Shanghai Match Thread

[It Must Be Love]

First topic message reminder :

Djokovic defending champion, and the race for WTF hots up !

[summerblues]

Fed vs Nole, 8am Sat morning my time.  Perfect.  I was worried the match would be played maybe 3am and I would have to debate whether or not it was worth waking up for.

To keep at least somewhat realistic chance of ending the year at #1, Fed pretty much has to win.

Nole the favorite for me, but not impossible to see Fed somehow pulling through.

[laverfan]

Catching up on watching Benneteau give up in the second set, and to have played the first half of the first set TB so well. What a shame.

Lopez played very well vs Youzhny. IMO, he can beat Simon tomorrow.

[LuvSports!]

6-2 first set simon.

[Born Slippy]

Masterclass from Simon. Lopez did very well to hang on in the second set but Simon has been a class above. On that form, Simon has a shot in the final (particularly if its Fed).

[laverfan]

Lopez seemed to have run out of gas after all his exertions to have come this far. He was completely off today.

[summerblues]

Good luck, Roger.

[Jahu]

Come on Roger, give him a nappy lesson.

[Guest]

Best rivalry in tennis.

Highest quality matches.

This one looks tasty already.

[Jahu]

Fed breaks, 4:2 up.

[summerblues]

What a nice service game

[Danny_1982]

This is so clever from Federer. Not only is his ultra aggressive approach not allowing Novak to get any rhythm, but he's also diluting Novak's physical advantage. Even 3 sets of this wouldn't be too tiring on Roger's legs.

[summerblues]

Good 1st set

[Jahu]

Break himmmmm

[Jahu]

Yes, Djoko broken again, 1:0 up Fed. Superplay.

[summerblues]

Lovely point to win the game.

[summerblues]

Now I am starting to get nervous.

[Jahu]

No need, 2:0 up, just keep the serve Fed.

[Jahu]

Choko melting...

[summerblues]

Four more holds, easier said than done.  I expect Djoko to turn on the pressure over the next couple of return games.

[summerblues]

Easy enough this time.

[Jahu]

Good hold from Djoko.

3:2 up and to serve.

[summerblues]

Good game; Nole holds.

[summerblues]

Nole is clearly not ready to go; he could have folded in this game.

[Jahu]

Wake up Fed, you are so close, keep those aces going, Simon is done tomorrow.

[Jahu]

Break him nowww

[summerblues]

Nole scraping through his service games; and Fed generally looking better, but one break of serve can still change it all.

[It Must Be Love]

Fed playing well

These days he plays well when I'm supporting him

[Jahu]

Go Fed goooo.

Some great net points from both.

Good hold from Fed now, 5:3.

[Jahu]

Come on, win the match on Djoko serveeee

[Jahu]

MP MP MP

[Jahu]

2 MPs saved by Djoko and holds serve.

Fed serve it out now.

[It Must Be Love]

Djokovic fans- what do you think about his body language ?

Without going into any GOAT debate, I would like to suggest maybe it's Federer's attitude even when he's not on his best day which makes him one of the GOATs; and Djokovic not.

[summerblues]

I just hope Fed will not end up ruing all those missed break points.

[Jahu]

Keep it up Feddddd

IMLove, everyone knows Djoko is a show off.

[Jahu]

MP and yessss Fed winssssss what a match point.

[summerblues]

Yessss!!!!

[Jahu]

Well done Fed, bit of a Look at my Lordship cardigan there.

Djoko held good, he is a wall when clicking, just Fed too agressive today.

Simon will be sliced like a french stale baguette tomorrow in 1 hour.

[summerblues]

Fantastic.  This was so satisfying to watch for a Fed fan.  Fed looked much the better player throughout; the score really could have easily been much more one-sided.

This match reminded me how much I miss all-court tennis.  I would love if tennis could move in this direction - not decided by servefasts, but neither stuck with endless rallies.

[It Must Be Love]

Keep it up Feddddd

IMLove, everyone knows Djoko is a show off.

But he wasn't acting like a show-off, he kept screaming at his box and looking angry.
It was a Murray pre-2012 display.

[Guest]

Awesome from Federer.

The first time in about two years that the Federer forehand was well... The Federer Forehand.

[It Must Be Love]

Fantastic.  This was so satisfying to watch for a Fed fan.  Fed looked much the better player throughout; the score really could have easily been much more one-sided.

This match reminded me how much I miss all-court tennis.  I would love if tennis could move in this direction - not decided by servefasts, but neither stuck with endless rallies.

I'm happy that Federer won, but I did not particularly like the gameplay compared to previous Federer vs Djokovic matches; I like more high paced long rallies.

[summerblues]

Awesome from Federer.

The first time in about two years that the Federer forehand was well... The Federer Forehand.

Yes, in the old days you knew going FH-vs-FH vs Fed was suicidal.  The last couple of years there have been more and more matches where in such exchanges Fed's FH was second best, but not today.

Fed was also moving very well; few and far between were the points where he was caught lounging for his FH for having been a step too slow.

On Nole's side, I was surprised in the first set how often he seemed to have hard time with Fed's sliced balls.  Nole used to be bad at handling slices in the old days, but he has generally improved over the years, but today he was iffy.  Nole can play better than he played today, but still, it was a very well played match by Rog.

[Jahu]

He cant rally with Djoko or Nadal or anyone, he is OLD and he must keep point short.

Price to pay to stay in matches, so however long Feds decides to play, it will be short points as possible.

[Henman Bill]

Enjoyable match, Federer's tactic of coming to the net so often just about worked, while he was able to cut out the errors and Djokovic seemed to make more errors for no reason. Djokovic at his best when on the brink of losing as often the case. Fed keeps the race for year end no 1 alive.

[Henman Bill]

Sometimes Becker's body language suggests to way that his relationship with Djokovic is about 2 big defeats away from failing. I don't see he is really helping Djokovic in any way. I suppose with a Wimbledon crown and no 1 in the world you can't really argue though.

[Henman Bill]

Don't forget everyone, Federer has struggled with Simon.

Initially went 0-2 down and while 4-2 up now two of those were close 5 setters in slams and one was a retirment.

[Guest]

Fantastic.  This was so satisfying to watch for a Fed fan.  Fed looked much the better player throughout; the score really could have easily been much more one-sided.

This match reminded me how much I miss all-court tennis.  I would love if tennis could move in this direction - not decided by servefasts, but neither stuck with endless rallies.

Totally agree.

But not only does Federer play the all court game but he plays it the best.

None of the other top guys come close to matching his variety.

There was a rally in this match of about 12 shots - every shot Federer played differently. And he does all this with such effortless ease.

Anyone who plays tennis at a reasonable standard will know how difficult it is to transition smoothly between different shots requiring different grips and positioning. Federer is just so natural at it.

[Jahu]

Simon will be scared from Fed fans tomorrow.

Also Rolex might have a few expensive words with him, before the match

[summerblues]

Final is played 4:30am my time.  I think that is too early; cannot see myself getting up for that.

[TRuffin]

Federer!!!!!!

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