Yesterday Roger Federer clinched his 16th grand slam titles in Melbourne, by defeating Andy Murray in straight sets at 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(11). Just awesome!
By following Federer's matches for so many years, I would be confident to say I know a thing or two about his ups and downs. When Roger is on, he could produce any magical shots that we could never dare to imagine. No doubt he elevates tennis to an untouchable apex. However, it is crystal clear that his physical level has peaked out, albeit slowly. Roger's first serve is slowing down. Also, though he won two grand slams in 2009, his performance was not as majestic as before, especially the Wimbledon final against Andy Roddick, less wonders have been whipped out.
However, in the Australian Open 2010, Federer rebounded to his very best. His convincing victories against those young guns were remarkable. In yesterday match, though Murray continued to place the ball in Federer's backhand, in the hope of his more-inclined wayward unforced error. Federer smashed the ball cleanly and conjured up many winners-down-the-line. The dampening performance at the beginning of third set just proved that Federer is a human-being, after all. Nevertheless, Federer regrouped himself quickly and edged out Murray in the tormenting tiebreaker.
Murray's runner-up speech left quite an image to me. Though I never like his game, he is a very good player, head and shoulder above his compatriots like Henman and Rusedski. It was really brutal to eat the humble pie, after carrying so much hope to win the grand slam, and tasted the sourness at the end. In those one-to-one sports, you could find no excuse for the defeat but yourself. Really brutal.
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