“I didn’t think I’d get that far.” Roger Federer is almost 40 years old, but he is so good that he knows how to amaze even himself. He beats in four sets (6-2 2-6 7-6 6-2) his old opponent Marin Cilic, today dropped to number 47 Atp, and reaches the third round of Roland Garros, where he will face the German Koepfer. Few would have bet on it, after the depressing first round defeat in Geneva against modest Andujar. The funniest thing about the game is that the only moment Federer lost his traditional aplomb, engaging in an endless and resentful argument with the chair referee and the opponent, was when he was hit in the fourth set. a ‘warning’ for slowing down the game.
It was Cilic who had complained a few games earlier, because in his view Federer was taking too long between one point and another. “Am I playing too slow?” Roger hissed at Cilic. “I’m just moving from corner to corner to answer the serve.”
«No, but I always wait when I have to serve …».
“But I’m going from one corner of the field to the other to answer, I don’t do it on purpose.”
Everything is fine, but at a certain age being called ‘slow’ can hurt your nerves. Especially if it’s not true. It was not what it was today, against a big hitter not very suited to the clay, the type of match suitable to test the resistance to the long exchanges of the Genius – and it must be remembered for honesty that Cilic in Geneva also lost to another Swiss much less illustrious, the little boy Dominic Stricker, number 419 in the world – but Federer is certainly finding his shape. If Koepfer also overcomes the obstacle, in the second round he could find himself facing Matteo Berrettini, in a remake of the match played at Wimbledon in 2019.
Matteo and the other Azzurri, for their part, are playing a tournament in the tournament, made up of real or potential derbies, confirming that the Banda Italia is in great shape. Berrettini freed himself in three sets of the young Coria (6-3 6-3 6-2), and now he will meet Soonwoo Kwon: the Korean beat Andreas Seppi (6-4 7-5 7-5), otherwise in the third round there would have been another rendez vous between the Azzurri in addition to the one awaiting Marco Cecchinato, splendid winner in four sets against the Australian Alex De Minaur (6-4 6-1 3-6 6-1), and Lorenzo Musetti, who at 19 years is in his first Grand Slam is getting away with the class of a veteran. Even today he did not lose a set, liquidating the Japanese Nishioka (7-5 6-3 6-2) in three sets, he is now virtually number 65 in the world. “This year I found the rhythm, I’m playing every week and I score a lot of points, I hope it never ends.”
From the derby between Jannik Sinner and Gianluca Mager the disciple of Riccardo Piatti came out the winner in four sets (6-1 7-5 3-6 6-3). Sinner in the next round will meet the Swede Ymer, with the prospect of meeting Nadal in the second round – who turned 35 today: best wishes! – in the rematch of the quarter-final match that the two played right here last year (but in October).
Also counting Fabio Fognini, who tomorrow meets the Argentine Delbonis as his second match starting at 11 to win yet another eighth final, there are 5 Italians in the third round of Roland Garros. Not a record: we had already had them last year and in 1955, while in 1947 there were even six, but still excellent news.
Too bad for the blue girls, who definitively leave the scoreboard with the defeat of Jasmine Paolini against Sakkari (6-2 6-3) and yet another disconcerting defeat of Camila Giorgi against the Russian Gracheva (7-5 1-6 6 -2, and in the first set Camila was ahead by 5-3).