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Federer beats Rafa, but not the right one! |
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By: BEIJING |
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Date:
2008-08-13 |
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Place: AFP |
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Top seed Roger Federer beat unheralded Rafael Arevalo yesterday. pic/afp | Roger Federer finally got a win over Rafa this year. Shame it wasn't Rafael Nadal. Instead it was El Salvador's Rafael Arevalo who took the punishment 6-2, 6-4 against the top seed in front of an encouraging Olympics crowd.
In a mismatch only possible at the Olympics, the 447th-ranked Arevalo, playing as an invitee, earned credit for a dogged display.
The 22-year-old drew cheers when he audaciously lobbed the Swiss top seed, sending him scrambling to the back of the court, and put away the winning volley with aplomb.
Confident
Arevalo also belied his ranking with confident passing shots on either wing, racking up more games against Federer than Lleyton Hewitt managed against No 2 seed Rafael Nadal earlier. Hewitt lost 1-6, 2-6. Serbian third seed Novak Djokovic also advanced getting past German veteran Rainer Schuettler 6-4, 6-2.
Defending Olympic champion Nicolas Massu of Chile was dumped out by number seven seed David Nalbandian, while Russian fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko went down 7-5, 6-3 to Paul-Henri Mathieu.
Favourites
The Williams sisters both confirmed their status as among the hot favourites for gold in the singles, which has been hit by a raft of withdrawals.
Fourth seed Serena took just 44 minutes to dispatch Australia's Samantha Stosur, the American eight-time Grand Slam champion breaking at 3-2 and taking complete control to reel off the last 10 games to love.
Serena's sister Venus, the seventh seed, demolished Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic, 6-1, 6-4.
Federer had to be at his best when he faced a break point at 4-3 in the second. And the Salvadoran signed more autographs afterwards too.
Arevalo's opening-round win against Lee Hyung-Taik was his first match against a top-100 player. â |
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