Breaking The Giant's Back

I don't know if I have ever, EVER, in my all days of watching tennis, seen three more Ultimate God Mode returns than the three key returns Roger Federer played off Ivo Karlovic's mammoth first serve.

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Two were in the first break of serve, one in the second. (The only two breaks, coincidentally, that Karlovic has suffered in this tournament and in the entire grass court season.) One was forehand, two were backhand. Absolute reflex shots off serves coming down the court at a pace that would make the speed of light feel slow. And they came back pretty much faster than they went down, right in the corner, thank you very much.

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There are no words I can use to describe them. Viewing is necessary. But oh my lordy, they nearly killed me with their insane beauty. I didn't even think that was possible. I don't think Ivo Karlovic thought it was possible. Crazy.

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Federer played a wonderful match today, given his opponent - when he could get the ball back against the Karlovic serve (and when he wasn't hitting returns which are actually physically impossible) he kept it down low at the big guy's shoelaces and Karlovic really had to work to scoop them out. He played a smart match and put on an absolute clinic of serving. He faced no break points, went to deuce only once and served his way out of it immediately. When there were baseline rallies, I would venture to say that he won at least 90% of the time. He actually made more service winners than Karlovic - Dr Ivo had no idea what was going on with the Federer serve by the end of the match and couldn't get the return in more than one time out of every ten - and he made an incredible seven unforced errors for the match. Not for a single set. For the match.

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Crazy.

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Added to which he's through to his twenty freaking first Slam semi in a row, and that is just unheard of. Roger Federer was in god mode today and I am in gush mode. That was crazy. Absolutely insane. Impossible, and amazing.

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And who was it that correctly predicted all four men's semifinalists? Oh yeah, that would be me. We're getting a battle of the Andies in the top half - though Lleyton Hewitt came much closer to knocking out the Andy of the Roddick variety than I expected - and Federer/Haas in the other one. That was a great win Haas had over Djokovic - I'm very glad to see him in the semis! When was the last time he made it this far without a piano falling from the sky and landing on his head or some similar freak accident? Slightly left of never, I would be thinking.

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Today's Results

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The Championships (Wimbledon)

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Men's Draw

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Roger Federer def. Ivo Karlovic, 6-3 7-5 7-6 (7-3)

Tommy Haas def. Novak Djokovic, 7-5 7-6 (8-6) 4-6 6-3

Andy Murray def. Juan Carlos Ferrero, 7-5 6-3 6-2

Andy Roddick def. Lleyton Hewitt, 6-3 6-7 (10-12) 7-6 (7-1) 4-6 6-4