Les anneés se suivent et se ressemblent is an old French expression which basically translates, “the years follow each other and resemble each other.”
Roger Federer, who speaks French, certainly understands what it means. Today, that meaning cannot be something he easily accepts. His 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4) loss to Richard Gasquet in the third round of Rome bore an eerie similarity to his loss 12 months ago, a round earlier, to Ernests Gulbis on the same Campo Centrale.
There were many times today when Federer seemed to be in control; it was almost as if he found a way to lose. In particular, when he was up a set and a break and serving at 4-3 against the No. 16 seed. Federer committed a few untimely unforced errors and Gasquet made two fine shots, and suddenly, the score was knotted at 4-4.
Earlier, at the very beginning of the match, there was another example of Federer taking his foot off the pedal. He ran off 10 straight points from the get-go and had Gasquet looking totally confused and frustrated. Remarkably, the Frenchman went on his own 10-point run as Federer lost his edge and let his opponent off the hook. Federer was also ahead 2-1 in the second-set tiebreaker, only to lose six points in a row—five of them on errors and the sixth when he choose, from a controlling position, to go back to the Gasquet forehand, only to watch a screaming cross-court winner flash by.
The third set went straight to a tiebreak without either player being threatened on serve. One note, however: Federer struck another highlight-reel, between-the-legs shot, simply keeping the ball in play with his forehand when he found himself in an awkward position. He proceeded to win the point when Gasquet netted a forehand. The crowd roared and Federer eventually won the game for a 5-4 lead. But he started the next game with three unforced errors, losing any momentum he had accumulated.
In the tiebreak, there was more inconsistency. After falling behind 1-3, Federer got level at 3-3 with a big serve and a brilliant point, when he mercilessly peppered Gasquet’s backhand, finishing him off with a sensationally angled backhand that the Frenchman could barely reach. But again, after the change of ends, Federer made the most elementary of backhand errors into the net, then fell behind 5-3 when Gasquet blasted a glorious forehand winner.
Federer’s fantastic half-volley pick up on the baseline got him back to 4-5, but two poor misses long on the final two points gave Gasquet probably his best win since upsetting Federer six years ago in Monte Carlo, their first meeting. Since then, Federer was 8-0 against Gasquet. Getting back to the theme of the years repeating themselves, a little over a year ago in Miami, Federer saw another streak of eight wins in a row following an initial loss come to an end: that coming against Tomas Berdych, who beat the Swiss in their first meeting, at the 2004 Olympics.
There is no need for Federer to panic. He was beaten in a close match he could have won, just as he won a close match that he could have lost last week in Madrid, against Feliciano Lopez. If there is a pattern in these results, there is a history of Federer bouncing back to win tournaments and be a factor in the late rounds of Grand Slams and Masters 1000s events.
Hopefully, for all his fans, that is what he focuses on.
—Tom Tebbutt