Roger Federer, to the delight of his fans and despair of his rivals, installed himself as an undeniably strong candidate to win Wimbledon for the eighth time when he blitzed the 20-year-old Alexander Zverev in 53 minutes of the Halle final on Sunday.
With Andy Murray hidden away repairing a game that remains worryingly short of the pleasing consistency he needs to keep his title, the three-times champion Novak Djokovic heading for Eastbourne to do a similar job on his own, even more fragile tennis and Rafael Nadal – who has lost to players outside the top 100 on his last four visits to the All England Club – biding his time at home in Majorca, the ageless Federer has emerged to revive memories of past glories.
He was his old irresistible self, winning in Halle for the ninth time, mesmerising Zverev 6-1, 6-3 to the point of near-resignation. The German wunderkind, already 10th in the world, who announced his arrival when he beat Federer in the semi-final as a teenager a year ago, had no answers to the 2015 champion’s familiar sharpness at the net, and power and precision at the baseline. The player who destroyed Djokovic on the clay of Rome a month ago disintegrated on grass but remains probably the most dangerous young outsider at Wimbledon.
Federer, however, is the man of the day, the man of the year, in fact: a slam tournament champion for the 18th time after prevailing in Melbourne when nobody – including himself – gave him much chance of getting past the quarter-finals. He has won three titles since. If he can hold his body and spirit together for a fortnight at Wimbledon, the universal praise will resemble the anointing of a saint.
He said courtside: “It’s great to get off to a good start in the finals and then remind yourself that you’ve been playing good tennis all week. You start swinging freely, things start clicking, you realise your opponent is under pressure and you keep pressuring him. I’m, like, on cloud nine right now. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get a chance to win this again, so it’s important to enjoy this one.”
That last sentiment should be politely dismissed. Nadal completed an extraordinary third La Décima of the clay swing at Roland Garros, having wrapped up his 10th titles at Monte Carlo and Barcelona, so Federer will be desperate to join him at that rarefied level in Halle. And who knows? Maybe if he won an eighth Wimbledon he would push on for a hitherto unimaginable 10th championship there, too.
All that is the stuff of dreams for his adoring army. Back in the hard present another 35-year-old, Feliciano López, shared at least some of the Sunday spotlight when he had an altogether tougher struggle winning his first Aegon Championship at the Queen’s Club in London.
Over two and a half hours the Spanish left-hander ground down the favourite, Marin Cilic, in a duel of power servers to win 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (8), and could barely hide his joy. “Wow. I cannot believe that I finally won this trophy. I’ve been waiting so long. I was a little bit lucky at the end. Had a match point a few years ago against [Grigor] Dimitrov [in the 2014 final] but I had to put that away from my mind.
“It’s tough to believe I’m playing my best tennis at 35 but I am. My parents came for the final. There is no better preparation going into Wimbledon. To win here and go into next week is a great feeling.”
Cilic, who played superbly all week and again in the final, put a brave smile on defeat. “It was a really high level of tennis and a real pleasure to play in. I had some chances in the second set but Feliciano was playing really well today. He deserved the title. I enjoyed every single day, a great preparation for Wimbledon.”
The Croat came off court at 4.45pm and was back an hour later, with his doubles partner Marcin Matkowski, of Poland, to conclude their held-over doubles semi‑final against Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares. After a single point it went to a champions tie-break and the British-Brazilian partnership wound it up 1-6, 6-3, 10-8 in quick time. All in all it was a day of rolling excitement and disappointment for Cilic. He will hope for some consolation at Wimbledon.
Murray and Soares played solidly to defeat Julien Benneteau and Édourard Roger-Vasselin 6-2, 6-3 in the final, a fine farewell to an excellent tournament.
Jamie confirmed later that a suggestion by his mother, Judy, that he and his brother, Andy, would one day like to play doubles together at Wimbledon had substance.
“I think we’d probably quite like to,” he said. “He’s always said he’d like to, but whether he follows through or not, I don’t know.”
In the draw for the Wimbledon men’s qualifying tournament, Marcus Willis, who reached the second round of the main draw against Federer last year, faces the Slovakian 31st seed Andre Martin. Liam Broady, another British wildcard, has drawn the unseeded Canadian Frank Dancevic. Ryan Storrie plays the 25th seed Quentin Halys, of France.
Petra Kvitova triumphs at Aegon Classic
Petra Kvitova claimed a remarkable victory at the Aegon Classic title in Birmingham just six months after a career-threatening stabbing incident at her home.
Kvitova saw off Australia’s Ashleigh Barty 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in only her second tournament since the start of her comeback at the French Open last month.
The two-times Wimbledon winner was stabbed in the Czech Republic in December and could have lost her career, escaping instead with hand injuries. But in a stunning performance against Barty, Kvitova battled back from losing the first set and stepped up in the second half of the decider to seal victory.
Barty, the world No77, made a strong start as she broke to lead 2-1 in the opening set and carried her advantage through to claim the opener with relative ease. But Kvitova stepped up her game at the start of the second, breaking for 2-0 and moving to the brink of levelling the match when she secured a double break to move 5-1 in front.
Serving for the set, the Czech suffered an attack of nerves as two double-faults enabled Barty to claw one break back, but that was not enough as Kvitova served out for the set at the second attempt.
Kvitova seized control of the decider as she broke immediately then pressured the Barty serve again only for the momentum to swing again as Barty broke back to level at 2-2. Kvitova responded immediately as she blasted back from 40-0 down to reel off a series of winners and once again take control of the set.
Building on her advantage, Kvitova followed up with a second break before serving out strongly with an ace to seal her remarkable comeback success. PA
