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| July 9, 2003 | Wednesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 8,1424 |
Federer barely finds his feet
GSTAAD, Switzerland, July 8: Roger Federer to come down to earth after his weekend win at Wimbledon with a scratchy victory in his opening match at the Swiss Open on Tuesday.
A scrappy performance from Spanish qualifier Marc Lopez quickly showed the new Swiss success story that he was human after all.
But Federer survived to collect a 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3 result into the second round at this alpine valley village.
With the top seed leading 6-3, 5-4, Lopez rose to the occasion, saving a pair of match points to prevent the Helvetic hero from serving out a quick victory.
A double-fault from Federer combined with a cross-court wide opened the door for the outsider.
The contest went to a third set, lasting nearly another hour before Federer finally struggled home.
“I just served so badly, I have not confidence on this fast clay,” said the 21-year-old who leads the ATP in match victories, and holds five titles on four surfaces this season.
“But it was so important to come here and play. I had to come - for the fans, for the tournament and for Switzerland. But this match was a near-miss.”
Other seeds got through with a minimum of stress.
Number 2 German Rainer Schuettler, who played the Australian Open final against Andre Agassi six months ago, defeated Australian Wayne Arthurs 6-2, 6-3, while three-time champion Alex Corretja made a winning start.
The 29-year-old Spaniard is playing for the firsr time since the birth of his daughter nearly three weeks ago.
Results:
Roger Federer (Switzerland) beat Marc Lopez (Spain) 6-3 6-7 (4-7) 6-3; 2-Rainer Schuettler (Germany) beat Wayne Arthurs (Australia) 6-2 6-3; David Sanchez (Spain) beat Karol Beck (Slovakia) 6-4 7-5 8-Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) beat Hugo Armando (U.S.) 6-3 6-3; Michel Kratochvil (Switzerland) beat Tomas Behrend (Germany) 6-4 6-7 (8-10) 6-2; 7-Alex Corretja (Spain) beat John Van Lottum (Netherlands) 6-1 6-2; Lars Burgsmuller (Germany) beat Zeljko Krajan (Croatia) 6-2 6-7 (6-8) 6-1; Feliciano Lopez (Spain) beat Irakli Labadze (Georgia) 6-0 6-2.
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