TENNIS ATP CINCINNATI – The men’s quarterfinals matches at the 2014 Western & Southern Open on Friday proved to be a rather balanced affair. The two earlier matches were rather lopsided and the latter two were heavily contested. Two of the matches were straight sets and two were three set affairs. Cordell Hackshaw
The men’s quarterfinals matches at the 2014 Western & Southern Open on Friday proved to be a rather balanced affair. The two earlier matches were rather lopsided and the latter two were heavily contested. Two of the matches were straight sets and two were three set affairs. In the early morning and afternoon sessions, Julien Benneteau took on Stan Wawrinka (3) and Milos Raonic (5) played Fabio Fognini (15). In the evening and night sessions, David Ferrer (6) took on Tommy Robredo (16) and Roger Federer (2) battled Andy Murray (8). Benneteau perhaps the surprised semifinalist here, scored the lone upset so far over a lacklustre Wawrinka in 3 sets, 1-6 6-1 6-2 in 80 minutes. whereas Williams and Raonic both faced opponents who never seemed to get their feet in the match. Benneteau took out Wawrinka 1-6 6-1 6-2 in 80 minutes, Raonic dismantled Fognini 6-1 6-0 in 57 minutes and Ferrer battled it out with Robredo for over 2 hours 6-4 3-6 6-3. Federer fended off a strong charge from Murray to win 6-3 7-5 in 93 minutes.
Wawrinka came out hard and fast against Benneteau who surprisingly leads their head to head 2-1. Within half an hour, Wawrinka had wrapped up the 1st set 6-1. One expected more of the same from Wawrinka in the 2nd set but all his momentum soon evaporated as he was down 0-3 in no time. Wawrinka was able to fight off the early double break but when Benneteau got another chance to break in the 6th game, he converted for 5-1. Benneteau was able to seal the deal with an ace to close out the 2nd set 6-1. In the 3rd set, Benneteau continued his winning ways as again broke early and was soon up 3-1. Wawrinka was only able to win 1 more game as Benneteau with an ace closed the match out 1-6 6-1 6-2. Wawrinka committed 40 errors for the match compared to 27 from the Frenchman. “It’s my best result in a Masters 1000 … You don’t have a lot of opportunities to make a very big result.” Benneteau is in his first Masters Series 1000 semifinal and will play David Ferrer for a place in the final on Sunday.
Ferrer also had to play 3 sets in order to get to the semifinal. Robredo was broken first in the 7th game but he broke back to even it at 4-4. However, Ferrer was not to be denied as he broke Robredo again and served out the 1st set 6-4. Robredo came back strong in the 2nd set as he broke in the 6th game for a 4-2 lead and maintained this lead as he took the 2nd set 6-3. In the 3rd set, the contest was far more even as they remained on serve through the first 7 games. In the 8th game, Robredo could not withstand the relentless defensive skills from Ferrer as the 5th seed, broke for a 5-3 lead. He then served out the match for a 6-4 3-6 6-3 victory in just over 2 hours. It was a very even contest but in the end Ferrer was the more consistent player. He had 34 winners to 43 errors compared to his countryman who had 22 winners to 51 errors. After the match, Ferrer spoke about the difficulty playing his friend, “Well, it’s not easy play against a friend … Tommy and I have played a lot of times in our careers. I wish him the best luck for the next tournaments.”
Things were far more straightforward for Raonic as he had the 1st set under his belt 6-1 in about 27 minutes. After the routing, Fognini decided to call the trainer out to have his leg massaged. However, the treatment did not help his cause as Raonic continued his onslaught as he took the 2nd set 6-0. Fognini had no answers for Raonic on either serve or return. The Italian did see 7 chances to break including a triple break point opportunity in the 5th game of the 2nd set but he was unable to convert. Raonic was 6 for 6 on break points with 24 winners and 10 errors. Fognini on the other hand only had 10 winners and 16 errors. Despite this seemingly easy day at the office, Raonic’s serve was not always present. He only got 51% of 1st serves in though he won 83% of the points. “For once I actually struggled with my serve and not my return,” Raonic said after the match. This is the 6th Masters Series 1000 tournament where Raonic has made it to the quarterfinals or better this year. He is still looking for his 1st Masters Series 1000 final.
The final men’s quarterfinal matchup was the biggest, Federer v Murray. There was a lot of talk about this match because with a win here, Federer would even his head-to-head record against Murray which stood at 11-10 Murray prior to the match. Federer came out strong as he had break points in nearly all of Murray’s service game in the 1st set. However, his conversion rate has always been an issue and it was not until the 7th break chance did he finally convert to lead 3-2 after Murray’s forehand went wide. Federer was able to maintain this break advantage having had to save break points on his own serve several times. In the 9th game of the match, Federer up 5-3, Murray lost focus and played a most untidy game. He was spraying balls all over the place and was soon broken again as Federer took the opening set 6-3. Federer later noted, “I hit the ball well … I was the more aggressive guy out there. I was having more impact from the baseline and on the serve.”
In the 2nd set, it seemed as though we would be going the distance in this match after Murray raced out to a 4-1 lead with two breaks of serve. Federer was committing errors on both wings and could barely get his first serve into play. He soon saw Murray serving for a 5-1 lead. However, Federer was not about to let the set go so easily. He reeled off 4 straight games with some nifty shots including his infamous backhand slice which kept him in many of the rallies and also gave Murray no pace at all to work with. Therefore, Murray who was up 4-1, found himself down 4-5 in a matter of minutes. Murray later stated, “I started the match off pretty slow tonight … [O]bviously was well up in the second and blew it. It’s a shame.” The negative body language did not help his cause but he was able to serve to stay in the match for 5-5. Federer held serve with relative ease to go up 6-5 and Murray was again under pressure to serve to stay in the match. In the 12th game, Federer turned up the intensity again and soon broke Murray for a 5th time in the match. Federer moves through to the semifinal 6-3 7-5 in just over an hour and a half.
After the match, Federer spoke of his comeback in the 2nd set, “In the second set, I lost a little bit of the rhythm … I snuck in a quick break, and next thing you know, I’m back. I feel like I stole that second set.” The numbers were very healthy for Federer as he got 60% of his first serves in and winning 71% of those points and 52% on second serves. Murray on the other hand was only getting in 48% of first serves in and won 60% of those points and 45% on his second serve. There was not much to differentiate them on the winner/error ratio as Federer had 20 winners to 32 errors compared to Murray who had 18 winners and 28 errors. The main issue was that Murray made those errors at inopportune times. It did not help that a lot of them came in the 2nd set after being up 4-1. Federer is in his 6th semifinals in Cincinnati. In all previous 5 trips to the semifinals, he went on to win the title.
