Well, I can't say I really have a lot of heart to write a blog post right now but it is the end of a big Masters 1000 so I will try to muster up the energy and find something to say. The above picture shows the way the match went and the way it feels trying to process it.
Anyone who watched the final between Nadal and Federer know that it was a blow-out match, a 6-1 6-3 win for Nadal. Whether Rafa really took it to Roger or Roger handed it to Rafa is up for debate - I would say more the latter. To me it seems that Rafa is simply in Roger's head in a big way and as soon as things start to go a bit wrong he starts doubting himself and can't make his shots. Of course, as he mentioned in his interview, the ball flies more in the daytime and bounces more, so given the fact that he had all evening matches, that certainly didn't help his cause. But no excuses here - it was simply a very bad day at the office and almost nothing he was doing was working, creating over twice the amount of errors as winners.
If you haven't listened to his interview, here it is:
It was interesting the way he talked about Nadal's build-up of playing the 250s and 500s on clay, plus his usual series of Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid and Rome, which has turned out the same as most years, with Nadal winning most of them. He has played seven clay tournaments to Roger's two. How can he compete with that?
While I am still very disappointed, not so much that he didn't win but that he didn't seem to have any answers whatsoever and pretty much gave it to him, it also makes sense that given the difference between the two in their preparation for this tournament, and given that Rafa is definitely in Roger's head, especially on clay, should we have expected a different outcome? I had hoped, with his confident talk after his semifinal win, that maybe Roger would be coming into the final with a solid game plan that could somehow find a way this time, but it simply wasn't to be.
The positives we can take out of it are that he made it to the final, going higher in this tournament than he did last year, and also that Nadal will now be seeded #4 for Roland Garros, meaning the soonest the two could meet would be the semis. Maybe Roger can put this loss to good use as he heads to Paris and starts his preparations. The draw comes out Friday with hopefully some good luck coming his way.
So the dream final is set. Rafael Nadal cruised through his semifinal, hardly troubled at all by Tomas Berdych. Rafa has played better as he has gone through the week, having lost a set in each of his previous two matches, but today he hit his stride and started playing the type of tennis we are used to seeing from him on clay. Amazingly he has now reached his 8th final in a row since his comeback after 7 months away from the game with injury.
On the other hand Roger Federer started out the week amazingly, losing only 6 games in his first two matches. Though he is still yet to lose a set, in his semifinal against Benoit Paire he was severely tested. Down a break in the 1st set he managed to break back thanks to some errors from Paire and it went to a tiebreak. But, to be honest, each man played a pretty terrible tiebreak, both of them seemingly want to give it away in errors. Federer somehow managed to walk away with the 1st set, however, and the second turned out to be a bit easier, getting an early break and somehow able to hold on. There were many more errors than I was comfortable with, but in the end he was able to close it out with little problems. So regardless of how he got there, Federer is now going to be playing his 111th career final, the 1,100th match in his career after passing the 8,000+ ace mark the night before. Not too shabby for this "aged" 31-year-old.
I must admit I would have preferred to have a Djokovic-Federer final, as Federer would have a much better chance at the title than he now has, given his dismal record on clay against Nadal. But that certainly doesn't mean that he doesn't have a chance. I would imagine the motivation will be very high and it is just unwise to write off Roger Federer, no matter the odds against him. So while I'm not expecting him to win it, I will certainly be hoping that somehow he might be able to make a dent in Rafa Nadal's incredible clay statistics and win his first trophy in Rome.
A quick side note into the women's side of things - Serena Williams has made it to the final losing only 10 games so far! It would seem her intensity on clay after her 1st round loss at the French last year is fierce. It will be interesting to see if Vika Azarenka has any chance of stemming the tide.
It was another good day for Roger Federer and his fans as he beat Gilles Simon 6-1 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals. Simon is one who has given him problems in the past and Roger knew he would need to be at the very top of his game to beat him. Generally Simon is known as one who just keeps getting everything back, not necessarily hitting a lot of winners, but very consistent - ok, yes, a pusher. This time Roger basically took it out of his hands, however, playing aggressively like he did in his first match and forcing Simon into many more errors than normal. Though Federer had a few more errors himself than he did in his first match, that makes sense against a very consistent player and he still had more winners than errors.
He continues to seem very motivated and determined, which he will need in his next match against hard-hitter Jerzy Janowicz, who has taken out two top 10 players this week. These two have never faced each other before and I'm sure each of them will be out to prove themselves in this match-up. They seem to have Fed on night shift right now, playing again in the second night match of the day, which can sometimes work against him with the cooler slower conditions. Maybe this will actually help him a bit against Janowicz, though, slowing down his power. I am hopeful that if can get through this one he will have a straight shot to the final (and do I dare hope his first title of the year?).
There was almost a huge upset in the match between Nadal and Gulbis. Gulbis came out simply on fire and Nadal looked a little nervous. The amazing part of this match to me was that Gulbis hit about five times the amount of winners to what Nadal hit, had a positive winners to errors ratio, yet somehow he still lost the match. Nadal has a way of squeaking through these matches and often goes on to win the title. What's scary is that Gulbis may not be seeded in the French Open. I feel sorry for anyone who gets him in their early rounds if he is playing as he was today.
Our eight remaining quarterfinalists are Djokovic-Berdych, Nadal-Ferrer, strangely Paire-Granollers and Janowicz-Federer. Can anyone keep the trophy out of Nadal's hands this weekend?
What an incredible display of tennis from the Maestro, Roger Federer, in his first match back after his unexpected early round loss in Madrid. I knew he was highly motivated by his press conference after losing last week and I could see it in the look in his eye on court today, especially in his first return game. In his match against Nishikori last week one of the things I was very disappointed with was that in the 1st and 3rd sets he made no impact in the return games. Today was a different story. Every point he looked extremely focused and intent on winning it. He played aggressively and seemed to be the one usually controlling the rallies. His stats for the match are amazing - 35 winners and just 8 unforced errors. This had to have felt as good as it looked!
But, of course, the biggest question is, what role did his short new haircut play in his performance?! It might take a little getting used to, but if this is what it does to his level of play, I will take it!
Obviously the matches will only get harder from here, but hopefully he got the feel of playing his brand of tennis again and will be able to go on and prove himself this week to the doubters that always come out every time he has a lull.
On another topic, I have to share this quote that I read from Tommy Haas's father:
“I’ve
never seen a tennis player – and I’ve met many athletes and champions
from all professions throughout Tommy’s entire career – as a person and a
complete athlete, Roger is so friendly, so cordial, so open with
people. With zero arrogance. The hair on my arm is almost standing up
right now. What I’m saying, in essence, it’s almost unbelievable that
this type of person exists. He’s such a pure, class act. In other words,
he’s humble. Yet he does not need to be.” Peter Haas (Tommy Haas’s father) about Roger
Just another reason his fans love him!
I woke up early once again to watch tennis this morning, not having any indication that it wasn't going to include a Federer win. In fact, even when he lost the first set I fully expected him to turn it around. I mean, of course he would show some rust after two months off, since he really didn't in his first match. The second set was brilliant Federer tennis with the shots his fans have learned to love over the years, and it totally looked like he had found his game. So what in the world happened in the final set?
He started with break points on Nishikori's game and I was hoping it was going to take a similar route to the second set, which he won 6-1. However, he was unable to capitalize on break points and, as so often happens in those situations, once those chances are gone they may not return. His error rate picked up tremendously and pretty soon he was missing all the important points. It was very disappointing for all those hoping he may finally defend a title this year when he meekly went out in the 3rd set 6-2, losing once again this year to a player ranked outside the top 10.
So where do we stand now in 2013? He has now played four tournaments that he won last year where he has lost before the final. Is it time to panic? I have found that I take losses a little easier than I did a couple years ago. I used to be devastated for even a couple days sometimes. However, I try to keep a few things in mind these days when he loses: 1) He is 31 years old and we can't expect him to keep winning all the time like he used to. 2) He has accomplished soooo much already in his career and everything else that he adds is icing on the cake at this point. 3) I think from now on he will have times like in the last six months which leave us all confused when he experiences mysterious losses, but I think he will also have those moments of glory where he all of a sudden becomes the GOAT, showing us everything he still has in his arsenal, and wins tournaments against the top guys just when we had resigned ourselves to the fact that it isn't going to happen anymore. And I think one or two of those glory moments will be another major or two to add to his resume.
At the end of the day I am still very disappointed that he is out in the third round. But I'm not going over the edge and saying he should hang it all up because he lost early after having a two month break. I had already told myself this was going to be a lean year with him deciding to take more extended breaks and practice times, and to bide my time. I would love to hear some comments on what others on feeling on this topic.
Here is his press conference after the match, looking subdued and clearly disappointed:
On a positive note, we did get to see some adorable shots of his girls watching their daddy. Here's one more to add to my previous post:
So for those who consider themselves Federer fans, let's not despair. Roger has a lot more in him and I think there are good things ahead in the next year.
The tennis world is back on course again with Roger Federer finally back on the courts, and with a 6-3 6-3 win over Radek Stepanek. Considering he hasn't played in almost two months, the rustiness I expected to be there was very limited. His winners to unforced errors ratio was good, his second serve points won was strong, and overall he looked like he has been practicing hard during his time away. Really the only problem he had was serving out the match, in which he wasted quite a few match points and ended up getting broken. But he quickly broke right back in the next game to win the match.
Here is a video of his interview after the match with Sky Sport in which he talks about the match and his plan for the rest of the year:
And the part for me that was almost exciting as seeing Roger play again and playing so well was seeing his girls finally in his box for a full match. Though obviously not too interested in watching Daddy play, Myla and Charlene were very well behaved through the entire event, looking at books through much of it. I hope this is just the beginning of seeing them frequently watching their dad work. Here are some cute pictures of the adorable Federer twins.
What a great way to start an exciting next couple months of tennis - seeing two much deserving men win build-up clay tournaments just as one of the big ones, Madrid, is getting started.
Last year at this time Tommy Haas was ranked over 100 points below his current ranking. Creeping into his mid 30s, who would have blamed anyone at that point in wondering if it was worth the effort to try to climb his way back to the top of the game. What an amazing run Tommy has put together this year. Previously with 13 titles, in the year 2013 he has now reached #13 in the rankings. But hopefully he's not too attached to that #13 (which is even in his twitter name, @TommyHaas13) because he now has 14 titles after a tremendous week in Munich, beating fellow German Philip Kohlschreiber. Now 35, he continues to amaze. I don't think anyone in their right mind has any right to ask any tennis player in their 30s when they plan to retire!
And what about Stan Wawrinka? After some incredible play already this year, taking Novak Djokovic to the brink in Australia, he finally has his hands on a trophy again, after not having won one since 2011. This will be confidence boosting for the often overlooked Swiss player, beating #4 ranked David Ferrer who is a great clay court player. Maybe this will be enough to help him get some of those really big wins that often seem to elude him.
The first round has already begun in Madrid with some of the big name women already being knocked out (Caroline Wozniacki and Li Na). What does the rest of the week hold, and more importantly, who will be holding the trophies come Sunday?
