Roger suffered a straight sets loss to Novak Djokovic ending his hopes of a 17th slam. He was the slight favourite coming into this match after the two marathon matches Djokovic played, but even that didn't prevent Djokovic from overpowering him. I had limited live streaming and had to use my mobile for live scores from the second set. Overall, other than a few great rallies, it was a boring match.

A lot of momentum swings in this match, Roger started well, played aggressive, broke to lead 3-2 with a huge forehand winner, but failed to hold his serve the next game. Djokovic broke again to secure the first set, 6-4 after Roger's aggression backed off. 

The second set was one to forget for Roger. He managed to break Djokovic, winning a 36 shot rally that ended with a forehand volley winner after the Serbian placed a weak between-the-legs shot down the line. Roger went up 3-0, but was broken after a dreadful service game. Converting break points was a problem for Roger, no different from last year's semi. He could have even led 5-2, but didn't take his chance. At 4-4 he broke, but failed to serve out the set. At around this time, the RG website live scores took a long time to update, my excitement and hope at 5-4 had disappeared when the page refreshed to show that Djokovic had won the second set 7-5. I swore several times, feeling angry and dejected that Roger had been broken FOUR times in the set. That's unheard of for tennis legend like him. He's lucky he didn't play any worst; otherwise the result may have been 6-1 or even a bagel.

There was little hope although Roger showed some reassurance early in the 3rd set, Djokovic broke a final time to secure a place in the finals against Nadal.

"I thought he played well under tough conditions," assessed Federer. "I wasn't able to sustain maybe a solid enough game today. I did have enough chances, so it's no excuse there. I tried, and it just didn't work out today.

"Semi-finals is, at the end of the day, a very good result for any tennis player. For me, too. I wish I could have done a bit better today, especially with the wasted opportunities. But that's how it goes sometimes. I've got to go change things around now for grass anyway. I'm looking forward to that. It's been a difficult clay court season." 


SUMMARY OF ROGER'S MATCH 
Well, Roger was playing aggressive early in the match but other than that his errors helped Djokovic win, who actually played a pretty poor match for his standards as well. Djokovic was returning well though and Roger's serves were not helping him to hold his service games like they usually do. It was a match of wasted opportunities, I'm sure the crowd would have loved to see another epic match like last year. But it didn't happen. There's always a next time, but Roger must be ready and fired up in future GS if he wants to end his drought.

ROGER'S PAST GRAND SLAM PERFORMANCES
He's been playing extremely well in lower series tournaments so how come in GS he can't repeat the great form he'd had? Is playing best out of 5 sets matches his weakness now? He was brilliant in his fightback against Del Potro and had many four set tests coming into the quarters. Or is it his mental problem against Djokovic and Nadal? Perhaps it is. Now, Djokovic has beaten him in 3 different Grand Slams, will he do it at Wimbledon? And losing to Nadal so many times in RG has been affecting him. Even worse, the epic Wimbledon defeat in 08 and Melbourne 09, 12 proved Nadal can beat Roger on surfaces he once dominated in his prime. 

We'll see if the Swiss Maestro can recover in Wimbledon and the US Open and reinforce his GOAT status.