Federer's worst chokes.

smoledman

smoledman

G.O.A.T.
2006 Rome
2018 Indian Wells

I know he's lost matches where he held match points on 10+ occasions, but those are the worst because those were championship points.

2006 Rome is the more important one because that established Nadal's stranglehold over him mentally on clay forever. I keep watching those 2 points and all I can come up with is astonishment at how he gets to that situation but can't get it over the line.
 
Noletheking

Noletheking

Hall of Fame
smoledman said:
2006 Rome
2018 Indian Wells

I know he's lost matches where he held match points on 10+ occasions, but those are the worst because those were championship points.

2006 Rome is the more important one because that established Nadal's stranglehold over him mentally on clay forever. I keep watching those 2 points and all I can come up with is astonishment at how he gets to that situation but can't get it over the line.
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2011 us open semi final lol
 
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Nadal_Django

Nadal_Django

Legend
so-many-choices.jpg
 
smoledman

smoledman

G.O.A.T.
Noletheking said:
That's another story, you asked worst choke and I answered. 2-0 up then again 2 mps on his own serve in 5th ,that's a choke of life time(up there with Roddick choke in wim 09 tb)
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Agreed, those blown set points by Roddick were terrible as that was a slam finals and would have put him up 2-0 and certainly wins the match. Probably the worst choke in memory. Even Federer's errors in 2006 Rome were not as bad as Roddick's horrible volley.
 
guitarra

guitarra

Professional
Sure, Fed got nervous on many occasions and lost some matches when he was in the winning positions and could have won.

So did other great players. Maybe they lost fewer close matches because they were not that often in those winning positions. When you look at the % finals converted for the best players they are extremely close.

The one thing that annoys me a lot is the overuse of the "choke" word. I think it's one of the most abused words on the forum.
 
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smoledman

smoledman

G.O.A.T.
guitarra said:
Sure, Fed got nervous on many occasions and lost some matches when he was in the winning positions and could have won.

So did other great players. Maybe they lost less close matches because they were not that often in those winning positions. When you look at the % finals converted for the best players they are extremely close.

The one thing that annoys me a lot is the overuse of the "choke" word. I think it's one of the most abused words on the forum.
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Watch the highlights of 2006 Rome & 2018 IW when Federer has his championship points and tell me how he didn't choke on all 4 points! On none of those points did Nadal or Del Potro play an insane level to save those.
 
smoledman

smoledman

G.O.A.T.
TearTheRoofOff said:
Combination of Nole stepping up big time and Fed getting rattled, really. Can't bring myself to call that a pure choke. The MPs were a return winner and a net chord off a forehand drive sailing long. Hardly an obvious meltdown.
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Not that he lost those 2 points, it's how he lost the last 4 games in a row that makes it a choke. Hell I'd cite sets 3 & 4 as well, Federer's form just completely vanished out of nowhere.
 
smoledman

smoledman

G.O.A.T.
I watched that match. The way it played out, Federer was amazing the first 2 sets. Then he turns into a pumpkin in sets 3 & 4. Then magically recovers form to serve out the match and then turns into a pumpkin again. I don't really rate 2011 US semis as one of his worst 'chokes' because of that earlier lapse in sets 3 & 4. It meant that even in set 5 Federer's form was unstable that day. To me a choke would have been 2006 Wimbledon finals if Federer had blown that match.
 
Steve0904

Steve0904

Talk Tennis Guru
guitarra said:
Sure, Fed got nervous on many occasions and lost some matches when he was in the winning positions and could have won.

So did other great players. Maybe they lost fewer close matches because they were not that often in those winning positions. When you look at the % finals converted for the best players they are extremely close.

The one thing that annoys me a lot is the overuse of the "choke" word. I think it's one of the most abused words on the forum.
Click to expand...

Basically this. I can still say Fed choked on many occasions. I consider matches like the 2011 USO SF or the 2018 IW Final a choke for example etc... But other players (specifically Djokovic and Nadal) have choked as well. And it's basically the same percentage of matches as you say. Fed's are just magnified because he gets the closest to winning (sometimes MPs), and he's been around by far the longest of the Big 3.

But I can name matches I consider bad losses or "chokes" for Djokovic and Nadal. The only major difference in that they happened in 4 sets against Nishikori at the 2014 USO or 4 sets against Wawrinka at RG. Or even in 5 sets against Lukas Rosol in the 2nd round or against Wawrinka when you completely blow 2 of the easiest volleys imaginable to lose 9-7 in the 5th.

But you're right that the word is way too overused here. Very few of any of the Big 3's matches in their careers are actually chokes. There's a huge difference between getting outplayed and choking in a tennis match and at the end of the day when you look at how many matches he's played there's bound to be a few bad losses from winning positions in there. In reality it's his conversion rate of tournament wins over his career that we should be focusing on. Obviously that goes for Djokovic and Nadal as well.
 
smoledman

smoledman

G.O.A.T.
Steve0904 said:
Basically this. I can still say Fed choked on many occasions. I consider matches like the 2011 USO SF or the 2018 IW Final a choke for example etc... But other players (specifically Djokovic and Nadal) have choked as well. And it's basically the same percentage of matches as you say. Fed's are just magnified because he gets the closest to winning (sometimes MPs), and he's been around by far the longest of the Big 3.

But I can name matches I consider bad losses or "chokes" for Djokovic and Nadal. The only major difference in that they happened in 4 sets against Nishikori at the 2014 USO or 4 sets against Wawrinka at RG. Or even in 5 sets against Lukas Rosol in the 2nd round or against Wawrinka when you completely blow 2 of the easiest volleys imaginable to lose 9-7 in the 5th.

But you're right that the word is way too overused here. Very few of any of the Big 3's matches in their careers are actually chokes. There's a huge difference between getting outplayed and choking in a tennis match and at the end of the day when you look at how many matches he's played there's bound to be a few bad losses from winning positions in there. In reality it's his conversion rate of tournament wins over his career that we should be focusing on. Obviously that goes for Djokovic and Nadal as well.
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They're all around 2/3 winning rate in finals.
 
Towny

Towny

Hall of Fame
USO 2011 comes to mind, in that not only did he hold 2 match points on serve, but he completely lost focus after that game for the rest of the match. But equally, Djokovic had come back strong from the 3rd set onwards so it's not as though Federer handed him the match. Yes he had match point in Rome 2006, but Rafa was playing a very high level that day as well so again, it's not as though Federer handed him the match
 
King No1e

King No1e

G.O.A.T.
weakera said:
Literally none of those are chokes. Do you know what a choke is? Because losing to an opponent who flips the switch and goes god mode like the 5th set of Rafa RG SF 13 or Roger AO F 17 is not choking.
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Djokovic did miss some good opportunities in RG13. If he didn't get broken at 4-3 with the famous missed overhead, he would have had the advantage and even with Nadal's elevated level and superior endurance he would have a far better chance of getting himself over the finish line before Nadal breaks again.
Anyway, I can talk hypotheticals and wish Djokovic didn't miss that overhead all day, but in the end Nadal won because he raised his level at the end while Djokovic's dropped. Is sport, ¿no?
 
weakera

weakera

Talk Tennis Guru
King No1e said:
Djokovic did miss some good opportunities in RG13. If he didn't get broken at 4-3 with the famous missed overhead, he would have had the advantage and even with Nadal's elevated level and superior endurance he would have a far better chance of getting himself over the finish line before Nadal breaks again.
Anyway, I can talk hypotheticals and wish Djokovic didn't miss that overhead all day, but in the end Nadal won because he raised his level at the end while Djokovic's dropped. Is sport, ¿no?
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That overhead did not cost Novak the match any more than Rafas mistakes with a chance to go up 5-2 in the 5th set in 12 cost him his. Bottom line, not a choke.
 
Steve0904

Steve0904

Talk Tennis Guru
TheMaestro1990 said:
2017 AO a choke? Fed was all over Nadal in all of his service games. That final set could only have ended one way.

’Nuff said!
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That only gives you an idea of what most people here consider a choke though. There's no room for objectively saying someone got outplayed. By TTW logic if you have the lead in the final set and you lose it it's a choke. And the other half of this problem is exactly the opposite of the post you quoted. Nadal and Djokovic don't choke, they just get outplayed, but Federer "chokes" because he's a weak era clown. /sarcasm.
 
Noletheking

Noletheking

Hall of Fame
Steve0904 said:
That only gives you an idea of what most people here consider a choke though. There's no room for objectively saying someone got outplayed. By TTW logic if you have the lead in the final set and you lose it it's a choke. And the other half of this problem is exactly the opposite of the post you quoted. Nadal and Djokovic don't choke, they just get outplayed, but Federer "chokes" because he's a weak era clown. /sarcasm.
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I don't think it was a choke but in 5th set Nadal had 2 bps on Fed serve to get his second break and he couldn't capitalise. Old Nadal would have not made that mistake
 
beard

beard

Legend
Federer's worst chokes?
It's hard to tell, there were sooooo many.
But I enjoyed each and every one very much, though some mentioned here are really special :p

For me thread title should be Federer's best chokes ;)
 
AnOctorokForDinner

AnOctorokForDinner

Talk Tennis Guru
Real baddest chokes:
Hamburg 08, AO 09, USO 09, USO 11, USO 15. An abject lack of mental fortitude, losing huge leads and/or wasting myriad BPs and/or choking breaks in pressure moments. 2011 USO had a clutch win on the cards but the way Federer totally flubbed it produced an unbearable choke.
 
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