Basel 2017 final: Roger Federer vs Juan Martin Del Potro

Who will win?

  • Total voters
    60
  • Poll closed .
cc0509 said:
Right. Del Potro (when he's not tired or complaining about another injury) is a tough match-up for all Big Four players which is what you want to see. He's a warrior. Who wants to see players roll-over vs the Big Four like Goffin type players? Not me that's for sure. :rolleyes:
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sometimes I wonder if you like tennis? You really hate on pretty much everyone safe of Fedal. Goffin is a terrific player. He's just overmatched by Fed and Djoko. Rafa, he can hang with at times.
Of course, Delpo's in a completely different league.
 
BeatlesFan said:
Of course I want him to play too, but he said after the Goffin match (and before) that Paris isn't a priority and he needs to be healthy and fresh to compete well at WTF. Annacone said before the match that if the Basel final was under 90 minutes, Fed would play Paris. If not... very doubtful.

Fed said he'll decide tonight whether he'll play Paris. And YE #1 is not in his hands. If Nadal makes the Paris final, it's all over unless Rafa loses every RR match at the WTF, which won't happen.
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It's not a done deal! Roger should play Paris
 
Chanwan said:
sometimes I wonder if you like tennis? You really hate on pretty much everyone safe of Fedal. Goffin is a terrific player. He's just overmatched by Fed and Djoko. Rafa, he can hang with at times.
Of course, Delpo's in a completely different league.
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I don't "hate" Goffin but IMO he doesn't have anything to trouble Federer with and I don't have any interest in watching those type of matches. YMMV.
 
marc45 said:
true, but isn't Delpo ultimately, at least to a degree, outmatched by his size?...ultimately, "moves well for a big guy" just isn't enough in this era

injuries of course too
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to some degree yes. But he has to bail out weapons in his serve and fh.
and his BH (before 2014)

goffin is more disadvantaged.
And in the end, its obvious that delpo is the clearly better player and also the tougher one.
But even if Goffin were as tough mentally as delpo, he still wouldn't have made that much of a dent vs the big 4, due to the limitations in the game.
 
Steve0904 said:
This match was just weird for me. Happy in the sense that Federer got it done in the end, but that first set was just so unnecessary. And I'm not saying that because of anything Paris related. I've always thought the YE#1 race was over after the USO. Also, some of his errors throughout this match and others with Delpo are just baffling. Like that missed volley on BP, or many of his errors at the USO meeting this year. I know he can't be perfect all the time, but many of his misses against Delpo are just flat out clownish.

And all credit to Delpo. He's a special player that really makes Fed work hard, but Federer has had 3-4 matches against Delpo in particular that are just super frustrating. USO 2009 and 2017 chief among them, but also a match like the one at the 2012 WTF where Federer was already qualified so his intensity was a bit down, or even the one in 2009 where he trolled Murray but lost the match anyway. But then I suppose he's pulled out a fair few of the other tight ones as well so I can't really complain. 18-6 H2H is probably a fair assessment of Delpo's quality as a player, that he has beaten Federer 6 times, but sometimes I think the H2H should be like 21-3 or something.
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21-3 is just demoting Delpo to Roddick levels. :p
 
Fedeonic said:
Federer 2017 just doesn't lose finals. Since freaking 2007 Roger hasn't won 7+ titles on a year.
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"My best year since '07....and I didn't even have to get my socks dirty. CHUM JETZE!!!!!! :D"

roger-federer-clay-court-shoes-101714.JPG
 
Backspin1183 said:
Not everything is about Federer-Nadal. Delpo needed to win this to have a chance to make it to WTF. Now that he's lost the Basel final, fans at the O2 would have to do with a Busta instead of Delpo.
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that is indeed a great, great pity. As I wrote yesterday, PCB got 720 points from the US by beating 4 qualifiers and Diego Schwartzman. Delpo got the same from beating Agut, Thiem and Federer.
 
cc0509 said:
Why are you talking as if you are in Federer's head and know what he's going to do? :rolleyes:

Why wouldn't he play Paris? That makes no sense.
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Why do you doubt what he has said all week? :rolleyes: If you bothered to watch his pressers, he has said every single day this week that Paris is not a priority and he won't decide whether he'll play it until he sees how long the final is. Could he still play, could his statements be merely verbal subterfuge? Sure.

I am quoting Fed directly, not feigning as if I'm in his head. Get a grip.
 
cc0509 said:
It's up to him but for me, he should go for it. It's not every day you have a chance(no matter how slim) of being ye #1 at age 36. You never know what will happen. There's still a week between Paris and the WTF so Federer should be able to recover in that time as long as he's not seriously injured in some way.
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if it were upto me, I'd still say it depends on how he is feeling.
because he's had 2 tough matches at Basel, including the final.

If he had 3, I'd say probably not go for Paris.
If he had 1, I'd probably say go for Paris.

the optimistic side of me wants him to go for it for #1, the prudent side questions whether it might be a gamble and whether its worth it.
So ultimately its a fine balance and entirely dependent on how he feels.

1st round bye at Paris certainly helps and his draw doesn't look that dificult either.
 
BeatlesFan said:
Why do you doubt what he has said all week? :rolleyes: If you bothered to watch his pressers, he has said every single day this week that Paris is not a priority and he won't decide whether he'll play it until he sees how long the final is. Could he still play, could his statements be merely verbal subterfuge? Sure.

I am quoting Fed directly, not feigning as if I'm in his head. Get a grip.
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Don’t argue with him. It’s pointless, believe me.
 
Feather said:
It's not a done deal! Roger should play Paris
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You tell him, Feather :)

It is a catch 22 now after playing Basel (and unnecessarily taking the final to 3 sets) because he can risk exhaustion for the WTF.

He may have played Paris if this final hadn't gone on for so long, maybe but I doubt it now.
 
Chanwan said:
Montreal rings a bell...
Wouldn't say Fed was lucky to win, he should have won the first. And though he got a break down early in the third, he got it right back and was never really behind there.
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I think he WAS lucky to win today, only because he was rattled. It was very obvious when he double-faulted three times in the same game and swatted the net. Delpo was also frustrated.

There comes a point where anyone in the world crumbles from having a bad day. Fed has been amazing all year in TBs, close to 75% coming into this match. Up 3-0 and then losing that TB was a shocker.

To his credit he "won ugly" today.

PA said that he is most nervous at Basel. Maybe we saw some of that.
 
sbengte said:
You tell him, Feather :)

It is a catch 22 now after playing Basel (and unnecessarily taking the final to 3 sets) because he can risk exhaustion for the WTF.

He may have played Paris if this final hadn't gone on for so long, maybe but I doubt it now.
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I doubt it too. There's also the planned exho vs. Muzz on the 7th that he can't miss :eek:
Another cheap draw for Rafa it is to vulture some points :D:eek:
 
Chanwan said:
I doubt it too. There's also the planned exho vs. Muzz on the 7th that he can't miss :eek:
Another cheap draw for Rafa it is to vulture some points :D:eek:
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WTF ? On Nov 7th ? Are you kidding me ? :eek:

Like I said, Federer doesn't deserve no.1 for his brain dead approach to scheduling this year and Nadal deserves it for perfectly optimizing the schedule to vulture.
 
cc0509 said:
Why are you talking as if you are in Federer's head and know what he's going to do? :rolleyes:

Why wouldn't he play Paris? That makes no sense.
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It makes a lot of sense if he thinks playing Paris will cut down his chances of winning the WTF.

I will be just a little surprised if he plays Paris.
 
abmk said:
if it were upto me, I'd still say it depends on him.
because he's had 2 tough matches at Basel, including the final.

If he had 3, I'd say probably not go for Paris.
If he had 1, I'd probably say go for Paris.

the optimistic side of me wants him to go for it for #1, the prudent side questions whether it might be a gamble and whether its worth it.
So ultimately its a fine balance and entirely dependent on how he feels.

1st round bye at Paris certainly helps and his draw doesn't look that dificult either.
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IMO we won't hear from Fed till tmr, probably depends on whether he feels good waking up.
 
Gary Duane said:
I think he WAS lucky to win today, only because he was rattled. It was very obvious when he double-faulted three times in the same game and swatted the net. Delpo was also frustrated.

There comes a point where anyone in the world crumbled from having a bad day. Fed has been amazing all year in TBs, close to 75% coming into this match. Up 3-0 and then losing that TB was a shocker.

To his credit he "won ugly" today.

PA said that he is most nervous at Basel. Maybe we saw some of that.
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Well, he would have been very unlucky to lose today given he won 15 more points and more points in every set, including having more BPs in every set. That said, it was def. close and yes, he was probably nervous.
 
Chanwan said:
fair enough. But reading your poasts often leaves me the impression that everyone but the Big 5 is an unwatchable mug. And Djoko is just plain unwatchable ;-)
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Goffin is a nice player. There a lot of players that have a lop-sided H2H against top 3 players because what you have to do to beat them. Goffin shouldn’t be singled-out because he has company.
 
zep said:
In the end, Federer just had way more fuel in the tank than Del Potro. Del Potro was almost done after 2 sets, Federer could have played for another 2 hours easily.
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and that too when he was reported sick just two days ago in match against Mannarino and played a long match there as well. just mesmerizing.
 
Gary Duane said:
It makes a lot of sense if he thinks playing Paris will cut down his chances of winning the WTF.

I will be just a little surprised if he plays Paris.
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Yes, but let Federer decide and don't talk like you know what's going on in Federer's head every minute of the day. It's spooky IMO(when I say "you" I don't mean YOU.)
 
Chanwan said:
I doubt it too. There's also the planned exho vs. Muzz on the 7th that he can't miss :eek:
Another cheap draw for Rafa it is to vulture some points :D:eek:
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He can just treat it as a practice session and tank the match if needed, after all it is Murray's home ground so he should conceded for exhibitions ;)
 
Gary Duane said:
I think he WAS lucky to win today, only because he was rattled. It was very obvious when he double-faulted three times in the same game and swatted the net. Delpo was also frustrated.

There comes a point where anyone in the world crumbles from having a bad day. Fed has been amazing all year in TBs, close to 75% coming into this match. Up 3-0 and then losing that TB was a shocker.

To his credit he "won ugly" today.

PA said that he is most nervous at Basel. Maybe we saw some of that.
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Depends how you look at it. Can a player be “lucky”to win when he won more points in EVERY set despite serving poorly against a guy with a big serve? When he won 15 points more overall? Frankly, Delpo was somewhat fortunate he won a set.
 
Chanwan said:
Well, he would have been very unlucky to lose today given he won 15 more points and more points in every set, including having more BPs in every set. That said, it was def. close and yes, he was probably nervous.
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In the end it generally just comes down to BPs made. I know that's simplistic, but it's true. Usually the guy who racks up way more opportunities to break will win, but not always.

To be honest I thought Fed was about to lose until the end of the 2nd set. I still think he was confused by the way Delpo was playing.
 
So Fed did get his revenge at Basel for the two losses to Delpo.

It has been the year of revenge after all :eek:

No more revenge left in the year though...Too bad Djoker isn't playing the WTF :(
 
sbengte said:
WTF ? On Nov 7th ? Are you kidding me ? :eek:

Like I said, Federer doesn't deserve no.1 for his brain dead approach to scheduling this year and Nadal deserves it for perfectly optimizing the schedule to vulture.
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exho was planned quite some time ago , I think.
He probably didn't think he'd be in contention for #1 and might have been thinking of skipping Paris.
 
abmk said:
oh, come on. He'd be dumb to play that now.

they should re-schedule it if possible.

else fed should skip it.
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Whoever is part of strategy and scheduling decisions in Federer's team should be fired.
I mean I can understand Federer wanting to be the sentimental fool picking Basel over Paris and playing dumb exhos instead of trying to get to #1, but what the heck is his team doing ?
 
Chanwan said:
fair enough. But reading your poasts often leaves me the impression that everyone but the Big 5 is an unwatchable mug. And Djoko is just plain unwatchable ;-)
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There are only certain match-ups and certain players I like to watch and make time for.

Djokovic is definitely not unwatchable but it also depends on which players he's competing against and which tournament it is.
 
Backspin1183 said:
Not everything is about Federer-Nadal. Delpo needed to win this to have a chance to make it to WTF. Now that he's lost the Basel final, fans at the O2 would have to do with a Busta instead of Delpo.
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no, he can make it if he mades the Paris SF.
other possible scenarios as well, if PCB bombs out in his first or second match.

---

Also, its delpo's fault he didn't play that well in the first half of the year.
Otherwise, would've been in by now.
 
ghostofMecir said:
Depends how you look at it. Can a player be “lucky”to win when he won more points in EVERY set despite serving poorly against a guy with a big serve? When he won 15 points more overall? Frankly, Delpo was somewhat fortunate he won a set.
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Well, lucky in that he clearly was rattled, and even the best player in the world (at any time) can choke on a really bad day.

I think if it had been a quick, easy match, he might have decided to play in Paris. Now I have my doubts.

Think about it: before this match Fed Fans were about to gift him Basel, Paris and the WTF as if #1 at the end of the year is now in the bag.

He's still 36 years old. What he's doing right now can't go on forever.
 
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