R-Fed

Janko Tipsarevic now knows what it feels like to be Alex Corretja. Alex Corretja had a chance to beat Sampras in the quarterfinals of the 1996 US Open, with Sampras puking his guts in the flower bed at courtside.

Tipsarevic showed nearly no nerves in five sets. Going down break point after break point, managing to fend off 15 break points, hitting big serves and big groundstrokes, trying to knock of Roger Federer. He took the first set, then the third set, and held even with Roger Federer.

Federer, for his part, often generates far more unforced errors than one might expect. He hit some 80 winners, but was offset by 60 unforced errors, many off attempts to hit backhand winners.

Still, Federer was holding his serve pretty easily, and you felt that Federer, despite not having much success breaking Tipsarevic (except the fourth set), felt supremely confident holding his own, only having seen three break points all match.

The final score read 6-7, 7-5, 5-7, 6-1, 10-8. Tipsarevic had the game up in the fifth set, and at 8-8 all serving for 9-8, Tipsarevic went up 40-0, only to have Federer pull it back to deuce, and eventually achieve a break. Federer played a somewhat nervous game to win 10-8.

The fifth set looked like it would go on forever. Federer generally holding much easier than Tipsarevic, but having a hard time hitting good shots against Tipsarevic.

Still, this has to give Tipsarevic more confidence that he can play toe-to-toe with the best in the world. Still, you have to feel Federer didn't play his best, but still won. In particular, he made a ton of errors, despite serving a ton of aces (around 40 aces), the most ever in his career (he's no Kevin Curren or Andy Roddick, but can crank out a decent number).

This is where being number 1 helps. You have the kind of confidence to keep hitting good shots even when a player is playing as good as he can and not buckling until the end.

All in all, a fine match and a fine debut for the second best Serbian male tennis player in the world.