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Gonazalez hopes soccer skills can stop Federer
Defending Champion Roger Federer on Wednesday will face a player who sharpened his grasscourt skills on a football pitch!
Roger Federer's push for a third successive Wimbledon title reaches the quarter-final stage on Wednesday where he faces a player, who sharpened his grasscourt skills on a football pitch.
Fernando Gonzalez is the first Chilean in 20 years to have reached the last eight at the All England Club but the South American country's all-consuming passion for clay courts means there are no grass surfaces to be found.
"Sometimes I practice on football pitches. They put up a net, and I practise on the synthetic grass," said the 24-year-old.
"I don't really like grass courts but I enjoy it here because it's Wimbledon and you only play maybe just two weeks in a year."
Top seed Federer has never lost to Gonzalez in four meetings with two of those wins coming this year on clay in Monte Carlo and at the French Open.
But the fact that Gonzalez is the first Chilean since Ricardo Acuna in 1985 to get to this stage reflects what many here think - that the courts have got slower, encouraging baseline-bred clay courters to believe they have a chance.
Gonzalez will happily hit away with his giant forehand from the back of the court but Federer, buoyed by his 32-match winning streak on grass, believes he has the aura of invincibility to see him through to a possible semi-final clash with Lleyton Hewitt.
After that there is the possibility of a final with second seed Andy Roddick.
