King Roger Guillotined by Commoner in Paris

by Ben Rothenberg on Nov 12, 2009 7:53 AM EST in Results Comment 1 comment

There was only one upset in the matches second round matches Wednesday involving top ten players, but it was a big one. Top seed and world #1 Roger Federer fell in his first match at Paris-Bercy to France's Julien Benneteau, who pulled off the upset by the score of 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4.

With his dangerous power game clicking, Benneteau blew through an uncharacteristically listless Federer, obtaining an early break in the third game of the third set and never relented. When, Benneteau collapsed to the ground, overcome by his achievement, and continued the display of emotion into his chair, where he sat crying and bleeding. It was all very French.

Benneteau is one of the most hot-and-cold players on the tour, capable of perhaps more mind-bogglingly bad play than anyone else on the tour. He has all the weapons to beat a player of Federer's caliber (as he displayed yesterday), but also has the inconsistency to lose to someone like #155 Tomas Tenconi, who he lost to a few months ago at a challenger in Scheveningen.

Hopefully this emotional win can translate into some more consistent results for Benneteau. When he's at his best, he plays one of the cleanest power games on the tour, and tennis would be much better off for having him in the mix.

This loss, Federer's second in a row, gives him plenty of time to get back on track before he begins his quest at the year's final tournament, the World Tour Finals in London. Federer obviously has had a great deal of success in the other tournament in the London metropolitan area, and one would think he'd be able to channel some of that same Anglophilia into success at the WTF, even without any momentum from the indoor season.

There were a couple other close calls with the big names on Wednesday. Rafael Nadal had to save five match points against Nicolas Almagro in one of the lowest quality ATP matches I can remember. Andy Murray also had his hands fuller than expected, needing a third set tiebreak to oust James Blake.

After the jump, a nice highlights package from Benneteau d. Federer: