Australian Open: Roger Federer fails in the round of 16 against Stefanos Tsitsipas
The third in the world rankings lost to the 20-year-old Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in the round of 16 with 7: 6 (13:11), 6: 7 (3: 7), 5: 7, 6: 7 (5: 7) and missed his third Melbourne title as a result.
by Ulrike Weinrich from Melbourne
last edit: Jan 20, 2019, 01:41 pm
It was doomed to Federer that he could not use any of his 12 break chances (!) In the night session and made 55 uncommon errors against one of the most hopeful from the "NextGen".
After 3:45 hours, the 14th-placed Tsitsipas converted his first match ball and let his emotions run wild. "I'm the happiest person in the world right now. I can't describe what I'm feeling right now. It was a dream to be here on the court with Roger," said the surprise winner.
The 37-year-old Federer could have gone down in the annals as the oldest Australian Open quarter-finalist since 1977 (Ken Rosewall).
"I lost to a better player today. There were a number of factors involved. Of course it was frustrating that I wasn't able to take advantage of the break chances. Stefanos remained calm, that's not to be taken for granted," said Federer, who was only a few minutes behind At the end of the game, the press conference appeared and said that he would play on clay again this season.
There was a mood in Melbourne Park beforehand, like a football classic. An armada in blue and white was already moving around the Rod Laver Arena half an hour before the start of the game and was always singing battle chants. Melbourne is home to the largest Hellenic community outside of Greece.
Right from the start, you could see that Tsitsipas had quickly lost his respect for the 17-year-old Grand Slam record winner. The Stockholm Champ of 2018 gave Federer two break chances in the first game, but the Swiss should have the biggest problems on this day, especially when exploiting these opportunities.
Tsitsipas belongs to the "Team M" from Mouratoglou
An exciting exchange of blows developed, which the lovers of the one-handed backhand enjoyed above all. And everything seemed to be going according to plan for the "FedExpress": In the tie-break, Tsitsipas had three set balls, but in the end the favorite got the opening round.
In the box, the "Maestro" also applauded Anna Wintour, the Vogue boss, who is one of Federer's noble fans and had traveled from the USA on Sunday. Despite the falling darkness, wife Mirka initially hid her eyes behind sunglasses.
Incidentally, Patrick Mouratoglou, the chief coach of Serena Williams, was sitting in the "Stef" box. Tsitispas trains at the French academy's son, the son of a Greek millionaire, and in Nice belongs to the so-called "Team M", a small group of professionals who stirs up special expectations in world tennis and therefore enjoys special privileges with the trainer guru.
And Mouratoglou made no secret recently that winning a major title must be the goal for Tsitsipas. "Our job is to get every player to their maximum. If they don't win a Grand Slam tournament, I don't think we did our job properly. That is not satisfactory," said the 48-year-old.
Federer awarded eight breakballs in the second set alone
Tsitsipas, who was once saved from drowning by his father and coach Apostolos on the verge of a future tournament in Heraklion, was not discouraged and in the second set fended off eight break balls (!) And four set balls from Federer. Almost as a reward, he managed to equalize the sentence with a forehand winner.
Federer and Tsitsipas were in the same position for a long time in the direct winning strikes, but the defending champion made more mistakes. Such as the set ball for the young star in round three, when he hit a return with the forehand on the net.
As a result, the young Greek with the wild curls kept a cool head and was not deterred. The reward was his first quarter-final move to a major event.
Tsitsipas meets the Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut (No. 22) in the round of eight, who on Sunday beat last year's Melbourne finalist Marin Cilic from Croatia (No. 6) 6: 7 (6: 8), 6: 3 , 6: 2, 4: 6, 6: 4.