Defending champion Roger Federer swept to his 10th Grand Slam
title with a commanding straight sets victory over Chile's Fernando
Gonzalez in the final of the Australian Open on Sunday.
The peerless Swiss, 25, defeated two set points in the opening
set before coming into his own to secure his third Australian title
with a straight-sets 7-6 (7/2), 6-4, 6-4 win over the Chilean 10th
seed.
He joined American Bill Tilden as joint fifth all-time Grand
Slam title leader with 10 behind American Pete Sampras's 14.
Federer also became only the fourth man to win a Grand Slam
title without dropping a set, the first since Sweden's Bjorn Borg
at the 1980 French Open.
"All these Grand Slams have been since 2003. That's what, for
me, is really scary, how many I've won," Federer said. "If somebody
would have told me I'd win 10 Grand Slams from mid '03 till today,
I never would have thought there was any chance of doing something
like that. I would have signed up for just one.”
The mercurial Swiss went into the final equaling Australian Jack
Crawford's all-time record for seven consecutive Grand Slam final
appearances and he has now won three major titles on the trot.
"I think I picked the right tactics in the end," he said. "I
played well. I played a really tough match which I was hoping for.
The French Open is obviously the next big one for me. That's going
to be very interesting to see how I'm going to do there.
Gonzalez, came out swinging and was poised to take the opening
set with two set points. But the Swiss champion fended off the
threat with masterful brinkmanship tennis.
He put Gonzalez's backhand under unrelenting pressure after
winning the 63-minute opening set struggle, a momentum which
carried him to his 10th consecutive win over the Chilean.
He was in danger of dropping a set for the first time in 11
matches in the first set, but he fought off two set points and then
broke back to 5-5. He then had four separate set points of his own
on Gonzalez's serve before the marathon set went to a
tiebreaker.
Federer then took charge, breaking in the seventh game of the
second and third sets, serving out for the championship and
claiming match point with a backhand winner.
"Roger took every opportunity. I had opportunities but didn't
take them. He is a great player," said Gonzalez, who is projected
to climb to five on the next rankings.
"I've been playing really good tennis so I'm at a good level and
I'm still improving, so it's been a very positive tournament for
me."
On Saturday, unseeded American Serena Williams obliterated top
seed Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-2 in the final to win her third
Australian Open women's singles title.
(China Daily via AFP?January 29, 2007)