One of the greats of Men’s Tennis, Andy Murray was quite elated at Roger Federer’s win over Dominik Koepfer in the ongoing French Open. The Swiss edged into the next round of the tournament after a hard-fought victory over his opponent. The match went on for four sets and three tiebreaks, and while some have questioned the quality of the overall game, no one could doubt the passion displayed by both the players- especially the 39-year-old legend.
Roger Federer’s Win in The French Open Was Hardfought
Nonetheless, the former world no. 1 did make some unforced errors in his not-so-perfect performance at the ongoing Grand Slam but managed to scrape through. His next match will be against Matteo Berrettini on Monday, and after a grueling match of more than three hours, one understands truly that Roger Federer, albeit a living legend, has his age catching up to him. Even in this match, the Swiss didn’t win any of the breakpoints in the first set, and only managed to clinch the tiebreak courtesy of a double fault by Koepfer.
Discounting Roger Federer also would be a big, big mistake as there were multiple flashes of brilliance throughout the next set. Sure, he did get tired after a while- being 39 and all-but that didn’t lead to him relinquishing his hold over the match. In the penultimate set, the 20-time Grand Slam winner did well enough to secure his victory where he managed to win all three games in the fourth tiebreak.
While this seems to pale in comparison to the pedestal Roger Federer stands upon, it would go amiss to not mention that Federer had been on the sidelines for the better part of the last year with a knee injury. And when we put that into perspective, Andy Murray is quite apt- the fact that Federer stood on the court at 12.30 am playing to an empty stadium with the perfect amount of class and poise was inspirational enough.