Roger Federer is through to Round 2 at RollyG! Our champ wrapped up his opening match in 84 minutes with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 score line vs. the Slovak player Lukas Lacko.
Lacko started well enough. He had solid service holds for his first two games similar to the Maestro. Then, in his 3rd service game the errors started to creep in while Roger demonstrated great defense to get a break point which he converted right away. By then, Roger began to look very confident indeed and despite being pushed to 30, Roger held his own serve to consolidate the break and go up 4-2*. In Lacko’s next service game Roger mixed it up with a dropshot, a backhand volley and a cross-court forehand. Add an error from Lukas and boom, our champ got the double break. Serving for the set at 5*-2, Roger gave away only one point before sealing the set in 24 minutes. Here are the Set 1 stats.
Credit to Lacko, he held his nerve and started Set 2 very well with a love hold. Roger countered with a love hold of his own. But poor Lacko got into trouble again right away in his next service game. An error gave Roger a break point but a counter error from the Maestro, brought it back to deuce. Lacko hit a backhand into the net to give Federer a second chance and after an intense rally the Swiss got the break. In a flash Roger quickly consolidated with a service game that included three service winners. Down 1*-3, Lacko had yet another tough service game where Roger had another break point opportunity. But subsequent errors from Roger ensured a hold for Lukas.
Serving at 3*-2, Roger thundered down 3 service winners in a row followed by a volley winner to hold to love. The same format repeated again in Lacko’s next game as Roger had yet another break point only to miss it and letting Lacko hang on at 3-4*. Roger then held with ease to push the score to 5-3*. Serving to stay in the set, Lacko got pushed again and Roger had a set point but an error from the Maestro wiped that away and Lacko ultimately held. Roger might have missed 4 out of 5 break points in this set with some uncharacteristic errors but his own serving had been impeccable and that continued when he served for the set, taking it in 34 minutes. Here are the Set 2 stats.
Those errors must have annoyed the Maestro because he started Set 3 strongly putting pressure on the Lacko serve. A double fault from Lacko gave Roger a break point only to let it go with a forehand error. Back to deuce. But Roger kept up the onslaught, extracting another error out of Lacko for another break point. The nerves got to Lukas as he double faulted right then to hand the Swiss the break. Serving to consolidate, Roger hit his only double fault of the match but consolidated the break nonetheless. Serving to get on the board, Lacko held to love in large part due to sloppy play from the Maestro. Still, the Swiss was up a break at 2*-1. And he served to perfection in his next game to quickly hold to love and push the score to 3-1*.
The pressure was firmly back on Lacko’s serve as Roger fought for every point: 0-15, 15 all, 30-15, 30 all and then 30-40 and break point. This time the Swiss took it to go up a double break: 4*-1. Another super quick love hold meant Lacko had to serve to stay in the match at 1*-5 down. Federer had a break point again but lost it with his own error. Despite being pushed to deuce 2 more times, Lacko held and Roger had to serve for the match. A beautiful love hold finished off with a gorgeous inside-out forehand won Roger the match. Here are the stats for the match.
This was a good match for Roger. He was never in trouble and didn’t face any break points. He served very well and while his return game was a bit sloppy, mostly in Set 2, he made sure he was in complete control at all times. I got the feeling he tried out a few different shots to get some practice in. He came to the net very well too; though to be honest, Lacko didn’t really make him play difficult volleys. For a first Grand Slam match, this was a good performance.
What made it more special was Mirka was court-side! This is the first time we’ve seen her since the twin boys were born and she looked lovely! The twin girls were there too, looking chic in their black and white polka dot dress, matching pink headbands and sunglasses 😀 Roger was very sweet in giving a shout-out to Mirka in his on-court interview and we learned from the presser later that the whole family, including the boys, is there with him in Paris. Here is a link to a tiny presser clip.
Up next is a new opponent for Roger, the 21 year old Argentine qualifier Diego Sebastian Schwartzman, ranked 109 in the world. Neither Roger nor we know much about him so I expect it will take Roger a bit of time in the beginning to figure out his game. Hopefully, it won’t take too long! In the meantime, I leave you with these crazy stats our Maestro achieved with this win.
- Roland Garros 2014 is now the 60th Grand Slam Roger has participated in. He shares this with Lleyton Hewitt who is also playing his 60th Grand Slam this week. They are both behind Andre Agassi at 61 and the record holder Fabrice Santoro with 70.
- This French Open is also Roger’s 58th consecutive Grand Slam which is a record.
- This match win was his 59th French Open win. He currently shares this with Rafa but of course Rafa hasn’t played his first match yet.
- Roger is the only player to have over 50 match wins at all Grand Slams.
- This was also his 266th Grand Slam match win which is wayyyyy ahead of Jimmy Connors who is at second place with 232 match wins. The next active player behind him is Rafa with 177 match wins.
- Roger is 4th on the list of career matches played with 1,173 matches (behind Vilas, Lendl and Connors). The closest active player is Tommy Haas with 875 matches.
- Roger is 3rd on the list of most career match wins with 952 wins (behind Lendl and Connors). The closest active player is Rafa with 692 match wins.
Well that’s it from me. The Maestro isn’t playing today and might not play till Wednesday so in the meantime, chillax! 😉 and enjoy the rest of the tournament!
***Roger’s photo is from http://www.zimbio.com/ and the twins’ photos are from http://www.blick.ch/***
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