You know how it is. You play someone who doesn’t move as fast as they did when they were young, and they begin to bust out “old man” shots. Drop shots. Lobs. No one would accuse Roger Federer of being an old man, but as he gets older, he’s relying on diversifying his game beyond the basic power ground game that has fueled his success for so long.
Although Peter Luczak, born in Poland but now an Aussie citizen, kept things close early on in his match against the world number 1, Roger got a break at 4-all, and then rolled in the second and third set. In the third set, Roger decided to use his array of dizzying shots, including two drop shots in a rally followed by a drop shot return. Roger tossed in heavy topspin high backhands and eventually won the match on a sharp angled topspin backhand. Never has Roger played more eclectic tennis, more “old man” tennis. As Federer heads into what he considers the second half of his career, he’s looking, especially on clay, to find quicker, more unorthodox ways to win points. His backhand, long considered something of a liability against a player like Nadal, has been diversified as he wants to do as many different things off it as possible.
Speaking of Federer, why are all the seeds suddenly dropping, afraid to meet him? Yesterday, it was potential fourth round opponent Ernests Gulbis losing to Julien Benneteau when a hamstring injury caused him to retire early in the third set. Today, it was potential third round opponent Feliciano Lopez losing to number 166 in the world, German Julian Reister.
Federer will play Alejandro Falla who beat Janko Tipsarevic in the second round then the winner of Reister and Olivier Rochus in the third.
Americans fared much better than usual today. Historically, most Americans lose in the first round, with maybe 1 or 2 players moving to the second round. Today, John Isner continued his mastery of clay handily beating Andrey Golubev in straight sets. Isner says he is learning to play “big man tennis”. This means, win free points off the serve, hit big forehands, and don’t let the backhand be a liability.
Isner, a relatively shy guy, has been pushing his luck meeting high profile women on the air. A few weeks ago, during an interview with Tennis Channel, Isner complimented the “always beautiful” Cari Champion. In an interview with Justin Gimelstob, Isner said he’s been trying to get in touch with WWE star, Maryse Ouellet, showing Isner’s proclivity to the more exotic.
Isner will now take on Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland, a buddy of Rog Federer, who needed five sets to beat former collegian, Somdev Devvarman.
Another American collegian, Michael Yani, gave Lukas Lacko all he could handle. Yani played for Duke (according to Isner) for four years. Born in Singapore, Yani plays for the US, and won the first and fourth set, and was deep in the fifth set before getting broken at 10-all and losing the fifth 12-10.
Taylor Dent, however, put one in the win column for the US. Dent took out veteran Nicolas Lapentti in straight sets. He’ll face last year’s finalist, Robin Soderling next. Dent says how well he does depends on how effective his slice backhand is. The better it’s working, the better off he’ll be. Gimelstob pointed out that he beat Guillermo Coria, a top clay courter from about 5 years ago, as a junior, but Dent says his game today, which is all attack, is much different then it was then, when he pounded groundstrokes from deep behind the baseline.
Novak Djokovic appears to be on his way to a four set victory over Evgeny Korolev. Djokovic easily won the first set 6-1 and was up a break in the second when his game temporarily disappeared and he lost the second set, 6-3. He took the third set, 6-1, and is up a break in the fourth set. (He just won 6-3 in the fourth).
Olivier Rochus needed four tough sets to get past Frenchman Benoit Paire. Stanislas Wawrinka had an easy day with a straight set win over Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic. Dmitry Tursunov has seen better days and was drubbed by Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver in straight sets. Berdych needed a tiebreak to win the first set, but took sets 2 and 3 rather handily over Jorge Aguilar of Chile.
Many more matches on slate today including Andy Murray taking on Richard Gasquet.
