Broken_Shoelace said:
Please, if you want to have a constructive conversation, stop being so dense. The "low percentage" thing was in reference to FEDERER, and where he stands currently. Have you watched him this year?
Yes, I saw a number of his matches, including ones such as the encounters with Del Potro at the end of the season where he went toe-to-toe in long rallies for hours with a talented, athletic, powerful shotmaker in his "prime". In these matches, Federer showed that he had plenty of game left, to put it mildly. The fact that I even have to describe it that way to you is sad, but your age obsession almost forces me into it.
Yes, Broken, if you are going toe-to-toe with Del Potro in long rallies and beat him 2 out of 3 times at significant events (Paris and World Tour Finals), you are not playing at the level of the 42nd-ranked player in the world. Let's also not forget that all three of these matches I am referencing (I could reference many others) came AFTER Delpo's great run in Shanghai, which included a straight-set thrashing of the player with the "best forehand in the game".
Speaking of that latter player, Federer should have beaten him in Cincinnati, and that match was more than competitive. Federer had control and simply failed to close it out. It is becoming silly on your part to talk as if Federer is just "so far off" from winning these types of matches. He simply is not as far off as you continually say.
Even if you are looking at it like a stathead, you can come to this conclusion: Federer took Djokovic to three sets twice in the midst of one of the strongest runs in his career, the indoor season at the end of 2013. So, there you have it - Federer managed to take a set off of the great 26-year-old Novak Djokovic in two different matches during a run in which Djokovic was the best player in the world for those few tournaments and was thoroughly beating pretty much everyone he faced.
Broken_Shoelace said:
Have you seen how off his game he was?
Yeah, it was just downright terrible. So off it can't even be described.:laydownlaughing
Broken_Shoelace said:
Have you seen how poor forehand is?
Yeah, it was so horrible in the third set of the Cincinnati match when he finally opened things up and hit more winners in 10 minutes than Nadal did during the entire final match of the World Tour Finals with the "best forehand in the game".
Broken_Shoelace said:
So yeah, firing forehands down the line at will (especially on the run) like you suggested against Nadal in their Cinci was likely going to be a low percentage proposition.
Total nonsense. First of all, Federer was moving more than well enough to hit offensive shots on the run. But - and this is much more important - what I was calling for was not so much hitting forehands down the line on the run, but avoiding absolutely pointless, counterproductive, wasteful exchanges in which Federer often hits 4 to 6 crosscourt forehands, including massive bombs that he truly thinks will somehow give him a major advantage, against Nadal. He does this when forehands down the line or inside-out forehands from the middle of the court would completely open up the court for him, give him an edge in the rally, and afford him a wider array of options with how to conclude the point.
This is not "low percentage". What is "low percentage" is following your "controlled offense" approach. That is precisely what has led to his woeful 10-22 record against Nadal.
Broken_Shoelace said:
Federer isn't nearly as consistent as Djokovic anymore, and at this point, on a match-to-match basis, his forehand isn't as good.
Nonsense. The only way you can say this is if you measure forehands strictly in your boring sense of landing in a lot. The big differences right now between Djokovic and Federer are the backhands and ability to sustain high levels of physicality in matches. Federer's problem is not his forehand. In fact, it is still more of an offensive weapon most of the time than Djokovic's. That is not his problem.
Broken_Shoelace said:
The fact that Djokovic did it against Nadal in Monte Carlo has nothing to do with Federer being able to do it in Cinci.
Are you kidding me?
I can't believe I have to point this out to you - but Federer very nearly won the match in Cincinnati. It was not 6-1, 6-2. Did you forget that?
Federer won the first set, and simply failed to close out the second - just like Dubai 2006. There were plenty of long, high-level rallies in which Federer defended well and showed great variety on his shots. He also hit an array of winners with his forehand. Because he was so involved in the rallies, there were plenty of rallies where the shots I pointed at from the end of the Monte Carlo final would have worked. Watch the two points I made reference to and seriously try to tell me that those shots wouldn't have worked in the Cincinnati match.
Broken_Shoelace said:
I don't imagine what Federer can do to Nadal on hard courts because he's not that player anymore.
Goodness gracious can you be depressing with your cliches and "in-the-box" mentality. "Federer is 32, therefore he can't hit advanced shots anymore". Is that it? All you have to say here?
Federer was just a small handful of points from winning the Cincinnati match. He did not get blown away by any stretch. Most people who watched the match understood this. It was an ugly loss for Federer, and one which really fit a pattern for him over the years when facing Nadal.
Broken_Shoelace said:
Never mind the fact that you can't just look at forehands alone, since to actually be in that position to fire the forehand, you have to take into account backhand, movement, defense, point construction, consistency, etc...
I do take all of that into consideration. And when I see Federer have ample opportunity within rallies to take control with a very makeable forehand down the line and he opts to just keep cracking CC forehands to no end, I get annoyed. The fact that his movement and consistency aren't at A+ level anymore doesn't mean that they have fallen to F or even C level. It's more like a B+, A- right now, with occasional moments where he is above the A-. And when playing on a surface like Cincinnati, A- movement is more than good enough for him (i.e. ROGER FEDERER) to go for some forehands down the line.
Broken_Shoelace said:
It's not like the ball magically ends up in a position for Federer to fire a forehand.
Yeah, you're right. But even without magic the ball does end up in a position for him to forehands down the line and forehands inside-out from the middle of the court against Nadal much more than he does. He just chooses not to.
Broken_Shoelace said:
And yeah, of course he had plenty of opportunities to do so, but as I said, no, he's not that consistent anymore.
Yeah, too bad he can't be as consistent as he was in the 5th set of the Australian Open in 2009. That was a STANDARD of consistency right there.
Broken_Shoelace said:
It's the same old thing. You bring up the same iffy point by providing a different unrelated video.
No, the video is actually very related. Both the Djokovic-Nadal series and Federer-Nadal series involve long rallies in which decisions are made about how to deal with the opponent's game. In both cases, Djokovic and Federer do well to go down the line aggressively with their forehand. The highlights I posted illustrate this.