Incredible display by the Maestro

What an absolutely incredible display of tennis between Roger Federer and Bernard Tomic.  Wow!  If I was to tell someone to watch one match at the Australian Open so far it would be this one.  I am just so impressed by what each of those guys were able to do.  Even though I haven't liked Tomic's cocky attitude leading up to this, he certainly was able to put on a great display of tennis for his packed home crowd on Rod Laver Arena.  However, he wasn't able to match the brilliance of the Maestro from Switzerland.

Really the only thing Federer wasn't able to do well was to convert break points.  Much of that, however, was due to Tomic's clutch play in those moments, really coming up with the goods at the important times.  The shot making between both of them was downright breathtaking at times.  Definitely Tomic was wanting to make a good impression and prove himself capable of being a top player.  I think, though, that the hype about this match also brought out in Roger a fierce determination to show that he isn't going down yet to the young up and coming guys.  


Federer ended the match with 46 winners and 20 unforced errors.  Now those are the types of numbers his fans love to see!  He truly hasn't lost his greatness in any way, and the way he moved around the court shows he hasn't lost his speed either, with some amazing retrieval ability to stay in points.  Here is just one small example showing the full range of his skills.

I thought Roger did a great job in his press conference delicately dealing with the issue of respect between players, in a gentle way implying that Tomic could have handled that aspect better than he did.  Here is a link to that interview, as he says it much better than I could:

http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/video/index.html#ooid=92dWtqODppvZRziETJSFuigNAc_Piwj7 

I could go on and on with my appreciation for this match and for Federer in general as he claimed his 250th grand slam win.  I can say it was definitely worth staying up until 2:30 a.m.  Hopefully he can keep up this incredible form through the next challenging matches to come.