Federer Put Us Through A Rollercoaster Of Emotions, But He's In The Aussie Open Final

HOLY FUCKING SHIT. Talk about a mother fucking rollercoaster we got put through last night. My heart didn’t need that at six in the morning as my body was shutting down for good. I think if Roger blew that fifth set I would’ve just died. I’m so invested in Fed winning this major that I don’t think I could’ve survived him blowing a 2-0 set lead to Stan and losing in five. Let’s take it from the top.

Fed came out strong, and had me yelling early, waking up my dog up just three games into the match with this stab on a Wawrinka cross court screamer.

After taking the first set 7-5, Fed took command of the match in the second set when Wawrinka found the net on a break point.

So Fed had a massive two sets to none lead and silly me thought maybe I’d actually be able to get some sleep! Ha! What a stupid fucking idea that was. Wawrinka took an injury timeout to go wrap his leg and it seemed to calm his nerves and cool off Roger. Federer’s net play began to decline in the 3rd set. The wonderful drop shots he was connecting on in the first two sets were finding the bottom of the net and before you knew it, Wawrinka took the third set in a blink of an eye 6-1.

To start the fourth set it was clear Wawrinka’s confidence was through the roof while Federer’s was fading. Stan broke Federer with a blistering cross court backhand in the opening game. This was where I started sweating.

But then Roger regained his focus and fired right back at Stan and broke back with a long, nerve rattling rally.

I yelled at the top of my lungs as my entire house was sound asleep. Now it was time to step on Stan’s throat and say good night.

Of course, later in the set on break point Fed failed to put away a volley at the net, allowing Stan to run to the spot and hit another cross court winner to take the set and level the match. Fuck.

Federer decided to take a medical timeout during the set break just before the fifth set. Roger is very respectable of the way the game should be played and doesn’t like to take timeouts out of respect to his opponent, but he felt he needed to take one here and said this afterwards.

“I only really did take the timeout because I thought, ‘He took one already, maybe I can take one for a change’. Because I’m not a believer in any way that we should be allowed to take a lot of timeouts.

“But I took it after the set break. People know I don’t abuse the system. I hope it’s going to stay that way in the future for me, too.”

Wawrinka said he had no concerns about Federer’s timeout, adding that he didn’t think it had any bearing on the outcome of the match.

I loved the move and I absolutely believe it changed the match for Roger. He was able to recoup and gather himself, just like Stan did earlier in the match. Enjoy these fifth set highlights where Fed saved several break points and managed to finally break Stan later in the set.

So was it easy? No, fuck no by any means, but he pulled it out. He dug as deep as possible and found himself in that fifth set after disappearing in the 3rd and 4th. The match didn’t end till about 6:45 in the morning so if you stayed up like me then hats off to you. Roger was so fucking happy to be in the final, just listen to his post-match interview with Courier.

So now we can all exhale, unless you’re on team Nadal in which case you can go fuck yourself. What else happened last night? Well, Venus Williams came out and played inspiring tennis beating Coco Vandeweghe in three sets after dropping a first set tiebreak. She was overwhelmed with emotion after reaching the final and I was pretty happy for her despite hating the Williams sisters. If had to pick one to like it’s definitely Venus. As for the insufferable one, she dominated Lucic-Baroni 6-2 6-1. I gave her none of my time and actually “napped” during the match because I really didn’t need to hear her say “Come on!” 12 times when she probably aced Lucic-Baroni in the second set. Team Venus for the finals.

Tonight

I’m not sure what to expect from tonight’s men’s semi final between Dimitrov and Nadal. The public has jumped all over the Spaniard as he currently sits as a -250 favorite, while yesterday he opened around -180. Grigor is playing lights out right now while Nadal appears to have regained his old, vintage form. Nadal owns a 7-1 advantage over Baby Fed, but Dimitrov took their last match last year in Beijing 6-2 6-4. Nadal owns a 23-11 dominating edge over Federer (9-2 in grand slam matches) which is obviously alarming, but it would make the better final no doubt about it. A Nadal Federer Major Championship final in 2017 didn’t seem fathomable six months ago, and here we are a game away. Federer knocked Grigor out of the Aussie Open last year in four sets and holds a 5-0 advantage lifetime. I think tonight will be a fantastic matchup and as long as Grigor keeps his cool he’ll be in this match for the long haul. I think Nadal takes it 4-6 7-5 3-6 7-5 6-4 but who really knows with these guys. I’d take the over in games, whatever it is.

I welcome all Fed fans for some Fed love on Twitter @ehubbs13