THE man in mint was nowhere near his usual mint condition. Roger Federer had to spill all that he possesses beyond midnight to guarantee survival into the last eight of the Australian Open, for the world No 1, following a local custom, went walkabout in the third and fourth sets against Tommy Haas and gave the distinct impression of being mortal.
“I like to be pushed — media people get on my nerves. ‘Wouldn’t it be good if you lost a set, wouldn’t it be good if you lost?’ All that crap,” Federer said after his 6-4, 6-0, 3-6, 4-6, 6-2 victory over the revitalised German, who had beaten him in five sets at the same stage in Rod Laver Arena four years ago. And yes, Mr Nice Guy used a word that few have heard pass his lips. Andy Murray would have been purring.
As out of character as it was for Federer to use a four-letter word, it had been an out-of-character evening from the moment the Swiss tossed away two break points at 2-2 in the third set, for he would surely have cruised to victory had one of those been grasped.
Haas suddenly began to unleash a succession of searing winners, threw himself lengthways to make volleys close to the net and Federer shanked more shots off the frame in half an hour than he usually does in half a season.
Having had break points against him in four of five service games in the fourth set, Federer steadied in the fifth, although Haas was devilishly unfortunate when, with a break point in the sixth game, he missed a backhand crosscourt pass by what the Hawk-Eye technology deemed to have been seven millimetres. So close.
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“I was playing fantastic for two sets and then he played fantastic for two,” Federer said. “It went by pretty quickly and it’s tough to break the momentum when that happens. But I have had some real heartbreaking moments on this court, so this is a really good feeling.”
Of those heartbreakers, none is more vivid than the Davis Cup semi-final in 2003, when he was beaten by an outrageously animated Lleyton Hewitt from two sets up. The nations meet in the first round of the World Group in Geneva next month, but there will be no rematch. The news that Hewitt will not play is a blow, given that he has spent the past seven years in his nation’s vanguard. The official reason will be his nagging ankle injury, though, as Craig Tiley, recently appointed Tennis Australia’s player development director, said: “I’ve inherited a history of bad blood (with Hewitt) and that will take time to change.”
Hewitt is still bitter that not more of his “Fanatic” followers were allocated tickets to watch his second-round match against Juan Ignacio Chela, which ended in defeat, a feeling exacerbated when a posse of Greek-Cypriots managed to watch Marcos Baghdatis defeat Andy Roddick from the main stands. These remain strained times for Australia and its No 1 player.
That matters little to Federer, who has not yet said if he will play for Switzerland next month. Between now and then, he has to win three matches in temperatures that are destined to climb back towards 40C by the end of the week. Nikolay Davydenko, the Russian, is next in line.
For Switzerland’s women, these are also halcyon days. Patty Schnyder is into the quarter-finals for the third successive year, the period in which Martina Hingis spent enjoying what life offered away from an unrelenting gaze. Against every expectation, Hingis joined her with a straight-sets victory over Samantha Stosur that ended home interest in the event.
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Schnyder made quick work of Anastasia Myskina, the 2004 French Open champion, Hingis was made to toil by Stosur, the world No 98 (Hingis is at No 349, having restarted her career three weeks ago). Rallies of 25-plus strokes were commonplace, the second set tie-break contained 18 points, most of a rare quality, before the Swiss prevailed 6-1, 7-6.
“It is concentration that has taken me where I am,” Hingis said. “Easy or tough, I will take it any way. I wasn’t tight today, just tired. I got late to a lot of shots and that told on me a bit. Yes, it is flattering to be having so much publicity, but it is nice as well. In the past, when I was No 1, everything seemed so stressful, but this is fun.”
Whether she will feel that way today, having played Kim Clijsters, of Belgium, the world champion, No 2 seed and winner of the previous grand-slam, the US Open, is open to conjecture.
QUARTER-FINALS
MEN
R Federer (Switz) v N Davydenko (Russ) N Kiefer (Ger) v S Grosjean (Fr) F Santoro (Fr) v D Nalbandian (Arg) I Ljubicic (Cro) v M Baghdatis (Cyp)
WOMEN
L Davenport (US) v J Henin-Hardenne (Bel) M Sharapova (Russ) v N Petrova (Russ) P Schnyder (Switz) v A Mauresmo (Fr) M Hingis (Switz) v K Clijsters (Bel)