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.