Sorry for such a delayed post, just been really busy over the past few weeks. I guess all of us Fedfans have sorrow faces as Roger was beaten by Tomas Berdych in four sets in the quarterfinals of the US Open. 

Roger was seeded no.1 at the start of the tournament and was the favourite to win after making everyone look like amateurs at Cincinnati. I guess a quarterfinal lost was not what anyone expected. Roger comfortably cruised past all his opponents in straight sets on the way to the quarterfinals. He was actually due to play home favourite Mardy Fish in the 4th round, but Fish withdrew due to fatigue and health problems so that meant Roger got a 4 day break before his match with Berdych. 

Roger broke in the first game of the match, only to be broken back in a poor service game at 3-2. The set went into a tiebreak and Roger screwed up an easy backhand volley on the first point. Not a good way to start a tiebreaker and things went from bad to worse for him as he only managed to win one point in the tiebreaker losing it 7-1.

Berdych was the one who broke straight away in the second set, grabbing a 5-2 lead before Roger broke back and held another service game to make the score 5-4. Berdych was not denied though and he served out the set to love, 6-4. 

The last time Berdych took a two sets to love lead against Roger was the Australian Open 4th round in 2009. Back then, Roger was faster and fitter and Berdych was just beginning to start establishing himself as a true top 20 player. 

The third did not begin well for Roger as Berdych grabbed another break, before Roger won 4 straight games in spectacular fashion to take the third set 6-3. Roger had gathered a lot of momentum and the crowd was on his side. I thought it would be enough for him to make a winning comeback, but in the fourth set he didn't take his chances and it was all over in 36 minutes. 

Even though he lost, there were still some crazy shots including a backhand flick slice passing shot and two full-stretch volleys winners in the 2nd and 4th set.

 
A lot of people, including me blame Fish's withdrawal as a factor to why Roger lost. Roger hadn't really played any tough opponents en route to the quarters so he didn't know his actual performance against top players and the 4 day break made it even worse.

It was such a shame Roger was out early, he was confident coming up to the tournament, had much better preparation than the previous two years so to crash out in the quarterfinals was highly frustrating and his words in the interview after the match clearly shows that.

So in conclusion I can say it was a disappointing match, Roger wasn't himself and Berdych played pretty well anyway.

I think everyone's expectations are too high for Roger - winning an 18th slam and 6th US Open, beating an improved Andy Murray and a 'looking for revenge' Djokovic, its all too much for him to handle. He's a 31 year old athlete now, daddy to twin girls and has so many younger players out there all wanting to beat him. Its incredible that he is still beating everyone and winning Wimbledon and reclaiming No.1 makes me happy enough. Roger is no longer in his invincible prime form, so we can't expect him to win everything. Funny thing is, Djokovic, Murray and Nadal are roughly 5 years younger than him, they should be playing the best tennis of their lives at this stage of their career and Roger is still beating all of them! Just astonishing.

Well now Roger has many points to defend at his final tournaments of the season, it will be tough to stay No.1 unless he wins all of them and hope Djokovic doesn't win any of them. He's tired and wounded so a holiday will do him well and hopefully he can play well in his next scheduled tournament - Shanghai.