Roger the giant killer

The witty Andy Roddick's scouting report on the Federer-Isner third round match was almost spot on: Isner is going to be very tall and Roger's going to be very good. John Isner was indeed very tall and he was good as well. Still, that was not good enough against the world number one who was not very good but rather very very good.

With Isner firing nine aces in the opening set, the great Swiss at first struggled against the towering American's solid serve and backcourt game to surrender his first set of the tournament in a tiebreak. But Federer must have picked up something about Isner's strategy and game plan and promptly turned the match around as he broke the 22-year-old's serve twice to go up 4-0 in the second set. From then on, the reigning US Open men's champion never looked back, committing only 11 unforced errors in the entire match (compared to Isner's 42): five in the first set, six in the fourth set and none at all in the second and third sets! He also made an impressive 37 winners including ten aces and a remarkable lob over his 6'9" opponent who could only watch helplessly from the net as the ball landed just inside the baseline. Federer's talent for returning serves also came to the fore as he limited Isner to just another nine aces in the last three sets.

All these contributed to a 6(4)-7 6-2 6-4 6-2 victory in 2 hours and 15 minutes and a place in the fourth round where Federer will face Spain's Feliciano Lopez who also had to overcome a first set deficit to another young American, Donald Young.