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.
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