‘I just tried to play my best’: Andreas Seppi stuns Roger Federer at Australian Open

Second seed Roger Federer was bundled out of the Australian Open third round by Italian Andreas Seppi on Friday, suffering his first career defeat in 11 meetings between the pair in the 4-6, 6-7(5/7), 6-4, 6-7, (5/7) loss.

The 17-times grand slam champion has not lost this early in the season-opening grand slam since his second trip to Melbourne Park in 2001, when he also lost in the third round.

Federer was chasing his fifth Australian Open crown, but has now not won a major title since Wimbledon in 2012.

“I just tried to enjoy playing on centre court again,” Seppi said in a courtside interview after his victory. “It’s not often you get the chance to play on centre court.

“I just tried to play my best and I did because I was playing Roger.

“You never feel comfortable playing against Roger, but I was focussing on my service game, I didn’t have many chances on his serve.”

The 33-year-old Swiss struggled with his first serve early in the match, while the 30-year-old Seppi took advantage of three of his five break points to take a two sets to love lead.

Federer broke in the third game of the third set to begin what many on Rod Laver Arena thought would be a successful fight back.

Seppi, however, forced a tiebreak in the fourth and clinched victory with a desperate lunging forehand past the charging Swiss at the net to set up a fourth round clash with either Australian Nick Kyrigos or Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri.

Seppi hit 50 winners, while Federer made a total of 55 errors.

“It was a great tiebreak, especially with the last points.”

Earlier on Friday, Andy Murray set up a mouth-watering clash with Grigor Dimitrov and a chance to avenge his defeat at Wimbledon after destroying Portugal’s Joao Sousa 6-1, 6-1, 7-5 to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open.

The Briton had his Wimbledon title defence ended by Dimitrov in the quarter-finals last year and will face the rising Bulgarian after he prevailed in a five-set dog-fight against Marcos Baghdatis.

Murray steamrolled the 55th-ranked Sousa in the opening two sets but the Portuguese conjured some late resistance to recover a break in the seventh game of the third, prompting the frustrated Scot to throw his racket in disgust.

Murray blew two match points when Sousa was serving to stay in the match but closed it out on the third when his opponent hit a lob just long, the ending finishing on a controversial note with the Portuguese unable to challenge the line-call.

Tomas Berdych also continued a fine run at Melbourne Park, demolishing Viktor Troicki in straight sets. In three matches in Australia, Berdych has yet to drop a set.

Later on Friday Australians Bernard Tomic and Sam Groth face off, as do world No 15 Kevin Anderosn and No 28 Richard Gasquet.

Then Jaziri and Kyrgios will meet, followed by Rafael Nadal playing Dudi Sela.

Who was Alfred Nobel?

The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.

In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.

Zakat definitions

Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.

Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.

Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.

Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.

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