Roger Federer beaten by Milos Raonic, out of Wimbledon race| Oneindia News
The Courier-Journal 7:04 a.m. EDT July 8, 2016
Q-Up Xavier Ecarma is a student at Sayer Classical Academy and wants to be a professional tennis player.
June 27, 2016(Photo: By Michael Clevenger, The CJ)Buy Photo
Xavier Ecarma, 13, is an eighth grader atSayers Classical Academy.
Every week, Q-Up will publish questions and answers from a teen in our area. Want to be featured? Go to courier-journal.com/qup and fill out the form online.
PEOPLE CALL ME: Xav (pronounced Zave).
I LIVE IN: Louisville.
I ALWAYS: Try my best.
I NEVER: Quit.
I AM MOST PROUD OF: Being a Christian.
I READ: Some autobiographies of great athletes and the Bible.
I WATCH: "SportsCenter" and "America"s Got Talent."
MY FAMILY INCLUDES: My mom, dad, older sister and younger brother.
MY FAVORITE FOOD IS: Hamburgers.
I LOVE: To play tennis.
IN TEACHERS I MOST APPRECIATE: Them being nice.
THE PERSON I MOST ADMIRE: Roger Federer.
I DREAM OF: Being the number one tennis player in the world.
I BELIEVE IN: G*d, my abilities and hard work.
I WANT TO BE: Aprofessional tennis player.
Buy Photo
Q-Up Xavier Ecarma is a student at Sayer Classical Academy and wants to be a professional tennis player.
June 27, 2016(Photo: By Michael Clevenger, The C-J)
I SLEEP: Just enough.
MY WORST HABIT IS: Getting frustrated while competing.
MY BEST QUALITY IS: That I am competitive and fair.
IF I RULED THE WORLD I WOULD: Help the people of third world countries.
IF I WERE ON A DESERT ISLAND I WOULD WANT: Water and food.
I PLAY: Tennis and basketball.
ONE THING THAT MAKES ME SAD: Someone passing away.
ONE THING THAT MAKES ME HAPPY: Helping others and winning.
2016, Day 11 Highlights, Roger Federer vs Milos Raonic
INDIANAPOLIS -- A new era for the Indianapolis 500 arrived in the form of a most unfamiliar driver.
An American, no less.
Alexander Rossi outlasted his faster rivals - and his fuel tank - for a stunning victory Sunday in the historic 100th running of "The Greatest Spectacle In Racing." The unlikely win allowed the long-suffering Andretti family to celebrate in the biggest race of their storied careers and it left the top drivers in the field fuming over Rossi"s good fortune.
Rossi was a 66-to-1 long shot and certainly not the driver anyone would have picked to win. But the 24-year-old Californian used fuel strategy to outsmart a handful of drivers who had the most dominant cars in the race.
Rossi stretched his final tank of gas 90 miles to cycle into the lead as others had to duck into the pits for a splash of fuel in the waning laps. He was sputtering on the final lap, working his clutch and getting screamed at by team co-owner Bryan Herta to conserve fuel, and he ultimately ran out of gas after taking the checkered flag.
His victory celebration came only after his Honda was towed to the party. He sat in the car for some time before climbing out to take that sweet sip of milk.
"I have no idea how we pulled that off," he declared.
"I really was focused on taking it one lap at a time," Rossi said. "The emotional roller-coaster of this race is ridiculous. There were moments I was really stoked, really heartbroken, really stoked. I was like, `Wow, I"ll need to see a psychiatrist after this.""
Rossi didn"t have the speed of Carlos Munoz, who was charging hard over the final 50 miles. But Munoz also had to stop for gas and didn"t have a chance to race his teammate for the victory, even though Rossi was running on fumes and completed the final lap at a snail"s pace of 179.784 mph.
The Colombian settled for second in a 1-2 finish for Andretti Autosport. He seemed devastated after his second runner-up finish in four years.
"I was really disappointed when it comes with fuel and you lose the race because of that," Munoz said. "I was really disappointed to get second. Half a lap short. What can I say? The only thing I"m clear about is that I will win this race one day."
Munoz has contended at Indy before and he"s proven to be fast at the speedway.
Rossi? Well, not many know much about him at all.
He"s an IndyCar rookie who has chased a ride in Formula One since he was 10. He left for Europe when he was 16 and never pursued a career in American open-wheel racing. But stuck without a ride this year, he made the decision to return to the United States to race and became the ninth rookie to win the 500 and the first since Helio Castroneves in 2001.
Rossi understood full well that it was strategy that got him this win, and he knows what an Indy 500 victory means.
"I have no doubt it"s going to change my life," he said.
Although he"s a relief driver for Manor Racing in F1, Rossi has no scheduled F1 races and IndyCar right now is his top commitment. He was lured back to America this year to drive for Herta in a partnership with Andretti Autosport. Herta was the winning car owner in 2011 with Dan Wheldon, the actual 100th anniversary of the first race in 1911, and now can claim a win in the 100th actual race.
"I can"t compare (the wins) other than to say I am so happy," Herta said. " I can"t overstate how hard it was for Alex to do what I was asking of him on the radio."
This Herta effort relied heavily on its alliance with Andretti, and the family was hoping Marco Andretti would give them their first Indy 500 title since patriarch Mario Andretti won in 1969.
Instead, Marco Andretti never contended on a day at least three of his teammates were clearly among the best in the field. Ryan Hunter-Reay and Townsend Bell combined to lead 64 of the first 119 laps, but the Americans were knocked from contention when Bell clipped Castroneves as he left pit road. The contact caused Bell to crash into Hunter-Reay.
"Ryan and Townsend looked really good up front, we thought they would be the team to beat," team owner Michael Andretti said. "Unfortunately, they had their problem in the pit, which I could not believe, and I thought that may have been our shot at winning."
Herta decided to gamble with Rossi on fuel strategy, and it"s the only thing that made him a late contender.
As the laps wound down, American Josef Newgarden and Munoz repeatedly swapped the lead. Both had to stop for gas, Rossi moved into the lead and it was all his from there.
Michael Andretti earlier this month was voted by the 27 living winners as the best driver never to win the race, but he has now won the 500 four times as a car owner.
"I knew Alex was going to try (the fuel strategy), and we said `Alright, if he"s going to try it, we"re going to try something else (with Munoz)," Andretti said. "To come home 1-2 is just incredible. It was amazing. I don"t know what to say, it"s a great day, to be a part of history, to win the 100th running, and to win it with a 1-2 finish is just incredible."
Newgarden finished third and was followed by Tony Kanaan, Charlie Kimball and JR Hildebrand as Chevrolet drivers took spots three through six.
Newgarden, along with Hunter-Reay, Bell, Kanaan and James Hinchcliffe, had the strongest cars most of the race. Hinchcliffe, the pole winner who missed this race last year after a near-fatal accident in a practice session, faded to seventh despite being one of the best cars in the field.
"If I was in Alex"s position, I"d be the happiest person in the world right now, I wouldn"t care how we won the d**n race," Newgarden said. "Everyone was on different strategies, and they played that strategy. Those guys, to put it politely, weren"t as strong as us. They didn"t have as strong a chance to win, so they had to mix it up. It worked out at the end for them."
In front of the first sellout in Indy 500 history, Rossi stunned the more than 350,000 fans in attendance. He was in Monaco this time last year for F1"s signature race, unsure of what his future held.
"I had no idea I"d be in IndyCar, I had no idea I"d be in the Indy 500," said Rossi, who becomes the 70th winner in race history.
He will now also become the 103rd face on the famed Borg-Warner Trophy.
2016, Day 9 Highlights, Roger Federer vs Marin Cilic
WIMBLEDON (CNN) - When Roger Federer saved three match points against Marin Cilic in the Wimbledon quarterfinals Wednesday, you couldn"t help but wonder if destiny was on the seven-time champion"s side.
It didn"t take long to get the answer, and if you were one of the millions of Federer fans around the world, that answer wasn"t very appetizing.
Federer confronted a similarly towering, big-serving rival in the semifinals in Milos Raonic, and this time exited in five sets to quash the 34-year-old"s hopes -- not to mention those of his faithful, adoring supporters -- of becoming the first man to claim eight Wimbledon titles.
Whereas 2014 U.S. Open champion Cilic will feel he should have ousted Federer, the latter leaves SW19 thinking he should have prevailed against the sixth-seeded Raonic.
"This one clearly hurts because I felt I could have had it," he told reporters. "So close. It was really so, so close.
"There were opportunities there."
As is sometimes the case when Federer loses, he went from the court to the interview room almost immediately, not wanting to linger, even if he was at his second home.
"Yeah, so opportunities were all around the fourth set. I think I pushed him on a few service games to get the break. But somehow I couldn"t get it done."
Instead Raonic triumphed 6-3 6-7 (3-7) 4-6 7-5 6-3 to become the second Canadian to reach a grand slam singles final after Eugenie Bouchard did it here at Wimbledon two years ago.
Coming up short in his previous two grand slam semifinals -- once to Federer at SW19 in 2014 and to Andy Murray at the Australian Open this year as injury surfaced -- his time has arrived at the age of 25.
"Obviously what happened here two years ago, I was very disappointed with," Raonic told reporters. "Today I sort of persevered. I was sort of plugging away. I was struggling through many parts of the match. He gave me a little opening towards the end of the fourth. I made the most of it.
"The attitude kept me in the match. I think that"s what made the biggest difference. I was quite vocal, but I was always positive. I was always looking for a solution."
On Sunday, Raonic meets British second seed Murray, his conqueror in the final of the grass-court warmup at London"s Queen"s Club last month.
The 2013 champion brushed aside 2010 finalist Tomas Berdych 6-3 6-3 6-3 in Friday"s second semi.
Murray, unlike Raonic, is a veteran of grand slam finals but is desperate to try to better an unflattering 2-8 mark.
Those assembled on Centre Court witnessed history Friday: It was the first time Federer lost a Wimbledon semifinal in 11 attempts. It was probably the first time, too, that Federer called the trainer for two different issues.
At the end of the fourth set his right thigh needed attention, and then at 1-2 in the fifth he slipped -- a further anomaly -- almost rolling his left ankle and appearing to tweak his left knee.
Both incidents may have played a considerable part in the outcome.
Was the thigh bothering Federer in the last game of the fourth set, when he inexplicably dropped serve from 40-0, hitting consecutive double faults from 40-15? Federer, who also double faulted on break point in the first set, didn"t produce one double fault against Cilic.
When he returned to the court in the fourth game of the fifth following the slip, the first point he faced was a break chance for Raonic. Although he saved it, Federer was broken later in the game following a riveting exchange near the net that culminated with Raonic"s forehand passing shot.
Down 3-1, Federer never recovered and Raonic registered a second straight win over the 17-time grand slam winner.
"I had missed my chances by then already, enough," he said. "Maybe I could have stuck around better if I would have saved break points. Very disappointing half an hour there for me, getting broken at 6?5, getting broken again at 2?1, having the slip.
"Who knows what happens there. But it was a very disappointing end to the match for me."
Indeed. Federer led on Raonic"s booming serve four straight times in the fourth, including 15-40 at 2-2 and 0-30 at 5-5, unable to gain what would have been the terminal break. Overall, he went 1-for-9 on break points.
Despite Raonic mixing things up by serving to Federer"s body, his overall serving numbers -- 23 aces and 11 double faults -- suggest this wasn"t his greatest delivery day.
Carlos Moya, one of Raonic"s grand slam-winning coaches -- three-time Wimbledon champion John McEnroe, who came on board last month, is the other -- pointed to the conclusion of the fourth as the turning point.
"Roger, I would say he kind of opened the door for Milos to have the chance to come back -- and at this stage of the tournament you pay for that," Moya told a group of reporters. "That"s what I think because Milos was struggling a little bit on Roger"s serve and as soon as he had the chance there and he converted, in the fifth set he had a slight advantage (after) coming from behind and probably that game was key."
Entering Wimbledon, Federer perhaps would have been happy enough to make the semifinals given he skipped the French Open and other chunks of the campaign due to back and knee injuries.
But his good fortune against Cilic and the absence of nemesis Novak Djokovic in the second week -- he was upset by Sam Querrey in the third round -- might have got Federer thinking about landing an 18th major and first since beating Murray in the Wimbledon final four years ago. From Murray"s perspective, he"ll be relieved that Djokovic isn"t standing across the net Sunday.
Federer must now focus on new targets -- or pre-existing ones that had nothing to do with Wimbledon.
"It"s not my only reason why I play tennis, just to be clear, otherwise I"ll go in a freeze box now and come out before Wimbledon next year," he said. "I know Wimbledon is important, but it"s not everything, everything. There are a lot of things that I"d like to achieve besides winning Wimbledon."
One, presumably, is winning a first Olympic singles gold medal in Rio next month, having settled for silver against Murray at London 2012.
This year at Wimbledon, though, Murray or Raonic will be doing the winning on the day it matters most.
Roger Federer d. Marin Cilic post-match INTERVIEW - Wimbledon 2016
LONDON Roger Federers bid for a record eighth Wimbledon title remains alive after he came from two sets down and saved three match points Wednesday before overcoming Marin Cilic in five sets, advancing to the semifinals at the All England Club for the 11th time.
Playing his best when he absolutely needed it most, the seven-time champion finished with his 27th ace to complete a 6-7 (4), 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (9), 6-3 victory on Centre Court against the player who knocked him out in semifinals of the U.S. Open two years ago.
Well, a lot happened out there, Federer said, summing up the 3-hour, 17-minute battle filled with tension, momentum swings and crucial points.
I knew I was in so much trouble in the third, and then again in the fourth, he said. Im really, really pleased and just ecstatic I was able to come through somehow.
It was the 10th time in Federers career that he has erased a two-set deficit to win in five sets. This was also his 80th match win at Wimbledon, which equals Jimmy Connors record. Federer also matched Connors record of reaching the Wimbledon semifinals 11 times.
Whats more, Federer is now two wins away from the all-time record for Wimbledon mens titles. Hes currently tied with Pete Sampras and 1880s player William Renshaw with seven.
Federers semifinal opponent will be sixth-seeded Milos Raonic, who lost serve only once and downed No. 28 Sam Querrey 6-4, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 on No. 1 Court.
Querrey had knocked out No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the third round on Saturday, but came up short in his bid to become the first American to make it to the semifinals of a Grand Slam since Andy Roddick reached the final four at Wimbledon in 2009.
Raonic, who has added John McEnroe to his coaching team this year, previously reached the semifinals at the All England Club in 2014, losing to Federer in straight sets. Raonic also got to the semifinals at this years Australian Open, falling to Andy Murray.
Raonic broke Querrey three times, including in the final game to end the contest.
Querrey had taken the third set after breaking the Canadian for the only time to go up 5-4, then serving it out with an ace on set point.
The two held serve until he 10th game of the fourth set when Querrey double-faulted for the fifth time to set up match point. The American missed a forehand volley on the final point.
Second up on Centre Court was No. 2 Andy Murray, the 2013 champion, facing No. 12 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. On No. 1 Court, No. 10 Tomas Berdych was playing No. 32 Lucas Pouille.
