Indian Wells, BNP Paribas Open, CA, USA, ATP Masters 2017

[mightyjeditribble]

Amazing.

Well done Fed. Will he play Miami? He'd be #4 seed now, with Andy & Novak absent.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

The deatheless one emerges from the death quarter to life the crystal trophy. :clap :celeb:

 

[Puppet Master]

Stan (crying during the interview): "Roger is laughing, he is an asshole."
What a guy. Not the best match to be honest,but this is the nature of their matchup. Both can't stand to be defensive in a rally and end up going for too much, especially Stan. Overall it was good, but not great. I enjoyed it regardless.

 

[Cosmo]

 

[Busted]

So the old man wins a 5th AO and 5th IW - and now Djokovic and Murray are out of Miami with elbow injuries. Too early yet to speculate on an IW/Miami double...but I'm not really seeing anybody out there who can stop Roger right now - except himself.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Roger +8 and Stan -4 in the differential.

Roger executed deep high strokes which lead to a floater from Stan on which he comes in and finishes many times.

 

[Busted]

Stan (crying during the interview): "Roger is laughing, he is an asshole."
What a guy. Not the best match to be honest,but this is the nature of their matchup. Both can't stand to be defensive in a rally and end up going for too much, especially Stan. Overall it was good, but not great. I enjoyed it regardless.

I sort of felt like Roger was holding back on his shots because he knew Stan would implode eventually. He definitely didn't play as wel, or as aggressively,l as he did the rest of the tournament. Poor old Nadal is saying, "Why didn't he play that crappy against me?" :lolz:

 

[Busted]

Did Stan just call Roger an as&hole on mike, in front of the crowd and the camera?

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Yes, he did...and Roger laughed some more. :laydownlaughing Stan's starting to remind me of Chrissy during the years when Martina was blitzing her in every match. He's resigned himself to the eventual loss. Stan's gotta put some distance between himself and Roger or he's never going to be able to beat him in these big matches that aren't on clay. Or he can just accept his fate - Roger is better than he is and he can't hit him off the court like he can other players because Roger will just change his game plane and come forward and take the offensive. The match is always going to be on Roger's racket.

 

[Moxie]

Heck of a way to finish it off. The tennis fan in me wouldn't have minded if that brawl went to a 3rd set but of course I'm glad it didn't. Incredible start to the year to say the least. If he does play Miami he will be the #4 seed as Djoker and Murray have dropped out.

Happy for you, Twisted, and your fellow feddies. Do you think he should play Miami, or would you prefer him to skip? My understanding is that he's going to play a limited clay schedule.

 

[lob]

Busted...it felt like that to me too. But Stan shouldn't have sprayed as many errors as he did towards the end of the second set. When Roger is not playing very well the best strategy is for Stan to take care of his service and force Roger to go for too much.

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[Ricardo]

That has to be frightening for the rest of the tour, because I really didn't think Roger was that amazing apart from his Rafa win. Surely in the hunt for the number 1 ranking. Surely playing the best tennis on the planet right now

its embarrassing for the rest of the tour.

 

[MikeOne]

If you analyze Federer of 04-07 and compare him to this Federer, it's a different player. He has the same form (although i see some minor tweaks) and fluidity but playing a smarter, more efficient tennis. Back in his heyday, he liked to play defense, could sustain long rallies frequently and was more explosive on offense. Now, he tries to avoid defensive rallies, keeps points short and largely is on offensive mode. He doesn't have the speed, endurance, explosiveness and defense of the past but has re-tooled and acquired a style he can use at 35. Federer is definitely not the same player, he kind of looks slow compared to the past but he simply doesn't need the speed with how he is playing points. He is hitting his backhand very well. I think he can regain #1 but at 35, he will need to skip many tournaments, rest and just focus on slams and a few big tournaments. I think the lengthy rest he took last season, helped him a lot. It also helps that Novak is riding a low point right now after dominating for so many years....

 

[Ricardo]

If you analyze Federer of 04-07 and compare him to this Federer, it's a different player. He has the same form (although i see some minor tweaks) and fluidity but playing a smarter, more efficient tennis. Back in his heyday, he liked to play defense, could sustain long rallies frequently and was more explosive on offense. Now, he tries to avoid defensive rallies, keeps points short and largely is on offensive mode. He doesn't have the speed, endurance, explosiveness and defense of the past but has re-tooled and acquired a style he can use at 35. Federer is definitely not the same player, he kind of looks slow compared to the past but he simply doesn't need the speed with how he is playing points. He is hitting his backhand very well. I think he can regain #1 but at 35, he will need to skip many tournaments, rest and just focus on slams and a few big tournaments. I think the lengthy rest he took last season, helped him a lot. It also helps that Novak is riding a low point right now after dominating for so many years....

so you don't think Novak is close enough to his peak?

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

I taped the thing to watch and the only part I had to rewind , to be sure, was when Stan called Roger an a hole ! That was funny stuff !

Well done Roger. Not a classic by any means but considering how his side of the draw looked at the beginning, this is a remarkable win, no?

 

[MikeOne]

so you don't think Novak is close enough to his peak?

see my post on the Novak thread... after the insane dominance of 2015-16, novak is burnt out. He will need like a year to get back his top form. Remember 2011? what happened in 12 and 13? Novak crashed.. Baseliners like Nadal, Novak, murray and Agassi cannot dominate for too long, their styles are too taxing on the mind and body. These types of players can dominate for 1-2 years and then go away for 1 year...

 

[Haelfix]

Playing in the heat is really a mental game. Balls sail on you, and so there is a weird doublethink moment where u don't want to overhit , but then hitting too softly can lead to errors or easy points as well.

There were a few games in the 2nd where I think Stan was outplaying Fed, and Federer banked on him UEing himself off the court. So he would vary the pace and height and looked for the error.

I think stans mistake was to trust his power, whereas he should have rallied to Federers backhand, which had been shanking all match. The right call was going for the error as opposed to the win.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Today, Roger clearly played better than Stan and won his first final against Stan.

However, I strongly feel Stan had Roger on ropes big time in AO match and I don't even know how Roger won that match. It seemed to me that Stan was the better player for most of the time in that match.

 

[Ricardo]

Good post, here shows why Ivan is a great coach and the result is evidence. Fed has really evolved over the years out of necessity, that he totally avoids a physical match which is his obvious weakness at his age. Both Edberg and Ivan have done well for him to adapt to the change.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

IW is 90th title of Roger. It looks like he can definitely reach 100 mark before retiring even though beating Connor's record might be difficult as it would require winning another ten titles after reaching 100.

 

[mightyjeditribble]

Some interesting points from Christopher Clarey (NYT Tennis writer) on twitter:

Federer said his pre-season goal was to be back in the top 8 after Wimbledon.

Federer would like to have to start to play in Miami as late as possible (guess that means Saturday?), but plans to play.