Roger Federer loses cool with Irish umpire
The normally ice-cool Swiss star vented his frustrations at a malfunction with the Hawk-Eye system on Dubliner Murphy during his straight sets win over Tomas Berdych yesterday.
Czech star Berdych had raced into a 3-0 lead and was serving to win the set at 5-3. Federer was unhappy with a Hawk-Eye challenge that was not shown on screen because of a technical malfunction and had a long and testy conversation with umpire Murphy.
“Are you comfortable with this?” Federer asked Murphy.
Ultimately, the 36-year-old Swiss saved a set point, broke back and then saved a second set point in the following game, and would go on to claim the set on a tie-break.
Federer cruised through the next two sets 6-3, 6-4, and has yet to drop a set in the Melbourne over the past fortnight.
Afterwards Federer was more conciliatory but admitted he had let his emotions get the better of him.
“I had to get a bit lucky, a bit angry, a bit frustrated maybe at the umpire — I actually thought the call was good anyway,” Federer said during his post-match interview.
“It’s all good, I was just geting a bit frustrated and antsy.
“I’m very happy I got out that first set, it ended up being the key to the match. ‘Tomas played great, especially in the first couple, he dropped his level in the third a little. The first could have gone either way, I kind of stole it a little bit.”
Meanwhile Kyle Edmund is getting a sense of the excitement his Australian Open run is causing back in England while he keeps his focus firmly on this morning’s semi-final against Marin Cilic.
“The reaction has been amazing. But I’m really just trying to block that out because I’m still playing in the tournament. I have a really good chance, I’m playing well, it’s going to be a great experience.”
