Polansky revels in experience of being drubbed by Federer

‘You blink and he’s at the net,’ Canadian says after losing to Swiss star 6-2, 6-1

Peter Polansky said he’s not a bad tennis player, but he’s also not in the same league as Roger Federer.

They met on centre court at the Rogers Cup Wednesday and Federer, the No. 2 seed from Switzerland, needed only 53 minutes to post a 6-2, 6-1 victory.

“Even though I lost, this is one of the most memorable experiences of my life along with the match I played against him in Toronto,” said Polansky, who won only two games when they played at the 2014 Rogers Cup.

Polansky fell behind early when Federer broke him in the second game of the match. It may have been a case of nerves and trying to too much, but Polansky double-faulted twice. Polansky was broken again in the eighth game as Federer wrapped up the first set in 21 minutes.

“I felt I wasn’t getting up with my legs, but he was also putting pressure on me,” Polansky said. “He was standing on the baseline and maybe I thought I had to put some pressure on him and I tried to do too much.”

The second set was almost as quick. Polansky held his serve only once in the sixth game and Federer continued his mastery. The only hiccup for the Swiss star came when he was serving at 4-0, He fell behind 15-40, but fought off two break points and finished the game with a pair of aces.

Polansky, a 29-year-old from Toronto, is enjoying one of his most successful years as a pro, but most of his play has been on the secondtier Challenger level. He said he had difficulty adjusting to the pace of Federer’s game.

“He plays very quickly,” Polansky said. “I like to develop the points, but he plays so quick and that threw me off a little. … Going from playing players ranked 50 to 150 and then going against Federer, it’s different.

“His transition from the baseline to the net, it’s a joke,” Polansky said. “You blink and he’s at the net. You hit balls pretty hard at him and he’s handling them like it’s no problem.”

With the win, Federer ran his record this year to 32-2, his best start since 2006. After the match, he said he was happy to be playing after undergoing knee surgery last year.

“Honestly, when I went into surgery, I was rather sad last year,” Federer said. “I was rather worried about how I was going to come out of it. When I did come out of it, I was happy I woke up again. I was sad that I had an operated knee. It was actually quite emotional for me. I was scared, as well, at the same time just to be in pain, of the unknown, I guess. I was not thinking of having a start to this kind of a season like back in 2006.

“So, you know, I guess for me the key is that I’m actually healthy. I knew that when I was healthy, I was going to be able to have chances to win slams again, to play against the best, beat the best.”