Federer puts out Falla at Wimbledon now for Bozoljac
Roger Federer moves through to the second round of Wimbledon with his invincibility cloak in tatters after narrowly avoiding defeat in his opening match against Alejandro Falla.
While the defending champion narrowly avoided ending up on the wrong side of what would have been the biggest upset in Wimbledon history – Falla (pronounced Fa-Yah) at one stage served for the match against the 16-time Grand Slam champion – it was hardly a confidence inspiring performance.
“I did get lucky today,” Federer said after staging his own great escape. “It's important to take how do you say the right things out of this match. There was positives and negatives, obviously. But then again every player, thank God, in some ways plays different.
“The next guy [Ilija Bozoljac] is a righty, big serving guy, nothing to do with the guy I played today. Because you struggle today doesn't mean you're going to struggle in the next match, too. Same thing if you win in straights; it doesn't mean you're going to win the next match in straights. That's just the way tennis is.”
So, can second-round opponent Bozoljac succeed where Falla failed?
Despite Federer’s dodgy backhand, which surely can only improve after his opening match, and general failure to ignite until the match had almost slipped from his grasp, it’s still almost beyond belief the top seed will fall to a player ranked as the world No. 152.
A qualifier to the Wimbledon main draw, 24-year-old Bozoljac has never been ranked inside the top 100 (reaching a career high ranking of world No. 101 in 2007). The Serb has only four times in his career played in the main draw of a major, and is yet to progress beyond the second round on any of his previous attempts.
A four-set victory over world No. 98 Nicolas Massu ensured Bozoljac has at least reached the round of 64 at Wimbledon this year, but despite the concerns over Federer’s form after his first match it’s still almost unthinkable that Bozoljac could record his best result at a Grand Slam at Wimbledon 2010 by upstaging the man who six times previously has finished the tournament unbeaten.
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