medal match, whereas Henin went on to win gold. Though
Federer's comeback win was not of that magnitude, but it was great in that he
never gave up and kept fighting. All the credit to Delpotro as well, who fought
fearlessly till the very end and never gave up, but in the end it was Federer
who proved too good.
Henin's story make me wonder, will
Federer win the gold and will Delpotro loose the bronze medal match? Only time
can tell us.
No comments:
Post a Comment