They say confidence does you so much good on a tennis court. Federer was all but confident last night when he basically pulled off a Houdini and even with that needed a major choke job from Robby Ginepri to escape to the third round and a matchup with the mighty Karlovic. So much for Federer trying to get his hard court season back on track.
The forehand is awful. The backhand is more vulnerable than ever, and the serve deserts him everytime he gets to most important parts of a set. He served for the first set against Ginepri twice and got broken twice. Then shanked his way through the tie-break. The second set, Federer was the better player. But once they got to 5-5, it seemed Federer forgot how to play tennis and dropped his serve to allow Ginepri to serve for the match. Thankfully Ginepri chocked like always, so there was no surprise. The third set was a bluh as Ginepri couldn’t find his game and the heat got to him. The way Federer played, I wouldn’t be surprised if Karlovic beats him.
Roddick was struck by a disaster yesterday. He came to court and seemed fine but then sit down and withdrew with back and neck pain. Even more odd that Phillip still had to play a lucky loser in the 2nd round after Roddick came to the court. Roddick blamed it on a rough night sleep, but regardless of that, he has had one awful season with early exits one after another.
With Roddick’s exit, we are almost guaranteed not to have an ESPN live match on Sunday, unless Federer and Nadal make it there. Last week, ESPN chose to show fishing instead of live Tennis. I bet they would’ve shown tennis if an American was involved in it. But with Roddick out and Blake facing Simon (who beat Blake a couple weeks ago), there is a good chance we will be watching fishing again this week.
What do you think of the matches so far? Can Federer bounce back or will Karlovic finally get a win over Roger? Please share your comments here.