By: Tyler Ward
On Wednesday, #1 Roger Federer was knocked out in the quarterfinals by Tomas Berdych.This could have very well been Federer's 7th Wimbledon title, but Berdych dominated all aspects of the game and Federer will have to wait another year to attempt for #7.
Berdych, ranked 12th, defeater Federer in 4 sets to send home the greatest male tennis player of the 2000's (6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4). This is the first time since 2002 that Federer has failed to reach the Wimbledon Finals. Since losing in the first round in 2002, Federer has gone on to win six titles along with one runner up finish. His dominance at Wimbledon has led many to assume that he is the greatest tennis player of all-time, even better than Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, John McEnroe, and Bjorn Borg. Federer has also won a total of 16 majors, the most of any player in tennis history.
By out-dueling Federer, Berdych beat Roger Federer for the second straight time. The Czech Republic native dominated the court today, totalling 51 winners to Federer's 44. The biggest moment in the match came in the seventh game of the fourth set. Berdych served up 12 aces while Federer was only able to manage a single one. The Berdych-Federer match-up has previously happened ten times, with Federer winning eight of those times. His only two losses to the Czech was in the 2004 Athens Olympics and earlier this year in a match in Miami. This was probably Berdych's best professional game ever, as Federer was ranked #1 overall in Men's Tennis.
After the match, a tired Berdych stated, "It's really tough to show this crowd how I'm just feeling right now, it's amazing to play on this stadium to play such a great player as Roger is, and come here and be here as a winner is just really amazing. If I can just go through my career, it was so far the toughest game to serve and close out the match."
Today marked the 25th consecutive quarterfinal reached by Federer in Grand Slams. However, he has now lost two in a row, with the first coming against Robin Soderling in the French Open earlier this year. With the loss, Federer will drop down to #3 in the ATP rankings, behind crowd favorite Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. In the next round, Berdych will face the fast Djokovic, in hopes of getting to his first Wimbledon Final.
