Rafa and Roger march on in Oz

Yesterday Roger Federer dispatched Xavier Malisse in 3 easy sets, the Swiss taking it 6-3 6-3 6-1. After a shaky 5 set display against Gilles Simon all eyes were on the Maestro, looking for chinks in the ice-cool armour. None were found in this match.

Federer and Malisse grew up on the tour together in the 90’s, but there was a gulf in class between the two evident in this match. Next up for Federer is Tommy Robredo.

A different kettle of fish all together for current world number 1, Rafael Nadal. Pursuing his “Rafa Slam” (odd name, but everything sounds cool with “Rafa” before it, so I’m not complaining), the Spaniard had a feisty young Australian in his way today. Tomic, the Oz wonder-kid, put on an awesome display for the home crowd, playing with a maturity beyond his years and pushing Nadal to some serious effort.

Nadal wasn’t at his best, which was in stark evidence when Tomic raced to a 4-0 lead in the second set.

Despite Tomic losing in straight sets (6-2 7-5 6-3) the youngster can take some serious pride in the fact that he may have made Nadal sweat more than any player in history, El Torro needing to change his sweat-drenched shirt 5 times throughout the match.

via http://obscurereality.tumblr.com/

Makes me kind of sceptical about the “awesome new Dri-Fit technology” from Nike.

Anyway, the top two seeds are through, and keep the dream of a Rafa/Roger final alive!

1 year ago  /  3 notes