There’s nothing harder to watch than a sporting legend and arguably the greatest ambassador for tennis of all time like Roger Federer bowing out of the Australian Open with hardly a whimper.
The scoreline reads 6-4, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 to Italian Andreas Seppi in a tick under three hours, but that doesn’t tell the story by a long shot.
On paper this clash was a mis-match.
Federer, with a world record 17 Slams, a career 83 titles, with an 81.40 per cent win ratio (1002 wins to 228 losses), and prizemoney alone of $88.4 million, was a no brainer for victory when compared to Seppi’s three fourth round Slam appearances, three career titles, a win ratio of 47.97 per cent (249 wins to 270 losses), and prizemoney of $5.9 million.
To top off the mis-match, Federer had won all 10 of their previous meetings, losing just one set.
It would be easy to explain the shock loss as Federer turning in one of his worst matches, and Seppi without doubt his best – he played out of his skin. But that wouldn’t explain the following stats.
Federer served 15 aces to four, smacked 57 winners to 50, and won 145 points overall to 144. On the debit side, Federer served nine double faults to four, and made 55 unforced errors to 40.
The unsaid stats were the countless times the ever crisp and confident Federer left his returns mid-court, gifting Seppi with easy winners or points, or missing his passing shots by three to four metres, or off the frame.
He just didn’t win the points that counted.
And to complete the nightmare for Federer, the holes in his usual rock-like defence looked like Cheddar cheese. But the Seppi success is a bonus for Aussie hopeful Nick Kyrgios, as they will meet in the round of 16.
Kyrios gave the 75th ranked Tunisian Malek Jaziri a bombardment lesson with 29 aces to six, and 53 winners to 26. On those counts alone, Kyrgios should have far too much ammunition to fire at Seppi. But everyone thought the same about Federer.
The winner of the Kyrgios-Seppi clash will meet either Andy Murray (6), or Grigor Dimitov (10) in the quarters. And then the likelihood of Rafael Nadal in the semis, if the Spaniard isn’t suffering from some serious injury, or illness.
Pre-tournment, Nadal kept mentioning his appendix operation as a hindrance to his preparation. Spare us the details, that was three months ago, and hardly major surgery. Let’s not forget his back, arm, wrist, leg, both knees, and foot injuries – from head toe he’s in the grand final with Australian cricketer Shane Watson.
When Nadal was down two sets to one against virtual unknown American Tim Smyczek, the injuries and illness again resurfaced, requiring treatment on his way to a five-set victory. Such courage.
But not a sign of any problems in his 6-1, 6-0, 7-5 demolition job on Dudi Sela two days later. There’s an old adage in sport. If you play, you’re fit enough, so forget the excuses, they count for nought.
And that leaves Bernard Tomic after his straight sets 6-4, 7-6, 6-3 success over an overwhelmed Sam Groth, who only served 17 aces, well below his norm, but made 39 unforced errors to Tomic’s eight,
Terminal mistakes. Tomic now faces seventh seed Tomas Berdych, a true litmus test for the Australian.
If it’s an on-night, Tomic is very capable of upsetting the tall Czech.
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