What Federer did right

[mattennis]

Federer is, possibly, the best tennis player under very windy conditions. It is amazing how well he could control the ball, how he could hit through the wind....

He is even better than Agassi at that (Agassi was one of the greatest in very windy conditions).

On the other hand, Federer is just playing better than all the rest in the last 6 months.

Nadal and Djokovic are not at their 2011 level and Federer is playing better than last year, that is why he is winning everything.

He is getting nº2 very soon, and he can get to nº1 in the following months.

It is great, seeing him again at this high tennis level.

[elpolaco84]

Question: how many times Nadal defeated Federer without losing his serve at least once??

[sureshs]

Originally Posted by Towser83

Watching the Federer vs nadal match I noticed a few things, I know people have probably mentioned them all but I wanted to sum up what I think Federer did well in the match.

1. Serving. Serve percentage was high in the first set (about 74%) and he was overall very good at clutch serving (perfectly demonstrated by the ace on match point) this was very impressive given the wind.

2. Backhand. Federer really hit his backhand with purpose and attack. He didn't just slice it back and give Nadal an easy ball to hit, he used it as a weapon and made few errors off it. Nadal was unable to attack either wing enough and thus had no fallback plan to go to.

3. Volleys. Too often Federer comes in off a weak approach and promtly gets passed. Sometimes Nadal hits a great couple of shots to get into a Federer service game and Federer panics, tries to end the point too soon by coming in out of hope than real intelligence and pays the price. He forces the issue too much coming in when really he should know the shot isn't good enough. Then after he gets burnt a few times he stops coming in. In the first set in the IW semi, he won 9 out of 9 net aproaches and 12 of 13 overall. This is fantastic from Federer. He came in to net at the right times, played good vollies and didn't give up when Nadal won points at net (though obviously he only won one point when Federer made the aproach) Federer really displayed the total opposite of what he usually does at net vs Nadal.

4. shot choice. Federer played a very clever match, he knew exactly whan to wrong foot nadal and go back behind him, he didctated play and seemed to have a feel for how to construct points. His defense was much better than I exected it to be.

5. Attitude. Federer looked ike he meant business and believed he was going to win. When he got broken back in the first set he stuck to his task and didn't lose composure. Same in the second set when he lost one break.

EDIT. Tudwell mentioned breakpoints as well, here Federer took his chances better than he has done in a lot of mathes

The question is, can Federer do this on a regular basis or was this a rare show of form? Federer needs to rewatch the tape and remember what he did!

The first point is really not valid - who would not want to serve well if he could?

In the games prior to the last (when Nadal broke Fed and then held serve), it was clear to me that that was the Nadal who can easily beat Fed. Fed looked helpless. But in the final game, Nadal did not have it in him to keep it up.

[boojay]

Anyone else loving that a past-his-prime 30-year old Federer has mopped the floor with a peak Nadal (playing the absolute best tennis of his life) two of the last three times they've met?

I sure am.

Rafa's new nickname should be Nada.

[Nathaniel_Near]

Originally Posted by boojay

Anyone else loving that a past-his-prime 30-year old Federer has mopped the floor with a peak Nadal (playing the absolute best tennis of his life) two of the last three times they've met?

I sure am.

Rafa's new nickname should be Nada.

Yes happy, but no Slam win.

[Clarky21]

Originally Posted by boojay

Anyone else loving that a past-his-prime 30-year old Federer has mopped the floor with a peak Nadal (playing the absolute best tennis of his life) two of the last three times they've met?

I sure am.

Rafa's new nickname should be Nada.

Ridiculous post.

[sureshs]

Originally Posted by boojay

Anyone else loving that a past-his-prime 30-year old Federer has mopped the floor with a peak Nadal (playing the absolute best tennis of his life) two of the last three times they've met?

I sure am.

Rafa's new nickname should be Nada.

Nada will win Slams and the Olympics singles this year and Fed will be left with nada, beating Djokovic and Nada when they are exhausted between Slams and Olympics, or at the end of the year when only he is fresh because he has not gone as deep as them.

[DjokovicForTheWin]

Wasn't Nadal fresh for IW?

[sureshs]

Originally Posted by DjokovicForTheWin

Wasn't Nadal fresh for IW?

Who was in the AO final - Fed or Rafa?

[FlashFlare11]

Originally Posted by sureshs

Who was in the AO final - Fed or Rafa?

By my count, it's been about 4-5 weeks since that final. Does it take them that long to recover?

Warriors, aren't they?

[Towser83]

Originally Posted by sureshs

The first point is really not valid - who would not want to serve well if he could?

In the games prior to the last (when Nadal broke Fed and then held serve), it was clear to me that that was the Nadal who can easily beat Fed. Fed looked helpless. But in the final game, Nadal did not have it in him to keep it up.

It is valid. I just said that Federer served well which he doesn't always, i didn't say that the other times he didn't want to serve well.

This isn't all about tactics, it's about execution.

[DjokovicForTheWin]

Originally Posted by sureshs

Who was in the AO final - Fed or Rafa?

Djokovic, I didn't really notice Nadal even playing, did you?

[OddJack]

Originally Posted by sureshs

The first point is really not valid - who would not want to serve well if he could?

In the games prior to the last (when Nadal broke Fed and then held serve), it was clear to me that that was the Nadal who can easily beat Fed. Fed looked helpless. But in the final game, Nadal did not have it in him to keep it up.

It's not about wanting, it's about wanting and executing. He did, so that's one of the winning factors.

[above bored]

Originally Posted by MichaelNadal

Order will be restored next time they play, calm down guys. If I didn't see the match, id think Rafa played well with the way u guys are acting. The guy had 1 forehand winner in an hour of tennis and was pushing.

Nadal had one forehand winner because Federer was the aggressor, as usual, and played very well to keep Nadal on the back foot. As we all know, Federer defends very well so no one is going to fit a huge amount of winners against him anyway.

Nadal did not play badly, he was outplayed by a superior opponent on the day. Had he been playing any other player apart from Djokovic he would probably have won.

[MichaelNadal]

Originally Posted by above bored

Nadal had one forehand winner because Federer was the aggressor, as usual, and played very well to keep Nadal on the back foot. As we all know, Federer defends very well so no one is going to fit a huge amount of winners against him anyway.

Nadal did not play badly, he was outplayed by a superior opponent on the day. Had he been playing any other player apart from Djokovic he would probably have won.

You keep telling yourself that. No matter how aggressive someone is, Nadal is gonna hit forehand winners. Surely you know he is more than capable of making Federer run. When Nadal started playing SOMEWHAT like himself in the last 15 mins he was hitting winners, Federer was still playing great, so how did Rafa start hitting winners? Oh ok.

[Nathaniel_Near]

Nadal didn't play like himself at all near the end, he played OUTSIDE of his standard very good level. He can't sustain himself like that where he's hitting 3 (I think) forehand winners in one game. This is not how he operates.

Nadal could have played better during the match, but this isn't the point I'm making. BTW usually when Nadal plays a top player, even when playing well he usually ends up with less winners and sometimes significantly less, but also many less errors.

[dh003i]

Originally Posted by MichaelNadal

Thanks for keeping it real man. I don't get why people have to act like Nadal was playing the match of his life and Federer just blew 100% Rafa off the court. Federer played better and won, just be happy with that. Jeez.

Perhaps if Nadal fans would admit that every time Nadal beats Federer, it wasn't Nadal playing subpar and Federer playing the match of his life, the realism could be returned in kind.

[dh003i]

Originally Posted by sureshs

The first point is really not valid - who would not want to serve well if he could?

In the games prior to the last (when Nadal broke Fed and then held serve), it was clear to me that that was the Nadal who can easily beat Fed. Fed looked helpless. But in the final game, Nadal did not have it in him to keep it up.

Typical. When Nadal is outplaying Federer, Nadal is playing good and forcing Federer to play bad. When Federer is outplaying Nadal, Nadal is just playing poorly which allows Federer to take advantage.

[Nathaniel_Near]

Originally Posted by dh003i

Typical. When Nadal is outplaying Federer, Nadal is playing good and forcing Federer to play bad. When Federer is outplaying Nadal, Nadal is just playing poorly which allows Federer to take advantage.

This is very much the overall vibe, yes. Well put, btw.

[MichaelNadal]

Originally Posted by dh003i

Typical. When Nadal is outplaying Federer, Nadal is playing good and forcing Federer to play bad. When Federer is outplaying Nadal, Nadal is just playing poorly which allows Federer to take advantage.

Not at all. Wimbledon 07 anyone? There are plenty of matches where Federer beat Rafa while he was playing well, saturday wasn't one of them, get over it.