All Sport Report

I just looked up the name Guillermo in the dictionary - it means giant killer, or so you would think.

For the second straight meeting Guillermo Canas has done the impossible, he’s beaten Roger Federer. It was just two weeks ago at Indian Wells that the Argentine ended Federer’s 41 match winning streak in a second round match. The two met again at Sony Ericsson in the fourth round, and if I were a betting man, I would have bet heaps of money that Roger Fereder would have exacted revenge with severity on Canas - I would have been wrong.

Canas was impressive, his serve was strong, 125 mph strong and he made the plays when they needed to be made.

Roger Federer on the other hand, simply wasn’t himself. He had several chances to turn the match to his favor but simply couldn’t convert. It almost looked as though the recent loss to Canas had gotten into his head. Roger actually missed a shot, not hit wide, not hit long - a full fledged swing and a miss, like a little leaguer taking batting practice against Nolan Ryan:

Roger openly admitted this was a match he never should have lost. I expect a bad day from even the best athletes, Michael Jordan didn’t score double digits everytime he stepped on the court, Tiger Woods doesn’t make every put, but to lose back to back matches to a guy not ranked in the top fifty is very out of the ordinary for even a top ten player, let alone someone the caliber of Federer.

The AP quoted Roger Federer saying of his last two matches against Canas, “I’m not going to play him every week, so it doesn’t matter.” Which is true, but I’d like to see them play again in the very near future to see if Roger can put these two events behind him and get back on track against a guy who’s really taken it to him two matches in a row. I’m sure Federer wants to go down is history as the greatest player to ever play the game, not the greatest player who couldn’t manage to beat Guillermo Canas.

Guillermo Canas, Roger Federer, Sony Ericsson