Vintage Federer alert!! In what can be called as an absolutely stunning performance, Roger Federer thwarted Tomas Berdych in straight sets. The four-time champion took just 90 minutes to win this third round match by a overwhelming score line of 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.
It was indeed a bizarre feeling to see these players play at such an early stage in a Grand Slam, because of the downfall in Roger’s ranking (#17), but he seemed untouchable in this encounter. The 35-year-old made absolutely no mistakes as he whipped up a marvelous win in his third tour level match after a six month injury layoff.
This flawless performance alarmed all his opponents that he is back to business. He showed that he still has a lot of tennis left in him and is ready for any challenge that comes his way. Many thought after the surprise upset of the defending champion, Novak Djokovic, Federer might follow, but the 17-time Major champion had some other plans in his mind.
He started the match by comfortably breaking Berdych’s serve twice in the first set. His own serve was just remarkable too. In the second set, Federer wasted no time and broke Berdych in the first game of the set. That was enough for the Swiss as he continued the display of his masterclass in the Rod Laver Arena, in front of a packed crowd and the legendary Rod Laver himself. Midway through the second set, Berdych started playing a little better, but it just wasn’t enough to stop this kind of Federer on fire.
The third set was more or less business as usual. Federer needed one break of serve for a lead and he got it, right in the first game of the set. Thereafter Berdych was able to show some more resistance in his service games, but he stood clueless to the artistic play of his opponent, who was hitting every shot fearlessly, going in for the kill.
Almost every shot that came out of his Wilson wand was jaw dropping good. Be it the glorious backhand or the effortless dropshots or the brilliant first serves or those crafty angles–and how can you forget the fantastic forehand–he just couldn’t stop the madness and gave Berdych a hard time out there. It was a blink-and-you-miss-it performance by the Swiss. The ridiculously sharp statistics prove it all. He smacked 8eight aces, won a whopping 95% points on his first serve, won 87% of his points played on the net, missed just one break point, hit 40 winners and just 17 unforced errors.
After having played relatively tricky openers, this performance even surprised the all time great himself.
“I didn’t expect it to go this well. I am happy it went as well as it did, happy to continue my run here even though I struggled in the early rounds. Today was great and I surprised myself,” said a pleased Federer after the match.
“I always felt against better ranked players, you lift your game,” Federer said. “I didn’t expect it to go quite this hard. I had no expectations. In practice things were going well, but I’ve never been the practice king.”
As a result of this tremendous win, Federer will face Kei Nishikori in the fourth round. This is what he had to say:
“I’m guess I’m ready now. There’s no turning back. I like Kei, I’ve always been a fan of his game, he’s a nice kid and had a great few seasons. I remember when I played him when he was 17 in Japan. He’s just a good guy and I’m happy to play against him. He’s got maybe the best backhand in the business so I got my work cut out but I hope I can play a good match.”
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