TENNIS US OPEN – Sometimes it is easy to forget that Roger Federer is human; that even the tennis deity himself can be awestruck by other sports legends such as Michael Jordan. It is surprising to know that prior to the first day of their year’s US Open, these two greats had not met despite being huge members of the Nike endorsement family. From New York, Cordell Hackshaw
US Open: All the interviews, results, draws and OoP
Sometimes it is easy to forget that Roger Federer (2) is human; that even the tennis deity himself can be awestruck by other sports legends such as Michael Jordan. It is surprising to know that prior to the first day of their year’s US Open, these two greats had not met despite being huge members of the Nike endorsement family. Nonetheless, the mutual respect and adoration for each other was apparent for all to see. Jordan was on hand to watch Federer’s opening round match against Marinko Matosevic and Federer was wearing special Air Jordan’s tennis shoes. It was all great fun for the fans but this is the US Open, people were there to see Federer play and the crowd was definitely all for Federer as he moved passed Matosevic in straight sets 6-3 6-4 7-64.
Federer opened the match with an easy service hold and then set about trying to break the Matosevic serve. It appeared as though he was pushing a bit too much for this early break as he made careless errors and mistimed his shots. Matosevic was gaining confidence as he began mixing up his game by serving and volleying more than this usual pattern. Federer soon found his bearings in the match and got the crucial break in the 8th game when Matosevic double faulted on break point. Federer then quickly served out the set 6-3. In the 2nd set, Federer continued with more of the same and got another break of serve at 4-3 and then consolidated for 5-3. Matosevic serving to stay in the set, fought off several set points to hold. Federer who was having a good serving day, closed it out 6-4.
The match looked to be near over when Federer broke Matosevic in the 7th game of the 3rd set for a 4-3 lead. However, the Swiss was unable to hold serve to consolidate the break. Matosevic continued to mix it up on court and his efforts soon paid off as he broke Federer for the first time in the match to level the set 4-4. This got the crowd’s attention for prior to this moment most the crowd’s focus was clearly divided between the match and their own private conservations. However, instead of the incessant chatter throughout the match, the crowd was now dialled for each point in hushed tones. Matosevic and Federer held serve for 5-5 and the crowd edged Federer on to break in the 11th game. Federer could not convert on the break point and had to serve to stay in the set down 5-6. Federer held to force the tiebreaker.
In the breaker, Matosevic got the early lead up 3-1. The crowd was very concerned with the state of things now. About ten minutes prior, Federer looked poised to close out the match but now, it looked as though Matosevic was going to take a set off Federer. Not one to disappoint willingly his beloved New York City fans, Federer lifted his game to win 6 of the next 7 points in the breaker to take the match 6-3 6-4 7-64 in just over 2 hours. This was a good win for the Swiss as his serving statistics continue to be impressive. Federer had 10 aces, 1 double fault, got 69% of his 1st serves, winning 88% of those points and 56% on his 2nd serve. He had 41 winners to 28 errors compared to Matosevic who had 26 winners to 44 errors. However, Federer’s low break point conversion rate remains problematic. He only broke the Australian 3 times in the match despite having 14 opportunities to do so. Nonetheless, Federer is happy with the 1st round win. He will play another Australian, Sam Groth in the 2nd round.
After the match, Federer explained his admiration for Jordan “[H]is longevity, the way he made it look easy, his will to win, wanting to be the best, delivering under pressure, being a superstar in a team sport, carrying his team for so many years. There’s so many things that he did well and represented the game really nicely, I thought. That’s why he also became my idol.” With this newfound friendship, one is such to look out for Roger Federer and Michael Jordan sightings a la the Federer/Tiger Woods bromance of several years ago.
