The no. of wins that Roger Federer has had in his 16-year long epic professional career so far is close to 1000. So, it’s not surprising that he doesn’t find winning that exciting these days. One can understand that.
A few days back, the Swiss maestro was up against the Japanese youngster Kei Nishikori in the semi final match of the Gary Weber Open. He had won the first set of that match quite comfortably, while, the second set had gone into the tie breaker.
Federer had got himself into a very good position in the tie breaker. He was ahead by 6-4 and had had the match point. He played a shot which Nishikori was not able to return properly and the set and the match went in his favour. But, he didn’t realize at all that the match was over. He actually returned back to take his position at baseline for another rally, but, then, he saw Nishikori who was walking towards him to shake hands and then, he got to know what happened with that point.
It was a very funny incident and most of the people present there saw the lighter side of it.
It also tells how focussed Federer was. He was so much involved in the game that he couldn’t know the contest was done and dusted.
This is the 9th time that Federer has made it to the final of the Gary Weber Open. Out of the previous 8 finals that he has played here at Halle, Germany, he has won 6. His fans would be hoping that he makes it 7 this time around.
Federer’s opponent in the final will be the Colombian player Alejandro Falla who is currently sitting at the 69th position in the singles world rankings of the male players.