We were expecting an exquisite match between Federer and Wawrinka to be deeply disappointed, at least from a technical point of view.
Federer couldn’t really move (back problems?) to be completely unable to attack. Stanislas couldn’t take advantage of it to commit an incredible array of unforced errors.
The match started not really well for Roger that lost the opening game at 0 on his serve! Then it was time for Stanislas to be immediately broken. The match went on with Roger winning the first set 6-3 without doing much. He couldn’t attack and he was also struggling to defend especially from his forehand side, but Wawrinka couldn’t really put a ball in.
Roger went on to break Stanislas in the second set to go and serve for the match when he was 5-4 up. Time to win? Not really… Roger dropped the serve at 0! Finally Wawrinka won the second set at the tiebreak at 4.
The third set was also stuffed with errors from both sides, but at the end Roger managed to get the decisive break in the 12th game.
From Federer
“I definitely got a bit lucky here tonight,” Federer said “But I’m very happy to come through against Stan, who is a very good friend of mine.”
“Today it was extremely close again. Okay, I should have maybe closed it out in the second set, but he did well to stay in it,” Federer added.
“At the end, I don’t know what got me through. Maybe it’s the experience or maybe a bit more calm in those moments. I’m not sure. Today I think I was a little lucky to come through it in the end.”
From Wawrinka
“Today for sure I had some chances,” said Wawrinka. “I had some opportunities, but I could have lost the match in two straight sets, too… I was close, but not enough, and that’s why I need to still go practice and practice again.”
