Federer Suffers Second Loss To Cañas In Miami

Written by Jess Plopinio

wiss Roger Federer, the tournament’s top seed, suffered his second loss to Argentine Guillermo Cañas in two weeks at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, USA. The Swiss fell, 6(2)-7,6-2,6(5)-7 to his Argentine foe in two hours and thirty eight minutes.

Federer was struggling at the start of the first set and was beseiged with unforced errors. Federer was having difficulties controlling how the game, instead, it was Cañas who moved him around the court.Though Federer trailed Cañas at 2-4, after six games, the top seeded Swiss raised his game to even the score at 6-6 and forced the first set to a tiebreaker. Federer could only win two points in the tiebreaker as Cañas went on to win the tiebreaker 7-2.

The second set was one-sided as Federer used his trademark backhand to produce winners after winners, although Cañas fought back, he could only manage to win two games as against Federer’s six.

Federer’s momentum came to a halt in the third deciding set as Federer was hounded back with unforced errors. Though Cañas was struggling, he still managed to place some shots which Federer had difficult to returning to the other side of the net. With both players even at 6-6, the third set was pushed to a tiebreaker again which the Argentine won.

“I was in total control for almost all the match, and once I broke back in the first set. I was really happy with my level of play. I thought it was a great match, so it was disappointing to lose, of course. He’s a great competitor. He scrambles back so many balls and doesn’t miss much, and then he moves the ball around very well. He really improved his backhand, his serve. They weren’t that good a couple years ago, so that just tightened up his game a lot. I guess he played well against me both times, and I couldn’t put him away unfortunately,” Federer said.