federer's food, power?

[defensive4]

has any pro tried taking pace off the ball

[thejackal]

Santoro got destroyed the last few times he played Fed.

[Nadal_Freak]

The only way to beat Federer is to hit tons of topspin to Federer's backhand and the surface has to be slow.

[superman1]

It is SO much more complicated than that, Nadal Freak. If Nadal wasn't such a fighter and was not one of the fastest guys on tour, Federer would smoke him, topspin or not.

[ATXtennisaddict]

Originally Posted by superman1

It is SO much more complicated than that, Nadal Freak. If Nadal wasn't such a fighter and was not one of the fastest guys on tour, Federer would smoke him, topspin or not.

I agree.

[Nadal_Freak]

Yeah but having a major topspin shot is a prequisite to playing Federer. I don't see anyone beating Federer by overpowering him.

[nViATi]

Originally Posted by Nadal_Freak

Yeah but having a major topspin shot is a prequisite to playing Federer. I don't see anyone beating Federer by overpowering him.

Marat Safin, Australian Open.

[Phil]

Originally Posted by nViATi

Marat Safin, Australian Open.

How do you figure? Safin won in 5 sets, one of them a tie breaker, and the final set going 9-7. That doesn't sound like being "overpowered" to me.

[fishuuuuu]

Originally Posted by Phil

How do you figure? Safin won in 5 sets, one of them a tie breaker, and the final set going 9-7. That doesn't sound like being "overpowered" to me.

I think he meant it loosely, Roger was getting blown about at times in that match when Marat managed to set off some incredible backhands (and forehands). But obviously just trying to outhit Roger is an incredulous idea.

It was just his moments of inspiration combined with the aforementioned consistency through (most) of the match that allowed him to gain an edge in the match. Especially in the fourth set tiebreaker.

[fastdunn]

Originally Posted by Nadal_Freak

Yeah but having a major topspin shot is a prequisite to playing Federer. I don't see anyone beating Federer by overpowering him.

Actually, I think it takes really fast surface and top players
like 2005 Master's final. On very fast surfaces, his unbreakable
defense become somewhat vulnerable.

There is no "fast" surface since 2003. I consider Federer as
medium surface player. His country is neutral and his game
is neutral. In 90's standard, he is a medium slow surface player...

[Nadal_Freak]

Originally Posted by fastdunn

Actually, I think it takes really fast surface and top players
like 2005 Master's final. On very fast surfaces, his unbreakable
defense become somewhat vulnerable.

There is no "fast" surface since 2003. I consider Federer as
medium surface player. His country is neutral and his game
is neutral. In 90's standard, he is a medium slow surface player...

Wow you are so wrong it isn't even funny. Federer dominates the faster surfaces because not only he has a remarkable return of serve but his own serve he gets easy free points. His backhand is less vulnerable on a fast surface as well. The only person that a faster surface could hurt Federer is Sampras at his prime and even than Federer was able to beat at Wimbledon before Federer became dominant.

[Bryan Aldridge]

It seems like the players who can challenge Federer the most have one thing in common. They can all do damage on the left side of their body -- This means having a big backhand for righties (safin, nalbandian, murray, baghdatis), or a big forehand for lefties (nadal). I've seen players do so much damage to federer by hitting the heavy lefty forehand crosscourt, or cracking a big backhand down the line for righties. Watch the Aus Open final and see how many points Baghdatis won by ripping the two hander up the line. Federer has no where near the ability someone like Pete Sampras had on running forehands, and most times this big backhand up the line will result in a weak reply from Fed.

[fastdunn]

Originally Posted by Nadal_Freak

Wow you are so wrong it isn't even funny. Federer dominates the faster surfaces because not only he has a remarkable return of serve but his own serve he gets easy free points. His backhand is less vulnerable on a fast surface as well. The only person that a faster surface could hurt Federer is Sampras at his prime and even than Federer was able to beat at Wimbledon before Federer became dominant.

I know it could sound so wrong.

Federer's game is very neutral. IMHO, his game suit best on medium
speed surface and can also do well on very slow and fast courts.

Again, the word "fast" is relative term. Compared to 90's grass and carpet surface,
current Wimbledon grass and US Open hard courts are "slower".
Relatively speaking, these are now "medium" speed court.

We do not know how Federer would play on truely fast courts.
Because he started his dominance in 2003 when US Open and Wimbledon got much much slower.

This is era of slow surface, relatively speaking.
Federer and Nadal arrived as 2 dominant players of this era.
I classify both of them as relatively "slow" surface player if you
consider them in longer history of tennis..

[Nadal_Freak]

Safin was like a backboard in that match as I remember. Very similar to Nalbandian.

You just can't let him so easily get the upperhand in a rally, and I think its as simple as that. He can only come up with incredible shots for so long in a match. Safin pressured him with deep, fast balls, Nalbandian kept it deep and counterpunched, and Nadal hits very heavy and can make up for some short balls by being so fast. I just watched Federer destroy Wang at the Open. Wang was simply rallying crosscourt on a lot of shots - no pace and mid court balls. That won't do. You can't clay court Federer (Nadal is the exception because hes obviously special). Hewitt rallies and simply gets destroyed.

Back to the OP - Hewitt does this and gets spanked, as does Santoro.

[Nadal_Freak]

Originally Posted by splink779

You just can't let him so easily get the upperhand in a rally, and I think its as simple as that. He can only come up with incredible shots for so long in a match. Safin pressured him with deep, fast balls, Nalbandian kept it deep and counterpunched, and Nadal hits very heavy and can make up for some short balls by being so fast. I just watched Federer destroy Wang at the Open. Wang was simply rallying crosscourt on a lot of shots - no pace and mid court balls. That won't do. You can't clay court Federer (Nadal is the exception because hes obviously special). Hewitt rallies and simply gets destroyed.

Back to the OP - Hewitt does this and gets spanked, as does Santoro.

You can clay court Federer's backhand but stay away from his forehand with weak shots. Safin was consistently hitting deep and keeping Federer out of attacking position. He also was very consistent which is key against Federer. You can't make many mistakes.

[DarkSephiroth]

Good statements around this thread, but failed to mention how Nadal's lefty arched topspin spins high to Federer's backhand side, a high backhand that is tough to hit.

[Nadal_Freak]

Yeah true. The topspin also goes away from Federer instead going to Federer which is the case for right handed players.

[superman1]

But it's predictable. Federer should be able to read it and figure out a way to deal with it. Everything Nadal does is very predictable. I believe in Rome he served to the same spots almost every time. I think to Federer's backhand.

[Rhino]

I thought this was going to be a thread about what Federer eats.