Novelty surfaces as clash of the titans looms

Sports Writer

Friday 6 July 2012

ROGER FEDERER and Novak Djokovic are such ubiquitous, colossal sporting figures that it seems incredible to discover a fixture between the pair which retains genuine novelty value.

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Stewart Fisher

The Swiss and the Serb have played each other on no fewer than 26 occasion, and today's meeting will be their 11th in a grand slam, meaning they have met more often in the majors than any other two players in the open era.

In fact, this will be the ninth time they have met in a major semi-final, making it the most frequent last-four match-up ever. But remarkably enough the two men, who together are responsible for winning seven Wimbledon titles and 21 grand slam trophies in total will still create a first at the All England Club this lunchtime. Today's match will be their first contest on a grass court. And, surface spotting aside, there is much at stake. Djokovic is bidding to become the first man to retain the men's singles at Wimbledon since 2007, a feat last achieved by the man today standing on the other side of the net. Federer just has the edge in the head-to-head record between the players, by 14 wins to 12, and he will hope that reverting to grass might tip things in his favour to help overturn a recent trend in this fixture, with the Swiss having won just one of the previous seven matches. Then there is the matter of the world rankings: win today and Djokovic will be guaranteed to stay as world No.1, the spot he has occupied for an entire calendar year. Lose, and Federer could reclaim that long-coveted spot by beating either Andy Murray or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Sunday's final.Familiarity, you may have perhaps heard, breeds contempt – and there have been times when people have wondered if such was the case with Federer and Djokovic. There was a brief outpouring of bad feeling between the pair when Federer accused Djokovic of feigning injury during an ill-tempered Davis Cup rubber against his pal Stanislas Wawrinka, but both men are comrades on the ATP Player Council and they were certainly as good as gold as they looked forward to today's match."Well, we've never played on grass, so we'll see how that is going to turn out," said Djokovic, who has dropped just one set thus far, to Czech veteran Radek Stepanek in the third round. "But, you know, as I said, maybe he uses the grass court better because of that slice. He has a really smart game for this surface. But I have improved playing on grass in the last couple of years. I mean, I won the title here last year, got to another semi-final this year, so I'm feeling good about this surface, about myself on the court.""I'm not trying to defend my title here," the Serb added. "I'm trying to fight for it as every other player who is in last four of the men's side. So my mindset is very positive. Last year was actually the first tournament I ever won on a grass court, which before it wasn't my most successful surface. When you're playing at this stage of a grand slam against one of your biggest rivals, there are a lot of things involved, a lot of things on the line. It's not the first time that I'm playing to win or lose rankings." Although Federer has won just one of their last five meetings in the slams, when at Roland Garros he last year memorably brought to an end Djokovic's 43-match winning streak, the Serb had to save two match points in fighting back from two sets down to win last year's US Open. "Most of the matches that we play against each other are very close," Djokovic said. "Very few points decide the winner. I won two years in a row against him from match points down, so I can't really say I've been winning comfortably those matches. That's what I expect in the next one, as well." If he wins today, Federer will become the first man in history to reach eight Wimbledon finals, as he closes in on his seventh Wimbledon title, which would equal the record held by Pete Sampras and William Renshaw. "Obviously things are not that drastic of a change any more from clay, hard court, indoor, to grass," the Swiss said. "But it is interesting that this is our first grasscourt match. I don't feel that any match is over against a top player like Novak. With his ability in shot making, you know the match is never over until the umpire calls the score." Something new will happen today on Centre Court. Federer will hope that it is something traditional which occurs on Sunday.

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Novelty surfaces as clash of the titans looms

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