Federer Falls in Oz: First Top Seed to Exit the Open
Persistence pays.
That sort of resilience is essential for any athlete who strives to reach an elite status.
And perhaps it was hard-wired into Andreas Seppi.
Ranked No 46 in the world, the Italian was 0-10 heading into his third-round match with the iconic Roger Federer, the No 2 seed in this year's Australian Open.
Seppi can be translated into I know. And on his eleventh shot at the Swiss machine, he did:
Throughout the match, it was clear this was one of those days for Federer:
However, it's also apparent that baseball continues to catch on Down Under. That fan had a clue. Which is more than one of the ballboys had in an earlier match. Attention is everything, dude:
Learned Lesson 1: Aces happen.
Learned Lesson 2: No blonde in the bleachers is hot enough to be worth that risk.
More evidence it was one of those days for Federer and his totally Swiss take on it:
Then there was this missive from a random reporter:
Maybe if he toggles his translation settings a bit more, it'll start shifting Federer from German to English: Feathers.
Because those were flying as the upended favorite made an unexpectedly early exit for his next destination, clearly wondering what's next in this seeming final phase of his storied career.