Roger Federer won an enormous confidence boost in Halle and was one of the players to beat at Wimbledon 2003, reaching the quarter-finals in 2001 and hoping to leave the short season of a year ago behind him.
When Ivo Karlovic surprised defending champion Lleyton Hewitt at the start of the tournament, Roger remained the highest seeded for that part of the draw, played well and secured a second week spot at the All England Club for the second time in three years.
Federer destroyed Hyung-Taik Lee in the first round, defeated Stefan Koubek in the second match and defeated Mardy Fi sh in two hours and four sets to reach the round of 16. His next rival was Feliciano Lopez, and Federer won this 7: 6, 6: 4, 6: 4 for the third quarter-finals at Majors despite a massive horror on the practice area.
Federer defeated Lopez and reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 2003
During a regular training session, Roger felt a sharp pain in his back. He called for a coach after only two games, hoping to be amazed because he had never seen anything like it.
Federer barely moved and struggled to find the rhythm, stayed behind in the opening sentence and things could have been over for him if Lopez had converted one of three sentence points in the tenth game.
The Spaniard gambled away his chances and let the Swiss recover and somehow win the set in the tie-break. As his body got warmer and warmer, Roger Federer was able to stay at a high level in the following two sets and seal the deal.
He hoped for more of it against Sjeng Schalken and chased his first major semi-final. “The injury came while warming up and I can’t explain what happened. I couldn’t move and had to call the coach and hope for a miracle.
It was very tough for me and I don’t know how I won today as nothing like this has ever happened to me. It bothered me to hit and my back was completely blocked; I was always in a lot of pain.
As the game progressed it got a little better because the body gets warm and you get into it and try to forget about the problems. I didn’t think I’d be the winner today after the shock I had today.
I have to try to take this lucky game and get rid of the pain before the quarter-finals. I have a great opportunity and I will try to take advantage of it. I’m a bit exhausted after everything that happened, “said Roger Federer.
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