WHAT HAPPENED EXACTLY ON THAT DAY
On this day, March
27, 2007, at the Miami Open, Guillermo Canas – who had recently returned from a 15-month suspension for a diuretic positive test – defeated the undisputed world No 1, Roger Federer, for the second time in just over two weeks. The Argentine had already ousted the Swiss from the Indian Wells draw, and in Miami he upset Federer 7-6, 2-6, 7-6 on his eventual way to the final (defeated by Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-2, 6-4).
THE PLAYERS INVOLVED: GUILLERMO CANAS AND ROGER FEDERER
Guillermo Canas, former Top 10 star
Guillermo Canas was born in 1977. He was first noticed by tennis experts in 1995, when he reached the quarter-finals of the boys’ event at Wimbledon. His game relied mostly on extraordinary defensive skills. After breaking into the top 100 in 1998, Canas claimed his first title on clay in 2001 at the Casablanca event — defeating Tommy Robredo 7-5, 6-2 in the final.
Canas obtained his best Grand Slam result at Roland-Garros, where he reached the quarter-finals in 2002 (lost in five sets to eventual champion Albert Costa, 7-5, 3-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-0). A few months later it was on hard courts that he won the most important title of his career, defeating Andy Roddick 6-4, 7-5 in the final of the Toronto Masters.
Canas reached his career-high ranking in 2005 at world No 8, but soon after he was banned for 15 months after testing positive for a diuretic in Mexico. Back on the tour at the end of 2006, he won five Challenger tournaments. In February of 2007, Canas was world No 107 when he claimed his first title after coming back from his suspension, defeating former world No 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-6, 6-2 in the Costa do Sauipe final.
A few weeks later, to general astonishment, he upset the top-ranked Federer 7-5, 6-2 in the second round of the Indian Wells Masters 1000 but lost his next match to Carlos Moya 6-4, 6-4. Heading into Miami he was 55th in the ATP rankings.
In 2006, Roger Federer – at 26 years old – had been world No 1 without a break since February 2, 2004. The Swiss genius had performed well since his first professional matches. His mind-blowing game amazed the world of tennis and soon he was announced as a future world No 1.
Expectations grew even bigger after – at the age of 19 – he defeated the seven-time Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras in the fourth round of the 2001 Championships (7-6, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7, 7-5). However, young Federer was very emotional and he didn’t cope very well with the ensuing pressure. Entering the top 10 in June 2002, his records in major events didn’t yet match his talent; in his first 16 Grand Slam appearances he never made it past the quarter-finals. He claimed his first major crown at Wimbledon in 2003, defeating Mark Philippoussis 7-6, 6-2, 7-6 in the final.
His confidence and his hold on the tour grew relentlessly; in the 2003 Masters Cup final he delivered a masterclass to destroy Andre Agassi 6-3, 6-0, 6-4, and even though he finished the year as world No 2 behind Andy Roddick, most of the pundits agreed to say that it was just a matter of months before he would reach world No 1. Federer achieved that feat a few weeks later when he triumphed at the Australian Open, defeating Marat Safin in the final (7-6, 6-4, 6-2) to claim a second Grand Slam title.
After that, he won eight more major tournaments before the 2007 Miami Open: the Australian Open (2006, 2007), Wimbledon (2004, 2005, 2006,) and the US Open (2004, 2005, 2006). Federer also won the Masters Cup in 2004 and 2006. At the start of 2007, he was the undisputed world No 1 and he broke Jimmy Connors’ record of 160 weeks for the longest uninterrupted reign.
