Fish out, Federer takes easy route to third round

MELBOURNE, Australia — World no. 3 Roger Federer took an easy path into the third round of the Austalian Open tournament as he took a walk in the park when his opponent Andreas Beck was forced to withdraw from their match.

The suspect was a lower back injury who had let Germany’s Beck withdraw from the final match in the Hisense Arena on Wednesday.

Federer was unaware of his opponent’s injury until his practice on Wednesday morning.

“I didn’t know anything about it until I saw him in the locker room and he came up to me. I was like ‘hey, what’s going on? Good to see you again’, because he’s a good friend. I’ve practised with him in the past in Switzerland.

“He said ‘I’m not so good actually, I have a bad back’. It came as a surprise.

“He said he had a lot of painkillers during the last match. I think it happened four, five days ago. He doesn’t want to risk it early in the season. I guess it’s the smart decision for him to take.”

“The 16-time grand slam winner was adamant having an extra day off would not disrupt his momentum.
“I’ll just take it easy this afternoon and come out tomorrow [Thursday] and hit intensely and then I’ll be ready for the next match,” he said.

On the other hand, American Mardy Fish became the highest seed to exit the 2012 Austalian Open after he was defeated by Alejandro Falla.

Fish committed 58 unforced errors and became distracted by his opponent’s solitary breaks.

“I didn’t play great and he played well,” said Fish, who was irritated at Falla’s repeated call for the trainer at the changeovers.

“For someone who is in the latter stages of his career and prides himself on his fitness, I don’t enjoy that at all,” he added.

“I have a hard time calling the trainer for anything. First of all, I wouldn’t want the other guy to know that I was hurting in the first place. But to be able to get help for lack of fitness…”

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Posted by Johndel Kaye Patrick Callora on Jan 18 2012. Filed under Tennis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.