Majestic Federer tonight

While not a fan of Roger's per se his game was so compelling tonight. Absolutely awesome. At one point in the second set he was hitting 80 percent of first serves. Roger plays this way on a hardcourt he can beat anyone on tour. The forehand looked immaculate, he won 14-18 net points I think and tortured the tall two handed backhand of Del Po with that short angled slice. A pattern that if he plays Djoko should be able to pay dividends in that match up as well. Roger did some things tonight even better than peak Fed. He really went after Del Po's second serve, something that in his peak he rarely would do prefering to chip back a lot of returns deep and get back to even on points. He went up the line with his backhand a few times to change the pattern of play. Just too much game for Delpo, and I think a warning sign to all the other top contenders that the reports of his demise are a bit premature. He was just too complete and varied tonight. If he can match this level till the end of the tournament, which has been difficult for him in terms of replicating great performances, then he will be a huge threat at this event and the USO. Lets see if Roger can play like this now for the rest of the season. I'd like to see him have some success so he sticks around. All the crappy losses to melzer and Tsonga seemingly are forgiven when you see him still pull off his maestro performances.

I'll just cut and paste my other reply.

This was far from vintage Fed - it was a decent performance, nothing more.

Maybe I'm hyper-critical but I certainly wouldn't call Fed's performance tonight awesome.

DelPo looked pretty awful. Slow, sluggish, far too many simple errors.

Fed was better. Still far too many errors off the FH. But seems to have more penetration in these conditions, as I was hoping he would have. Serve was excellent as was his net play.

His movement did look better. When he moves well he looks a completely different player. Sharper.

He even hit an inside out FH winner, something I can't remember him doing since the FO. That used to be his staple winner along with the inside in FH.
He plays the inside out FH less and less these days - probably because he can't get there in time like he used to be able to.

If the FH can really click, he will once again be tough to beat. It's still the greatest shot in tennis when it's clicking..

ps. We know you too well Socal.. don't think your hidden agenda has escaped emancipator..

What are you talking about emancipator, his forehand was brilliant tonight? What agenda do I have to talk up federer after a great performance other than stating that he played great. I think some of the changes annacone has made to his game would have really helped him earlier on in his career when he was still at physical peak. For example, being aggressive on the backhand return and coming over the ball and not chipping every return. I didn't say he was better than peak federer, I said that he did a couple of things tonight differently and better in terms of strategy than peak Fed. I didn't say that he is a better player than 05. Ok don't worry, this will be the last post I do complementing Fed. I don't need to pump Fed up to make Novak look good 53-1 kind of speaks for itself.

Funny, you are the supposed Federer fan and you keep making posts about what a washed up has been he is. I am not a fed fan and I was very impressed with his performance as the commentators on the broadcast were also raving about his play. I am starting to really wonder about your knowledge of the sport, the guy played brilliantly. He was hitting 80 percent first serves half way threw the second set that is incredible considering how many aces he also hit. He won virtually every net approach. Out hit possibly the best forehand in the game DEl Po in the cross court to court exchanges with his forehand. And what is all this nonsense about not remembering Roger hitting an inside out forehand for a winner since RG, then you must have really bad short term memory.

socal1976 wrote:What are you talking about emancipator, his forehand was brilliant tonight? What agenda do I have to talk up federer after a great performance other than stating that he played great. I think some of the changes annacone has made to his game would have really helped him earlier on in his career when he was still at physical peak. For example, being aggressive on the backhand return and coming over the ball and not chipping every return. I didn't say he was better than peak federer, I said that he did a couple of things tonight differently and better in terms of strategy than peak Fed. I didn't say that he is a better player than 05. Ok don't worry, this will be the last post I do complementing Fed. I don't need to pump Fed up to make Novak look good 53-1 kind of speaks for itself.

Looks like you've answered your own question.

Relax, I was just kidding.

But honestly speaking, this was not a vintage Fed performance. It was a standard, run of the mill performance. The kind of performance that he was putting in around the same time last year in the early rounds of the autumn HC tournaments.

His FH was average at best and he did make a lot of errors off that wing in the second set. I think it was more than 10. That's a lot. Even the commentators were remarking on it.

You make it sound like he put in a vintage performance. It was far from that. Trust me I know every facet of Roger's game.

It was a decnt performance, the likes of which he's put in hundreds of times during his career, nothing more.

Yes this was an average performance by federer if you compare him to 2006 and 2005, this would be an average performance for those years. And if you know every facet of Roger's game why do you make wildly ridiculous statements like not remembering Fed hitting an inside out winner since RG? I think you are being too harsh, Del Po didn't look good because Fed completely took him out of his game. I am a Novak fan, and if he played this way against Novak he would have a great chance of beating Novak unless Novak brought his absolute A plus game. The problem for him has been consistency.

And when you talk about errors you should also consider the opponent he is playing and how much he is risking on the shot. Players in general hit more winners with their forehand and also make errors with their forehand, that is the nature of pretty much every forehand dominate player we have ever seen. They make more errors on that wing because they go for it off that wing.

If Roger's serve is working pretty well he's always a handful on these Cincy courts which are the quickest DecoTurf II courts on tour. I think an 80% Federer is still good enough to win the title in Cincy. But agree DP wasnt that great so we'll see how RF fares when he meets sterner opposition. But if he carries on like that it will still take a very good opponent to knock him out - these courts are not like Montreal/Toronto at all and there's no better fastcourt player in tour still than Federer. For me, if he can maintain the 80% level then I'd put him ahead of Nole as favourite for the title. He just needs to keep that serve going...it makes the rest of his game click.

A great win for Fed although JMDP isn't at the moment the same player who won the USO in 2009. Shame againg Fed and Djokovic in the same part of the draw. Great match in the making though!

I won't get too excited by a great performance here and there from Le Swiss, we know he can still play flawlessly and has a better Top gear game than anybody ever has but you always bear in mind that he will have a below par match usually at the QF stage of a tournament. Great performance definitely, but I know he will throw in a 2008 FO final type of performance along the way.

The advice is; expect him to lose by the QF stage.

I doubt Fed will go out in the QF. The chances are he will meet Berdych who his the ideal victim of the Fed's varied shotmaking ability. It's true he's lost to him in Wimbledon last year but that was a totally different Berdych and all in all their H2H is still something like 8-2 .......

Jeremy Kyle

Don't think Fed will want to tough it out should his opponent take a set off him.

If he meets Berdych, it will be a tough match.

Their recent matches have all been very tough, with Berdych winning 2 out of the last three. Even the one which Fed won, he won in three very tight sets.

Interesting statistic from Leif Shiras (just finished watching replay). Of the top three, Djokovic leads winners on his second serve, followed by Rafa and then followed by Fed (so far consistent with rankings) but,unsurprisingly to we Fed fans who have suffered watching Fed fail to convert break points in last couple of years, Djokovic leads the list hitting return winners from opponent's second serve, Rafa second and Fed down in lowly 21st position He seems as aggressive as ever in service games when the serve is working, but he very rarely will attack every second serve by opponent - he almost seems to wait for a certain key game, and preserve energy that way. It's all well and good when his own serve is immaculate, but when it is not he sometimes carelessly surrends a lead.

Always good to see him play well at Cincy - two lovely inside out forehands and some immaculate serving. It was a workmanlike performance which is all that is needed at this end of a tournament.

On Delpo's side, there were a few great forehands but scratchy serving. Hopefully he will have a good USO, and go onwards and upwards from there.

I agree, timeplease. I always felt that Roger while a very strong returner especially in his heyday was never aggressive enough for my money on the return of second serve. He kind of liked to blunt the power with his chip backhand and just get back into the point and let the rest of his game take over, relying on his speed and groundies later on in the rallies. This failure to be aggressive enough on second serve really cost him some of his match ups in Nadal. At RG, this year againt Nole he put the chip backhand return away most of the time and went after the backhand return on second serve. He also was very aggressive on the return in the WTF last year and last night as well. I think this change that Annacone has brought is well overdue and I wish Roger would have done it more often when still at his peak. He is a good returner, but in his past he really never went for winners very often on the return.

Agreed Socal, the chipped return always got thrashed right back from Nole an Nadal like Fed was sparring. Federer cannot afford to give these 2 guys time on the ball as they will dictate and make you look like a right Karlovic
what I like about Fed is he does solve problems within his game, the only thing he didn;t solve in his game was how to beat Nadal at the FO, I hope he does beat him 1 time at the FO to make up for the 5 defeats to him over there..

Yeah, Josiah his opponents really knew what to expect, they knew that if they kept serving to Fed's backhand they would keep getting a steady diet of soft chip returns. He became entirely too predictable in that one area of his game. It is kind of odd that player as attack oriented as fed, while a good returner usually played kind of passively on his opponent's second serve.

Probably a habit he got into when in his prime. He moved so well and his groundies were so devastating that once the rally got going he had his man.
I love the driven backhand return though, such an elegant and effective shot. There really is nothing in tennis to compare with the single handed driven backhand.

Federer did use the driven BH a couple of times. The shot that stands out for me was the shot to break Delpo in the second set right at the corner of the baseline and right tramline. DelPo did get him to 30-30 6-5 and Federer was tense while trying to get to 40-30.

Two SHBHs on tomorrow in Blake and Federer.

Laverfan, that is the one area of the game that I think post peak Fed is doing better than peak Fed. As BB, has indicated in the past he was able to use his speed and groundies once he got the return back in play he had his man. Now that he doesn't really have that luxury against the top guys he is coming over the return on the backhand more and it is paying dividends. Against Nadal especially that chip return backhand was getting way too predictable and Rafa was basically running around it every time to hit a forehand and murdering it. Instead of chip and charge Fed was playing chip and chase. I also felt that this subtle wrinkle of new fed really gave Novak problems in the RG semi, Novak kept serving to Roger's backhand expecting the same old pattern from their previous 20 odd matches and Roger just went for broke and crushed those returns. I really wish he would have done that against Nadal in some of his historic confrontations with him. Particularly, in hindsight when you look at his abysmal performance on break point in the 2008 wimby final.

He did that very effectively against Nadal @ WTF 2010 and Djokovic @ Basel 2010.

I have also seen him use the block (especially against Dr Ivo) at W (2009?).

laverfan wrote:Two SHBHs on tomorrow in Blake and Federer.

Nice. Proper tennis.

Gasquet/Federer is the match I will always switch on for.

bogbrush wrote:Nice. Proper tennis.

Bit more ambivalent from my side. I will watch Murray or Djokovic for their DHBHs as well.

Gasquet Fish should be enjoyable. Two guys who play very watchable and varied tennis. Really looking forward to it.