Federer vs Stepanek (Rome)

I was watching some of the match between Federer and Radek Stepanek, a match that Stepanek won 7-6, 7-6. Federer is having, for him, an off-year. He's already had 6 losses without being halfway through the year. This is usually far more than he usually has.

You would think that Federer had a bad match against Stepanek, but he looked in control of both tiebreaks, especially early on. In the first tiebreak, Federer was up 3-1, but eventually fell back 6-4, meaning Stepanek had 5 points while he only had one. In the second set tiebreak, his lead seemed even bigger, with a 5-2 lead.

Stepanek hit a few good shots, coming into net effectively, and Federer was just a hair off. This probably says something about how the top pros stay so focused.

The beneficiary at Rome was Djokovic. While Nadal, not being 100%, lost to Juan Carlos Ferrero, Djokovic rolled to the finals. He seems to have a knack of winning tournaments where the number 1-2 seeds fall. It's unusual to have such a solid number 3, which means that he is knocking on the door of number 2 and number 1.

Meanwhile, Federer has to spend sometime soul-searching, trying to get his game back to where it once was.