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Andreev finds this racket is like a game of Russian Roulette

Igor Andreev received the bad news via a text message from a friend last Friday morning.

''I thought was joking,'' the Russian said yesterday. ''It can't be true!''

Arriving at the Melbourne Park locker room for practice, he realised this was no bad dream. ''Guys say, 'You playing Roger! Bad luck!'.'' He knew their chiding was gentle, a joke. He also knew he was the punchline.

Andreev took stock. His world wasn't about to end, and maybe not even his tournament. In a way, he was lucky - through more than 350 matches during a nine-year career, he had drawn the short Federer straw just twice. And played well both times. The 29-year-old put his mind to the task.

''You can say, 'Bad luck, I'm playing Roger!', but anything can happen. You do the normal things. It's better to lose to Roger like this than [on] court 25 against a guy nobody knows.''

Andreev saw no point in clogging his mind with grand tactical plans to slay Goliath, rather he focused on what he does well.

''You're trying to serve as many aces as you can. Play everything to the line. Winners, winners - if not, it doesn't work. Actually, you have to concentrate on your own game. Use your best weapons. Because you're never going to beat Roger if you're trying to make tactic.'' Especially, he noted, if you've never done it before.

''When you play the top guys, you never think too far off. You think next point, next point, how I'm going to make the serve. It's concentration very high. Everybody is beatable. This is everything in the head. If you go on the court and you already lost, then for sure you have no chances.

''You have to fight. If you lose 6-0, 6-0 fighting, whatever, at least you gave everything on the court.''

During his longest of weekends, and through Monday, the mental pictures he formed did not feature a tall man in white struggling to hold his open service game, then being broken to love in the second by the smooth-swinging figure in blue on the other side of the net.

Far more comforting were visions of the backhand passing shots that immediately ripped that break back for Andreev, and the thumping forehand from beyond the baseline. The swerving ace that restored parity.

Or the trio of forehands that rocketed him to 5-4. And, crucially for maintenance of self-belief, the cool, patient manner in which he rallied through the deciding game, biding his time before Federer erred, and drilled a backhand into the tape. It ballooned beyond the baseline, and he was a set up.

Federer hit back. As Andreev soberly reflected, this is no ordinary opponent. ''If you play the Nintendo PlayStation, he has everything on the highest rate as possible.''

Still, the Russian rebounded, his strengths of serve and heavy-spun forehand wrenching back the ascendancy in the third set. ''But then something miss, you know, something went wrong.''

Little things came into play. At crucial times, he found himself hitting against the wind, aware that the breaks were going to the man with the breeze at his back. His concentration failed him - just a little, just enough. ''After three, four shots I tried to make a winner and risk a little bit, but didn't work. So yeah, this is game.''

Two set points were squandered. ''Then after that, maybe I went a little bit down in fourth set, physically, mentally.''

So he was left to reflect, on another gallant effort against a great of the game and of things that might have been.

Do these things haunt a man? ''No, I try to take out of it, work on the game, the best things,'' Andreev said. ''Life continues, year just begins, the goal is to find my tennis.

''Today was good match, with a few chances. Again, it's unlucky - I didn't want to play first round Roger, but you can't do anything. Keep going, keep going.''

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/tennis/andr … -mj5y.html

Sydney napisał:

Andreev Records 200th Match Win

World No. 50 Igor Andreev  recorded his 200th tour-level singles match win Monday as he defeated Blaz Kavcic  6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the Serbia Open 2010, an ATP World Tour 250 clay-court tennis tournament in Belgrade.

The Russian snapped a three-match losing streak by capitalising on four of the 10 break points he created to prevail in 84 minutes. It was his first victory since reaching the second round at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, after which he had suffered first-round defeats in Barcelona (l. Gasquet) and Rome (l. to Monaco).

BiorÂąc pod uwage potencjaÂł Igora to  te dwie setki powinny strzeliĂŚ Mu sporo wczesniej niÂż po oÂśmiu latach zawodowego grania

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