The Kooyong venue was the site of the Australian Open for many years before the shift to Melbourne Park in 1988. It's clear why the event moved: the club is charming, but the demands of a grand slam event outgrew what the facility could offer. The club is a great site for this exhibition tournament, though, which eight of the top male players use as a warm-up for the Open across town. I took the train from the city center and was deposited a stone's throw from the club. It was fortunate that I booked my ticket online the evening before, for this was the first time a session sold out in the Classic. I arrived as the third-place playoff was underway (Andy Murray beat Marat Safin in a first-set tiebreak and cruised to a quick second-set win). Though assigned an upper-tier seat, I finagled my way down low and spend most of the afternoon at the level of the first row behind court and thus captured these images at pretty short range.
The main event was the Federer/Roddick match. Roddick took the first set 6-2, and his groundstrokes were penetrating much deeper into the court than they had been in a while. This enabled Andy to come to net to knock off some easy winners time and again. I guess Jimmy Connors gets some credit for that.
Federer was clearly fired up for the second set and came out like gangbusters, quickly breaking Roddick and showing the smooth shot-making skill that has made him #1 in the world. He won it 6-3. Watching the Swiss player's game from this close, I was amazed at what he could do with a ball when he was in trouble. It's not that he can scramble to recover tough shots--other players such as Nadal are better at that--but rather the way he can take, say, a low short ball with no pace and deftly flick it on a sharp angle with even less pace for a clean winner. Most other players would struggle to do more than put that ball back into play! His touch is buttery.
The third set was hard fought, but Roddick's resolve carried the day, taking the decider 6-3.
