Federer crushes partner in Australian Open Tuneup

Monday, January 19, 2009 -- MELBOURNE, Australia – Roger Federer defeated his doubles partner at the Olympics, Stanislas Wawrinka at the Australian Open tuneup that was held in Kooyong.

Federer stands one win away from being at the same rank with Pete Sampras’ set record of 14 total Grand Slam titles. During his game against Wawrinka, he broke his opponents serve thrice in the seven games and managed to finish off the game at the end of 57 minutes.

This is not the first time Federer won the exhibition at Kooyong. He won the same exhibition back in 2005, but he did not get past the semifinals as he was defeated by Marat Safin, who then became the tournament champion.

The Australian Open is scheduled to start on Monday and Federer said that he did not want to waste a single minute of his preparation time. As it is a new season, Federer foresees great new opportunities up for him. Of course, he has a new chance to set new records.

Federer and Wawrinka often hit together, and Federer even considers himself as Wawrinka’s mentor and brother. Their powerful combination gave them their gold medal at the Olympics doubles last year. At Kooyong, Federer taught Wawrinka that even at exhibitions, he does not believe in friendly matches.