Federer/Wawrinka stunned by Erlich/Ram in the second round – London Olympics 2012
Defending champions, Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, failed to retain their title, as they went down against the Israeli duo of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram in the second round of the London Olympics on Wednesday.
Federer and Wawrinka captured the first set 6-1 but squandered the opportunity later on, losing the subsequent two 6-7(5), 3-6 to get out of the tournament.
The Swiss tandem got a flying start, as they snatched breaks in the first and third game to build a 3-0 lead. Erlich and Ram pulled one back in the fourth to reduce the trail to 1-3 but they lose their serve once again in the following
one to go down 1-4. The Israelis failed to bounce back for the second time, losing it 1-6.
Federer/Wawrinka and Erlich/Ram served splendidly in the second set, as they did not lose any of their serve till the end, taking the score to 6-6 and forcing a tie-breaker. The Israeli combination managed to claim a late mini-break
and capitalised on it to win 7-6(5).
In the final set, Erlich/Ram and the Swiss pair held their serve in the opening three games to take the score to 2-1 in favour of the former. The Israelis hit a blow to Federer and Wawrinka in the third and consolidated on it to
move ahead 4-1. Ranked 15th in the world, Erlich and Ram succeeded in sustaining their lead throughout the set, sealing it 6-3.
Federer was previously recorded as saying that winning doubles Gold Medal at Beijing was one of the best moments of his career and he would love to repeat the feat in London.
Talking to the reporters after the match, the Swiss Maestro said, "Conditions were tough. They were breezy, a lot of shadow on the courts. But that didn't disrupt our play. Honestly, I thought they struggled a lot with that (the
shadows). I thought they had virtually no chance on our service games and on the returns we were making all the play.”
He added, "They definitely played better once the shadows went, all the flags, all the spectator shadows were gone. It was more clean tennis. Overall I thought we played a good tournament. It just wasn't meant to be today."
There was something to cheer for Federer, as he moved to the last eight-stage in the singles category, beating Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin in the third round.
Erlich and Ram will face the top seeded American team of Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan in the quarter-finals.
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