Australian Open Day 5: Friday, January 23

[Haelfix]

Seppi needs to win this set and go for broke on some of the service games. Roger will crush him if this goes to 5

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Ok. That is good, finally a set won. I opened my scotch bottle. :snigger

Fed's unforced error count has now crossed 40. He is having too many shanks...
and as Darth said the unforced errors are NOT due to the result of going for
too much either; most of them are plain shanks.

Seppi is having lot of forehand winners which are powerful groundies hit after
drawing Fed to the backhand side and making him run around a backhand ball.
This seems to be the new strategy for getting Fed these days. Gone are the days
of breaking him by repeatedly giving him backhand shots. Nowadays, you give
him back hand shots and if he runs around it, then hit a powerful forehand winner
of it which would not give Fed much time to get to it.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Seppi needs to win this set and go for broke on some of the service games. Roger will crush him if this goes to 5

Agreed.

The way Seppi plays is somewhat of an anomaly in today's tennis as he hits pretty flat from the baseline despite not necessarily being overpowering, but he can take time away from you. He's always been tricky in that regard.

 

[Kirijax]

Once a lower ranked player gets way out in front, so often you start to see that deer-in-the-headlights look, their play changes and before you know it they have lost a 5-set match and go home wondering what the heck just happened. Smyczek style.

 

[Carol]

Poor Sousa, what a beating by Muzz:blush:

 

[kskate2]

That was sick! The trick shot magic might be what he needed to revitalize himself. It will be tough for Seppi to pull this set out now.

He's got no business even trying trick shots down a set. :nono

 

[Haelfix]

Seppi is beating Roger in straight up neutral rallies. Having said that many players can outbaseline Roger these days, he's just really hard to break b/c his hold games puts him so far ahead in court positioning and it takes a special returner to really get a feel for his service motion.

I get the feeling that Seppi is guessing right on quite a few of the serves.

Anyway, if Roger's return game doesn't improve soon, this might go to another tiebreaker.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Roger is struggling to put enough spin on his forehand for some reason. This is resulting in so many shanks. Needs to continue to get free points on serve to take some pressure off. He's serving second, and he doesn't want to face the pressure of being down 15-30 on serve or something like that. If he breaks Seppi it would be game over though.

 

[DarthFed]

The 4th is the hardest to win for the 2 set down comebacks against the badly overmatched players. In their minds they don't really believe they can win in easy straights and the better player badly wants to avoid complete humiliation. And if it gets to a 5th the guy who won the last 2 sets has all the momentum. That leaves the 4th set to try to get it done. In Federers last 2 comebacks from 2 sets down he had the tough 4th sets vs Monfils and benneteau

 

[brokenshoelace]

Also, credit to Seppi, Fed will have to play some inspired tennis in the rallies as the Italian is hitting the ball really well and changing directions with ease. Fed isn't getting any freebies, which he could use at this point.

 

[DarthFed]

The chip and charge play is just terrible, particularly on the big 30-30 point. Losing play percentage wise.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Federer needs to forget about chip and charge. And I HATE how commentators always act like it's a good idea, even when the execution is poor. Seriously, what is the success/failure ratio of chip and charge these days? It can't be good.

 

[Haelfix]

You can see that he's irratated with his baseline strokes, which is why he's going for some of these silly chip and charge plays that Seppi keeps winning.

 

[brokenshoelace]

If Roger wants to take risks in his return games, he's better off actually going after a return and try hitting through instead of the stupid chip and charge.

 

[Carol]

Once a lower ranked player gets way out in front, so often you start to see that deer-in-the-headlights look, their play changes and before you know it they have lost a 5-set match and go home wondering what the heck just happened. Smyczek style.

And usually those players like Smyczek, Rosol, Kyrgios etc etc lose in the next match

 

[Haelfix]

Seppi wins literally every single serve that targets the Federer backhand. I don't think any of the top guys have a weakness of that magnitude. I mean it's really interesting, b/c its particularly bad against servers who don't hit that hard and that put a little more spin.

 

[Vince Evert]

OMG ! Keep fighting Roger. The Italian is sure to go off the boil. Broken Shoelace is right about the chip and charge tactics. They don't appear to be working. I would like to see Roger play (and manoeuvre) Seppi more from the baseline, not give the Italian a target.

 

[Vince Evert]

If Roger wants to take risks in his return games, he's better off actually going after a return and try hitting through instead of the stupid chip and charge.

Agreed. Because of the surface they're playing on.

 

[Haelfix]

I've thought for years that Roger should take a step back in his return of 2nd serve against guys who put a lot of spin on it, and then really step into the backhand return instead of hitting weak block backs from a more advanced court position.

Wawrinka and Gasquet both do it pretty well, and Roger certainly moves better than both.

 

[brokenshoelace]

You have to worry for Roger here. Return game and backhand are quite poor, and it's not like the forehand is being reliable. If he'd serving a little less effectively this would have been over already.