One of the world’s great sporting streaks has just come to an end, and in pretty conclusive fashion. When Robin Soderling knocked defending champion Roger Federer out of the French Open at the quarter-final stage, it ended Federer’s streak of 23 consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals. Soderling is the same guy who knocked out Rafael Nadal in the quarter-final of the 2009 French Open, inflicting on Rafa his first ever loss at the French Open. The two now sit on a collision course to meet in the Final this year with Rafa back to his best and Soderling obviously in pretty impressive form as well.
As for the match itself, Soderling’s ground strokes were fast and flat, while his service game was pretty impeccable. Federer didn’t have any answers for the Swede’s power and seemed to lack the ability to change his game when it wasn’t working. What stood out about his performance at the French last year was his newfound love of the drop shot and his angular ground strokes. Neither of these was seen in losing yesterday, although that can probably be put down to Soderling restricting him.
So where to now for Fed? He’s clearly lost a bit of the power and accuracy that were the hallmarks of his rise from 2004-2007, but he’s still Roger Federer. It would be a bit premature to call an end to his grip on the tennis world; it’s worth remembering this is his least favoured surface. How he bounces back at Wimbledon will be interesting, since he didn’t set the world afire last year on the way to his record-breaking 16th Grand Slam win. It’s fair to assume time and younger competition are catching up with Federer, not unlike what happened to Pete Sampras late in his career. Sampras eventually went out a winner at the 2002 US Open but there were plenty of failures in between. Whether Fed sticks around the circuit while not making semi-finals remains to be seen. However it would be premature to write any eulogies just yet. Federer is 28.
