ATP News : 2006


Federer Three Wins Away from Tennis Immortality

Top seed Roger Federer is now three victories away from becoming just the third man in history to win four consecutive Grand Slam titles after brushing aside Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 in 1 hr. 47 mins. to reach the Roland Garros quarterfinals for the se


Today's victory marked Federer's 25th consecutive Grand Slam match win, tying him for second place (w/Sampras, Connors) on the Open Era list behind Laver with 29 in 1969-70.

Berdych, who defeated Federer at the 2004 Olympics, led 3-1 in the third set before Federer rallied to win the last five games of the match.

Federer, 24, is attempting to reach his eighth consecutive Grand Slam semifinal and win his sixth major title from his past eight Grand Slam appearances. Federer reached the Roland Garros semifinals for the first time last year, losing to Rafael Nadal. The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds remain on track to meet in this year's final.

Only Don Budge and Rod Laver (twice) have held all four Grand Slam titles at the same time. Both men completed the Grand Slam - tennis's holy grail of winning all four majors in the same calendar year - Budge in 1938 and Laver in 1962 and '69. Three other men have won all four Grand Slam titles during their careers - Andre Agassi, Roy Emerson and Fred Perry - but they did not win four consecutive Grand Slam titles as Federer now has the chance to do.

Federer next meets in-form Croatian 12th seed Mario Ancic, who upset seventh seed Tommy Robredo 7-5 in the fifth set.

Federer holds a 2-1 career edge over Ancic, winning their two most recent meetings in 2005 in Miami and Rotterdam on hard court. Ancic claimed his only win over Federer in the first round of Wimbledon in 2002. That result was a surprise because it followed Federer's quarterfinal appearance in 2001 (when he defeated four-time reigning champion Pete Sampras) and preceded the Swiss's first Wimbledon title run in 2003.

Third seed David Nalbandian defeated fellow Argentine Martin Vassallo Arguello 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals for the second time in three years. Nalbandian, who reached the semifinals in 2004, clipped 47 winners to 28 and broke his countryman six times.




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