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

Federer reclaims Dubai title

The ever dependable Federer Express delivered again when he overcame a spirited challenge from red-hot Youzhny to reclaim the Dubai Duty Free Open title he lost last year to Nadal. This is Federer's fourth Dubai title in five years. The straight-set victory is also his 41st consecutive match that he has won since losing to Andy Murray in Cincinnati late last year, drawing him level with Bjorn Borg for the fourth-longest winning streak in history.

As usual, despite a few hiccups in his game, Federer still found a way to win the points that mattered. As he did in previous rounds, he struggled with his serve at the beginning of the match but managed to level the match in the fourth game of the first set. Then he failed to serve out the first set but won it just the same by breaking Youzhny's serve in the next game. He also had several match points on Youzhy's serve when leading 5-2 in the second set and eventually had to serve for the match.

No Federer vs. Nadal in Dubai

It takes Federer three sets to defeat Djokovic (6-3 6-7 6-3) in the quarterfinals but he breezes through to the finals with a straight sets victory over Haas. Now he has stretched his winning streak to 40 matches--just six matches shy of the record set by Guillermo Vilas! I'm just disappointed that it isn't Nadal that he'll be facing in the finals, thanks to the extreme precision of Hawkeye technology. Now that would have been an interesting final with Nadal defending his title.

Speaking of Federer's opinion about ATP's "innovations", here's another instance where the round-robin format can be very very confusing and seemingly unfair: Blake wins a round-robin match via a walkover but doesn't make it to the quarterfinals because walkovers, according to the rules, are not counted. ATP decides to bend the rules and lets Blake through...and then changes its mind later. Ouch! Poor Blake. This is the second time he's at the losing end of these round-robin mix-ups. I think I can hear Federer saying, "I told you so!"

Federer advances to Dubai quarterfinals

It looks like Roger is on his way to a fourth title in Dubai and a second title this year. He's defeated Bracciali in straight sets 7-5 6-3 extending his winning streak to 38 matches. Plus he's added to his growing portfolio of amazing shots (reminiscent of another great shot he made also in Dubai):

Federer literally brought Bracciali to his knees in the second set after hitting a spectacular shot between his legs for a winner down the line and a 5-2 lead. As the crowd roared its approval, Bracciali knelt on one knee as Federer passed him on the way to his chair.

It was so good that CNN has named it Play of the Day! (It was funny how they called Federer a Play of the Day expert on its Sports News on CNN International.) There are also a few clips of the shot posted on YouTube. But, uh-oh! I don't think John McEnroe would like Bracciali's reaction (even if he apparently did it jokingly); he's recently complained about how the other players respect Federer too much.