Roger Federer played one of the cleanest matches you'll ever see in defeating Ivo Karlovic 7-6(6), 7-5, 6-3 on Friday at the Australian Open. At 6'10", Karlovic is the tallest player in the men's draw, and he comes in behind his monster serve, challenging opponents to beat his combination of incredible reach and highly competent volleying. Ivo is probably the unseeded player the seeds least want to face. Roger had to come up with some exceptional play to prevail. He ended the match with 55 winners and only 13 unforced errors; such positive ratios are extremely rare. Roger's backhand continues to look better than ever, boding well for the rest of the tournament and the year to come.
The second tallest man in the tournament, 6'9" John Isner, also fell to an opponent's unusually clean performance on Friday, as Feliciano Lopez produced 55 winners with only 30 unforced errors in prevailing 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-7(0), 6-1. Part of the reason for both Roger's and Feliciano's clean stats is the shortness of most points against the big guys, who tend to either put the ball away or not get to it, thus leaving fewer opportunities for unforced errors. This shouldn't take much credit away from Roger and Feliciano, though, as it takes excellent returning skills to get Ivo's or John's serves back into play and exceptional accuracy to get the ball past them.
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