In Sergio Leone's classic Spaghetti Western, Tuco tells his assailant, 'I like big...men like you. When they fall they make more noise,' and Roger Federer's loss at Wimbledon certainly made a deafening thump to those who heard it. There is no schadenfreude to all of this, as Federer is too much of a champion for that. This was simply a beautiful piece of theatre, a grand spectacle played out on the greatest stage.
He holds himself like a champion, and behaves with dignity and grace both on and off the court. The only thing anyone could hold against him is that horrible cream jacket he wears to the trophy presentations. This year, for the first time since 2002, the cream jacket will go unused, and a Wimbledon Men's final will be played without the presence of the Swiss.
The match's script pretty much wrote itself, and as I jotted my notes down on anything I could find, last Friday's copy of the Guardian's film& music pullout section as it happens, I could tell that something special was in the works on Centre Court.
But this should not be about the six-time Wimbledon winner. It should be about the Czech Tomas Berdych, who showed that last month's defeat of Andy Murray in the French Open fourth round was no fluke.
The crowd were appreciative of his play, but there is a special place in the hearts of the faithful for Federer, and right until the end, some still hoped that he could pull off a miracle. The Number One seed dodged one match point, but not a second. He has shown time and time again that in the big points he can pull out an amazing passing shot or a piece of magic, but not today.
His life is not a Disney movie, at least not yet. He tried to rev himself up at least thrice, showing uncharacteristic emotion by yelling 'come on' at the top of his voice, but the A game was not there. He had scraped through (barely) against Alejandro Falla in the first round, making hard work of Ilija Bozoljak, before dispatching Arnaud Clement and Jurgen Meltzer with the minimum of fuss, but Berdych was another proposition entirely.
Dazzled by Berdych's early performance, all John McEnroe could talk about was Czech Ivan Lendl, the eight-time Grand Slam winner, who won his first slam at the age of 24, and is the only player in the last thirty years to win multiple Grand Slams after winning his first after the age of 22. Berdych, now 24, who equalled his best performance at a major today (he had never reached the semis before the French Open last month), will be hoping to buck that trend. Today proved he has the weapons, and perhaps the temperament too.
Meanwhile Federer's first serve came and went throughout the match, and he committed some very un-Federer-like forehands, either shooting way long, or hitting the net, but the most disappointing part of his game was the backhand. In the third set (where the Czech broke Federer twice), the defending Champion's first serve percentage was around 61, but he ended up winning just 43 percent of his second serve points. Some of the credit has to go to Berdych, who kept the Swiss honest, and found the lines with surprising regularity. The former Champion was given very little time, and was manoeuvred around the court just as he would normally do to an opponent.
This is to take nothing away from the Czech, who produced the performance of his life, beating Federer 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. His 130+ mph serves provided constant problems for his opponent, while his scorching forehand seemed to earn him points at every critical juncture in the match.
After saving one match point, Federer had a break point of his own, and it would have been an incredible twist of irony if the Swiss could have saved a match point and gone on to win, as this was what Berdych had done to Federer in this years' Miami Masters.
Afterwards he said of his victory, 'To play on this stadium, against a player as great as Roger and to be standing here as the winner is absolutely amazing. This was the toughest match of my career to close out, It's a big step forward and I'm so happy.'
The victory sets up an intriguing semi-final with Novak Djokovic on Friday. Back in 2004, Berdych was moved to tears when he beat Federer at Athens in the 2004 Olympic Games. This time there was only a broad grin.
Photo: Alastair Grant: AP
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