Cincinnati MS 1000 Final 2018 - Federer v. Djokovic

[DarthFed]

Novak's easiest match of the week by far. Federer fared worse than Steve Johnson, Mannarino, Dimitrov, etc.

 

[herios]

Nole is the king of masters!!!!!
Yeah, baby.

 

[Fiero425]

Now I have to go and change all my blogs; NOLE's numbers have increased yet again on a superb surprise! WOW! :whistle:

 

[atttomole]

I would like to say that he thought he could skate his way to a win without putting in the work, but what do you say to a dude who does that and still gets to finals? It would probably have been better for him to lose to someone earlier to really shake up his thinking. It would take a miracle for him to be a contender in Flushing as things stand

I think its fine because he needed match play. I don't think it is bad preparation for the US Open, because he now knows what he has to work on.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

This is crazy. Fed's ROS is so terrible that at one point of time the commies said 69% of Novak's second serves went unreturned. At the end of first set, Fed had won only 1 pt of Novak's second serve.

 

[golds girl]

Novak uh...looks pretty formidable...confidence is high and he's 95% back...I don't think he's at his 100% yet.
U.S. Open is his to lose.

 

[Jelenafan]

Novak....congrats!!

9 Master rings to rule them all... he must be so thrilled.

 

[The_Grand_Slam]

As I feared Federer woeful ROS letting him down horribly this week.

First straight set loss since last years Montreal Final.

Congrats to Djokovic.Struggled all week but saved his best for the final.I noticed though that he DFed thrice on BP this week from the matches I saw.Once today and twice in the Raonic match iirc.

Completes the masters set defeating the best player at the tournament.Fitting achievement.

 

[Moxie]

Big day for the Novak fans and the man himself. He surely looks ready for Flushing Meadows. (You do have to include the "Meadows." ) Roger couldn't summon any mojo. It's hard to see him winning the USOpen.

 

[herios]

One consolation for the Fed fans is that he is still the classy guy in his post match speech. The communication skills are still the best, even though his game deteriorated.

 

[lob]

Well I'd say he was or at least should've been embarrassed by the Wimbledon loss. This is an embarrassment too but not as important as one. If he isn't embarrassed by this match then it's just not going to happen.

Wimbledon was sad. Not winning Cincy doesn't matter and Djokovic deserves this. Not getting it up after being 2-0 sets up in a Wimbledon QF vs.Anderson was something else. Btw where the f&@k is Ljubcic?

 

[DarthFed]

I would like to say that he thought he could skate his way to a win without putting in the work, but what do you say to a dude who does that and still gets to finals? It would probably have been better for him to lose to someone earlier to really shake up his thinking. It would take a miracle for him to be a contender in Flushing as things stand

I think you're right, that a straight set loss to Stan or Goffin may have been preferable to wake him up. But we know Roger doesn't play for second place, especially at events he has owned. The question is whether he is embarrassed by this and it motivates him to play better. If this week wasn't a wake up call after Wimbledon then we know what the biggest problem is...

 

[DarthFed]

One consolation for the Fed fans is that he is still the classy guy in his post match speech. The communication skills are still the best, even though his game deteriorated.

I don't give a shit about any of that, how many wins does sportsmanlike behavior get you?

 

[Moxie]

I think you're right, that a straight set loss to Stan or Goffin may have been preferable to wake him up. But we know Roger doesn't play for second place, especially at events he has owned. The question is whether he is embarrassed by this and it motivates him to play better. If this week wasn't a wake up call after Wimbledon then we know what the biggest problem is...

Do you really think he's not motivated to play better? Surely he'd have played better today if he could have. So what IS his biggest problem?

 

[DarthFed]

Wimbledon was sad. Not winning Cincy doesn't matter and Djokovic deserves this. Not getting it up after being 2-0 sets up in a Wimbledon QF vs.Anderson was something else. Btw where the f&@k is Ljubcic?

I'm wondering that too. Roger seems to play a lot better when he's there, I think his intensity lights more of a fire under him. That said he was there at Halle and Wimbledon too and we know how those went.

 

[monfed]

Fed is in terminal decline. He can't find any sort of consistency anymore.

 

[DarthFed]

Do you really think he's not motivated to play better? Surely he'd have played better today if he could have. So what IS his biggest problem?

Yes I do think there has been a dropoff in motivation after Fed won #20 and got back to #1. It's pretty understandable. I'm a greedy bastard and even I understand that part of it . These guys are human, we saw Djoker go through the same thing after winning RG in 2016. Maybe it was even part of it for Rafa in his down years though it didn't seem as pronounced as Fed getting to #20 and Djoker finally getting RG and having all 4 at once.

 

[monfed]

Compare the end of Rotterdam to today. Just goes to show how quickly things change in tennis.

I feel that IW choke to Delshitro crushed Fed's confidence. He has been choking left and right since.

 

[atttomole]

Yes I do think there has been a dropoff in motivation after Fed won #20 and got back to #1. It's pretty understandable. I'm a greedy bastard and even I understand that part of it . These guys are human, we saw Djoker go through the same thing after winning RG in 2016. Maybe it was even part of it for Rafa in his down years though it didn't seem as pronounced as Fed getting to #20 and Djoker finally getting RG and having all 4 at once.

Don't you think age could be an issue as well?

 

[Federberg]

Don't you think age could be an issue as well?

I'm starting to think it is THE issue sadly