Daniel Brands stuns Roger Federer at Swiss Open

Troubled times for Roger Federer

The bombastic serves and missile forehands of giant German Daniel Brands have proven to be the latest thorn in Roger Federer‘s foot as Federer fell to Brands 3-6, 4-6 in the second round of the Credit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad.

Federer, playing the lower-level Hamburg and Gstaad events for match practice before the US Open Series, has now lost three consecutive matches to players ranked outside the top 50.

Brands had taken a set from Federer in their meeting last week at Hamburg, and this time around, he gave no quarter as he attacked mercilessly and procured results.

Brands played a destructive style of tennis, his serves crashing down like thunder, his forehands moving like lightning. He broke Federer once to secure the first set 6-3, and kept his aggression going. In the second set, Brands broke again and took a 5-3 lead. Federer served to stay in the match. Brands got his first match point in that very game, but Federer saved it with an ace.

With his home crowd cheering him on, Federer served out the game and forced Brands to serve for the match. Brands went up 40-15 very quickly, but Federer saved a second match point with a gorgeous forehand winner.

Roger prepared to save a third match point but Brands had other plans. One fantastic serve, and Brands had just won one of the biggest matches of his career.