Roger Federer is rarely pushed to 5 sets in a first round match in a major. Indeed, he’s rarely pushed to a fourth set in a first round match. You can thank seeding for that. The top 32 seeds usually consist of the top 40 players in the world minus a few who don’t make it because of injury (or perhaps in Fernando Gonzalez’s case, he just really wanted to be at the World Cup). Seeding only protects you so much. You could get that 40th ranked player or it might be a qualifier ranked around 100 to 200. Or it might even be a lowly wildcard given to some bloke that is ranked 300 (or lower). Gianni Mina, who was Rafael Nadal’s first round opponent, was ranked in the 600s or so.
Trivia time. Who is the last player to push Federer beyond 3 sets in the first round of a Slam.
Turns out you don’t have to look back very far. Just rewind the clock back to January. At the Australian Open, Federer won his opening round to Igor Andreev in 4 sets. Andreev is a tough player, and in the 2008 US Open, he pushed Fed to 5 sets in the fourth round. However, Andreev had not used that victory to buoy himself up the rankings. At the time, he had not won many matches dating for months, but played inspired tennis to take a set from Federer.
OK, when’s the last time Federer was pushed to four sets before that?
You have to go back to 2003, seven years ago before you find a first round where Roger was pushed to four sets. The man who pushed him? Same guy who gave Roger a bit of trouble in the 2009 French Open: Jose Acasuso. Acasuso retired in the fourth set after winning the first set, but dropping the next two sets and being down 2-0 in the fourth.
Next question. When’s the last time Federer was pushed to five sets (prior to today)? Not when did he last lose, because you just have to go back to the French Open in 2003 when he lost to Luis Horna in straight sets, prior to winning his first Slam (Wimbledon 2003).
Wind back to 2002. Nope, four set win over Jiri Vanek at the 2002 US Open. 2001? In the Australian Open, Federer needed four sets to beat Arnaud di Pasquale (and would lose to another Arnaud–Arnaud Clement–in the third round), but no 5 setter.
How about 2000? Finally, at the US Open, Federer needed five sets to come back against Peter Wessels. He lost the first two sets, won the next two and was down 4-3 when his opponent retired.
Let’s summarize. Four set first round matches for Roger Federer:
- Igor Andreev (Australian Open 2010)
- Jose Acasuso (US Open 2003)
- Jiri Vanek (US Open 2002)
- Arnaud di Pasquale (Australian Open 2001)
- Wayne Arthurs (French Open 2000)
- Patrick Rafter (French Open 1999) LOSS
And five setters in the first round
- Alejandro Falla (Wimbledon 2010)
- Peter Wessels (US Open 2000)
- Jiri Novak (Wimbledon 1999) LOSS
And for completeness, let’s look at all Federer first round losses (the ones remaining are straight set losses)
- Luis Horna (French Open 2003)
- Mario Ancic (Wimbledon 2002)
- Hicham Arazi (French Open 2002)
- Yevgeny Kafelnikov (Wimbledon 2000)
Therefore, Roger Federer has had 6 (count it) losses in the first round of a major event, and none after 2003, with his match against Falla being the closest he’s come to losing in the first round since Luis Horna.
How close a call was this match? The scores really don’t tell the story. This is one reason I feel official scores should have some additional information. If you just looked at the score, would you know that Roger Federer was down 0-40 at 4-all in the 3rd set, then got it back to deuce (with no aces), then got passed for another break point, before saving that with an up-the-line winner and some big serving to hold. Federer then broke in the following game to take the third set.
The fourth set was just as tight. Federer was broken at right off the bat at 2-0. Falla would hold until 5-4 with a chance to serve out the match. Perhaps the thought of serving out a match against Federer was too much for Falla, but he failed to do it, got broken, and then they headed into a tiebreak, won easily by Federer. And then the wheels came off and Falla lost tamely 6-0.
What kept Falla in it? Watch where Falla stood throughout. Fall is a flat hitter that hugs the baseline. This robbed Federer of time. Federer said that Falla would kinda half-volley shots. It didn’t work against Federer in Halle where the bounces were worse, but it did work at Wimbledon where grass bounces much truer.
Two other top seeds were pushed to the brink. It was understandable that Nikolay Davydenko, in only his second tournament back from his wrist fracture that caused him to withdraw from Indian Wells, might be shaky. He was playing a huge server in Kevin Anderson. He was playing with a new racquet. But, the match ended very much like it does for big servers.
Typically, most big servers aren’t as great off the ground as the best groundstrokers. Davydenko is among the best at hitting off the ground, putting opponents under immense pressure with precise, hard shots. Davydenko would struggle to return serves while Anderson would struggle to stay even against Davydenko off the ground. One improvement in Davydenko’s game is his mental toughness. He kept his head in the match, and eventually got enough looks at Anderson’s serve to break and take the fifth set, 9-7.
Novak Djokovic played the steady, quick Olivier Rochus, managed to win a fourth set with good play, but immediate was down 2-0 in the fifth set. However, Djokovic kept playing tough, underneath the covered roof, in an indoor grass court. He took the next 6 games finishing just before the clock hit 11 PM, the curfew for matches. Wimbledon probably doesn’t want its players to suffer late hours like the Australian Open and the US Open.
So, several of the top seeds had tough five setters to get through. Will Day 2 be as tense? (Probably not).
