Fed on fire against Chile's Gonzalez
29/06/2005 - 15:37:40Roger Federer tightened his grip on the most famous trophy in tennis when he powered inevitably into the Wimbledon semi-finals on Wednesday afternoon with an impressive 7-5 6-2 7-6 victory over Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez.
The reigning champion and world number one simply had too much class and variety of shot for a man who was playing his first Wimbledon quarter-final.
Gonzalez is renowned for his big serve and a stunning forehand which had seen him reach this stage without losing a set, but he is also prone to wild unforced errors.
The world number one had won all four of their previous meetings and he swiftly applied the pressure, breaking the Gonzalez serve in the fourth game of the match, albeit courtesy of a double fault from the Chilean.
Gonzalez broke back in the seventh game with a flurry of the spectacular forehands which are his hallmark.
But Federer, with one wonderfully deft angled shot plus another unforced error from his opponent, broke again in the 12th game to take the set.
Federer underlined his superiority when he broke the Gonzalez serve in the second game of the second set.
A wild forehand in the eighth game, the Chilean’s 18th unforced error, gave Federer another chance to press home his advantage and Federer took it gratefully to break the Gonzalez serve again to win the set and take control of the match.
It was a champion performance from the title holder and the number 21 seed simply did not possess the precision to live with him even though he raised his level in the final set, mixing up power and touch.
He began to threaten the Federer serve, although he wasted a break point with a wild forehand in the ninth game.
In the tie-break, however, Federer forged ahead with a forehand which landed on the line and then served out to take the breaker 7-2 with some ease.
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