Federer wins a thriller!

Tennis superstar Roger Federer practically came back from the brink of defeat to win a thriller of a match against Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo and move on to the third round at the Monte Carlo Masters Series.
The Swiss appeared to be cruising to a routine win when he emphatically won the first set 6-1.

But the Federer Express was derailed as he was broken right off at the start of the second set and struggled with numerous errors. Ramirez Hidalgo took advantage of this major lapse in the top seed's game and forced a deciding set with a 6-3 score in the second.

All seemed lost for Federer when he fell behind 0-4 in the third set. But the pressure evidently began to tell on his inexperienced Spanish opponent who failed to served out the match, not once, but twice! First at 5-2 then at 5-4.

With a true champion's heart and mental toughness, Federer in the meantime held his next two service games to level at 5-all. Both players then each held serve one more time to force a tie break where the 2006 and 2007 finalist raced to a 4-1 lead and never looked back.

The poor Ramirez Hidalgo must be heartbroken after having so many opportunities to pull off what could have been the tournament's biggest upset. Certainly he contributed to a match that must have given everyone there in the stands--including myself here watching the online live scoreboard--a dozen heart attacks.

We Federer fans must thank him for playing well and consequently forcing the world number one to step up and reveal the great tennis player that he really is.

Long live King Roger the Great!
Photo credit: AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau