Roger Federer escaped what would have been the most humiliating defeat of his career yesterday when he came back from 1-5 down in the final set to beat Spanish qualifier Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo at the Monte Carlo Masters.
The world No. 1 was within two points of a famous defeat before he carved out a 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7/1) second-round win over the battling world No. 137, who twice had the opportunity to serve for the match.
But the astonishing match will do nothing to dampen speculation that the great Swiss player could be on the verge of decline with his latest struggles coming in a year which has seen him lose his Australian Open title and win only one trophy.
PHOTO :EPA
Even that came via default when Nikolay Davydenko was forced to retire with an injury in last weekend’s Estoril final to hand Federer, who was laid low by glandular fever earlier this year, his 54th career crown.
Federer romped through the first set yesterday in just 31 minutes, hitting 14 winners to his opponent’s one and with breaks in the second and sixth games.
However, the top seed, runner-up to triple champion Rafael Nadal for the last two years, went spectacularly off the boil in the second set, being broken in the second game on his way to trailing 0-3 and then having to save two more break points in the fourth.
But the Spaniard went onto level the match when the Swiss went long with a service return.
Federer, who committed a huge 54 unforced errors in the tie, dropped serve in the opening game of the final set with a netted volley and again in the third game with another volley error as he quickly fell 0-4 down.
The 30-year-old Ramirez Hidalgo had chances to serve for the match at 5-2 and 5-4, but he choked twice as Federer fought back to 5-5.
The world number one’s greater experience told in the tie-break as he completed his recovery when a dispirited Ramirez Hidalgo hit long after 2hrs 03mins on court.
“I could have lost today but I got through and I’m happy about that,” said Federer, who next meets Frenchman Gael Monfils.
“I played well in the first set but he came back well,” Federer said.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Marat Safin suffered a bad-tempered exit as the lid blew spectacularly once again on his famously explosive temper.
The former world No. 1, and double Grand Slam title winner, was knocked out in the second round by Spanish sixth seed David Ferrer 6-2, 6-3 with Safin enduring another on-court meltdown.
The Russian, who has slumped to 93 in the world, became increasingly frustrated with himself and chair umpire Carlos Berado.
In the seventh game of the second set he destroyed his raquet against a courtside chair before screaming at Berado: “Give me a fucking break!” as he debated another contentious call.
Safin’s Russian Davis Cup teammate, Nikolay Davydenko, the fourth seed, moved into the last 16 with a 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) win over Italian qualifier Simone Bolelli.
Later yesterday, triple champion Rafael Nadal, the second seed, was to face Croatia’s Mario Ancic.
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
RSS