US Open, Flushing Meadows, NY USA - Grand Slam (Men)

[GameSetAndMath]

In hindsight, I think Roger could have skipped Montreal and gone to Cincy. He could have spent the time making his body ready to take the pressure of tennis matches. And Cincy has a surface Roger knows better than anyone. Sigh.

Well, hindsight is 20/20. I agree with you though. The funny thing is that Roger is usually very clever at scheduling. The #1 carrot dangled and spoilt everything.

 

[Fiero425]

I am very happy actually to not see that Fedal again. I had enough for a lifetime.

Thanks, this was sweet, mainly because I was not expecting it.

You and me both! I've always thought Martina Navratilova was the GOAT; esp. taking 6 majors in a row, with winning streaks that will never be broken!, but by '93 even I was tiring of her! By '94 she was dropping early round matches and only made the Wimbledon final due to early upsets by everyone else like Graf in the 1st round to Lori McNeil! Seles had been stabbed the year before, but it didn't open it up for Martina who hadn't even played a major final since '91 USO! I was all for her playing doubles until she dropped, but she was embarrassing herself in singles! It'll happen to Roger and I think he should get out now on top with those 2 major wins I never saw coming! He's secured his GOAT'don because I don't think Nadal has the wheels to acquire 5 more majors at his age! He won't pull a Federer at 35 I don't think! ;-)

 

[Ricardo]

Well, hindsight is 20/20. I agree with you though. The funny thing is that Roger is usually very clever at scheduling. The #1 carrot dangled and spoilt everything.

as a strategist i think Federer failed miserably. First he surely should've skipped Montreal to save his back, most people have said. Even with that, he got the points and was trailing Murray by 5 points, and he could've just entered Cincy and forfeited the match to still earn enough points to secure the 2nd spot ranking. Since he didn't do that, Murray the gutless snake was allowed the chance to pull his trick (withdraw after the draw came out), and made sure a Fedal final would never happen.......much to the detriment of the tournament and that's of course also to his own little advantage.

 

[lob]

Least likely outcome was an easy win for DP. Still puzzled as to what Roger was thinking out there. Worst shot selection I've seen from him and way too many Andy Roddick moments. Time to regroup for 2018, he won't get to #1 after Nadal coasts to this easy title.

DP was hitting the ball really hard and pushing Roger back. The match reminded me of their 2009 final even if DP wasn't playing at that level. Roger was in panic out there from the start. Almost as if he was not thinking straight. No game plan. As tight as he was, no wonder his serve deserted him in that first set. He badly needed it then.
He couldn't lift his game after that. Credit to DP he didn't let Roger rattle him. DP was zoned in even if he was not in the zone. Contrast this to Cilic in SW19. He was playing well until he got rattled in that first set.

Leaving other variables aside, the pressure of being RF and the pre-tournament favorite in NYC doesn't help. No one can stay focussed in that NYC style hero-worshipping circus. The man is a gregarious human not a zen monk. Roger loves NY for its social life, fashion and entertainment but not its tennis. It's been like this for many years. At least, that's my take.

Sent from my 6045O using Tapatalk

 

[kskate2]

USO Order of Play for SF Thursday, September 7, 2017

 

[Front242]

Woke up at 5am and checked my phone and wanted to barf. Couldn't be bothered watching the final now most likely as I'll be on holiday. Haven't watched highlights and don't even want to as both the comments here and on tennis.com said it was a terrible match and neither guy even played well. Thanks for ruining my day, Roger. Glad to hear Del Potro is hitting his backhand though and happy for him in that respect. Wonder will Roger call it quits now for the rest of the season and work towards coming back strong in 2018 or hope to improve and play the WTF as he needs to win at least 1 more there imo.

 

[Obsi]

Are Nadal and Federer destined to never play each other at US Open?

 

[isabelle]

So if we get the Fedal semi, which is the likely scenario, has there ever been a match that's a "final before the final" more than this, in any sport? I mean, it's the two greatest tennis players of all time battling for a shot at taking on Kevin Anderson or Carreno Busta.

thanks Delpo for saving us from this boring semi...USO's much more interesting now, hope Delpo can beat Manacor's bull and win USO (why not ?) congrats to him anyway, he saved tennis one more time
goog luck Juan, you're both a great guy and a great player

 

[brokenshoelace]

There is nothing I hate more in tennis than a shitty approach shot and Federer fired dozens of them already. He, of all people..

This stood out the most to me. What was up with the Roddick forehand approaches?

This was almost a throwback match for Roger to his 2013 self where his game against these big hitters looks almost "intimidated." Weak returning, taking pace off his forehand, trying to play with too much variety for his own good, bad shot selection, etc... His choice to serve and volley on some key points, particularly that decisive third set tie break was baffling.

 

[brokenshoelace]

thanks Delpo for saving us from this boring semi...USO's much more interesting now, hope Delpo can beat Manacor's bull and win USO (why not ?) congrats to him anyway, he saved tennis one more time
goog luck Juan, you're both a great guy and a great player

I still would have loved to see Fedal at the US Open. It's unfortunate that we're not getting it IMO but I can see why someone who's not a fan of either guy wouldn't want to see it.

I don't think Rafa vs. DP is nearly the gimme Fed fans are making it out to be for Rafa. I think it's close to 50/50. Del Potro's cross court forehand will really trouble Nadal.

 

[britbox]

Lengthy post-match presser from Roger.



Dissects the match, talks about preparation, Delpo, Rafa...

 

[Federberg]

It's funny. I should be shocked. But I'm not. If it wasn't for his Laver Cup commitments I would say he should just shut down the year. Roger got lucky at Wimbledon. That was a burglary. The level we saw in the first quarter of the year has not been seen since. We all have to admit that. The only question I have is... are we ever going to see it again? The man still has a slam or two in him, but he's just added to the plot lines for 2018. We already have...

* How will Novak, Stan and Murray come back?
* How will Shapo and Zverev progress?

Now we have...

* Was early 2017 the last time we'll ever see TMF?

Coz this guy is just Roger....

 

[DarthFed]

It's funny. I should be shocked. But I'm not. If it wasn't for his Laver Cup commitments I would say he should just shut down the year. Roger got lucky at Wimbledon. That was a burglary. The level we saw in the first quarter of the year has not been seen since. We all have to admit that. The only question I have is... are we ever going to see it again? The man still has a slam or two in him, but he's just added to the plot lines for 2018. We already have...

* How will Novak, Stan and Murray come back?
* How will Shapo and Zverev progress?

Now we have...

* Was early 2017 the last time we'll ever see TMF?

Coz this guy is just Roger....

When Rafa wins this joke of a USO, Roger would be dumb not to pack it in for the year. He'd be down over 1800 points so he'd basically need to win Shanghai, Basel, and YEC just to come close. Even if Rafa somehow loses to Del Po I wouldn't mind seeing Roger think ahead for once and rest for the year but I doubt he would do that.

I do think you're selling him short this Wimbledon. Despite what a couple Rafa fans say Fed's path to that title was not easy on paper. If we call Mischa Zverev a top 15 guy on grass, which is reasonable, that means Fed beat 5 players that are top 15 on the surface. Yeah he didn't face Nole or Murray but that wouldn't have mattered this year. Winning a major without dropping a set is always impressive.

Fed is going to have to aim for #20 at Wimbledon next year, he's still underachieved a bit there and underachieved a ton in USO, the latter has become his personal house of horrors really.

 

[mrzz]

Well the 3rd last game Fed didn't get a single return in play. The 2nd last game he fell behind 0-30 after almost getting decapitated when he hit an easy put away right back to the Del Po forehand. He played a bunch of good points after that to hold. And then the highlight of the last game was an easy put away volley he almost hit into the stands to set up match point. If those were his best games he may have been worse than I thought.

You're right. I probably had in mind only the points to hold serve after 0-30. And the volley miss was bad, yes -- but even with that miss it was the better return game of the that set at least.

 

[Federberg]

When Rafa wins this joke of a USO, Roger would be dumb not to pack it in for the year. He'd be down over 1800 points so he'd basically need to win Shanghai, Basel, and YEC just to come close. Even if Rafa somehow loses to Del Po I wouldn't mind seeing Roger think ahead for once and rest for the year but I doubt he would do that.

I do think you're selling him short this Wimbledon. Despite what a couple Rafa fans say Fed's path to that title was not easy on paper. If we call Mischa Zverev a top 15 guy on grass, which is reasonable, that means Fed beat 5 players that are top 15 on the surface. Yeah he didn't face Nole or Murray but that wouldn't have mattered this year. Winning a major without dropping a set is always impressive.

Fed is going to have to aim for #20 at Wimbledon next year, he's still underachieved a bit there and underachieved a ton in USO, the latter has become his personal house of horrors really.

It's not about who he played mate. He wasn't moving around with the same fluidity or hitting his backhand with the same authority. If you'll remember I made that observation at the time. I'm not saying that he wasn't good, but he didn't have to bring out TMF. TMF went on holiday in late March and hasn't been seen since, probably hiking in the Alps. This Roger fella can play tennis, but not like TMF

 

[DarthFed]

It's not about who he played mate. He wasn't moving around with the same fluidity or hitting his backhand with the same authority. If you'll remember I made that observation at the time. I'm not saying that he wasn't good, but he didn't have to bring out TMF. TMF went on holiday in late March and hasn't been seen since, probably hiking in the Alps. This Roger fella can play tennis, but not like TMF

 

[brokenshoelace]

Wait, how did Roger get lucky at Wimbledon exactly? He won it without dropping a set.

 

[Federberg]

Wait, how did Roger get lucky at Wimbledon exactly? He won it without dropping a set.

Lol! This could be a turnaround. BS defending Roger against his fans. I'm just saying that he didn't play at a great level. We can call it luck or good fortune, but had he met anyone playing at a really high level things might have been different. Perhaps he could have raised his level, there's that argument, but I can't see how anyone can argue that he was playing at the sort of level that's been required in recent times. Fair play to him, he won. But it just feels like he got away with one there. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, just saying this was no where near the level he was playing at near the beginning of the year

 

[Busted]

Lengthy post-match presser from Roger.



Dissects the match, talks about preparation, Delpo, Rafa...

At the 2:32 mark Roger says something that shows why he always wins the Sportmanship award - that he hadn't played well the whole tournament and it was best that he was out and that someone playing better than he is gets a chance to win the tourney. As a pessimist I cannot help but be astounded that he just turned his loss into a positive - even for himself! He was playing crappy and knew he shouldn't even have made it to the quarters. Mary Carillo once said that Federer was probably the most positive, optimistic person she'd ever met and with this answer I can see why. He looks down at having lost but also knows he SHOULD have lost because he wasn't playing well. I also think it hurt him that the courts are so slow this year. He never really got his ground game going and when the courts are this slow it enabled guys to get to shots they normally wouldn't. This tourney felt very much like 2013 back injury Roger and not 2014-forward Roger. Hope he gets his crap together for the last 4 tournaments he's scheduled to play this year.

On another note hopefully DelPo has another good match in him and beats Nadal on Friday. He's way too good a player to not finally get his game together. He hit a few two-handers against Roger at key moments, so hopefully he's starting to get a bit more confidence in hitting that shot and will become less predictable going to the slice all the time.

 

[Busted]

Wait, how did Roger get lucky at Wimbledon exactly? He won it without dropping a set.

He played about 100X better at Wimbledon that he did at the US Open. His serve was all but untouchable at Wimbledon. He got 11 times in 5 matches in this tournament - and only 4 times in 7 matches at Wimbledon. So there's your answer right there. When he's not injured or recovering from an injury and he's confident, his serve is working and the rest of his game is dialed in then his variety and versatility make it hard for other players to beat him. It's as simple as that and that's why he won Wimbledon.