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French Open Semifinals II:ROGER FEDEREER(2) VS JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO(5)...............From a Fan's Perspective

God!!! What a scary and nerve wracking match was that! Ultimately Roger Federer did prevail over his younger and inexperienced opponent Juan Martin Del Potro winning in 5 sets which read...3-6, 7-6(1), 2-6, 6-1, 6-4. But seriously, what a scare Federer gave all his fans

I think the first set itself decided the tone of the match. JMDP won the first set pretty easily breaking RF's serve twice. Federer played pretty ordinary in the beginning. He was finding it hard to hold his own serve, let alone breaking his opponent's serve. Rf may have come into the match with a lot of confidence given the fact that his head to head record against JMDP read 5-0 in Federer's favor and also that JMDP was yet to take away a set from him. This may hev even led to a certain degree of complacency in RF's game. Well I for one wasn't too worried at that stage as I was sure that RF would definitely recover from his initial hiccup

The second set too was nothing exceptional except for a shot here or there that reminded us of the RF of the old when he used to thrash all his opponents. But here, RF managed to hold on to his serve saving many breakpoints in between and JMDP also did not let RF break his serve. Going by his previous match against Haas where RF lost the set that went for a tie break, I was just too scared that RF would again put himself into a very deep hole by losing this tiebreak. I didn't have the heart to see RF 2 sets down in the match. Thank God that JMDP made some unforced errors and RF held on to his serve that saw him through the second set at least. So now it was 1 set all.

Now I thought that winning a set would have given the required boost to RF's confidence and he should therefore dominte the 3rd set. How wrong was I! JMDP broke RF straight away and completely dominated the 3rd set. At this point I just couldn't believe what I was watching. Was JMDP the same guy whom RF thrashed in AO'09 QF(6-3,6-0,6-0). RF was finding it so difficult to hold on to his serve once again. 3rd set was a complete disaster. It almost gev me a heartbreak. I started woondering if this was it, that would RF not win the French OPen even this year.

But a true RF fan never gives up hope on that one person who has been so consistent that he was now playing his 20th consecutive Grandslam semifinal. So now there was just one thing left to do and that was to HOPE that RF will find his A-game. But there was one difference now. I started to wish for double faults and unforced errors by JMDP. I am a big tennis fan and whenever I watch a match, I always like to see winners and I never cheer when a person makes an unforced error or doublefaults. But here I was doing the exact opposite, which i am actually a little ashamed of. But, what the hell, anything for Roger Federer. Anyways, RF started to dominate the 4th set straight away and little by little, JMDP started to look mentally tired, or at least I thought so. This helped RF even more and though I felt sad for JMDP, it was now Federer till the end.

The 5th set saw some amazing shots from RF-some backhand winners, some amazing dropshots and many forehand winners-which finally won him the match. RF did get broken one on his serve but he broke JMDP twice and that did the job.

I actually felt a little sadfor JMDP in the end. He seemed to have almost given up on the match after the 4th set. I guess he just got overwhelmed by the entire occasion and the fact that he had taken RF to 5 sets. But I think JMDP played brilliantly even though he appeared meek in the last set. And had this not been his first semifinal appearance in a Grandslam, he might have even won the match. And by saying this I am not in anyway discrediting RF. After all, all the experience that he had gained along the way to his 13 Grandslam trophies was put to very good use yesterday. And, RF was yet again able to pull himself out of the mini hole that I believe he himself had dug.

Anyways, I'm just so happy that he won, no matter if it was in 5 sets. I hope he defeats Soderling as well on Sunday and lifts the French Open trophy for the first time and hope not for the last time. Please win the French Open title for your millions of fans all across the world. Love you loads RF and I will never lose hope on you no matter what the critics and media may say.

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