Roger Federer is dancing through his living room again. Only the start was resinous – against Adrian Mannarino we saw an insecure turf king full of doubts and question marks, which is only understandable in view of his background. With luck, he made progress by giving up his opponent. Since then, however, Federer’s run has not had much to do with Fortuna.
He moves well, conjures up, praises and stops with feeling, serves precisely and efficiently, if not a row of aces, and storms to the net – in the last match as many as 56 times. The self-confidence pushes through all of his pores again. During the winners’ interviews on Center Court, which he booked, he interacts with his many fans in a humorous way. Charming, radiant, completely happy in its comfort zone.
Quite the old one, one might say. The same fantastic player who has never lost a round of 16 on the sacred turf 18 times. Déjà-vu after Federer’s last Wimbledon appearance two years ago: He also improved round by round against players between 169th (Clarke) and 20th (Berrettini) up to the quarter-finals. As if in a frenzy, Roger eliminated number 7 (Nishikori) and 2 (Nadal), and was only one point short of the title against 1 (Djokovic).
A completely different situation
So why shouldn’t it go on in the same style now? The 39-year-old world number 8 surprises with a vaguely optimistic answer: “I’m a different player at Wimbledon than in previous years.” What he means by that, he shortens it as follows: “I still have the feeling that I have to play a little differently and not just do what I always wanted to do in the past.” Before each rally he had a plan in mind and followed it up against every opponent. Today, after two knee ops and two years older, he has to think more holistically, including the length of the rallies. «I have to concentrate more on my game. It’s a completely different situation. “
Its private location is completely different than usual. His fixed star Mirka, who was indispensable in his box, is missing here for the first time. “I miss her, we talk on the phone three times a day,” said the father of four in a TV interview. Locked in the corona bubble between the hotel and the complex, which he strictly adheres to with a lot of respect, he is spared any family distraction. Maybe a chance to focus even more on your last professional highlights.
Now against Hurkacz, not Medvedev
This is due to “a point-by-point mentality” that he wants to maintain. “Lately I’ve made the mistake of trying to think far ahead, as I did before. But I’ve been able to erase that pretty well over the last week, ”he says. It also varies differently than before. “Maybe you don’t perceive it that way from the outside, but it feels that way to me.”
The main thing is that Hubert Hurkacz (ATP 18) doesn’t notice it that way today. The 24-year-old Pole, who has already won two tournaments this season, beat world number 2 Daniil Medvedev (Russ) in yesterday’s continuation of the rain match in five sets. The only duel with the 1.96m giant went to Federer two years ago in Indian Wells. Let’s hope that the other Roger can build on 2019 in every way.