"Crazy good day" puts Federer in last 16

All the hype preceding the highly anticipated "supermatch" between Federer and Marat Safin in the third round of Wimbledon was all for naught as the latter didn't have one of his "crazy good days" as the four-time defending champion had feared.

It took Federer only three sets (6-1 6-4 7-6(4)) to beat the clearly frustrated Safin who took out his anger on his racquets as usual but was surprisingly not issued a warning for doing so by the chair umpire. ("He [the chair umpire] probably knows that he's [Safin] in enough trouble as it is", said the commentator.) The poor racquets most probably cringe in terror while waiting in Safin's bag during every match wondering which among them would be the next victim of an on-court tantrum. The top seed seemed in a hurry once again to get the match over with as he breezed through the first set in just 19 minutes. This, by the way, was slightly less than what it took Jelena Jankovic and Lucie Safarova to complete a tug-of-war game at 3-3 in the second set of their third round match earlier. Safin was however at least successful in breaking Federer's serve in the second game of the second set, only to lose his serve--and a racquet or two--in the next. And he did put up more of a fight in the third which went to a tie-break. But Federer was just too good as he won the tie-break 7-4. Even John McEnroe seemed so impressed by Federer's performance as he commentated the match for BBC that he hinted at taking back the remarks he made during his acceptance speech at the recent ITF awards:

"I'm not sure Federer has to win the French Open to be considered the best of all time. His class is undoubted in the modern game and, anyway, with the amount of time he has on his side, who's to say just how many titles he might go on to win...

Sheer, sheer quality from Federer, who was really tested in that final set but still came through. He's favourite for another title here for a reason, and tonight he showed us why."

Amen!