Sitting beneath the shade of an umbrella, American Ryan Sweeting bit into a banana while chewing on the prospect of a fifth-set fight with the tireless David Ferrer. Stepping into the sun, Ferrer donned a black shirt and slipped into grim reaper mode as the match neared the three-hour mark.
Imposing his own "Enter Sandman" closure, the fifth-seeded Spaniard broke serve seven times in subduing Sweeting, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, to avoid the upset and reach the third round of the Australian Open for the sixth time in the last seven years.
"I think every match is difficult, and Ryan is a good player," Ferrer said afterward. "He hits the ball very strong and he has a good serve."
Trailing 0-3 minutes into the match, Sweeting began to red-line his game. The 68th-ranked Sweeting began to hit bigger, bolder shots from the baseline, won 19 of 20 trips to net, and hit 16 winners in roaring back to take the first set in a tiebreaker.
Ferrer's sweat-soaked hair flapped against his forehead as he broke twice in the first five games of the second set, eventually serving it out at love after 35 minutes.
Watching the 6'5" Sweeting early in his career, I used to think of Andre Agassi's line about Sjeng Schalken—"He's 6'5" but serves like he's 5'6"—as he never seemed to serve quite as big as he should. To his credit, Sweeting has smoothed out and sped up his motion, eliciting more sting on his serve which prevented Ferrer from attacking it. The 68th-ranked Sweeting also went after his forehand, won many of the backhand-to-backhand rallies, and used his slice to set up some successful trips to net during the first three sets.
Sweeting did his best Bernard Tomic impression in casually flicking a series of slice forehand softballs at off angles, eventually luring Ferrer forward and drawing the error for triple break point. He broke at love for a 4-2 third-set lead. Combating nerves trying to serve out the set, Sweeting served successive double faults to drop to 30-all. But a fine backhand volley gave him set point, and he used a slice backhand to draw a Ferrer forehand and take a two-sets-to-one lead.
Ferrer seldom looks frazzled on court and began smacking his inside-out forehand with greater authority in the fourth set. The match was played at a fairly quick pace on a warm day, and when Sweeting slapped a routine overhead into the top of the tape to drop serve in the fourth game of the fourth set, fatigue was setting in. Sweeting double faulted to donate another break and a 5-1 lead.
Ferrer was the fresher player in the fifth set and refused to miss: He committed three errors compared to Sweeting's 12. The 2011 semifinalis,t broke for a 5-3 lead and closed to set up a third-round clash with 27th-seeded Juan Iganacio Chela, who has won two of their prior three meetings, though they have not squared off since 2007 when Ferrer scored a U.S. Open quarterfinal win.
—Richard Pagliaro