Delray Beach – interesting results

Delray Beach is a 250 event that has great tennis but rarely augurs major shifts in the balance of power in the men’s game.  However, this week was different.  Frances Tiafoe, a young American who showed signs of major improvements late last year, went all the way, defeating Juan Martin del Potro and Denis Shapovalov along the way.   He did it with a reasonably powerful serve, a big forehand, and consistency from the baseline.   One thing you can count on if he wins: he will describe it as “unbelievable”, a word he employed more than 10 times in just a couple of minutes of post match chatting.  Given the development in his play of late, the result was actually not so unbelievable.  He looked quite solid in winning, and it will be interesting to see where he stands on the American men’s tennis ladder in a few months.

Another surprise was the other finalist, Peter Gojowczyk of Germany, ranked in the 60’s.  He beat John Isner and Steve Johnson on his way to the final.  He was beaten handily in the final, but may have been hampered slightly by injury.  His ranking is now 51, and Tiafoe moved uup 30 spots to 61.  These guys will both be in more main draws now, so we’ll see what they can do. 

Kvitova is back.  Petra Kvitova has run off a string of big wins, capped by the title in Doha.  In a 13 match winning streak she defeated Svitolina, Wozniaki (probably should have lost that one), and Muguruza.  It’s weird that a player who won Wimbledon twice could be called an underachiever, but such is the case with Kvitova, who lost many more matches than she should have prior to her hand injury.  Her comeback after the hand injury earned her plenty of well deserved forgiveness for some losses, but at this point, with her recent play, we can consider her fully recovered.  Maybe the threat to her career will cause her to return to the game with new focus and lead to a level of domination commensurate with her talent.  When she is on, nobody can beat her. 

Federer does it …  again…

On Monday, 2/19, Roger Federer will ascend to the world number 1 ranking.   After squeezing past Philip Kohlschreiber, who played inspired tennis, in the round of 16, Roger Faced Robin Haase of the Netherlands in the quarters.  In the first set Federer served poorly, making only about 40% of his first serves and winning only 64% of the first serves that went in.  Federer was broken late in the set and lost it 6-4.  After that Federer served better, drove the ball harder, and took over court position much more aggressively.  The result was what you would expect – he dominated to win with multiple breaks in sets 2 and 3, and without facing a break point in either set.

The third set of this match was a brief and necessarily incomplete summary of how this man has redefined the term “greatness” in the tennis lexicon.  With Haase serving at 15-40 in the first game of the third set, Roger broke him with a mind boggling backhand passing shot.  Federer is the only man I have ever seen who could make that shot, which was executed with Roger’s back to the net.  When serving at 1-0, 40-15 in the same set, Federer hit a wide serve that was called an ace.  But Roger did not move from his spot, and when Haase asked what was going on, Federer announced that his serve was a fault.  The umpire shrugged and logged the serve in as a fault.  Federer thus appeared to overrule a line call that had gone in his favor and that was not disputed by anyone.  To do a thing like that in a match for the number one ranking is also something that no other player would ever do, and is one of the reasons he has won so many sportsmanship awards and “most favorite to watch” awards. 

Two other notable shots in this match:

First game of the match, Federer serving at 15-0.  An incredible backhand.

Third set, Federer leading 2-0, with the ad and Haase serving.  An amazing defensive point by Roger that led to a jaw dropping forehand winner.  If you want to see what commentators mean when they say “defense to offense”, watch that point. 

It has already been an amazing year for Federer, who won his 6^th Australian Open and moved to the world #1 ranking.  What’s next for him?  Your guess is as good as mine. 

Rotterdam: a smaller tournament with larger implications

It’s not often that the 500 event in Rotterdam – an indoor hard court tournament – is the site of historic events.  But this year Roger Federer has taken a wild card there, and if he reaches the semifinals, he will regain the #1 ranking.  At age 36, this achievement will be unprecedented in the open era.

Federer destroyed the Belgian lefty qualifier Bemelmans in his first match, and a potential tough one with Wawrinka two rounds later was prevented by a Wawrinka loss.  Federer will have to beat Philip Kohlschreiber, currently ranked 36 in the world, and then either Robin Haase, ranked 42, or Tallon Griekspoor, ranked 259, to make it.  Federer has dominated Kohlschreiber in the past, but Philip is a sold pro who plays well in the European hard court tournaments.  Robin Haase is a big guy who hits pretty hard and who has played relatively well over the past several months.  He is also playing in his home country.

If Roger maintains the intensity he showed in his first match he should make it.  While Fed has clearly been the world’s best player over the past year, he doesn’t play frequently enough any more to amass large numbers of ranking points.  If he makes it to number one, we can all scratch our heads and wonder how anyone could be this good at tennis.

Another notable happening was Sasha Zverev’s loss to Andreas Seppi in his second match.  Seppi is a guy with no big weapons who encourages his opponents to beat themselves.  Zverev obliged him this time, as he careened emotionally between anger and dejection to lose.  If Sasha wants to reach number one some day he will have to steady his emotions.  He should take a lesson from Federer on that one.

A young player who looks better every day is Andrey Rublev.  His serve is improving, his power groundies are great, as is typical for a modern day player, and his tactical skills are also improving rapidly.  He really is a player to keep an eye on. 

Australian Open Finals

Federer wins … again…

Roger Federer won his 20^th(!) grand slam title with a 5-set win over Marin Cilic.  Federer was quite emotional, shedding tears during the trophy presentation.  A problem for Cilic, though, was that he was also emotional, but during the match.  Cilic came out very tight and handed the first set to Federer.  His game then picked up, and Federer was really not at the very top of his game.  However, a few critical points revealed Cilic’ mix of anger, frustration and dejection, and these swings of emotion hurt his game.  When the 5^th set came around, Federer knew exactly what to do, and Cilic was simply unable to stay with him emotionally or physically.

A weakness of Cilic’ game that Roger exposed was his need to develop a rhythm in rallies.  Roger’s mixture of short balls, canon shots, slices, and net approaches made it very difficult for Cilic to get settled.  In truth, Marin shouldn’t have gotten two sets off Federer, but some spotty play by Roger, particularly in the 4^th set (<50% first serve percentage, for example), made it possible.  Federer hit his forehand exceptionally well over all, where he produced many screamers without really seeming to exert himself.

So why is Federer so beloved as an athlete?  His success is part of it, as is the beauty of his movement and his astounding shot making.   But Roger was not voted the fan favorite for the 15^th straight year just because of his tennis.  Watch his speech at the trophy presentation here, and you’ll know what I mean.  He connects with people on a personal level, even if his game is out of reach of most club players’ wildest dreams.  To be able to identify with an athlete of his caliber is profoundly rewarding to the fans.

Because Roger defended all of his ranking points here, while Nadal lost some, the two will be close for the number one ranking.  Nadal still has the number one spot, and Federer has a lot of points to defend in the next several weeks.  However, Nadal is injured, and if he is unable to come back at his best for awhile (we hope that’s not the case!) Federer may ascend to the number one ranking yet again.  Something to keep an eye on.

Australian Open Finals

Wozniaki wins

Caroline Wozniaki took a 3-setter from Simona Halep to win the AO.  This was a match of two similar players, as was the case for the Halep/Kerber semi.  Wozniaki did some things a bit better than Kerber, who nearly won her match.  She served better than Kerber, and broke up cross court exchanges with down-the-line shots more frequently.  She also held her nerve very well when things got tight.  To appreciate Wozniaki’s amazing court coverage, watch the 30-30 point in the third set, with Halep serving at 4-5.

Many have said the Wozniaki could not win a major because she stays too far behind the baseline etc.  First of all, anyone who reaches the final of a major can win a major.  If nothing else the player is one sprained ankle, pulled muscle or blister away from a title.  So I’m not surprised that Caroline broke through, and I won’t be a bit surprised if Halep does so in near future.  I also disagree that Caroline’s problem before was court positioning.  Rather, I believe, she hit a very predictable cross court shot every time she played a forehand.  Over the past few months she has started to flatten her forehand out and go down the line, and these changes have helped her break rallies open more frequently.

One final note:  I had previously criticized Chris Evert for never using an adverb, but in this match she actually said that Wozniaki played “aggressively” rather than “aggressive.”  I don’t know if this blog helped effect that change, but regardless, kudos to Chrissie!