How much of a tease was that? They spend millions of pounds on a sliding roof for the Centre Court, the sky darkens throughout the opening match until it seems certain that rain must fall before Roger Federer has polished off Lu Yen-hsun, and then the weather god – the one who so often brings "aahhs of shaahhs" to Wimbledon – decides to stay his hand.
Spectators were even holding out their bare arms and claiming to have felt a drop or two in the hope of being the first to see the roof closed over the tournament before the match ended with a straight-sets victory for the Swiss genius.
Even Federer could not resist the idea, pointing out that he had already experienced the court in a variety of guises, since the several stages of demolishing the old roof and building the new one had coincided with his run of consecutive appearances in the final. "I guess the moment will come when I'll play indoors here, too," he said. He had not really noticed it, he added, until he got to the end opposite the royal box. "Then I saw the structure for the first time, because this is really where it stands out the most. It was different, you know. It looks good, I think."
The five-times champion had madehis own effort to look good, arriving on court in a eye-popping new all-white warm-up ensemble of military jacket and long flannels. On an afternoon when the dull light drained the colour from the banks of spectators he may have beena little overdressed but he certainly stood out against the rich green of a virgin court.
Rafael Nadal's late withdrawal meant that Federer was given the honour of opening the court for the sixth time in a row but for the first time as the previous year's beaten finalist."It's a very privileged spot, you know," he said. "So of course I felt honoured. I know that Rafa deserves it more than I do this year. But somebody had to do it, so of course I'm very happy that they chose me. It gets your heart beating, that's for sure."
Yen-Hsun Lu did his best to lift Federer's pulse rate above what appears to be its normal placid cadence. At times, indeed, it was hard to believe that there are 64 players in the world better qualified than the 25-year-old from Taipei, who removed Andy Murray from contention for an Olympic medal in Beijing last summer and aspires to become the first Chinese player to enter the world's top 10.
In five previous visits to the tournament, however, he had never made it beyond the second round and this encounter was never destined to encourage his vision of higher things. In three sets Federer dropped a total of 17 points on his own serve – four of them in the fifth game of the match, when Lu rather astonishingly broke to take a 3-2 lead only for his opponent to nullify the advantage in the next game.
Refusing to be overawed, Lu from time to time Lu Federer enough to give the former champion a useful work-out, going for the lines and showing no reluctance to meet touch with touch. Once or twice, however, Federer unwrapped strokes of such silken subtlety that it was easy to be reminded of the old story about the samurai whose blade was so fine and sharp that he once decapitated an opponent without the man realising – until the executioner ordered him to shake his head.
In the third game of the second set Lu drove a return down towards the incoming server's feet, only for Federer to meet the ball on the half-volley with wrist so soft that the ball seemed to emit a sigh of apology as it popped over the net and died in front of the receiver's despairing lunge.
There was one moment of inelegance in the fourth game of the third set, when Lu manoeuvred Federer around the baseline so effectively that a disguised forehand winner down the line had the great man sprawling as he tried to change direction but the match was closed out with a minimum of fuss in 104 minutes with a score of 7-5, 6-3, 6-2.
Federer paid tribute to his opponent - "I knew the danger today – he's beaten good players in the past" – and sympathised with Nadal's lost chance to experience the feeling of being the defending champion on opening day. "That first moment, walking out, warming up for the first time here at Wimbledon, sometimes is not an easy thing to do," he said. "You want to get off to a good start, get it out of the way, find your way into the tournament. But it's what you dream about."
source: guardian.co.
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