Many local fans looked at the potential third round match between Roger Federer and Bernard Tomic with delight.  Much like last year, Tomic started the pre Australian Open warm up strongly.  Last year, Tomic used his slow slices and unorthodox hitting to get himself past a powerful, but erratic Fernando Verdasco.  Then, he met Roger Federer in the fourth round, and tried to use off-pace shots to unsettle the great Swiss player.

This year, after a year of turmoil on and off the court, Tomic won all his matches in the Hopman Cup, including a win over Djokovic, and then won his first tour title at Sydney.  He came into Melbourne back to playing top tennis, and had solid wins in the first two rounds.

One lesson Tomic learned from last year’s encounter with Federer was that you couldn’t beat the Swiss using a pure finesse game.  He tried using power when he saw his original strategy failing, but in those days, his accuracy hitting hard, consistently, was not so good.  So Federer was able to avoid the Tomic trap and win comfortably.

This year, Tomic laid something of a different trap.  During the offseason, he worked on hitting hard to different corners of the court.  It has, to my mind, the biggest one season improvement in any player’s arsenal of shots.  Tomic, one imagine, hoped that his power and his wily placement would catch Federer off guard and lead to a surprise victory.

Tomic also set a different trap.  He did a fair bit of trash talking.  He said that Federer had to reach the third round to meet him, and that he should worry about that.  Tomic felt his chances were as good as ever to beat the Swiss.  The average tennis fan would have echoed similar thoughts as experienced fans: Tomic was overstating his case.  His finesse game would not be enough to take on the Swiss player.

Perhaps he hoped that this would lead Federer to second guess himself, or rattle him in some other fashion, but Federer wouldn’t be goaded into this game, so he said they would just find out when they played.

To Tomic’s dismay, he started off the match getting broken.  The two would hold serve for a while, but this Tomic started to hit harder, hit behind Federer, throw in a few drop shots, and force Federer to move.

There was an amazing stat that Federer had never lost to a player born in the 1990s, which included Bernard Tomic.  Federer seemed unwilling to let that record go so easily.

At times, Federer would try to outhit Tomic.  At others, Federer played patiently.  When Tomic would hit an amazing shot, Federer would often come up with something just as amazing.  Federer broke for a second time at the end of the first set.

The second set turned out to be an amazing set of tennis.  Tomic found himself in trouble numerous times on serve, but instead of buckling under the pressure, Tomic played a bunch of clutch points.  At times, he was making Federer run in a way that only Nadal or Djokovic had in the past.  Federer seem invigorated by chasing down the Tomic bombs (hoho!).

The second set ended in a tiebreak, and that’s when Tomic got ahead, and it seemed the match would be split between the two.  Tomic had two mini-break lead, but Federer said he just fought.  Federer wasn’t confident he was going to win that tiebreak, but if you keep playing, good things can happen, and so Federer won an exciting tiebreak.

The match became very compelling as Federer continued to pressure Tomic in the third set, and in a long game, Federer found himself up break point with Tomic blasting shots.  Federer hit a trademark flick backhand into the service box, and Federer engineered the break.  Roger has to be one of the best front runners ever.  Despite Tomic continuing to pressure Federer, the Swiss maestro turned the hands of time back and kept up with the youngster, and Federer engineered a second break.

Although the final score: 64 76 61 would seem like a thorough beatdown, it was far more exciting than that, with signs that Tomic really has the kind of game that might lead to a top ten finish, if he can continue to play at that level.

Earlier in the day, Andy Murray played Ricardas Berankis.  Berankis looks like a David Ferrer sized Lleyton Hewitt.  He had been a number 1 junior, but has not had the same success as, say, Dimitrov or Raonic or Tomic, players he’s sometimes compared to.  Berankis even wears his hat backward much like Hewitt and his game resembles that fiery Aussie minus both his accuracy and his temperament.

Murray looked rather spotty this entire match.  Murray had spent over a year trying to build the patterns that have made him a more aggressive player, primarily moving the player left and right and taking chances to hit the winner.  Because Murray was missing more than he wanted, which lead to a series of self-beratement, he slipped back to comfortable patterns, primarily hitting crosscourt on forehand and backhand.  By contrast, a player like Bernard Tomic, likes to hit down the line, and inside out.

Murray blamed his erratic play on several things, including the wind, Berankis’ flat shots that caused the ball to accelerate more than Murray thought it would.  The only thing that worked to Murray’s advantage was Berankis struggling to hit consistently and to handle the Murray serve.  That is, Berankis game was highly error-prone.  Any time Murray found himself a break down, he’d come back and break immediately.

Murray’s next opponent came from a match that was being played at the same time as the Federer-Tomic match.  The French should consider converting Roland Garros to a concrete jungle, or at least a Plexicushion one.  The French do so much better on faster surfaces than slow clay.

In a battle of good friends, Gilles Simon was facing his good buddy, Gael Monfils.  Monfils is coming off of injury, and so has lacked some match practice.  Simon was looking to take advantage of this, and worked to a two sets to none lead, but Monfils continued to battle back and took sets 3 and 4.  The fifth set was itself a marathon which Simon eventually won 8-6 in the fifth.

All in all, Murray might prefer Simon, the steady Frenchman., over his flashy compatriot  Simon won’t overpower Murray, but he’ll make him hit a lot of shots.  Still, Murray will need to clean up his game more so he can stay in longer rallies he can control.  Even during his US Open run, Murray had spotty matches alternating with good matches.

Two other Frenchmen made progress.  Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had an easy win over Blaz Kavcic, who played a marathon 5-setter in 100 degree weather, and needed IV’s to get fluids into his body.  Richard Gasquet took on a player that has a victory over Rafael Nadal, the big serving Croatian Ivan Dodig, in four sets.  Tsonga and Gasquet will play each other next round.

Milos Raonic played surprisingly well in a straight set defeat of normally tough, Philipp Kohlschreiber, in straight sets.  He’ll take on Roger Federer in the fourth round.  Raonic had played spotty tennis prior to Australia, but much like Berdych, he seems to have cleaned up his act.

Finally, there were two upsets.  Juan Martin del Potro looked to be a huge favorite to beat Jeremy Chardy.  However, Chardy came out charging and also chipping.  Chardy took big swipes at the Delpo second serve, and got breaks to take the first two sets.  Chardy was especially effective with the slice backhand either leading to Delpo outright misses, or leading to a neutral return, which Chardy then attacked with his forehand.

Delpo eventually took a set in a convincing tiebreak, and used his powerful forehand to easily take the fourth set.

But there was a peculiar stat for both men.  Delpo had never won a five set match after being down two sets to none.  Meanwhile, Chardy had never lost in a five-setter, with a 14-0 record.  As the fifth set went along, Chardy focused on his own booming serve, and to keep holding, and then look for opportunities to blast Delpo.  Meanwhile, Delpo looked noticeably slower as the fifth set went along, and fatigue was becoming an issue.  Chardy broke in a middle late game, and then held to win the five setter, declaring this, the most satisfying win of his career.

Many fans had predicted that Andreas Seppi, the Italian veteran would pull the upset over Marin Cilic, who has played better, but not outstanding.  So, for an upset, not exactly a huge one.  Cilic took set one in a tiebreak, then Seppi took set 2.  Cilic took set 3, and Seppi came back with sets 4 and 5.

Tomorrow, Novak Djokovic and David Ferrer play.