MELBOURNE, Australia — So much for all the pre-tournament talk about how Roger Federer was distracted, aging and vulnerable here at the Australian Open, and how there were eight to 10 players here ready to knock him from his throne. After filleting Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in straight sets, now there is only one — the scrambling Scotsman Andy Murray.
It took the world’s top player less than 90 minutes to showcase his touch shots, mastery of angles and all-around court command and reach his 22nd Grand Slam final, a record, and eighth in a row. He broke Tsonga’s serve in the fourth game of the first set, and then toyed with the Frenchman, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.
“It’s nice going through a match like that,” Federer said. “I think against top players, it’s always positive if you can win the first set.”
Tsonga, a finalist here in 2008, and the No. 10 seed, had played back-to-back five-set thrillers, including a grueling quarterfinals victory over No. 3 seeded Novak Djokovic. He was unable to make Federer face a break point, and said the world’s top player was just too much for him.
“He was really good, and that’s it,” said Tsonga, 24, who along with Juan Martin del Potro, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic were among the up-and-coming challengers ready to unseat Federer.
Federer agreed.
“I felt like right from the start I was hitting the ball well,” he said. “But then I didn’t expect the second and third to sort of be able to run away with the score the way I did.”
Now, it falls on Murray to try to unseat arguably the best tennis player ever from the Grand Slam stage, which he has owned now for six years. Murray does hold a 6-4 edge in their head-to-head matchups.
The only other time he has played a center-court final of a Grand Slam, however, he lost to Federer in straight sets at the 2008 United States Open. Murray, 22, is also carrying the hopes of British fans on his thin shoulders — England has been waiting 74 years, since Fred Perry captured the 1936 United States Open, to cheer on a Grand Slam champion.
It is not going to be easy for Murray as a confident Federer made clear in a loose and jovial quip that was obviously buoyed by his dominant play.
“I know he’d like to win the first for British tennis in, what is it, like 150,000 years?” Federer said jokingly in a courtside interview. “The poor guy has to go through those moments over and over again. He’s done tremendously. We match up well. I’m looking forward to the final.”
Murray has been brilliant here, dropping only a single set in six matches, and he is feeling like a world beater after running Federer’s long-time rival Rafael Nadal ragged in the quarterfinals. Murray was up by two sets and leading, 3-0, when Nadal retired after feeling something amiss in his right knee.
“This is the best I’ve played at a Slam,” Murray said. “Obviously Roger’s record in Slams speaks for itself. He had a great year last year in them, making all four finals. You know, he lost the two — the two that he lost were incredibly tough five-setters. If I’m going to play against him, it will take a special performance to win against him. But I feel like I can do that.”
This is Murray’s 17th Grand Slam tournament; Federer broke through in his 17th major at Wimbledon in 2003 to notch his first of a record 15 major titles. Federer knows he will be facing a much saltier and serene Murray than the nervous kid whom he swept at Flushing Meadows.
“He was already an excellent player back then,” Federer said, referring to their meeting in the 2008 United States Open. “I just think now he has more, again, more matches in his body. He knows what to expect from the crowds, from the opponents, from the conditions and everything. And I think that’s a big step, just playing a lot of tough matches on center courts.
“He knows his fitness more now,” he said, “where maybe in the beginning it was unsure if he was fit enough for tough matches. I think the last two years have given Andy many answers.”
Federer, 28, has already won the Australian Open three times — in 2004, 2006 and 2007 — and is now through to his fifth final after losing an epic five-set clash with Nadal last year. He has made eight consecutive Grand Slam finals dating to the 2008 French Open, winning three of them.
Federer likes getting to them, and knows what to do when he arrives. He likes reminding Murray, and all the younger guns trying to knock him down. He knows how to get in their head, too.
“I mean, look, he’s in his second Grand Slam final now,” he said. “I think the first one’s always a bit tougher than the second one. But now that he didn’t win the first one, I think doesn’t help, for the second one around. Plus he’s playing, you know, me, who’s won many Grand Slams prior to that, been able to win here three times so I know what it takes and how to do it, which is definitely an advantage.
“I don’t feel like the pressure is really on me having to do it again, because I did it before,” he said. “I think he really needs it more than I do.”
source : http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/sports/tennis/30tennis.html
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