Costly Fall Sinks Tipsarevic in Fifth

By Joe McDonald

(September 6, 2012) -- Janko Tipsarevic had David Ferrer with the Serbian up 4-1 in the fifth set.

He was all in line to go to his first US Open Semifinal with his Spaniard counterpart on the ropes. All he has to do was hold serve – and had a break to give. But on Serbian took a spill and laid there for a minute on Ferrer’s game point during the sixth game. He was slow to get up and wasn’t the same.

Ferrer won the match in a tiebreak 7-4.

“I don't think in that, even though it's really painful right now,” he said. “When I cooled off, I don't think that I got I don't want to blame the fall, the fact that I got broken on 4-2.

“When I rewind the film in my head, I think he played a really good game on 4-2. He was defensive but able to pass me every single time when I went to the net.

“If I remember correctly, I think I even put every single first serve in and he managed to return, so I definitely don't want to blame the fall. Even though it's really painful, I don't want to blame that on the loss today.”

Ok fair enough but it was obvious there was another Tipsarevic out there after the fall. He said he hurt his hip and did seek medical treatment at 4-all.

But those are the breaks and frankly injuries are part of the game. The Serbian just had unfortunate timing.

If it happened sometime in the first week or before the Open, no one would make that big of a deal, but Tipsarevic was playing to get to the Semis. However, this match shows how high of a level he could play. Both he and Ferrer played their hearts out leaving it all on the court, ultimately letting the chips lay when the match ended.

“I think it was a high, intense match with not too many ups and downs, you know, apart from my bad tennis in the middle of the first set where I lost I think four games in a row,” Tipsarevic said. “I don't think that there was any other part of the match where either of us played really bad. I think it was high, intense match, something which I predicted. I said after my last match victory both of us are baseline players, both of us I guess are big fighters on court, so something like that, something like this was only expected.”

It’s a shame he had to lose that way, but even with the injury, the Serbian was there at the end. He fought back after the medical treatment and got it into a tiebreak.

And those sessions at times are crapshoots, playing to the whims of serves, rather than the strategy of a match.

But it was still a whale of a match for two players who are not household names. Both Tipsarevic and Ferrer are known to the tennis fans, but are not on the level of the Federers, Nadals, Djokovics and Murrays of the world.

Yet, now they are both known to those watching. For four hours today it was the only singles match going on and the eyes of the world peered at the two tennis boxers as they went 15 rounds.

It was a shame someone had to lose. And even more of a shame Tipsarevic took a fall that probably cost him the match.

(Photo Credit: Andy Kentla)