Federer Cruises, Americans Fly Flag on Day 4 at Australian Open
Posted on January 17, 2008
World No. 1 Roger Federer cruised 6-1, 6-2, 6-0 in a nonetheless entertaining match with Frenchman Fabrice "The Magician" Santoro, and lower-ranked Americans had a mixed bag of success and heartbreak on Thursday, Day 4 at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Santoro at 35 years old was competing in his final Australian Open before retiring at the end of 2008.
"It was a tough match for me," Santoro said. "It was not easy to have fun, but I tried to have some. Because it's so beautiful, what he's doing. At my age, you can be able to play your match and appreciate your opponent, too. Today, I feel like he's coming from somewhere else. I served quite good. I was moving well. I was fit physically. I was hitting the ball well. And I won three games."
The win was a bit of revenge for Federer, who as a youngster on tour took his lumps from the Frenchman.
"First time I played him, he totally dismantled me," the Swiss said. "Showed I had a lot of things to work on. Today I was in great shape, could play aggressive. We always have great rallies together, because of his playing style...he does a great job of making you doubt. It's always a tricky match against him. But you know it's going to be fun. And this is what it's supposed to be, this game."
Other Top 10-seeded winners were (5) Novak Djokovic (d. Simone Bolelli), (5) David Ferrer (d. Juan Martin Del Potro who retired with injury), (7) Fernando Gonzalez (d. Hyung-Taik Lee in four sets), and (10) David Nalbandian (d. Peter Luczak in four).
No. 12 seed James Blake was a straight-set winner over fellow American Mike Russell, but it was a handful of other American newcomers, and one veteran, making noise.
The towering Sam Querrey came back from 2-5 in the first-set tiebreak to eventually subdue No. 32 seed Dmitry Tursunov 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, this after struggling to even find his game at the minor-league Challenger level of events in 2007.
"You go play a challenger, it's kind of hard to get almost get fired up again for the challenger, which is not good, but that's just sometimes how it is," said Querrey, who has come under fire for his work ethic since joining the pro tour. "You've got to be -- or I have to be -- treat every tournament and every player the same. Hopefully I'm getting better at that."
The colorful 33-year-old American Vincent Spadea was also a winner, grinding out a five-set, 9-7 in the fifth win over German Denis Gremelmayr.
"It was awesome, people with painted faces there was so much chanting," Spadea said. "I feel like I died and went to heaven. I was slapping high fives, people coming out of woodwork to interview me. You only get a few moments like that. I felt like Jimmy Connors, but it was more like a park where I paid people to come over."
Amer Delic was on the heartbreak end for the Americans, losing 8-6 in the fifth set to No. 21 seed Juan Monaco.
Other players of note advancing were (15) Marcos Baghdatis (d. former No. 1 Marat Safin in five sets), (19) Lleyton Hewitt (d. Denis Istomin in four), and former No. 1 and current No. 22 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero (d. Alun Jones).
Highlights of play Friday in Melbourne are (2) Rafael Nadal vs. (28) Gilles Simon, (6) Andy Roddick vs. (29) Philipp Kohlschreiber, Marc Gicquel vs. (4) Nikolay Davydenko, (8) Richard Gasquet vs. (31) Igor Andreev, (24) Jarkko Nieminen vs. Mardy Fish, and (14) Mikhail Youzhny vs. (20) "Dr." Ivo Karlovic.
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