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

[mrzz]

Twisted, the way I see "overplaying" is something that happens within a context. Had he playing week in, week out, I would agree with you. But he had a long break coming into IW and also spent very little time in court (for a guy who won it). It does not sound like overplaying at all -- even factoring in that he does not need to practice too much ahead of Miami, given the courts and climate are reasonably similar.

Sounds like a good risk/reward relation to me, given everything.

 

[Federberg]

Twisted, the way I see "overplaying" is something that happens within a context. Had he playing week in, week out, I would agree with you. But he had a long break coming into IW and also spent very little time in court (for a guy who won it). It does not sound like overplaying at all -- even factoring in that he does not need to practice too much ahead of Miami, given the courts and climate are reasonably similar.

Sounds like a good risk/reward relation to me, given everything.

Yes I have to agree with this. The draw of death ended up being a cake walk for him. He didn't really stretch himself physically at all. In fact, Indian Wells seems to have been a nice warm up tournament for him to prepare for Miami. After that though, I think he shouldn't bother with clay court warm ups until perhaps the one just before RG. Anything more and then I start to side with Twisted

 

[MikeOne]

I think also his racquet change was a very important decision which benefited him huge. After Rafa match, he was saying by using the bigger one he doesn't shank it, he can come over it much easier with more power with his backhand. The trade-off he said he lost a bit with the forehand (surely doest look as wicked anymore) but overall the gain far outweighs the loss. I would think it has something to do with Edberg/Ivan as Fed got adventurous with new racquet under their guidance and it's paid great dividends.

i use his new racquet too. I tried it out and what i liked about it is that it's heavy (12.6 ounces i believe). The super light racquets never felt good to me, i prefer heavier racquets. Like Federer, i use an eastern grip on fh side and have a 1 handed backhand and it could be mental but i feel i can hit the bh side better, although it was always my best side. For me though, it's not the frame size (i also used smaller frame before), it's the weight of the racquet. For some reason i feel like i can unwind my backhand stroke better with a heavier racquet, with lighter racquet the acceleration was too much and i sort of mishit the ball too often. My fh is the same but i do notice Fed's fh isn't as explosive and wicked as it used to be. I don't think it's racquet though, his fh has lost something for many years, his fh from 04-08 was nastier than his fh from 08-17...

 

[MikeOne]

Leaving aside the sorpresive results in this last AO and IW, did Federer dominate since 2010 until 2016? just asking....

Have no idea what you are getting at, odd response here. Are you really asking if Fed dominated between 10-16? no, but he dominated between 04-07... something Novak nor Nadal have been able to do (they have been more up and down)

 

[Federberg]

i use his new racquet too. I tried it out and what i liked about it is that it's heavy (12.6 ounces i believe). The super light racquets never felt good to me, i prefer heavier racquets. Like Federer, i use an eastern grip on fh side and have a 1 handed backhand and it could be mental but i feel i can hit the bh side better, although it was always my best side. For me though, it's not the frame size (i also used smaller frame before), it's the weight of the racquet. For some reason i feel like i can unwind my backhand stroke better with a heavier racquet, with lighter racquet the acceleration was too much and i sort of mishit the ball too often. My fh is the same but i do notice Fed's fh isn't as explosive and wicked as it used to be. I don't think it's racquet though, his fh has lost something for many years, his fh from 04-08 was nastier than his fh from 08-17...

I second this! His forehand at his peak was the most lethal shot I've ever seen. It was an absolute point ender. These days he can obviously still hit winners (although he doesn't really have a running forehand to the forehand side anymore), but it seems to be mroe effort-ful now than back in the day. This is why I'm always amazed when people talk about him being as good as ever. You can't lose the single most lethal shot in tennis history and be as good

 

[DarthFed]

Yes I have to agree with this. The draw of death ended up being a cake walk for him. He didn't really stretch himself physically at all. In fact, Indian Wells seems to have been a nice warm up tournament for him to prepare for Miami. After that though, I think he shouldn't bother with clay court warm ups until perhaps the one just before RG. Anything more and then I start to side with Twisted

I agree with the gist of this. Also, he did play Dubai even though he went out early so it could be 3 tournaments over about 4 weeks which is something you probably don't want him to be doing at this point. But he did win this tournament really easily and got the walkover from Kyrgios. I think it comes down to how he's feeling in the middle of this week. If he's feeling fresh, might as well play.

 

[Carol]

Have no idea what you are getting at, odd response here. Are you really asking if Fed dominated between 10-16? no, but he dominated between 04-07... something Novak nor Nadal have been able to do (they have been more up and down)

Very easy to get it, you should count with certain circumstances to be able to domine or not like who were the opponents and also the injuries which unfortunately is a tough barrier to keep the domination.

 

[DarthFed]

I thought it was very high quality in the 1st set and then the level dropped a bit in the 2nd set but at no time did I consider it a slop fest. Stan especially was hot and cold that last set but Roger was quite steady throughout aside from a couple service games where he couldn't buy a 1st serve. Both of them played better than what they did in Australia which was not a high quality affair by any means.

 

[britbox]

Final Pressers:

 

[mrzz]

I figured level wise it was one of the worst Federer matches in IW -- even if I completely agree that it was far from a slop fest. What I considered as a positive is that on the second set Wawrinka started to channel his Stanimal self, with some absurd winners out of nowhere, and even so Federer found a way to win it.

 

[DarthFed]

I didn't see Fed's match with Johnson but the only bad set I saw him play aside from that was the 2nd set vs. Sock. Stan was hitting even bigger in the 2nd set as you said but he was missing a bunch more. I thought the first set was better from both of them.

 

[mrzz]

I did not express myself correctly -- I should have used "less good" or something else instead of "worst". The lowest he got in this tournament was at least "decent".

I saw the Johnson match. For me it was pretty high quality as both players were playing super fast, giving very few looks in their own service games, and apart from one odd error here and there, very low UFE count, which given the speed was quite a feat. What you get on the highlights was pretty much the general feel of the match.