By Chris Oddo | Friday June 22, 2018
Roger Federer had moments of struggle but ultimately righted the ship when he needed to and prevailed at his stomping grounds in Halle, 7-6(2), 7-5, over Matthew Ebden of Australia on Friday at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany.
The Swiss improves his grass-court winning streak to 19 matches and reaches the Halle semifinal for a 13th time a day after he needed to save two match points to eke past Benoit Paire in three sets.
Today wasn’t a typical straightforward Federer bloodletting either, as the 36-year-old needed a tiebreaker to win the first set and he was forced to recover a break deficit twice in the second set to get the win in one hour and 28 minutes.
Federer, who finished with six aces and 30 of 36 first-serve points won, played a pair of very shaky service games in the second set, but he responded immediately after the first and then roared to the finish, winning the final four games to improve to a remarkable 62-6 lifetime at the Gerry Weber Open.
"I think it’s normal once you get broken on grass that you are ready to go a third because that would be a logical consequence of being broken," Federer said. "But at the same time, you try to show a reaction, try to break back and I had to and was able to do that today."
Next up for the Swiss will be American qualifier Denis Kudla. The 25-year-old defeated Yuichi Sugita, 6-2, 7-5 in Friday’s first quarterfinal at Halle and he has won all ten sets he has played en route to his first 500-level semifinal.
Federer is bidding for his 99th career title and needs to win his 10th trophy in Halle in order to remain No.1 heading into Wimbledon.
More to follow….