Bye Bye Blog!

As you may have noticed I haven’t written a post at all since Cincinatti, that’s because I have been very busy and to be honest I am falling out of love with blogging, I decided to just enjoy the US open until Roger loses rather than forcing myself to do a round of every day. Today Roger  loss to Novak Djokovic, I’m not surprised and it’s a good thing, let Djokovic be Nadal’s bunny, no one especially Federer wants to get beat by Nadal 6 times in grand slam finals and it’s not like he was getting closer every time in all of those finals, mentally he was beginning to lose. Those who  have doubted Nadal’s ability to win the US open and those who are insistent that Federer vs Nadal is the best thing ever will get a rude awakening on Sunday, just like with the WTA it is no fun if you already know what’s going to happen, the are 3-3 in hard court meetings that meant it could go either way, mental edge is what will separate them and Nadal one of the most clutch players to ever play the game. Federer wouldn’t be the favourite to win, you have to see that fans, reality is not always what we want, we can call people perfect, amazing, greatest of all time and what not but that does not mean that they are unbeatable, the worlds greatest sportspeople  are those who can dominate and come back from seemingly hopeless situations and the latter is something which Nadal excells at. Let Djokovic have the hard court masterclass and Fed can get his number 2 ranking back at the end of the year when Djokovic has Shanghai semis, Beijing,  Basel and Paris to defend, ok.

I doubt Federer’s partnership with Annacone is going to live up to its expectations because he really isn’t teaching Roger anything, Roger just wanted the same thing to be said but from someone who has the resume to give the illusion that he is actually doing something.

Federer just like last year slips to a 184-7  record when he has won the first set in majors, up until the final last year Federer had only lost 5 matches. I hate to say it but he is slipping away, I still believe he is physically fit but mentally he seems to be a wreck compared to what he used to be, it’s inexplicable for a 16 time grand slam champion to lose his serve after having two measly match points, that is something that a player who has never reached the final of a major would do yet all year Federer has done this and this time he has done it at the majors, this loss has opened up a can of worms, all the questions seemed to have been answered when he hired Annacone but now more questions will be fired at him after this very ugly loss and for the third time this year, the love of tennis stops before the final, in both the men’s and women’s draw the four people who I least wanted to see in the final turn up. I couldn’t give a shit if it was an epic, Zvonareva, Clijsters, Nadal and Djokovic do nothing to excite me, I must have tennis withdrawal or at least have some kind of motivation to watch them.

 Federer and Venus this year you have both come so close yet so far, you had the match in your hands only to question yourself on whether you should win it or not, the opponent who was not even in your league at their best in the match, seized the opportunity and took the win away from you and now you have to answer the questions. Is it time it hang up the racquet? Will you ever win a major again? The media who insisted whilst you were winning that this match was the best you’ve played all year will turn against you and force you to admit you’re not at your best but you must fight them and vow to return with a vengeance.

So au revoir (for now) Ramblings of a Roger Federer Fan, we had fun but it’s time to drift apart.

I might write a post after Nadal  wins  the final

Cincy: Federer reaches Cincy final to secure world number 2 ranking

Federer beat Bagdahtis 6-4, 6-3, I didn’t watch the full match, Fed played ok but Baggy must have been tired and his serving was abysmal however he won more points on his second serve than on the first, it was almost a reverse of what happened against Nadal in which Baggy hardly won any points on second serve.

Match Highlights

Federer will play Mardy Fish in the final who won a strange match against Andy Roddick, Fish looked done for a set 5-2 down and 0ut, then yet another rain delay on a rain hit afternoon saw a hug momentum shift, Roddick won only 2 more games in the whole natch with Fish winning the second set tie-break and winning the third 6-1. Mardy Fish is playing the best tennis of his career and has a chance to join Roddick in the top 10 with 0 points to defend from the US open onwards.

On Sunday Federer will have the opportunity to defend a title for the first time since 2008, tie Borg in overall titles won, tie Agassi in second place for the Masters record,  however do not underestimate Fish, once he gets on a roll, it’s tough to stop him and at 28 years old he is playing the best tennis of his life, Federer will have to get his tactics spot on to win the match.

Fed will need to return well especially on the second serve  as Fish can still win many points on his serve even if he serves below 60 or 50% and play aggressive, so many players adopt an aggressive style of play and then abandon it in the final especially when they are a little low on confidence which Fed must be having lost his 3 previous finals.

Cincy: No FEDAL semi-final

By the time Roger reached the quarterfinals in Cincy he had played for the grand total of 36 minutes, slightly surprisingly Davydenko made it through his draw despite an unconvincing win over Robby Ginepri in the second round and coming from a set down against David Ferrer in the third, it was first time since March that Davy had won back to back matches, with the lack of matches and lack of confidence it would always be a huge task for Davy to win, he did come very close to at 4-all in the first set after triumphing in a 14 minute long game, he had two break points to serve for the set however he played both break points badly and let Roger off the hook, if Davy was full of confidence he could have taken one of those break points, I think Roger was let off. I think Davydenko came up with some of the shots of the match when he was really up against it, match point down at 4-5, he hit a stunning backhand winner after Fed made a very aggressive return, some of his shot-making in the 14 minute long game was amazing, hitting the ball so clean, hard and so deep, he also did an exquisite drop-volley in that game however it was an up and down match from him. I thought Federer played rather well considering the circumstances, having not played a complete match, this being his first real match against Davydenko and with his appalling record at Cincy in even years (never made it to the quarters until now), I thought he could lose, again it would have been more of a challenge if Davydenko was more confident so the real test will be Bagdahtis, if Roger can beat Bagdahtis who beat Nadal then he’ll be  ready for the US open, He lost to Bagdahtis this year when he shouldn’t have, having had match points and being up a set and a break, he needs to beat him (relatively) comfortably to say “I’m not a pushover and I’m not going to give you a win that easy”.

After losing to Bagdahtis, Roger said that he wasn’t aggressive enough, it seems that Roger has become much more aggressive recently, especially on the return, Nadal made mincemeat of Bagdahtis’ serve, in fact Bagdahtis only won 14/33 points on his second serve, luckily for him, his first serve was excellent. In my opinion Bagdahtis is playing better than he did in Indian Wells, so Roger better be careful. I winning the title in Cincy will big for him, he needs to become confident again.

Murray was beaten by Mardy Fish, who is looking very dangerous, it was the third time in a row that Fish has beaten Murray. Murray did seem to pick up an injury to his knee and was struggling for the heat, I think he put a lot of energy into winning last week and maybe needed some of the luck that Federer had this week. Anyway (sadly) Murray retains the number 4 ranking after Soderling beat himself, Roddick was blatantly choking in that match, any other top 10 player (apart from the Fed at Rome) would make Roddick pay, Soderling was serving so poorly in the first set, he was lucky to lose it 6-4, from 3-2 in the third set tie-break he should have closed it out, two big serves, 5-2, two points away from winning after Roddick had 4 match points and 8 break points in the third set, two forehand errors cost him the match.

I didn’t watch much of Nadal’s match but from what i saw he was making some unchracteristic errors, I think he is very uncomfortable with the surface this year and I think his previous match with Benneteau could have rattled him, usually when he has a match like that, he plays much better in the next even if the match took 3 hours. The double fault break point down was bizarre, I have never seen Nadal make so many unforced errors, credit to Bagdahtis, he was the better player by far on the night and really should have won the match in straight sets. I’m very impressed that he managed to serve the match out, many players get weak at the knees but he managed to get to 40-0 to give himself the best opportunity to close it out.

Cincy Draw 2010: Roger has it easy….maybe too easy.

Cincy Draw: http://www.atpworldtour.com/posting/2010/422/mds.pdf

Roger is the defending champion in Cincinnati, in reality he needs to defend his title to go to Flushing Meadows seeded number 2 whilst, the US open in the slam where the #1 and #3 seeds are the least likely to play each other in the semis, it has been like this for the past 5 years, the tennis gods may decide to change that.

Rafa’s road to the quarters: Rafa could play Wawrinka in the third round or Benneteau both i ’m sure will make the match interesting for the first 5 games then fall apart. He could play Berdych in the quarters who will trouble him for the first 7 games before falling apart. Federer awaits in the semis if his draw isn’t too easy for him.

Roger’s road to the quarters: The draw is too easy for Roger, I get scared whenever he is presented with such easy draws, he always messes it up and with Djokovic also having an easy draw,I think he’s heading to New York with a 3 beside his name folks. Falla is in his draw again but I don’t see him getting past Kolhschreiber (he may get past Monfils though). Fed is seeded to play Davydenko but Davy hasn’t won back to back matches since March, so expect Ferrer to be his quarterfinal opponent, to be honest I see Kolhschreiber and Istomin being more of a threat to Fed than Ferrer. 

Djokovic ’s road to the quarters: Nalbandian third round (Nalby won’t beat him, he folded so easily to Murray last week), Soderling but more likely to be Roddick in the quarters final. Murray in the semis.

Murray’s road to the quarters: Gulbis/Melzer third round, quarters should be Verdasco most likely to be Gasquet/Fish

Soderling….Hewitt third round, it will be a miracle if he wins.

I think Roger’s first match could be the hardest, he will play Denis Istomin who is a big server and has a big backhand in fact he is a poor man’s Berdych or Soderling with the same mental problems that the aforementioned had in their youth. Like many Federer fans I get nervous whenever Roger plays someone who is ranked so low that they should be easily beaten. I think we could be seeing a tie break or two in this match it will be hard to break Istomin who nearly had two very good wins this year but he lost it mentally, he could have beaten Berdych in straight sets at Wimbledon but instead lost in 5 sets, he could have beaten Nadal at Queens this year after winning the first set but he played one bad game in the second and failed to take advantage of Nadal not closing out the match on his serve in the third.

Toronto: Fed wins another tight match to meet Murray in the finals.

I didn’t see all of the match, in fact I only watched it from when it got interesting. It looked like Djokovic was receiving a masterclass before Federer missed a oppurtunity to go up a double break in the second set after winning the first 6-1. Fed was then broken and the match was turned on its head. Djokovic then won 3 games in a row before Federer held, then Fed had more break points at 3 all in a 14 minute long game however Djokovic had won most of the deuce points, if Federer had won it then he would have most certainly won the match in straight sets. After Djokovic won the long game, Fed was broken again but had one more break point when Djokovic was serving for the set which he squandered, with being too passive. In the third set, he regained his aggressive nature and broke Djokovic to love and led 4-1 before his first serve deserted him. His first serve has been key to winning his last two matches in particular. Federer’s first serve continued to elude him at 4-all but he remained clutch to hold something he has failed to doon the past few months. Federer then had to save break points at 5-all, his serve got him out of that one too and then it was Djokovic’s turn to serve poorly when he missed around 6-8 first serves however despite this, he still got to game point first despite Fed leading 0-30, nevertheless, a win is a win and he certainly needed it, he has regained the number 2 ranking for now but he has to defend his Cincinatti points and hope Djoko goes off the boil next week.

The Dilemma

I don’t know about you but I have no idea who I want to win, I do hate Murray A LOT and I can’t bear to watch Federer lose to him and Federer does have a chance to get a stronghold on Murray mentally, if he wins their head to head will be tied at 6-all despite Murray leading it 6-2 nearly a year ago, when Murray had this commanding lead, he boasted how he had Federer’s number and was in his head, however an untimely wrist ended his hopes in New York.  I think Murray is weaker mentally than Federer, maybe losing to him for time in a row might quash his confidence especially since Murray is quickly becoming known as the King of Hardcourt Masters. If Murray were to lose then it would be the second time in just under a year that Federer prevents him from defending a title.

On the other hand losing to Murray might not be a bad thing, Federer doesn’t have to defend as many points next year and Murray will think he has an advantage of him, the same advantage that helped him so dearly in front of the home crowd at the World Tour Finals and at the Australian open this year.

Consistency is better than winning titles in the long run in terms of winning slams, look at all the other greats of the game and most of them have way more titles than Fed but Fed is the one with the most slams because he peaks at the right time, so let Murray have his masters title but it doesn’t make any more of favourite for the US open than it did before the tournament started, Murray has been to two slams finals but has never won a set, last year Del Potro saw a oppurtunity and took it, but Murray has never done so because he was supposed to win, Murray for a long time has been the one that gets under Federer’s skin but has never troubled him enough to take a set off him when it really matters so what I’m trying to say is let the dog have its bone.  Doing the Toronto/Cincy double is Murder on the body, a player  could be counting themselves out of the US open but for Roger to realistically keep the number 2 ranking he’d have to do the double and defend his final points, while the future is looking bright, it’s still going to be a struggle for the next couple of months.

With Fed having played two long matches and Murray steamrolled Rafa, he will be the favourite to win the match but I love upsets when Roger is the one doing to upsetting . By the sound of Roger’s press conferences he really wants to win to send a message out to the rest of the world yet again but he won neither Montreal or Cincy in 2008 and still won the US open, anyhow beating two top ten players who have recently had his number means he will be a factor in New York (not like any of his fans doubted it anyway)

Another reason why Fed should win is that a LONG time ago pink used to be a masculine colour, people believed that pink represented strength, maybe if Fed wins the rest of the ATP tour might want to wear pink shirts more often

If Roger must lose to Murray I hope he makes it entertaining and close, Murray has been playing the best bar the Monfils match and the first set against Malisse but boy is it thrilling to watch and more enjoyable when you watch someone stumble over the finish line. We are all Sadists deep inside.

Toronto :Federer comes back from the brink

I didn’t watch all of the match, I don’t think I’m the only fan who left once Rog went down a break, I did actually have go out really early, so at 2:15 in the morning I decided that with Roger’s fragile state of mind that he wouldn’t be able to come back, so I spent most of the day being depressed about Roger losing only to find out that he staged a huge comeback to win 7-6 in the third.

Roger dominated the first set and won 6-3, striking the ball cleanly, hitting winners off both sides, his serve was great, however Berdych wasn’t serving as well as he could do and his ground strokes were no where as good as they were in the next two sets, this lead to Berdych being down 0-30 in every service game.

In the second set, Berdych played much better but at 4-all, Federer had two break points in which he abonned his agggressive style of play and stood on the baseline, a forehand at the bottom of the net put to bed his chances of winning the second as Berdych started to gain momentum, he had already had break points earlier on in the set and had some more 6-5 which he took, he was aided with some poor serving from Fed which Berdych took advanntage of and started to dominate the match, this had Miami written all over it.

With more passive play and poor serving Fed went down a break and that’s when I decided to go bead. When he lost in Miami I stayed to 4 o clock in the morning to watch him dig it out which he didn’t, so I didn’t see the point in watching him lose again and eat into my precious beauty sleep

This win will answer all the critics. Roger proved that he can still beat the big guys, that he still wants to win masters title and he still wants to win even if he is on the brink of defeat. In theory even if he crashes out to Djokovic (who defeated Chardy 6-2 6-3, this win over Berdych should crush the ‘he should retire’ speak however for the sake of the rankings, Fed needs to beat Djokovic in order to be seeded #2 for the US open and give him some a safety net in case he doesn’t defend his title next week.

Match highlights

My only fear for Federer against Djokovic is that he’ll be too tired mentally to play his best, if he is still pumped he should win and show Djoko who the real number 2 is.

Murray and Nadal won, Bandy rather irritatingly ran out of gas and with Nadal’s shaky 3 set win over Kohlischreiber, I think Murray can get the rare win over Nadal without playing at his absolute best, I think Nadal is thinking about his knees and the US open.

Toronto round 3

Federer def. Llodra 76(2)

Moment of the match

While the win was far from squeaky clean and far from straight forward, there were “Roger Federer” moments when he looked like the guy who had won 16 majors however the serve was the main stick out today, a double fault on break point gave Llodra a break (something which we Fed fans should have become accustomed to this year but it’s still a shock when he does such thing) However Llodra played an average game at 4-2  to give Roger the break back, neither player was able to get a break point so they went to a tie break which Roger dominated.  Llodra played well overall but he really needed to play his best to give a Roger a challenge and he kind of checked out at times where Roger needed to be tested, e.g. the tie break and 4-1 in the second set, Roger never should have gotten that second break of serve so easily but Llodra seems to be one of those players who only plays well in the Davis Cup.

Nadal and Djokovic won their matches against Kevin Anderson and Victor Hanescu just as expected, I didn’t watch either of their matches, so I can’t say much about them. Davydenko was beaten comfortably by Jeremy Chardy 6-3 6-2, Davydenko has yet to win back to back matches since he broke his wrist this doesn’t bode well for the US open, I hope that Davy can find some form in Cincinatti but he si going to need a favourable draw.

Berdych beat Alexandr Dolgopolov in 3 sets to set a match up against Federer. I’m irritated with Dolgopolov, he has such a unique game but he can’t string it together at the important moments, there are several matches wich he should have won this year where he hasn’t because of his serve, his unforced errors and return of serve letting him down, he could have broken Berdych a couple of times if he had just used a choice of shot and read the serve.

Berdbrain will be aiming to beat Rogie for the third time this year, I don’t think Roger is in the right frame of mind to beat Berdych at the moment, he needs to find some confidence against these big guys, so I won’t be surprised if he loses in an error fest or gets hit off the court because he won’t use his nasty BH slice or come to the net.

Soderling was beaten  (I suppose you could say expectantly) by Nalbandian in 3 sets, he couldn’t hold serve to save his life after the first set, it was really tough on him to be drawn Nalbandian depending on how deep Bandy goes this week, I doubt he’ll be much of a factor next week, he must be close to hitting the wall, let’s hope that he doesn’t do it against Murray though, so maybe Sodders will have more luck next week.

As mentioned above Nalbadian will play Murray next who won a bizarre match against Monfils. Each set seemed to be a new match, at first Murray was hitting the ball cleanly and capitalising on Monfils’ mistakes, then Murray ate a French bagel in the second set and failed to hit a single winner, in the third Murray played more like in the first set and the outcome of the match was already decided when Monfils decided to dive for a shot on break point and hurt himself in the process, whilst it was flashy it didn’t win him the point, he then did the same thing later on in the set with the same result. The match ended when Monfils double faulted.

Phillip Kohschreiber mounted a comeback against qualifier Yen-Hsun-Lu to set up a beatdown match against Nadal.

Federer def Chela 7-6(7), 6-3

Unconvincing, is the word used to describe this win, Roger all I ask is for you to defend your quarterfinal points, anything else on top of that is a bonus.

Roger started off well, both men were holding serve at ease, then Rog broke and eventually led 5-2, he made a couple of errors, Chela played well then it was 5-3 then the same Fed that blew away leads in  Indian Wells and Miami reappeared and made some shocking errors to lose serve to love, had four sets points at 5-4 but didn’t put pressure on Chela, I’m surprised that he didn’t lose his serve afterwards, Fed then made some more errors at 6-5 to put them in a tie break, he lead 6-3 in the tie break before allowing Chela back in the match at 6-5 by not putting away a volley. He eventually won the first set but needed 7 set points, in the second set,  he made less unforced errors but Chela had lost a bit of his spirit and broke twice to win 6-3.

Roger will play Michael Llodra or Nicolas Almagro next.

Positives:

- he didn’t lose

- only got broken once

- continued his dominance in the second set unlike in previous masters losses or scrappy wins when he lost more games in the second than the first.

- played much more aggressively which means he is bound to make more errors, all he needs to do now, is get some matches under his belt so that he can determine when is the right time to use this aggressive approach

- he came to the net a lot, he won most of his points but he did miss some which should have been easy, he served at 70%, it’s great but I want to see him do that against those over 6ft3 tall.

Other round winners include Nalbandian, Berdych, Soderling (with some difficulty, needs to pick his game up otherwise Nalbandian is going to humiliate him).

Big losers: Cilic lost to Viktor Troicki- he hadn’t lost to him before and had beaten all 5 times that they played each other. Ferrer imploded on serve in the third set of a three set loss to Nalbandian.

Toronto Masters’ draw: Optimism is required.

Draw – http://www.rogerscupmen.com/men/pdf/SMD_aug_10_10.pdf 

Rafa’s road the quarters: cake walk after Roddick’s withdrawal, Cilic’s loss, Wawrinka and Querrey were never a factor. When Rafa gets there he will most likely play Murray or Nalbandian, I’m sure he will dismiss either in straight sets, in fact unless a miracle happens I cannot see past him winning this title.

Djokovic’s road to the quarters: is also easier after Melzer’s loss but I’m sure he will make it look painfully hard. Is seeded to play Davydenko in the quarters then Federer in the semis. Verdasco is also in there but that wil be a match decided on who double faults the least.

Roger’s road to the quarters: Minefield, a few years ago this draw would have been a cake walk, filled with players who he has never lost to before however this year he has lost to Bagdahtis, Montanes, Soderling, Gulbis, al of whom had never beaten Rogie before until then. Next up in line to get their first win over Rogie is Juan Ignacio Chela or Alejandro Falla, Nicolas Almagro, Mikhail Youzhny, Michael Llodra (they haven’t played each other on the ATP tour but they played each other on the Challenger circuit 11 years ago, Fed won in straight sets). If he gets past Berdy, Djoko will await him in the semis, if he does get that far how much do want to bet that it will a shit fest like the last time they played (in Basel)

Murray’s road to the quarters: Is a cake walk IF the bunch of talented players in there do not deliver. Watch out for Gael Monfils or David Ferrer/ Nalbandian or Robin Soderling all are more than capable fo beating Murray but are also more than capable of imploding when getting close to the finish line. His draw does get considerably harder when he faces Nadal in the semis, with Soderling having zero points to defend and Murray having none to gain since as he is the defending champion, he could lose his number 4 ranking but Nalbandian who has Soda’s number has come to his rescue, he really should lose his ranking but luckily for him he won’t, unless Bandy hits a wall, he isn’t going to lose to Robin.

Soderling’s road to quarters: David Nalbandian third round ’nuff said.

Nalbandian wins Washington title, now would it be too much to….

…ask for him to be placed in Nadal’s half and for him to beat Nadal at the US open, David Nalbandian is one of the few who players who scare Nadal but just like the other select few he can be a bit frail mentally. In my humble opinion I feel that the men’s game is beginning to stagnae, there is nothing beyond Federer-Nadal and their rivalry has become a non-event in the past couple of years and I can’t find any joy in watching Novak Djokovic or Andy Murray or them being 1 and 2 in the world and playing each other regularly, especially since as Djokovic has become more of a pusher and a grinder since he won the Aus Open, Murray is just too dour for my liking, yes he has  shoemaking abilities but they only seem to show up when he plays a clay courter on a hard court and generally disappears when presented with a sterner challenge especially at 4-all 30-all, he seems to fall apart, his c’mons are irritating, in fact his personality is just irritating, he is really one of the few athletes who irk me.  

Washington was a very strange tournament, especially for the Americans,  who had lost all of its competitors before the quarterfinals, Roddick’s lost to Simon was the hardest to take since as Roddick has such a good record at the tournamnet and has never lost to Simon who is nowhere near his best, this loss has caused Roddick to drop out of the top ten and everyone is making a fuss out of it, the American reign in tennis ended when Sampras’ heyday ended, everything else that came after was just leftovers, the nice chocolates had already been eaten, like the other tennis super powers of Australia and eons ago Great Britain, it’s time for a lull, Europe and South America to some extent is where the new tennis greats will hail from, they will have their time at the top and then one of the three superpowers will find a bundle of talent at some point and will take over again, most of the talented teenagers that are lingering around the 101-250 mark are from have come from Europe, Querrey and Isner are just more big severs, yes they will cause upsets from time to time only because of their height and big serve, but they will never win a major unless the field is very weak they will need similar luck to that of Andy Roddick who played a clay court specialst who had to play several days in a row to win his lone major.

Berdych also lost early and threw a hissy fit after doing so,  he complained about scheduling after heavy rain disrupted much of the day and many matches had to be moved and played at later times, Berdych claimed that lack of sleep was the reason why he played like crap against Malisse, but he had no excuse, at a set all, the match was for the taking instead Berdych the new world number 8 decided to wait for the match to be handed to him rather than win it. He also couldn’t manage the feat of winning a match in straight sets, he’ll be lucky to stay in the top 10 for long.

I’m happy for Nalbandian, I hope that he can back into the top 20 and stay there but already this year it seems that he is most likely to be healthier for the Davis cup ties rather than majors, so I wouldn’t be surprised if manages to pick something else up before the US open in 3 weeks having missed the past 6 majors.