Vintage Federer alert!! In what can be called as an absolutely stunning performance, Roger Federer<\/b> thwarted Tomas Berdych<\/b> in straight sets. The four-time champion took\u00a0just 90 minutes to win this third round match by a overwhelming score line of 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.<\/p>\n
It was indeed a bizarre feeling to see these players play at such an\u00a0early stage in a Grand Slam,\u00a0because 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.<\/p>\n
This flawless performance alarmed all his\u00a0opponents 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<\/b>, Federer might follow, but the 17-time Major champion\u00a0had some other plans in his mind.<\/p>\n
He started the match by comfortably breaking Berdych’s serve twice\u00a0in the first set. His own serve was just remarkable too. In the second set, Federer\u00a0wasted no time and broke Berdych in the first game of the set. That\u00a0was 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<\/b> himself. Midway through the second set, Berdych started playing a little better, but it just wasn’t enough to stop\u00a0this kind\u00a0of Federer on fire.<\/p>\n
The third set was more or less business as usual. Federer\u00a0needed one break of serve for a lead\u00a0and he got it, right in the first game of the set. Thereafter Berdych was able to\u00a0show some more resistance in his service games, but he stood clueless to the artistic play\u00a0of his opponent, who was hitting every shot fearlessly, going in for the kill.<\/p>\n
Almost every shot that came out of his Wilson wand\u00a0was jaw dropping good. Be it the\u00a0glorious 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\u00a0stop the madness\u00a0and gave Berdych a hard time out there.\u00a0It 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.<\/p>\n
After having played relatively tricky openers, this performance even surprised the all time great himself.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t expect it to go this well.\u00a0I 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\u00a0Federer after the match.<\/p>\n
“I always felt against better ranked players, you lift your game,\u201d Federer said. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect it to go quite this hard. I had no expectations. In practice things were going well, but I\u2019ve never been the practice king.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a result of this tremendous win, Federer will face Kei Nishikori<\/b> in the fourth round. This is what he had to say:<\/p>\n
“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\u00a0can play a good match.”<\/p>\n
Main Photo:<\/p>\n