After back-to-back quarterfinals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon in 2001, Roger Federer failed to achieve the same level at the major tournaments of the following two years. Federer was eager to change that at Wimbledon 2003, having won his first grass-court title in Halle a few weeks earlier and hoping to repeat it at the All England Club.
Roger only dropped one set against Hyung-Taik Lee, Stefan Koubek and Mardy Fish to meet in week two. The Swiss defeated Feliciano López in the fourth set despite a serious back injury that nearly caused him to lose the first set and perhaps the entire match.
In the quarterfinals, Federer defeated an injured Sjeng Schalken to set up the highly anticipated clash against Andy Roddick, with two youngsters battling it out for their first Major final. Federer played at a high level to score a 7-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory in one hour and 43 minutes.
Roger avoided a set point in the first set tiebreak and never looked back in sets two and three. Roddick blew his only two break chances early in the second set. That was pretty much all he did on the return, struggling to find his rhythm and taking three breaks to propel Roger over the finish line.
With 34 service winners and 40 power shots from the court, Federer made only 35 errors to master his shots well and mount the pressure on the other side of the net. After the match, Roger said that this result gave him a lot of confidence, showing that he is Major material and hoping for more of the same in the final against Mark Philippoussis.
“I still have one game to play, and if I don’t win the title, I will try to come back and succeed in the next few years.
Alex Corretja comments on Federer
Alex Corretja commented to our colleagues from Express Sport, the possible new job of Roger Federer, the Swiss having been approached by the BBC to become a TV consultant.
“Roger can do whatever he wants, he will be welcome wherever he goes. He knows tennis, he loves tennis, he’s highly respected, he’s such a classy guy. It would be great for us to have it somewhere related to tennis. I think it’s good to have the former players involved because they can add a lot of things, they have a unique experience.
They can therefore offer relevant analyzes because they have often experienced moments or situations similar to what can happen on a court when they are on the edge of the court as a consultant.”
