Federer’s shock Rome loss a wake-up call
Don’t hit the panic button just yet, we’re talking about Roger Federer after all. But the world No. 1’s loss to Ernests Gulbis, a player ranked almost 40 places below him, in his opening match at the Rome Masters 1000, has to cast at least some doubt over his ability to defend his French Open crown this year.
Sure, it was Federer’s first match on clay this season, but it was a vastly different performance to the imperious manner in which Rafael Nadal kicked off his clay court campaign at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters a couple of weeks ago.
Gulbis recorded the biggest win of his short career with his 2-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory over the Swiss and it was clear that the occasion almost overwhelmed the 21-year-old as the enormity of what he was about to achieve began to dawn on him.
The Latvian took seven match points to seal the upset win as he tightened up on serve at 5-4 to allow Federer to break. The pressure of match point lifted temporarily, Gulbis immediately broke back and went on to win the match on serve in the next game.
“Well, actually I was sh*****g my pants, sorry for the language, but that's the only way I can describe how I felt at 5-4 and at match point," Gulbis said after the match.
It was a bad day at the office for Federer, and, had he been at the top of his game, Gulbis probably wouldn’t even have sneaked a peek at victory but the world No. 40 will take a lot of positives from the match.
He’s now defeated a player widely regarded as the best of all time, and the win follows his first ATP career title at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships earlier this year. We won’t make any bold predictions just yet; suffice to say that Gulbis’ win against Federer just may not have been a fluke.
While Grand Slams are the main game for Federer, and in the scheme of things losses on the ATP tour don’t carry the same weight for the world’s best player, even he admitted after the match that, “it hurts”.
“I wasn’t up to speed, my serve was poor and it was frustrating. I wasn’t good from the baseline. There was no rhythm in the match and I couldn’t build from deep or get the right height on the ball,” the 16-time Grand Slam champion said after the match.
“It’s probably good for me – it’s a wake-up call.”
It might be a timely one too, with the French Open due to begin on May 23rd.
Federer may have won the Australian Open at the start of the year, but in the two tournaments he’s played since – at the Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami – his best result was reaching the round of 16 at Miami’s Sony Ericsson Open.
Sure Federer’s record at the Masters events has traditionally been poorer than that at the majors, but the 28-year-old will have been disappointed to have been so out of sorts in his first competitive hit-out on clay for 2010.
That disappointment will only be magnified with a title defence at Roland Garros looming, and Nadal giving every indication with his form and scheduling that he’s already made room on the mantelpiece for some more French silverware.
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