by Cancellations are up this week. That’s a pain, but for whatever reason I’ve felt pretty lethargic these last few days, so in some ways the lighter workload has been welcome.
Last night I woke up during Simona Halep’s match – again – and I saw her make a quick dash to the finish line against Anett Kontaveit. She’s playing at a very high level, more aggressively than she used to, and what’s more she’s enjoying it. When she reached world number one without a grand slam to her name, she hardly revelled in that situation. But after capturing Roland Garros in 2018, followed by a surprise second slam last year, the pressure seems to have been lifted. It’s a pleasure now to see her in action. (She’ll probably get pummelled by Garbiñe Muguruza in tomorrow morning’s semi now.)
Roger Federer fended off seven match points to beat Tennys Sandgren yesterday. What a name. And what a shame, in my opinion, that Tennys wasn’t the winner. He played a great match to beat Fabio Fognini in the previous round and dominated for lengthy periods against the Swiss. As for Federer, he’s been incredible for the game over two decades, but his fawning fans who treat him as if he’s lighter than air do get to me. Last night I had something of an argument with a student who was clearly a Federer fan. He said Federer was vastly more talented than either Nadal or Djokovic (they both have to “resort” to hard work), and that “fact” diminished both Nadal and Djokovic in his eyes. He also said that Federer plays tennis as it should be played, unlike the other two. Seriously man, Djokovic has won 16 grand slams! Who are you to say that he shouldn’t play his way? And I simply don’t buy the argument that he’s robotic and one-dimensional. (There are players who I would describe in that way, but they haven’t won many grand slams.) I hope Djokovic silences the crowd tomorrow.
I didn’t see any of Dominic Thiem’s extremely tight mini-upset of Nadal in the last quarter-final. That Thiem was able to – eventually – close out the match should give him a healthy boost. He plays Alexander Zverev in the second semi-final.
