Wimbledon 2010: Roger Federer sees his Wimbledon aura drained by Tomas Berdych

Federer had been getting away with it during this fortnight. Not this time, though. Federer’s game was dismantled by his opponent’s unlovely, ungodly power.

Shockingly, Federer’s timing on Centre Court was more Timex than Rolex. That was not the only reason that Federer lost his Wimbledon title, and so will not appear in the Wimbledon final for the first time since 2002.
Federer lost because he was roughed-up on the lawn, because he could not deal with the weight of shot that was coming from the other side of the net.

Short of gripping Federer by the throat and pushing him up against the backstop beneath the Royal Box, Tomas Berdych could not have done more to unsettle the Swiss.

By the time Berdych was done, most of the felt would have come off the tennis balls, and Federer was out of Wimbledon with his earliest defeat for eight years.

Federer came here hoping to win a seventh Wimbledon title; and yet he ended up with a four-set defeat to the world No 13. In truth, Federer has not been himself since he beat Andy Murray in the final of January’s Australian Open to win his sixteenth grand slam title. …