Remember when Marat and Roger…
July 3, 2008
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Three of the four semifinalists for the 2008 men’s Wimbledon tournament have been decided. One semifinal will see Marat Safin face Roger Federer.
Who remembers the classic semifinal they contested at the 2005 Australian Open? A lot has happened since then. Federer has gone on to win eight more grand slam tournaments. Safin has seen his ranking fall from four back then to outside the top 100 before getting back to his current ranking of 75.
To reach the semis Safin defeated Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-3, 7-5, 7-6(1), 6-3. After a slow start Safin rolled the no. 31 seed to reach his first ever Wimbledon semi.
In the other two quarterfinals completed on day 9 Federer and Nadal won in straight sets over their opponents. Federer was first to win with a 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Mario Ancic. The five time defending champion did not offer a single break point to his opponent. It was Ancic who last defeated Federer at Wimbledon.
Nadal snuffed out the challenge of local hope Andy Murray. Like Federer he won in straight sets and also did not give a single break point to his opponent. Nadal was never really troubled by the no. 12 seed and continued his march towards a possible finals matchup with Federer. Nadal is still waiting to see who he will meet in the semifinal as the match between Rainer Schuettler and Arnaud Clement was held over until day 10. The match is tied at one set a piece.
It will be interesting to see how Safin plays against Federer. Just looking at recent history you would give him no chance of upsetting the world no. 1. You should however remember that Safin has knocked out the world no. 3 Novak Djokovic on his was to the semis and that he is playing some good tennis on the Wimbledon grass.
I am still expecting a Federer versus Nadal final and I think that the five title winning streak will come to an end as Nadal claims his first Wimbledon crown.
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