Sometimes it's tough being a fan of Janko Tipsarevic
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The most two-sided personality since they spilled that acid on District Attorney Harvey Dent
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 Every time I think about Janko Tipsarevic, I hear the lyrics from that Katy Perry song in my head.
No, not the one about the fireworks. Or the one about California girls. Or the one with the rap by Kanye West that sort of creeps me out.
No, it's the earlier number that enters my mind when Janko's on court, you know, "you're hot, but you're cold, you're yes, but you're no."
Tipsarevic is clearly talented and can be marvelous in big matches, as he proved last year in propelling Serbia to the Davis Cup final last year with huge wins in the semifinals against the Czech Republic over Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek.
 But why oh why can't he figure out consistency? He had a prime chance to make a huge statement Friday when he took on a distant No. 3 Roger Federer in the third round of the French Open.
Instead, Tipsarevic looked like he was on a pro court for the first time, crashing and burning in 90 minutes, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3. The first set took all of 19 minutes, or about half the time it takes me to work in the morning (assuming there are no wrecks, which is not a very good assumption).
Federer racked up 10 aces on Tipsarevic, a rather large number at this stage in his career, and hit a blistering 43 of 51 first serves for winners.
To his credit, Tipsarevic is having a strong 2011, 20-11 after the loss. For his career, he's as close to .500 as you can get, 154-149 all-time and 26-29 in Grand Slam matches.
Friday's loss to Federer dropped him to 9-25 all-time and 0-3 in 2011 against Top 10 players.
In part, the frustration comes from the fact that Tipsarevic is so darn likable. He must surely be the most popular player on tour without a single career ATP title.
His Serbian-based fan site has 923 comments on it in the last four months, Friday's loss marked Tipsarevic' s 23rd career Grand Slam event. He's never made it past the fourth round of any of them since turning pro in 2006.
His big splashes in the early round of several Slams is what makes Tipsarevic so tantalizing and so frustrating to fans who wish him well.
In the spring of 2005, he entered Roland Garros ranked 107th in the world and upset No. 20 Dominik Hrbaty 6-7(5), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 8-6, a huge debut for a 20-year-old. He followed it up with a loss to a man ranked 155th in the world.
In 2007, he beat No. 25 Marat Safin Roland Garros' second round and No. 6 Fernando Gonzalez in Wimbledon's third. He followed each upset up with a straight sets loss.
At the 2008 Australia Open, he battled Federer tooth and nail in the third round before falling 7-6(5), 6-7(1), 7-5, 1-6, 8-10. He retired with an injury at his next match while losing to the No. 260 player in the world and lost five of his next eight matches.
And there was Tipsarevic's famous and fabulous upset of Andy Roddick in the second round of the US Open last year, a victory after which Roddick got in Tipsarevic's face and insisted he not stop here, that making the third round wasn't good enough.
Tipsarevic folded in four sets to Gael Monfils in the next round.
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Posted by Nick on 5/27/2011 9:12:00 PM
Filed under: berdych, federer, french, garros, grand, janko, monfils, open, roddick, roger, roland, slam, stepanek, tipsarevic
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