2019 Madrid QF: Federer [4] vs Thiem [5]

[beard]

Yes, there was 5 or 10 good baseline points for Fed, but overal he was obviously inferior to Thiem, who wasn't even close to his best...

 

[robthai]

Thiem is just lucky that Fed is old and rusty on clay.

 

[jstr]

Going on 38 years old and he almost beat Thiem in the second set tie breaker. Indefatigable !

 

[underground]

Most of his losses since IW 2018 have been close affairs. He is not getting destroyed most of the time, which is still good. But these tight losses are not helping his confidence one bit.

This loss doesn't bother me as much as say Paris Bercy against Novak. Why? Because Fed actually went for his shots and stuck to the gameplan. We've been lamenting about how he gets passive and tight when he's close to the finish line (see that SP against Novak in the first set TB), this time on MP he goes for the kill and misses the return by a fraction. It was the correct play but unfortunately it wasn't to be. Even in the third set I felt like Fed was actively trying to execute his gameplan, Thiem was just one step ahead.

 

[veroniquem]

madrid is ultra fast ? LOL.

Compared to the other clay events? Yeah sure.

 

[helterskelter]

yeah, no.
If delpo had held his nerves/played a tad better, he would've probably taken the 2nd set.
Djokovic returned really well and played pretty well from the ground in that match, but didn't serve well. He had only like 14% serves unreturned.

Wim 18 semi -- was neck and neck b/w Djokovic/Nadal. Hardly a case of Djokovic being in another gear.
final, Anderson was sh*tty in the 1st 2 sets. When Anderson started playing some good tennis, he had Djokovic in some trouble in the 3rd set (had BP chance in 3 return games and didn't face a BP himself). Djokovic just managed to edge out the set in the TB.

AO 19 - Djokovic was phenomenal in SF/F - the only 2 matches comparable to peak Fed/peak Sampras. (not Wim 18 or USO 18)
But Nadal was cr*p in the final. Nothing close to reasonably good.

Not sure Nadal in the final was worse than Pouille in the semi-final!

Yes, agreed overall. To be fair, those two AO matches were also the only ones comparable to Djokovic of, say, Australian Open semi-final 2011, or US Open final 2011, or Wimbledon final 2015, or Australian Open semi-final 2016.

 

[chjtennis]

The most likely result was Thiem in 2, check out the poll results (38%). Which makes Federer's performance even more impressive.

I thought Thiem in 3 was most likely. Sometimes poll doesn't mean everything.

 

[icedevil0289]

madrid is ultra fast ? LOL.

he beat Monfils in the 3rd set TB. pushed Thiem even in the 3rd set.

your boy got beat by Thiem 4 and 4 in Barcelona. Fed had 2 MPs vs him and the 3rd set was competitive.
Instead of acknowledging fed being that competitive vs Thiem , you keep on BSing.
Get real and have some decency, will you ?

lol im dead at the usage of ultra fast, contrrary to popular believe idt any surface is "ultra fast" on the tour also not even surprised at the level of delusion in that post. I can't believe people are still going on about fed "snubbing" clay, heaven forbid he schedule himself around what surfaces work for him. rafa more or less does the same, i mean he hardly played on hardcourt last year. i swear rafa fans are such hypocrites.

 

[Povl Carstensen]

I thought Thiem in 3 was most likely. Sometimes poll doesn't mean everything.

Yes, sometimes my opinion is more important.

 

[abmk]

Compared to the other clay events? Yeah sure.

its faster than other clay events, but not ultra fast.
something like Madrid blue clay is what you could call as an ultra fast clay court.

 

[abmk]

lol im dead at the usage of ultra fast, contrrary to popular believe idt any surface is "ultra fast" on the tour also not even surprised at the level of delusion in that post. I can't believe people are still going on about fed "snubbing" clay, heaven forbid he schedule himself around what surfaces work for him. rafa more or less does the same, i mean he hardly played on hardcourt last year. i swear rafa fans are such hypocrites.

don't agree with it nor is it realistic IMO, but she was talking about ultra fast for a clay court to be fair.
agree with the rest of it.