Federer Loses in Surprise Upset

By Deletedforeverhaha
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Deletedforeverhaha

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TORONTO (AP)—Top-ranked Roger Federer was knocked out of the Rogers Cup with a 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 loss to France’s Gilles Simon in a second-round match Wednesday night.

Federer, who won the tournament in 2004 and ‘06, was playing his first match since losing the Wimbeldon final in five sets to Spain’s Rafael Nadal.

“That’s just unbelievable for me to win against him,” Simon said.

Federer, who became the first top seed to lose in his first match here since Lleyton Hewitt in 2002, finished second here last year to Serbia’s Novak Djokovic.

“The problem was my game today,” Federer said.

It was the biggest surprise of a soggy day at the tournament that saw play disrupted for nearly six hours by thundershowers.

Second-seeded Rafael Nadal looks like the favorite now, though he didn’t look stellar in his first match Wednesday, struggling early on before ousting Ottawa-born qualifer Jesse Levine 6-4, 6-2.

There were several other notable upsets on the day. Croatian Marin Cilic ousted 12th-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-4; Sweden’s Robin Soderling defeated 13th seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-4; Argentina’s Jose Acasuso beat 14th-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; and Russian Igor Andreev got past 16th-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Of course, nothing compares to eliminating Federer.

“For sure, this is my best victory,” said Simon, ranked 22nd in the world. “I don’t think that you win so many times against the No. 1 in the world. It happens maybe in the career of a player maybe two, three times if you are lucky.”

The match started off smoothly for Federer until Simon broke his serve to go up 4-2 in the second set. Federer returned the favor and held serve to draw to 4-4 and then 5-5, but Simon held serve in the 11th game and broke Federer in the 12th to take the set.

“As the match went on I struggled a little bit to put the forehands away,” Federer said. “He’s a good baseliner. We saw that today. He moves well. He’s deceiving because he’s kind of thin and tall but moves really well for his height, you know. He flicks a lot of balls with his backhand as well, so when you come in you can’t see where he plays.”

Suddenly, Federer’s side of the bracket looks wide open.

Fourth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko is the highest seed remaining there. He defeated Germany’s Tommy Haas 6-3, 7-6 (6) on Wednesday. Seventh-seeded James Blake was also a winner, beating Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman 1-6, 6-1, 6-2.

On the other side, there’s defending champion Djokovic, as well as fifth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer, eighth-seeded Andy Murray of Britain, and ninth-seded Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka—who won their matches Wednesday—and of course, Nadal.

The Spaniard seemed to have the support of the fans at the beginning of his match against Levine. One fan waved a Spanish flag with “Vamos Rafa” scrawled across it.

Some support swayed over to Levine’s side as the plucky 20-year-old took an early lead and played Nadal tough.

“I think they really got behind me a lot of times, and that was helpful,” said Levine, who moved to Florida when he was 13 and represents the U.S. in international play. “There was a lot of Rafa supporters out there. I was trying to hold my own and hoping to get some support behind me, and I felt like there was.”

Gilles Simon, of France, celebrates his 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Roger Federer, of Switzerland, at the Rogers Cup tennis tournament in Toronto on Wednesday July 23, 2008.

Gilles Simon, of France, celeb…

AP - Jul 23, 22:11 EDT

Levine said he was rolling until he stopped to think about whom he was playing, and where.

“I think I was in that zone, not sure really where I was, and then I kind of came to my senses and realized that I’m playing Nadal on center court,” he said. “Obviously, nerves got a little bit of me there.”

Levine took advantage of an uncharacteristically sluggish Nadal early. He broke the Wimbledon champion in the fourth game before taking a 4-1 lead in the first set. But then he failed to capitalize on a break-point chance in the next game. Up 4-3, he missed another break point, and Nadal took over from there.

“Once he got that break back I think that he really got settled into the match,” Levine said. “I came out kind of flying, and that’s what I wanted to do, but I didn’t want to let him back in like I did, obviously.”

Still, Nadal was impressed by Levine, who’s ranked No. 123 in the world, though he did admit to having never seen him play before their match.

“He’s young, so he can be a very good player,” Nadal said. “Today wasn’t my best match obviously, but I didn’t feel very bad after the beginning,” he said. “If I don’t play better, I’m going to have a lot of problems.”

Source: Yahoo! Sports

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Deletedforeverhaha

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His "reign" over tennis is not over. Every tennis player acknowledges that Federer is the most skilled tennis player on today's courts. I just wonder what's affecting him this much to play this badly. If you watch all his tennis matches that he has lost, it was because of unforced errors. He lost in Wimbledon because he kept hitting unforced errors. He's mishitting shots he never would have mishit a year ago.

Let's see what happens.

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Deletedforeverhaha

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I don't really follow tennis, but even I know that the crown has passed to Nadal.

Nadal even admits that Federer is the best. The crown won't be passed to Nadal for the next two years or so unless Federer decides to make a shock move that will rattle the tennis world and retire early. Federer will be put down as the greatest player ever to grace the world of tennis by winning the most number of Grand Slams.

People are only saying that he's inconsistent or awful because they're just upset that he doesn't have perfect numbers this year. So what if he didn't win the most number of consecutive victories at ___ Grand Slam?

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MackTK

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People are only saying that he's inconsistent or awful because they're just upset that he doesn't have perfect numbers this year. So what if he didn't win the most number of consecutive victories at ___ Grand Slam?

It's not just the Grand Slams, he is not Roger Federer of previous years. Roger Federer is one of the best tennis players in the history, but it's over. Nadal will most probably clinch the 1st position this year.

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Deletedforeverhaha

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Yes but he will be back!

+1

He's still better than Nadal technically speaking. He just doesn't have the emotional determination with him this year. He should have won Wimbledon but he just kept hitting unforced errors like he did throughout the year.

Grand Master

Matrix XII

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Maybe because he's a great player and we're big fans of the guy. "let's watch someone else" man, do you want to watch great tennis or just any tennis

I really only watch women's tennis I guess you might have me there. lol

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Rappy Veteran

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Roger Federer's reign as world number one is under serious threat after he lost to Ivo Karlovic in the third round of the Cincinnati Masters.

The 6-7 6-4 6-7 defeat by the big-serving Croatian was Federer's 11th loss of the season and his first against his opponent in seven matches.

World number two Rafael Nadal will usurp the Swiss at the top of the rankings should he win in Cincinnati.

The Spanish Wimbledon and French Open champion faces Tommy Haas on Thursday.

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