Roger Federer made things look easy but when seeded players falter it's a reminder that winning a Grand Slam match is anything but straight forward.
Day 1 of the 2011 Australian Open is coming to a close although there are still some late results to come in. So far today there were few major surprises and second ranked Roger Federer, as a case in point, breezed past Lukas Lacko in a very easy match, precisely as most had predicted he would.
With the win Federer booked his spot in the second round where he will face recent ATP titlist, Gilles Simon of France. Simon had a moderately difficult time eliminating Yen Hsun Lu but the former top 10 player did it in 4 sets.
In other action in the men's draw, seeded players Sam Querrey and Nikolay Davydenko fell as Lukasz Kubot, who beat Querrey, kept to good Melbourne Park form that saw him make the 4th round last season. Davydenko fell to Florian Mayer of Germany in a 4 set match and as a result the Russian's ranking could very well drop out of the 30 when January 31st rolls around as the he had made the quarterfinals a year ago.
Querrey, a noted heavy server, pounded down 19 aces in his match and, oddly enough, Kubot committed 47 unforced errors to Querrey's 25 . But the Polish player's strength today was that he hit tons of winners and that helped keep him in the match as he came away with the 5-7, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 8-6 marathon victory.
With Davydenko, a player who spent parts of last year injured, it will be interesting to see which direction the Russian's career goes in over the 2011 season. He will be turning 30 this year and with his ranking sliding more and more it looks like his best tennis is now behind him.
