There is no one to see Roger Federer in a glam, did it ever happen?
That was the tennisophical question asked on Sunday evening, when Roger Federer and Marcel Granollers took the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium to literally dozens of their biggest fans. The players were restarting their third-round match that had been delayed for two hours because of thunderstorms.
The crowd was so small because the weather forced an early cancellation of the day session and pushed ahead the start to the night session. While the players were rushed to the court to resume the match as quickly as possible, fans were slower in filing into the stadium. Most were held up at the gates until the first changeover, while a few were still walking down to their seats when Federer took his first serve.
It’s hard to imagine Federer has played in front of such a small crowd in the past 10 years. There are more people at his practice sessions. More people stand behind the ESPN set when he does live interviews. Heck, given his two sets of twins, there’s a good chance Sunday breakfast at the Federer house has more people than were in Ashe for the resumption of the match.
The crowd slowly grew, as did the level of Federer’s play. He lost five of seven games before the delay, then took 20 of 24 after the break, to win the match 4-6, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1. By the end, Ashe was nearly packed. As usual.
0 comments:
Post a Comment