Dubai Duty Free Championships, UAE, ATP 500

[Front242]

Just got home not long ago from the gym and before checking tennis.com I actually had a sneaking suspicion Federer had lost. Right I was. Didn't expect him to lose with such big leads though but nothing to be alarmed about. Good match for Donskoy, bad match for Federer. Roger said Donskoy played very well too. It's a long season and everyone will lose matches along the way. Be worse if he'd lost in that fashion in a final.

 

[Moxie]

Really uncharacteristic loss for Roger, but Donskoy showed a lot of heart, especially down 1-5 in the final TB. Also when he broke back when Fed was serving for it in the 3rd.

 

[El Dude]

Well ultimately Dubai is kind of a glorified warm-up for the two big March Masters tournaments, so there's that.

 

[britbox]

Results from the Dubai Championships Men's Singles Round 2 matches on Wednesday

Evgeny Donskoy (Russia) beat 3-Roger Federer (Switzerland) 3-6 7-6(7) 7-6(5)
Damir Dzumhur (Bosnia and Herzegovina) beat Marcel Granollers (Spain) 6-3 6-4
1-Andy Murray (Britain) beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spain) 6-2 6-0
Robin Haase (Netherlands) beat 5-Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) 3-6 6-3 6-4
4-Gael Monfils (France) beat Daniel Evans (Britain) 6-4 3-6 6-1
7-Lucas Pouille (France) beat Marius Copil (Romania) 6-1 6-4
Fernando Verdasco (Spain) beat 6-Roberto Bautista (Spain) 6-4 3-6 7-5
Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) beat Daniil Medvedev (Russia) 6-4 6-4

 

[britbox]

Evgeny Donskoy (Russia) beat 3-Roger Federer (Switzerland) 3-6 7-6(7) 7-6(5)

 

[britbox]

With Fed and Stan out, Murray's looking pretty good for a maiden Dubai title.

 

[Carol]

If we talk about players and their necessary movements (all of them need it otherwise they couldn't get too many good results) then Novak would be dead already because I've never seen someone (It doesn't matter how much yoga he can do) running and trying to reach the balls so hard and so fast like him. Of course when they have a vey good serve they can safe a little bit the effort to run but anyone they do, one by one without any exception

 

[El Dude]

Yes, Carol, I agree. When I say that Rafa relies upon movement more than most, I was mainly thinking of his ability to get to any ball, but you are also right that his weak serve makes it more important for him to move well.

And he still moves great! Compared to mortals. But compared to Rafa 2013 and before? He's lost a fraction, I think. All players do.

As for Novak, he might be going through something similar, and he is most definitely going to substantially decline when he slows noticeably.

 

[the AntiPusher]

El Dude are you saying 2009 Rafa wins the 2017 AO over this version of Roger..

 

[DarthFed]

Hey, @Twisted, I watched it all too, without getting in to details I was under the impression that Federer was, as Rory Gallagher would put it, a million miles away...

It's definitely not a good performance when you blow so many chances to put away the match but I thought Donskoy took the game to Roger for much of it and he did play great with his back against the wall. I'd say what Roger did really bad this match was to not target his opponent's weaker side. Donskoy' forehand is huge and he was not missing much at all off that wing yet Roger didn't really do much to avoid it.

All said and done it's just Dubai and Fed still is playing well. Hope for a very good run in IW and then maybe he will skip Miami.

 

[kskate2]

Can you guys not turn every thread into a Fedal debate? I know it's hard, but can ya'll at least try? Pretty please? Thanks a bunch!

 

[the AntiPusher]

Can you guys not turn every thread into a Fedal debate? I know it's hard, but can ya'll at least try? Pretty please? Thanks a bunch!

Maybe we need to have an everything regarding Fedal thread only :laydownlaughing

 

[kskate2]

Can you guys not turn every thread into a Fedal debate? I know it's hard, but can ya'll at least try? Pretty please? Thanks a bunch!

Maybe we need to have an everything regarding Fedal thread only :laydownlaughing

Heehee. Been there, done that brotha... :lolz:

 

[Front242]

El Dude are you saying 2009 Rafa wins the 2017 AO over this version of Roger..

Doubt it. Roger's backhand now is WAY better than before. Imo if he'd used that bigger racquet years ago he may have won more slams by now. Rafa had no answer for Roger's backhand or level of aggression in general. He won 2 sets mainly due to Roger's lack of focus. To quote a poster from Youtube which sums things up very well:

"coaches before matches against Federer: "hit it to his backhand" coaches at AO 2017: " .... "

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

Credit and congratulations to Donskoy who played great tennis overall. He was never bogged down and took the match in the end. It's a bummer for Roger obviously since he had no points to defend here and the court is pretty slick too. But, an opportunity gone is an opportunity gone. No point in dwelling in it. Let's just move on. Roger did play a good match too. As he said before the tournament, his 3-day prep wasn't all that great. Anyway, his groundstrokes look cool and his BH looked just like how it looked at the AO.

Indian Wells won't offer the same court and Roger won't have a great draw either. No big expectations. We will have to accept whatever results he gets.

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

By the way, I just wanted to point out that we are going to see a new champion at Dubai. Mostly Murray. Let's see.

 

[mrzz]

My point was that he look completely uninterested in the match. So it does not surprise me he wasn´t avoiding Donsloy´s FH....

 

[isabelle]

Sir Andy for the title, hope he can play great all week long

 

[isabelle]

Sir Andy should win Dubai, I wish him good luck

 

[DarthFed]

My point was that he look completely uninterested in the match. So it does not surprise me he wasn´t avoiding Donsloy´s FH....

I know and I agree to a point. I do think Roger was dialed in but at the same time he didn't feel the need to adjust to a low ranked opponent at a small tournament. In the big events I think you'd have seen him adjust and start serving and hitting to Donskoy's backhand more. The good news is Roger is still hitting his backhand really well. It wasn't at AO level but it was still lethal from what I saw in his two matches. That bodes well for the rest of the year if he can keep that up. His forehand is the only thing that let him down yesterday as he was clearly having problems with the pace and depth from Donskoy's forehand.

I don't usually do the whole "if player X plays like that he will beat anybody" because matchups are obviously a big thing in tennis. But I will say if Donskoy somehow keeps up that level (which I'm not expecting) he probably wins this tourney. Yes I said it