Federer overcomes tough foe at Aussie Open

The American Davis Cup responsibility is going to fall firmly on the broad shoulders of Sam Querrey and John Isner this year, and with a first-round tie against Serbia in Belgrade coming up in March that responsibility is going to be huge.

So captain Patrick McEnroe will have had mixed feelings after more first-round action at the Australian Open. Isner showed his fighting qualities by staying cool in the face of a spirited rally from Italian Andreas Seppi to secure a 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 6-4 win but Querrey went down to veteran German Rainer Schuettler -- a former finalist here -- 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.

“I need more matches,” said Querrey. “I’ve been practicing great but I just haven’t played enough.” That is because Querrey suffered a nasty injury when a glass table broke and gashed his forearm in Bangkok last October. Unfortunately the only way to get more matches is to win some, and the Californian will need to find a way to do that in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, James Blake, who, like Andy Roddick, has opted out of Davis Cup this year, was producing some scintillating tennis against yet another former Australian Open finalist, Arnaud Clement, out on Court 6. Attacking in typical style at every opportunity, Blake brought off some astonishing shots as he fought off the determined Frenchman to win 7-6, 7-6, 6-2.

But the main drama was reserved for Rod Laver Arena where Roger Federer eventually prevailed against Igor Andreev to win 4-6, 6-2, 7-6, 6-0 -- a score that does not really tell the story of the match. Federer had relinquished an early break in the first set as his unpredictable forehand lost its timing and then found himself in trouble again in the third which developed into a real dogfight. Serves were swapped early on and then Andreev, the big Russian from the Davis Cup team that had lost in the final in Portland, Ore., in 2007, broke for a second time to find himself serving for the third set at 6-5.

Three times Andreev reached set point but on each occasion Federer was able to put enough pressure on him with the excellence of his backhand service returns that Andreev erred on his favorite wing -- the forehand. It was a similar story in the tiebreak as the Russian forehand collapsed completely and Federer was able to close it out 7-2.

“It was a tough match,” Federer admitted. “He has incredible acceleration on his shots and is very physical. We both had a couple of chances to win the third set and it got very tense out there.”

Carsten Ball, brought up in southern California by his Aussie father Syd Ball, proved that his surprise appearance in the Los Angeles final last summer was no fluke as he took the first set off No. 9 seed Fernando Verdasco and proceeded to push the Spaniard hard in the second, too. The second and third sets were nothing if not competitive and Verdasco was relieved to escape with a 6-7, 7-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory.

Irish tennis players have always been thin on the ground so there was much excitement amongst those Melbourne residents of Irish origin when Louk Sorensen became the first Irishman to win a round in the Grand Slam in the open era when he beat Yen-Hsun Lu of Taipei 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.

The 25-year-old Sorensen, whose father once lost to Rod Laver in the first round at Wimbledon and went on to be Irish Davis Cup captain, lives in Germany and has no real explanation for his sudden success here after years of toil in the game’s lower echelons.

Asked if he got recognized when he returned to visit his parents in Dublin, Sorensen laughed. “No,” he said. “When I practice at Dublin College about four people know me and that’s it.”

But they will be raising a few glasses of the dark stuff to Louk in those pubs along the banks of the Liffey now.

In women’s play, Serena Williams made light of heavy strapping on her thigh as she beat the younger of the Radwanska sisters, Urszula, 6-2, 6-1. Williams said the strapping was just supporting her hamstring but she has also been suffering from a knee problem.

What seemed to worry her more was the $92,000 fine levied for her obscene outburst at the U.S. Open last year. “I always said what I did wasn’t right but I turned that around and am actually raising $92,000 to educate women for my school in Africa. And I’m also giving money to Haiti. I don’t know anyone who got fined like that. People said worse, done worse. I just thought it was a bit much.”

Serena said she thought the whole thing was a learning experience and, putting a positive spin on it, said she might not have raised quite so much money so soon had she not been fined $92,000.