Fish feat forms Federer-less final

Contrary to expectations that he will finally end his title drought of 2008 appropriately in an oasis in the desert, Roger Federer was defeated 6-3 6-2 in the semi-finals by Mardy Fish of the United States at the Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells, California.

Fish is the first American that Federer has lost to since late in 2003. (Andy Roddick, who is 1-15 in his head-to-head with the Swiss, must be green with envy!)

The year's first Masters Series tournament started promisingly for the three-time champion with a straight-set victory in the second round over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, followed by an amazing 6-1 6-1 53-minute rout of Nicholas Mahut in the third round. By the time he mastered Ivan Ljubicic 6-3 6-4 in the fourth round, his winners punctuated with fist pumps and cries of "Com'n!", there was no doubt that the world number one was back to his best form. It was then that a clearly fired-up Federer got a surprise free ticket into the semifinals when Tommy Haas withdrew from their quarterfinal match due to a sinus infection. On hindsight, this might have cost Federer some much needed match practice.

After seeing the champion conjure magical shots in those previous matches, there was therefore something decidedly fishy about an out-of-sorts Federer in his third loss of the season. He was not as quick as usual and his game lacked its customary magic.

Could this be a sign that he is actually not yet fully recovered from mononucleosis? The disease is after all known to recur from time to time.

The unseeded Fish on the other hand displayed the kind of tennis that belied his number 89 ranking and, egged on by an eager home crowd, saw him previously swim past two-time champion Lleyton Hewitt and upset world numbers four and seven, Nicolay Davydenko and David Nalbancian, respectively.

Fish's opponent in the finals on Sunday is Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic who had upset world number two Rafael Nadal in the other semifinals. (Had Fish entered the tournament on a wildcard, that finals would have been an interesting wildcard vs. Djoker match-up. Haha.)

As for Federer, it remains to be seen if he will recover from this string of losses and finally triumph to raise a trophy this year.

In the meantime, we Federer fans will continue to thirst for such an event and have no choice but to wait patiently while our champion regroups for the rest of the season starting with upcoming Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida.
Photo credit: Harry How/Getty Images

Going for a fourth title at Indian Wells

Today Roger Federer begins another campaign for his first trophy of the year at the season's very first ATP Masters Series tournament at Indian Wells, California.

After battling mononucleosis and consequently failing to defend his titles at the Australian Open and the Dubai Tennis Championships, the current world number one hopes to extend his lead over world number two, Rafael Nadal, who is the defending champion at the Pacific Life Open.

The Spaniard is currently just 350 points behind the Swiss in the ATP rankings, thanks to making the finals at Chennai and a semifinal appearance in Melbourne. He also reached the quarterfinals in Dubai where Federer was upset in the first round by Andy Murray.

Last year at Indian Wells, Federer lost in the second round to a resurgent Guillermo Canas who had then just returned to the tour after serving a ban for testing positive for drugs.

With a bit of match practice under his belt (i.e., the recent exhibition match with Pete Sampras), Federer will certainly look forward to regain the title which previously he won for three straight years, from 2004 to 2006.

As a seeded player in the tournament, Federer has been given a bye in the first round and will play his first match in the second round against another Guillermo, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

Although Garcia-Lopez is ranked 61 places below Federer, the windy conditions which posed a problem at Indian Wells yesterday may be more of a concern for Federer. Let's hope he'll be able to fight off both and go on to regain the title.
Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

Slowed down by mononucleosis!

When Roger Federer said he came down with a stomach flu before the AAMI Classic at Kooyong early in January it turns out that that was just part of a bigger picture.

A number of articles have begun popping-up all over the world-wide-web to report that the world number one had been ill with mononucleosis--and for at least six weeks according to doctors.

The New York Times described the disease as follows:

Mononucleosis is an infection caused by the Epstein-Barr virus. It can produce flu-like symptoms and extreme, lingering fatigue. Physicians often discourage those with mononucleosis from taking part in intense physical activity because of the risk of rupturing the spleen, which can become enlarged because of the infection.

That sounds rather scary, doesn't it? Especially when one knows that Mario Ancic had to miss six months last year when he came down with the disease.

And to think Federer even played at the Australian Open up until the semi-finals, including that four-hour match against Janko Tipsarevic.

No wonder he looked sluggish and his shots were missing their usual fire and finesse!

But at least we finally have an explanation for his poor form on court though the Swiss graciously refuses to use this as an excuse for his recent string of losses.

For now Federer believes that he's over the disease because his body has begun creating antibodies against it. He seems relieved that he can prepare for the highly-anticipated exhibition match against Pete Sampras at the Madison Square Garden this coming Monday, 10 March.

Federer fans will certainly pray that he will get sufficient rest to avoid falling ill again. We can't afford to have him risk his health just for the sake of saving his number one ranking. We desire nothing less than for him to fully recover, if not in time for the upcoming ATP Masters Series tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami, at least for him to feel comfortable enough to give 100 percent when he next gets back on the tour.

So once again, we wish Roger to get well soon!

UPDATE: Federer talks about his illness in a message recently posted on his website.

Photo credit: Hassan Ammar/AFP/Getty Images

Federer Express derailed again

Oh dear. Our tennis hero has just once again been derailed in his quest to defend another title.

The world tennis number one was upset in the first round at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships by Andy Murray 7-6(6) 3-6 4-6.
Roger Federer scrambled to take the opening set by coming from behind 2-5 in the thrilling tiebreak to win at 8-6. But he let momentum sway over to young Scot's side, virtually surrendering the second set when he lost serve in the sixth game. That scenario repeated itself in the deciding set as Murray took the lead at 4-2 and never looked back from there.

This is probably the first time Federer has lost in the first round of a tournament for a fair number of years now. Likewise he has never gone through the early weeks of the tennis season without winning a tournament since 2003.

On the other hand, Murray, who did not face a break point during this latest triumph, has so far pocketed two titles this year.

The Swiss now holds a 1-2 head-to-head record against Murray, having lost to Murray in their previous meeting which was in the second round of the AMS Cincinnati back in 2006.

The defending champion had been struggling with his game ever since being hit by a stomach flu prior to the AAMI Kooyong Classic which he was eventually forced to miss. While this meant that the Swiss would lack match practice going into the Australian Open, his superb tennis appeared undiminished with straight-set wins in the early rounds at that grand slam tournament in Melbourne. After being nearly tipped over by Janko "Tipsy" Tipsarevic of Serbia in an exciting marathon third round match Federer breezed through the next two rounds against Tomas Berdych and James Blake only to be finally eliminated in the semifinals by another Serb, this year's eventual Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic.

With the first two Masters Series tournament of the year looming in the coming weeks, Federer will definitely need to regroup and prepare to face much tougher competition who are in all likelihood eager to usurp his lofty throne.

Spanish world number two Rafael Nadal and Djokovic will certainly want to capitalize on this setback to grab for themselves another of Federer's titles. Such was the case in the Australian Open where Djokovic was ultimately successful. Nadal himself was a shoo-in for a slot in the Australian Open finals but blew his chances in a shock upset to unseeded Jo-Wilfred Tsonga in the semifinals.

In the meantime, we faithful Federer fans will just continue to stand by our man and wish him the best for the rest of the season.
Photo by: Julian Finney/Getty Images