By Anthony Suntay

ROGER Federer’s journey to a record-setting 14th Grand Slam title, which would tie the legendary Pete Sampras, almost came to screeching halt the other day when the Swede was pushed to the very brink by 20th seed Tomas Berdych.

The Czech won the first two sets, 6-4, and, 7-6, and looked well in control of the match.

The way Federer moved opponents around the court with ease in the past, Berdych seemed to be doing to the Cool Swiss.

The way Berdych controled the early stage of their encounter, it seemed like he had Federer on a string.

But with the years of experience behind him, Federer slowly fought back. He tried extending the points and also gave Berdych different looks from time to time.

It worked, as the Swede won the next three sets, 6-4, 6-4, and 6-2, to move into the quarterfinals.

“You’ve got to hang in there, there’s no other solution,” Federer said immediately after the game, “I tried to weather the storm. He was hitting the ball so heavy and so hard. He pushed me to the limit.”

That Berdych did, and drew a lot of praise from tennis aficionados all over.

I actually had a meeting that afternoon, which I arrived late for because I just had to finish the thrilling contest.

Federer though had a huge break with a line call in the fourth set, which really swung the momentum to his side. Berdych, after surviving two break points to force deuce, faced another breakpoint when a close line call was awarded to Federer.

In this day and age, a crucial call like that shouldn’t haunt you because of the “eagle eye” system of replay. Unfortunately for Berdych, and quite possibly fortunately for Federer, a technical problem happened at that particular moment and a replay was not available, so the call, if indeed it was erroneous, could not be reversed.

 Berdych complained to the umpire and it looked like the crowd got behind him at that point since many of them felt he was short-changed.

Play eventually continued and Berdych lost the next point, and that game, which turned out to be the only break of the set.

With the match tied at two sets apiece, the veteran went on a tear and raced to a 4-0 advantage, then extended it to 5-2 before finishing of Berdych with back-to-back aces.

Talk about going through a wringer, this was it.

Now, people are saying that Federer was lucky to be in the quarterfinals and he is going to be toast in the next round.

I never thought so.

Matches like this can work for you or against it.

In this case, I believed it toughened Federer for the grind ahead. The only time it may hurt you is if you’re drained physically, which the Swiss shrugged off.

“I enjoy those kind of fights. It doesn’t happen all the time. It’s always special,” Federer added. “I feel like I could play a couple of more sets, so that’s a good sign.”

Federer proved my point when he thrashed Juan Martin del Potro in only 80 minutes of play to advance to the final four.

Then, he faced no. 7 seed Andy Roddick and in two hours and seven minutes, he advanced to another Grand Slam final with a straight set victory.

He will face his biggest challenge though if his nemesis Rafael Nadal makes it to the big dance, but the way Federer is playing right now, he should tie the record of Sampras this weekend.

Listen to Real Sports later today at 2:15 p.m. on Wave 89.1!

Have a great weekend! God Bless!

E-mail me at realsports891@yahoo.com