NOTEBOOK: Federer takes relegation to secondary court in stride

Jan 19, 2012, 2:06 GMT

Melbourne - Roger Federer was on the receiving end of an Australian Open prank after top management faxed him directions on how to get to the outside court for his second-round match.

The 16-time Grand Slam champion had played 52 consecutive times on the main Rod Laver Arena dating to 2004 and was to have competed Wednesday at the Hisense Arena for the first time.

Hours before the intended start, officials faxed over a map with directions on how to reach the venue and also sent along a picture of a helicopter by way of a transport suggestion, according to Melbourne's Herald-Sun.

Federer eventually got a walkover against German opponent Andreas Beck, who had a bad back, but even if he had made the trek out to the far corners of Melbourne Park, it would not have bothered the third seed, he said.

'At Wimbledon and the French [Open], we play at the second court,' he said. 'It's just here and at the US Open where they have more night sessions and more space for men's matches on the centre court that it's really difficult for you to be moved out.

'But when the draws are such that me and Rafa [Rafael Nadal] are in the same section, and you have [Bernard] Tomic, I guess I expect it to happen.

'When I saw that Rafa played an Hisense the first day, I expected my second-round match was going to be there, too. I was excited. I wasn't disappointed to hear that I was going to play there to be quite honest.'

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China's Li feels the pain of Stosur's Australian embarrassment =

Melbourne (dpa) - French Open winner Li Na, who lost her own way on court last season after winning the biggest title of her career, knows the pain that Samantha Stosur is feeling.

The Australian number one and US Open champion crashed out in the first round of the Australian Open Tuesday in a bitter disappointment for herself and her home public.

Li began getting her mojo back this season, winning nine of her first 10 matches in 2012, but last autumn, she was humiliated at home in Beijing, losing to the 57th-ranked Monica Niculescu.

'After winning the French Open, I was feeling the pressure, not from myself, not from my team, but from outside,' Li said. 'I used this last half-year to know I'm not a hero. I'm just a tennis athlete, so what I should do is just play my best tennis on the court.

'I really was feeling the pressure when I was playing in Beijing, I think like when Sam was playing in Melbourne. I have the same experience like Sam, so I still believe that maybe after a year or the next tournament she will play well.'

The Stosur and Li examples followed that of Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo, who won Grand Slam titles in Melbourne and New York but never finished better than the quarter-finals in the Paris pressure-cooker of home.

Andy Murray and Tim Henman had the identical problem at Wimbledon with Murray still trying to crack the duck and become a British men's champion more than three-quarters of a century after Fred Perry.