Well that certainly didn't feel like a 1st round match. At. All.
Roger Federer got an early (very early) scare in the first round of the Australian Open getting severely tested by Russian Igor Andreev, 46 62 76(2) 60.
Andreev came out firing - taking a page from Rafa's book and peppering Roger's backhand with high punishing forehands. You could almost smell the upset brewing... Roger look nervous spraying shots all over the place in the 1st set loss.
But Roger, ever level-headed, steadied himself and stormed through the second set to even the match.
The third set was a roller coaster. Igor's up/Roger's down. Roger's up/Igor's down. In fact Igor blew 4 opportunities to go way way up. And by 'blew' I mean seriously effed up. Roger scratched his way into a tiebreak and from there Igor was finished.
At the end of the 3rd set ESPN2 commentator Brad Gilbert said of the coming 4th set, "Igor will lose it 61 or 62. He's not thinking about this match anymore - he's thinking about Kirilenko (his girlfriend)
After the match Roger made a comment I don't agree with, "I think I played a very good match from start to finish, really." No, not from the start.
Roger will need to step his game up. He might have a couple good rounds coming but recent nemesis Davydenko looms dangerously in the quarters - who lost only 4 games in his opening round match.
Photo: Reuters
ESPN's Chris Fowler & Brad Gilbert sure do bicker a lot...
Is it just me? Or have you too noticed over the last couple years that ESPN's Chris Fowler and Brad Gilbert go at it verbally with each other like an old married couple?
That admonishing chuckle Chris does right before he 'corrects' Brad reminds me so much of my sister and her husband when I see them around the dinner table at the holidays.
It's kinda cute but there comes a time (fairly quickly) during the coverage that it just gets plain old weird. One wonders what happened with them along the way...
Posted at 02:27 PM in Commentators | Permalink | Comments (1)
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