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8/12/08 1:08 AM | David Cox
After Federer's recent performances in North America where he lost to Simon and Karlovic and nearly went out to Ginepri it was becoming surprisingly easy to see every match as a potential banana skin. However great champions bounce back and Tursunov was no match today
This match clearly meant a lot to Federer and there was no chance of him ever underestimating Tursunov like he did to his cost against the teenage Berdych 4 years ago
He struck 19 winners and appeared in top shape. After a routine first set which Federer claimed 6-4, the telling moment came when he broke in the 3rd game of set 2 prompting a clenched fist and a whoop of delight from the normally composed Swiss. He knows this is his best chance ever of winning that Olympic gold which he craves and has compared to winning a Wimbledon title. Federer is very aware of sporting history and ever since he watched compatriot Marc Rosset strike gold in Barcelona 1992 he's relished the chance to perform at the greatest sporting festival.
He shut the door firmly on any possible Tursunov revival with a flashing backhand winner to go 4-1 up and the match was soon over in just 65 minutes
Tursunov must have been cursing his draw, a player of his hard-court calibre didn't deserve to exit quite so early. In the post-match interviews he admitted he felt that although Nadal was the better athlete, in terms of pure ball-striking, Federer was still no 1 for him.
Federer was relieved to have progressed so comfortably and exorcise some of the demons which have been plaguing him from recent early losses “It's been a matter of losing some matches where I feel like I shouldn't have lost,” he said. “And then sometimes it plays a trick in your mind where you think maybe you're not playing that well actually, but it's actually not the case. So it's a matter of keeping yourself in a positive mindset.”
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