1 Response to ao04federer_ferrero

1. Voo de Mar says:

   January 15, 2023 at 7:02 am

   Points won by each set: | 32-26, 25-15, 31-25 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   34 % Federer – 29 of 83
   21 % Ferrero – 15 of 71

   Ferrero [3] was a French Open champion at the time, Federer [2] triumphed at Wimbledon ’03. They both were trying to become the best players in the world (Ferrero had already achieved it in 2003), so their Aussie Open semifinal was perceived with a question: who is better on hardcourts? Ferrero had a positive record on this surface against Federer, thus such a one-sided encounter couldn’t be easily imagined. Federer saved a triple break point with the help of good serves at 3-all in the opener and never looked back. After a 1.5-hour match he converted his second match point and secured a berth in his second major final becoming no. 1 for the first time in his stellar career. At the time Nadal was in a phase of development, people didn’t talk about Djokovic & Murray at all, thus the Federer-Ferrero rivalry seemed to be blossom in the years to come – nothing like this happened: Federer’s ascendancy to the throne was correlated with Ferrero’s decline, and this two “FER” young players would play only two more Grand Slam matches, both with Federer being a huge favorite. Their next match after the Aussie Open semifinal occurred more than a year later, and Federer barely survived it (Dubai) which was surprising because Ferrero already had lost his elite position in the men’s game.

   Serve & volley: Federer 6/7, Ferrero 0
   

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