Roger Federer Dominates His Demons: Roland Garros 2009

In sharp contrast to the red clay, Roger Federer stood on the service line dressed in shades of gray and blue—exuding calm, peace, and serenity. 

Except that his Argentine opponent, Jose Acasuso, did not buy into the maestro’s carefully molded myth.

Acasuso elected to play tennis in his own world constructed with the physics of his game without regard to the counter-punching and other-world shot-making of his esteemed opponent.

The Argentine played clay-court tennis at its finest with depth, accuracy, and cunning. The impact of his effort wore on the nerves of the No. 2 seed—he matched Federer point for point.

The first set teetered on his racket on several occasions.

Finally the ultimate test came in a first-set tie-breaker. Federer saved set point after set point, four in all, before finally escaping with the first set in tow.  

For the next set-and-a-half, Federer’s play became tentative and imprecise. He missed by inches and he missed by miles. The point was he was not making the shots he made effortlessly in the past. 

The second set, and the start of the third, saw the former world No. 1 scrambling—seemingly a step short and a fraction of an inch behind. His timing was off and he appeared a shadow of his former self.

It did not help that Acasuso was playing the match of his life, taking the second set, 7-5, after losing that first-set tie breaker. 

In the third set it was pretty obvious that the Argentine was not going away. He broke Federer in the opening game. The high kick serve to Federer’s back hand during the match caused Roger all kinds of problems.

Down 2-0 and 0-30 on his serve, Federer sunk into deep, deep trouble during the third game of the third set. Indeed, he lost his serve again to go down 3-0 to Acasuso.

It looked very much like Federer would lose the third set.

That would mean he would have to win this match in five sets. Federer had not played a five-set match here since 2001.

Eventually Acasuso served for the third set at 5-2. But Federer broke him and then served at 5-3. Roger held serve to bring the score to 5-4. 

Acasuso served again for the set at 5-4. Once again he lost his serve and the third set was leveled at 5-5. Then Federer held serve to go up, 6-5.

Acasuso settled the score by holding on to his serve and the two were engaged in another tie-breaker.

By this time, Federer found his game and began to impose it upon his opponent. He won the third set tie breaker, 6-2.

The match was his. 

The fourth set was a formality—Acasuso was finished. He had no power against the real Federer just as opponents in the past had not. Federer went on the take the fourth set 6-2. 

What we witnessed was the struggle of a great champion to win a match he should have won without any difficulty. There were moments of brilliance with flashes of movement reminiscent of the very best of Federer.

In the end, we were satisfied to see the former world No. 1 survive this contest. He will face Paul-Henri Mathieu in the next round, one of many Frenchmen to survive the first two rounds.

The media corps divided; none were willing to back Federer to win it all in 2009 as they did in 2008. Federer’s collapse in the 2008 final against Rafael Nadal stunned everyone. They appear to have settled on Novak Djokovic as the next man to challenge Nadal for the championship.

Federer can face Djokovic in the semifinals, should they both survive their seeding.  But there are four more rounds to go to reach that moment.

That is, after all, why we play the matches.

The bottom line is victory.

To struggle is part of the game.

Even the very best will have moments of intense adversity. 

A champion uses those moments to learn how to win even when not playing his best...just as Federer managed to do on Thursday against the Argentine Jose Acasuso.