tough day at the office for the world no. 1

roger federer survived a five-set thriller at the aussie open today. he prevailed 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-1) 5-7 6-1 10-8 against serbian janko tipsarevic in round 3 of the tourney in an intense 4 hour 27 minutes. i spent my saturday afternoon glued to the tv and biting my nails. the match was a bit weird. at one point there were lots challenges lodged against the calls, lots of uncharasteric unforced errors from federer. but there were great moments, awesome winners from both sides. the world no.1 didn't look like as mighty as he used to be. he seemed to br a bit lacking match fitness (OMG, sounds familiar???) he pulled out of kooyoong classic warm up tournament earlier this month because of virus infection so he practically hadn't played tennis since november. hope that this could be the thing he needs to get his game back on.

but who is this janko tipsarevic? he ranked a lowly 49th in the world and yet to qualify for a quarter-final at one of the sport's four annual major tournaments. but today he didn't look the part. he gave the fed-express a run for his money. there were times when he seriously looked to bag an upset.










the great Swiss admitted defeat crossed his mind as tipsarevic played the match of his life. he said in the after match interview with Jim Courier, "This is when you get the grey hairs a bit earlier in life. What a great battle I thought it was.
Fair play, he's a nice guy too and it's just a pity someone has to win in tennis sometimes. You wish we could have draws as well.It's a pity for him, but what a great victory for me anyway." well said.

i am definitely going to keep a look out for the young (and quite cute) serb. hope to see more of him in the future. looking at the tongue photo above - hm, i approve :)

the defending champion in the meantime should be recovering from the tough day at the office today and on to the fourth round where he awaits for either czech 14th seed tomas berdych or argentina's 21st seed juan monaco.