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Roger Federer may make a mistake later this week at the Miami Open presented by Itau, but he barely made it Thursday night against Kevin Anderson.
The triple Miami champion had everything in evidence during his 6-0, 6-4 rout against the sixth seeded and looks like the man to beat for the last weekend of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament.
Federer brought cheeky talent to the net, clever slices from one side to the other and the offensive mentality, and that was good too for Anderson, who could not reproduce his return to Wimbledon in 2018 and had lost 1-6 in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against the 27-time Masters 1000 champion.
37-year-old Federer played his seventh semifinal in Miami and 65th four finalists at a Masters 1000 event. Then, instead of an experienced veteran like Anderson, 32, he will meet someone who spent his childhood watching Switzerland in the Canadian Denis Shapovalov, an elderly 19 years old. In the other semifinal, reigning and seventh-seeded champion John Isner, 33, will meet Canadian qualifier Felix Auger-Alibadime, 18.
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"It's not so different from playing when I was playing Rafa when he was very young, or anybody … Any teenager you play, once I think you're 23, feels different to play at someone else's, because they might not know all the games up to the T, but they should not do it because they just swing freely sometimes and this makes it particularly dangerous, "said Federer.
"I've always loved playing against teens.I think it's very exciting because of that.It's an exciting draw, for John and for me here, to play against these young guys." They are not only young, but they are also very good, they are nice guys and hopefully it will be a good semi-final. "
This will be the first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting between Shapovalov and Federer. The southpaw came back for the third time in this tournament this weekend to win a #NextGenATP battle against American Frances Tiafoe, 21, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-2. Both players participated in the Next Gen ATP finals in Milan.
Federer remembered practicing with Shapovalov a few years ago at the Masters 1000 event in Toronto.
"He might have been 16, 17 years old and, like today, he was hitting hard. I was, "Wow, it's unbelievable. How old is he? How is he going? I do not know. But he was very impressive. Same for service … it just felt like it belonged there, "Federer said.
Read more: Shapovalov, victim of violence, wins shot against Federer | Federer congratulates Auger-Alibadime and Shapovalov
The quarterfinals had a worrying start for Anderson, who served first. The South African looked upset and lost a long backhand to give Federer a break.
Entered the match, he had only been broken three times (34/37) against Spaniard Jaume Munar, Portuguese No. 1 Joao Sousa and Australian Jordan Thompson. But Federer would break Anderson as many times in the first set alone.
Federer only got 38% of his first service, but he defended his second service without a problem. Anderson recovered from the first 26-minute set and the 0-6, 0-2 deficit, preventing Federer from coming back on duty at 3-3 in the second period.
But the pressure went up again to 4-4 and, after a 14-minute marathon match, Federer showed his trick again. The Swiss cut a return to the right wing of Anderson for which he had launched but largely missing, and Federer had his fifth and final break.
Did you know?
Federer currently ranks third (27) in the absolute 1000 Masters title standings, behind Novak Djokovic (32) and Rafael Nadal (33).
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