Roger Federer

In the second week of a major tennis tournament, the world’s best tennis players fight for championships and compete at an elevated level. In the first week of a Big Four event, the main goal is merely survival.

On day two of the 2010 Australian Open, sports junkies were once again reminded why Roger Federer has become such a supremely successful champion on the world stage. While other credentialed foes fell by the wayside at the Melbourne Park tennis complex, Federer – lacking his best form by any discernible measure – still found a way to move on to the next round.

Before exploring Federer’s latest escape in a major, consider the carnage that took place in the top half of the men’s draw on Tuesday: Robin Soderling, the eighth-seeded Swede who soared into the top 10 after a breakthrough 2009 season, blew a two-set lead on Show Court No. 2 and lost to Spain’s Marcel Granollers, 5-7, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. After playing deep into each of the past three majors – and losing to Federer in all of them – Soderling abruptly crashed out of Australia and created newfound doubts about his ability to remain a regular factor in men’s tennis.

Soderling wasn’t the only powerful performer to wilt against an less accomplished opponent. Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero, carrying a No. 23 seed and plenty of second-week showings in major tournaments, couldn’t get out of the first week in Melbourne. After predictably blowing through 185th-ranked Croatian Ivan Dodig – a man who had never before played a main draw match in any Grand Slam event – Ferrero inexplicably fell apart.

The former world No. 1, who captured the 2003 French Open title, got dominated by Doig in the final three sets. In a heartbeat, what had seemed to be a routine first-round win turned into a five-set stunner, as Ferrero lost, 2-6, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-1. Losing a two-set lead was crushing enough; the fact that the “Mosquito,” as he’s sometimes known, faded away in the final two sets has to leave Ferrero wondering what went wrong. Just about everyone else in major tournament tennis knows the feeling.

Actually, even Roger Federer has experienced the exquisite agony of crashing out of a Slam showcase in the first week of action. It’s just that the Swiss superstar hasn’t tasted such bitterness in nearly six whole years.

The last time Federer failed to escape the first week at a major came in the 2004 French Open, when a much younger man lost to Gustavo Kuerten in the third round. Since then, 22 Grand Slam tournaments have come and gone for the world No. 1, and while many opponents have thrown their best stuff at him, Federer has always accessed the resources needed to prevail. Tuesday’s first-round match against Russia’s Igor Andreev reinforced this reality.

In the 2008 U.S. Open, Andreev pushed Federer to a fifth set in an uneven but thrilling fourth-round match. This tussle in Rod Laver Arena felt very similar to that older confrontation in New York.

Neither player could consolidate momentum – or breaks of serve – in the first three sets. Federer moved out to a quick 3-1 lead in the first set, only to fritter away that break advantage. Andreev performed quite poorly in the first four games, but the 26-year-old regrouped and began to spank his groundstrokes with more authority. Federer lost his edge, and before anyone in the arena could blink, Andreev had taken the opening set, 6-4.

Federer rallied to cruise to a 6-2 win in the second set, and after a few exchanges of breaks, the Swiss icon broke for a 5-3 lead in the third stanza. Andreev had missed a sitter approach shot on break point at 3-all in the third, enabling Federer to hold for 4-3. When the three-time Australian Open champion predictably broke and gained a chance to serve out the third set, few tennis fans thought that the third set was going to end in a dramatic manner.

But just then, Federer’s unfocused persona – the one that showed up late in the first set and which has periodically emerged in recent years – reappeared before a stunned collection of spectators. The heavy favorite lost his serve precisely when he had seemingly attained control of the proceedings. Suddenly plunged into a dogfight, a flustered Federer – at 5-all in the third – got broken a second time when his forehand broke down repeatedly. In no time at all, Andreev earned the right to serve out the third set and put Federer on the ropes.

Andreev earned three set points in the twelfth game of the third set, allowing observers to contemplate the improbable: Would this be the time that a remarkably consistent champion finally fell off the ledge? The law of averages said so. Surely, Federer was going to have the same kind of moment Rafael Nadal experienced at last year’s French Open against Robin Soderling. Surely, the Swiss had to run out of luck and finally suffer the consequences of his inability to serve out a set at 5-3.

But no, Roger Federer just wasn’t ready to concede anything.

It’s true that on his three set points, Andreev’s groundstrokes – especially his powerful forehand – let him down. It’s true that the Russian underdog flinched in the face of a golden opportunity. It’s undeniable that the less proven player couldn’t find the same composure on set points that he discovered for much of the first three sets.

Yet, the fact remains that Federer – with above-average gets on defense and a series of thoughtful crosscourt slice backhands – never gave Andreev an easy put-away shot or a short ball the Russian could whack for a winner. An uncommonly cool-headed customer stayed in rallies and forced his opponent to deliver the goods under pressure.

Andreev couldn’t do the deed.

When Federer used good depth from the backcourt to draw an error from Andreev in an 11-stroke rally, the Swiss had managed to break back and force a third-set tiebreak. Given a new place of safety, Federer played crisp tennis and found his flat ad-court serve to the wide corner of the service box.

A revived champion found his footing, and a clearly shaken Andreev could no longer calibrate his groundies. Fed took the tiebreak, 7-2, and the worm had turned. In a movie tennis fans have seen before, a liberated legend turned on the jets in a gorgeous 6-0 fourth set romp. A tough first-round draw turned into another impressive comeback for the 28-year-old behemoth from Basel, Switzerland.

Some players just can’t take the heat – not the heat of Australia, but the heat of major tournament competition. Roger Federer, on the other hand, never sweats the most worrisome circumstances that emerge between the painted lines. Staying power in the witching hour has enabled a father of twin girls to give birth to many unforgettable tennis moments.

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