On the current career resume of Roger Federer, the Australian Open stands as his most elusive major. The Swiss maestro has gone three years without winning Australia’s Grand Slam tournament, an eternity by the standards of Federer, the reigning French and Wimbledon champion who last won the U.S. Open in 2008. Federer last won in Melbourne on January 28, 2007, defeating Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4 to win his third Australian Open title and his 10th career major tournament title. Federer’s win over Nikolay Davydenko on Wednesday in the Australian Open quarterfinals placed him into his 23rd straight Grand Slam semifinal, a record he earned also at the 2007 Australian Open when he surpassed Ivan Lendl’s previous record of 10. As documented below from the authoritative Federer book THE ROGER FEDERER STORY: QUEST FOR PERFECTION ($24.95, New Chapter Press, www.RogerFedererBook.com), author Rene Stauffer reviews Federer’s final-round match with Gonzalez in this selection from the book chapter called “The Perfect 10.”
Federer reached his seventh straight Grand Slam tournament final—tying the 73-year-old record held by Australian Jack Crawford. By reaching the semifinals, Federer broke Ivan Lendl’s record of 10 straight Grand Slam semifinal appearances. He was careful not to celebrate prematurely. A year ago in the Australian Open final, he nearly crashed and burned against the unseeded upstart Marcos Baghdatis. His final-round opponent was the red-hot Fernando Gonzalez and Federer did not want to let his nerves—or another slow start—prevent him from closing out another Grand Slam title. Gonzalez defeated Lleyton Hewitt, James Blake, Rafael Nadal and Tommy Haas en route to his first Grand Slam final. He was the third Chilean Grand Slam finalist after Luis Ayala, a finalist at the French in 1958 and 1960, and Marcelo Rios, who also was a finalist at the Australian Open in 1998. Gonzalez desperately wanted to become the first player from his country to win a Grand Slam singles title.
For the second time, Federer reached a Grand Slam final without surrendering a set. In 2006 at Wimbledon, he also won 18 straight sets en route to the final before Nadal managed to win a set in a tie-break to spoil a perfect run to a Grand Slam title. Gonzalez began his first Grand Slam final on a cool January evening undaunted by Federer’s quest for a perfect run through a Grand Slam draw. The Chilean, in fact, had two chances to immediately stop Federer’s run to perfection in the first set. Serving for the first set at 5-4, Gonzalez held two set points at 40-15, but Federer hit an elegant volley to save the first set point, and benefited from the hard-hitting Chilean netting a blistering forehand on the next set point. As it turned out, it would be the only chances Gonzalez had in the match.
Nothing could stop Federer after he confidently won the first-set tiebreak 7-2. He did not shy away from engaging the Chilean’s whipping forehand, while converting winners off his backhand side and at the net.
At 10:08 pm local time in Melbourne, Federer fell to the court after converting on his first match point in his 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4 victory. He yelled out in joy and lay on the court in exultation. Federer’s parents, Lynette and Robert, traveled to Australia for the first time and looked on from Federer’s box along with his late coach Peter Carter’s parents.
The match was a perfect 10. The victory was his 10th in 10 career matches with Gonzalez—the Chilean being the first player to lose 10 straight matches to Federer. It was Federer’s 10th career Grand Slam title and the first time he won a Grand Slam without losing a set. Federer became the first player to win a Grand Slam tournament without losing a set since Björn Borg won the 1980 French Open. The only two other players to win a Grand Slam event without losing a set in the Open Era were Ilie Nastase at the 1973 French Open and Ken Rosewall at the 1971 Australian Open. In his quest to find perfection, Federer was nearer to his goal than ever before. The headline in the newspaper Age the next day read: “The Perfect 10.”
With his 10th Grand Slam title, Federer moved into fifth place in the all-time rankings list—tied with American Bill Tilden who, in the 1920’s and early 1930’s, was the paragon of the tennis world. “Moving from nine to 10 is a big step,” Federer said after his 36th consecutive match victory. He now only needed four more Grand Slam titles to catch up to Pete Sampras and his record 14 Grand Slam titles. Besides the American, only Australian Roy Emerson (12) as well as Rod Laver and Björn Borg (with 11 each) were ahead of him. Federer won nine of the last 13 and six of the last seven Grand Slam tournaments and he also was a finalist in Paris—marking an unprecedented run on Grand Slam trophies.