Roger Federer survives scare, lives to see another round

21st June, 2010

Wimbledon

Who could have imagined while watching the Swiss champion’s match against the Spanish Alejandro Falla, that Federer could be out of the Wimbledon in the first round itself. The defending champion was in for a big challenge as he walked out onto the court to open the first day’s matches on the centre court as tradition.

Roger Federer was made to sweat it out by Falla

The champion it seems for once in a long long time took his opponent for granted and so faltered and nearly lost the match to the man who was across the nets. Falla played an exceptional match till the very end and not for once gave Federer a breather to be safe.

After 2003 for the first time was 2 sets down in the first round itself. On the court that is his domain Federer certainly has given himself and his fans a lot to think about before his second round match.

Federer looked at ease in the first set at 5-5. Serving first in the match Federer always had the advantage to be ahead in the set, but Falla broke Federers serve and held his serve to win the first set 5-7. The second set was identical in nature. Federer was playing his shots but Falla had the answers to all of them. Falla once again broke Federer’s serve at 4-4 and held his serve to win the set 4-6. In the third set Federer finally realised what was at stake if he lost the match and so displayed some form in the third set to give his fans some hope of his survival. He managed to braeak the Falla serve and held his serve to take the set 6-4. In the fourth set, Federer was trailed by a break and Falla was serving for match, but Federer displayed his world class elegance to bring the set to a tie-breaker where he crushed the Spanish 7-1 to win the set 7-6.

The fifth set was an all Federer affair with Federer finally showing that he is the world number one player in the world and he deserved to win this with his shere trail of experience. Federer won the match 5-7, 4-6, 6-4 7-6, 6-0 in 3 hours and 18 minutes.

With five more rounds to go in order to reach the finals and defend his title, Federer needs to think and rethink about this match because it certainly wasn’t his best effort on court in the first round. He will definitely need to do more than that in the rounds to come.

In the post match conference here is what Federer had to say: “ I thought I had a few chances in the first set, but he came up with good shots. After that I struggled totally. He had one good return game in each set and that put me under a lot of pressure. I was very lucky today, it wasn’t that I played really bad, he just played great. This year, I have lost many matches I should have won, but today I won this match which I should’ve lost. I think in the end it was the experience that pulled me through.”

This is what Falla had to say: “You learn with every match. It was a great experience for me out there. Maybe, Federer got a bit lucky, but just luck doesn’t win you matches. He tried had all the time, he never stopped fighting and that’s the most important thing in a match.”

Other Match Results:

Mens: 1^st round.

16- Juergen Melzer (Austria) def Dustin Brown (Jamaica)- 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

21- Gael Monfils (French) def Leonardo Mayer (Argentina)- 6-1, 7-6, 6-2.

22- Feliciano Lopez (Spain) def Jesse Levine (US) – 7-6, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Michal Prysiezny (Poland) def 17- Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia)- 7-6, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Alifiya Dalal