Roger Federer Survives Acasuso Scare To Win In a Four Setter Killer

I survived a major heart failure today...Whew! And who was the reason behind this? A certain beloved  Swiss tennis player named Roger Federer who was playing  against some Argentinian named Jose Acasuso at Roland Garros in the second round.

There is a thing about these Spaniards, Argentinians, Italians, Chileans and most other Latin American players. They are absolutely absent for 80 percent of the year and then suddenly become roaring tigers in the clay season.

Seriously! Take Rome Masters for example; there was this Juan Monaco and there was this Andy Murray; Who was predicted to win and who ultimately won?

To be honest, I had never heard about Monaco prior to that match and it was shocking to see Murray struggling like a fish out of water, in perhaps ages after he became the World No. 4!

And this Acasuso today? The way he was playing till Federer struck like a Jedi, I thought somebody had cloned him. There was such a stark difference between the Acasuso who played against Fernando Verdasco in the Spanish-Argentinian Davis Cup final and the one at this.

At that time, I actually supported him and he lost and when I wanted him to lose today, he played like he wanted to win the French Open 2009 desperately.

Roger Federer, the Roger Federer! He lost the second set 5-7 and then was playing like nuts going into the third set as if this was an exhibition match. Hell! It was ridiculous when he trailed Acasuso 0-4 in the third. Eerily reminded of the 2008 Finals with a difference being that this was in the second round itself! It was super scary to watch him now as it was then.

In those moments, he was a complete goner. No winners, only errors, errors and more errors! No one in their right mind would have believed that he was the World No. 1 for four consecutive years and has thirteen slams to his credit.

Thus, when he won the fifth game on his serve, there was a sigh of relief that at least it won't be a bagel; a bagel in the second round which would have been acutely shameful!

Thre is yet another thing that Federer knows well apart from giving shockers like he did today: Raising expectations and then crushing them like a delicate piece of glass and then picking them up again to nicely do the revamping work with great precision and care.

After breaking Acasuso satisfactorily in the sixth game for a 2-4 score, he went on to offer the platter of compensation by allowing him to serve for the match by dropping his immediate next game.

Acasuso serving for the set and Federer looking like a tired vulture sedately scrounging in the background; or was the sedation just a bait to trap Acasuso? Only Federer knows, and the scorching manner in which he drilled off the next four games appears proof enough.

And then it all came back: The "C'mons"; "Allezs" and the "Yessses"...the vulture became the eagle and the bait was hooked. Like a battery charged to full power, Federer stoked the Acasuso might in the third set tie-break.

Actually, by then there was nothing left to prod in the Argentinian's armour. The beating he had taken while serving for the third set twice left him bleeding high and dry, and from thereon he played like a puppet in the hands of the Federer puppeteer.

Federer proceeded to win the third set 7-6, with a thumping 7-2 margin in the tie-break; and as regards the fourth, there is nothing to talk about unless we are obsessive, compulsive "Federer" concerned!

He came, He saw, and He won; and while it wasn't a powerfully convincing victory after his first round brilliance, this match proved to be a re-testimony about Federer's comeback powers from the pits of darkness, which in itself is vindication to his fans' fandom!