Roger Federer could make history by becoming the first man to win six successive Wimbledon titles on Sunday, but he won’t be satisfied until he’s added at least five more to his name.
The world No. 1 is unbeaten on grass for six years after racking up his 64th win in a row on the surface by cruising past Mario Ancic on Wednesday to set up a mouthwatering semi-final with Marat Safin.
“I’ll have a chance to win this tournament for the next five or 10 years,” the 26-year-old Federer said.
PHOTO : AP
“Doesn’t matter how I play from here. I think my game’s made for grass. There will always be tough opponents, dangerous opponents,” he said. “But I always found a way to win. Of course, my dream is to not only win this year, but for many more years to come. If it doesn’t happen, I’ll try to win the next one again. This is what it’s all about for me at this stage.”
If he achieves his goal, it will comfortably make him the most successful Grand Slam winner of all time, surpassing close friend Pete Sampras’ record of 14.
At the moment, his running tally stands at 12.
However, he first has to get past Safin, a former world No. 1 and US Open and Australian Open champion who’s been the revelation of Wimbledon by defying his world ranking of 75 to reach his first All England Club semi-final.
Today’s match will be the volatile Russian’s first Grand Slam last four appearance since 2005, the year when he beat Federer on his way to lifting the Australian Open, his last trophy performance on the tour.
Federer, who holds an 8-2 career winning record over Safin including a straight sets fourth round win at Wimbledon last year, has nothing but respect for his opponent.
That admiration can only have been enhanced by seeing Safin destroy world No. 3 Novak Djokovic in the second round.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier