SPORTS
Saturday, June 8, 2019
Federer can’t handle wind or
Nadal in 3-set French Open loss
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By HOWARD FENDRICH
AP Tennis Writer
PARIS — It’s rough
enough for Roger Federer —
well, let’s be honest, anyone
holding a tennis racket — to
try to deal with Rafael Nad-
al’s unfl inching excellence on
the French Open’s red clay.
Mix in a wild wind, and
Federer, so great for so long,
against anyone else and any-
where else, morphed into
merely good. And good, even
Federer’s brand of good, was
not nearly enough Friday.
Nadal made quick work of
Federer in their fi rst meeting
at Roland Garros since 2011,
outperforming his rival 6-3,
6-4, 6-2 in air whipping at
more than 20 mph (12 kph) to
reach his record 12th fi nal in
Paris as he pursues his record
12th championship.
This was Federer’s most
lopsided Grand Slam defeat
since he gathered a mea-
sly four games in a loss to
— guess who? — Nadal in
the 2008 French Open title
match.
“He makes you feel
uncomfortable the way he
defends the court and plays
on clay. There is nobody who
even plays remotely close
to him,” said Federer, who
hadn’t entered the tourna-
ment since 2015. “I don’t even
know who I need to go search
for, to go practice with some-
body who plays like him. I
was thinking that during the
match.”
Nadal has never lost a
semifi nal at the clay-court
major. Never lost a fi nal,
either. When told of those
facts, Nadal replied, mat-
ter-of-factly: “It’s incredible,
being honest.”
He’s also never lost to
Federer at Roland Garros,
improving to 6-0. Over-
all, Nadal leads their series
24-15. Federer had won their
past fi ve meetings, but those
were all on hard courts.
It’s a whole different task
to take on Nadal on clay, in
general, and at the French
Open, in particular, where he
is 92-2 for his career.
In Sunday’s fi nal, the No.
2-seeded Nadal will play No.
1 Novak Djokovic or No. 4
Dominic Thiem. Their semi-
fi nal, played second Friday,
was suspended for the day in
the third set because of rain in
the evening. Thiem was lead-
ing 6-2, 3-6, 3-1 when play
was halted. About 45 minutes
later, offi cials announced the
match would resume Satur-
day. That means whoever
wins would be competing
for a fourth day in a row in
the fi nal against a well-rested
Nadal.
This was the fi rst time
since 2011 the four top-
seeded men were in the
Roland Garros semifi nals.
In the women’s fi nal Sat-
urday, No. 8 Ash Barty will
East Oregonian
AP Photo/Michel Euler
Spain’s Rafael Nadal clenches his fi st after scoring a point
against Switzerland’s Roger Federer during their semifi nal
match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland
Garros stadium on Friday in Paris.
face unseeded 19-year-old
Marketa Vondrousova of the
Czech Republic. It’s the fi rst
time either has played for a
major title.
Nadal, meanwhile, is bid-
ding for his 18th. Among
men, only Federer has more,
with 20.
Like so many times before,
it was Nadal’s topspin-heavy
lefty forehand, his relentless
ball-chasing and his return
game that gave Federer fi ts.
Even frustrated the guy so
much that the generally stoic
Federer smacked a tennis ball
toward the stands after get-
ting broken to trail 2-1 in the
third set.
It would soon be over.
“It’s just amazing how
he plays from deep and then
is able to bounce back and
forth from the baseline,” Fed-
erer said. “I didn’t play a poor
two fi rst sets, in my opinion.
I thought Rafa really had to
come up with the goods to
make the difference, and the
difference was a passing shot
here, a pickup there.”
Blithely put. The fact is,
Nadal’s passes and pickups
— not to mention his refl exes
— are not of this world.
More than once, he slid to
his right, beyond the doubles
alley, to extend a point by
retrieving the seemingly irre-
trievable with a backhand,
then followed it up by sprint-
ing to his left for a jaw-drop-
pingly precise forehand that
fl ew out of Federer’s reach
and veered to land near a line.
And more than once,
Nadal punctuated the point
by pumping his fi st and yell-
ing, “Vamos!”
The wind was so
unchecked that it knocked a
tarp off its moorings behind
a baseline. It tossed loose
dirt from the court into both
players’ eyes, so much so
that Federer joked it felt as if
they were playing in a sand-
box. There was also drizzle
and temperatures of about 60
degrees (15 Celsius).
Enough to make one wish
the retractable roof due to
be installed before the 2020
French Open were already in
place.
Even Nadal described the
conditions as “so hard, so dif-
fi cult to manage.”
“It’s just really compli-
cated, you know,” Federer
said. “So you’re trying to see
how much can you do — or
you cannot do. Are you play-
ing fl atter or with more spin?
Are you keeping the ball
in play? Are you going for
stuff?”
With an aggressive,
charge-to-the-net style, he
had been broken a total of
only four times by his fi rst
fi ve opponents. But Federer
was more hesitant against his
nemesis, and Nadal won 6 of
13 return games.
The 37-year-old Federer
was serenaded off the court
by spectators’ chants of his
fi rst name. He raised his right
arm for a quick wave as he
walked away — perhaps for
the fi nal time. He missed the
tournament in 2016 with a
bad back, then skipped the
entire clay-court circuit the
next two years to prepare for
grass and hard courts.
“I surprised myself,
maybe, how deep I got in this
tournament and how well
I actually was able to play
throughout,” Federer said.
“And next year? Just like
with any other tournament,
I don’t know. We’ll see what
happens.”
For Nadal, this was the lat-
est impeccable performance
in a recent resurgence. He
entered May without a title in
2019, his worst start to a sea-
son in 15 years.
But the 33-year-old Span-
iard began fi nding his form
at last month’s Italian Open,
beating Djokovic in that fi nal.
In Paris, Nadal is up to his
annual standards.
“He’s been playing better
and better every week,” said
Nadal’s coach, Carlos Moya,
the 1998 French Open cham-
pion. “He’s been playing well
in this moment, which is his
main goal: Roland Garros.”
One more victory to go for
a dozen titles in Paris.
The East Oregonian is proud to announce its partnership with Athena
Public Library, City of Echo, Milton-Freewater Area Historical Society,
Pendleton Round-up, Tamástslikt Cultural Institute, Umatilla County
Historical Society and our readers on a new pictorial history book,
“Umatilla County Memories: The Early Years.”
YOU’RE INVITED
We are excited to invite you, our readers, to participate in this unique project. Please
bring your photos to one of our scanning sessions listed here — and be sure to check
our submission guidelines. Photos will be scanned on-site and given right back to
you. In order to keep things speedy, please fill out our simple photo submission form
prior to the session. Forms can be downloaded at Umatilla.PictorialBook.com.
Please plan to fill out one form for each photo you’d like to submit.
Download submission forms and pre-order at
Umatilla.PictorialBook.com
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
General interest photos, such as: commerce, industry, transportation, rural life,
public service, etc.
Photos taken between the 1800s and 1939.
Photos only — preferably original (no newspaper clippings or photocopies).
Photos taken in Umatilla County.
Limit 10 photos per family. No appointment necessary.
If you’re a private collector, call 360-723-5800 to set up an appointment.
SCANNING SESSIONS
Saturday, June 22 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Tribal images only
Tamástslikt Cultural Institute
Keegan Bradley leads by 1 after
fi rst round of Canadian Open
47106 Wildhorse Boulevard, Pendleton
ANCASTER,
Ontario
(AP) — Keegan Bradley had
a 7-under 63 for a one-shot
lead after the fi rst round of
the RBC Canadian Open on
Thursday.
“Today I was in complete
control of my ball,” Bradley
said. “Then when you couple
that with feeling good on the
greens, that’s when a 63 or a
good, nice round happens.”
Bradley was convinced
that his clubhouse lead
would not withstand the
afternoon groups, but it did.
Roberto Castro of the U.S.,
was the only player that
teed off in the second wave
to reach second, tying Can-
ada’s Nick Taylor, Ireland’s
Shane Lowry, South Korea’s
Sungjae Im and South Afri-
ca’s Erik van Rooyen.
This year the tourna-
ment has moved up in the
golf calendar, making it a
lead-in event to the U.S.
Open and drawing a sig-
nifi cantly stronger group of
competitors.
Defending tournament
champion Dustin Johnson,
the No. 2 player in the world,
Monday, June 24
shot a 1-over 71. Last year
Johnson pulled away from
the fi eld after a nearly two-
hour rain delay to win his
fi rst Canadian Open, fi ring
6-under 66 in last year’s fi nal
round to fi nish at 23 under.
Brooks Koepka, fresh off
his PGA Championship win,
shot an even-par 70 and is
tied for 84th.
Taylor of Abbotsford,
British Columbia, led the
Canadian contingent, shoot-
ing a 6-under 64. Taylor,
who started on hole No. 10,
made four birdies in a row
to open his back nine at the
Hamilton Golf and Country
Club.
Mackenzie Hughes was
one of fi ve Canadians within
three shots of Bradley. Adam
Hadwin of Abbotsford had
a 5-under 65, while David
Hearn of nearby Brantford,
Ontario, and Drew Nesbitt
of Shanty Bay, Ontario, both
tied Hughes.
As soon as Hughes’ part-
ners were done teeing off
at No. 13, he bent down,
opened up a small bag and
pulled out a jersey.
It took a moment for fans
to realize what he was doing,
but as Hughes straightened
out the familiar black and
red of a Kawhi Leonard
Toronto Raptors jersey, the
cheers rose to a crescendo,
with spectators pounding on
the boards that surround the
hockey-themed hole at the
RBC Canadian Open known
as The Rink.
Like many Raptors fans,
Hughes hopes that Toronto
wins the NBA Finals against
the Golden State Warriors
and can re-sign Leonard,
who will become a free
agent this summer.
“I don’t think my wearing
the jersey infl uenced him at
all, but I hope that he stays,”
Hughes said.
“I try to have some fun
with that hole. Life’s short
so, whatever, I’m just going
to have some fun,” said
Hughes, who donned a
Toronto Maple Leafs jersey
at last year’s version of the
Rink at Glen Abbey Golf
Club in Oakville, Ontario.
“The crowd enjoys that stuff
so it’s fun for me to do.
Sunday, June 23 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Echo Bank Building and Historical Museum
230 W. Main Street, Echo
3 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Athena Public Library
418 E. Main Street, Athena
Wednesday, June 26
10 a.m. – noon
Umatilla County Historical Society
Heritage Station Museum
108 SW Frazer, Pendleton
Thursday, June 27 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Milton-Freewater Area Historical Society
and Frazier Farmstead Museum
1403 Chestnut Street, Milton-Freewater
Not all photos submitted or used in
ads will appear in the final book.
B3