ROGER FEDERER rewrote the history books as he tamed Ivo Karlovic’s monster serve at Wimbledon – and insists he’s back to his supreme best.
The five-time champion reached his 21st consecutive grand slam semi-final with an almost pedestrian 6-3 7-5 7-6 victory over the 6ft 10in Croatian on centre court.
Karlovic’s 135mph serve had not been broken in four matches in SW19 but Federer managed to bring it under his spell in just the fourth game to take the first set.
The Swiss star then broke Karlovic in the penultimate game of the second set before dominating a third set tiebreak to wrap up the match.
Federer has now been in a semi-final at every grand slam since losing in the third round at the French Open in 2004 and has his sights on bettering Pete Sampras’ record of 18 career major titles after equalling it in Paris this year.
“I’m happy to be in another semi-final,” said Federer. “To reach 21 in a row is pretty amazing and it means the world to me – let’s see what happens now.
“To break the grand slam record would be writing in the history books of tennis – but it’s not there yet. It’s still far away and there are many serves, many forehands to go yet.
“I’m happy with the way I’m playing which is always the most important thing for me – to focus on my own game.
“Thankfully I don’t have to face Ivo’s serve every week. If all the other guys served like that, it would be tough.”
Federer will now play 24th seed Tommy Haas tomorrow and they have history. Federer had to fight his way back from two sets down in the fourth round of the French Open recently to win a five set thriller 6-7 5-7 6-4 6-0 6-2 in Paris. And he is expecting another tough encounter.
“Against Tommy you have to play a good match from the start because if you don’t, as we saw in Paris, it can be brutal,”
he added.
“He’s really talented – he has always been one of the best strikers of the ball in the game and he has got his game together after some tough injuries.”
Meanwhile, Haas – who took the Gerry Weber Open title on grass in Germany last month – cruised to a 7-5 7-6 4- 6 6-3 victory against Novak Djokovic.
Haas – who beat Djokovic in three sets to lift the trophy in Halle – took two hours 44 minutes to dispose of the world number four.
The injury prone world number 34 has battled back from career-threatening shoulder problem to reach his fourth career semi-final but insists he’s fighting fit to take on Federer.
“I’m feeling good and my tennis is going well,” said Haas. “I beat Novak in Halle so I knew a bit about how he plays and I had a lot of confidence coming into the game.
“But he’s not ranked at four in the world for nothing, He’s a good player and I had to be on top of my game.
“Roger is one of the greatest of all time and that’s one of the reasons he came back to beat me in Paris.
“But the French Open was the French Open and this is Wimbledon and it’s a completely different tournament.”
Andy Roddick booked his ticket to a semi-final with Andy Murray following an epic five-set victory over 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt.
Roddick – a two-time finalist in SW19 – was twice pegged back by the unseeded Australian but showed his true class to win 6-3 6-7 7-6 4-6 6-4 in 3 hours 50 minutes on court one.
“I’m super relieved to come through that match,” said the 2003 US Open winner. “I’m really happy with the win because I’ve not been in the grand slam picture over the last few years.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for Lleyton and I think we always knew it was going to be a battle of wills.”
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