PED
Legend
Sorry if this has already been posted. From today's WSJ.
Can Roger Get His Game Back?
Entering the U.S. Open as No. 2 to Nadal,
Federer Weighs a Tougher, Less-Cerebral Style
By ALLEN ST. JOHN
August 22, 2008; Page W1
At the U.S. Open, which begins Monday, Rafael Nadal, the young, ferocious-hitting Spaniard, is heavily favored to win. But Roger Federer is not going away without a fight.
The fiercely independent Mr. Federer has begun a process that may result in a retooling of his tennis game. "I want to move on as a player," Mr. Federer says. "I want to have new ideas."
Roger Federer says it's time to try "new ideas" on the court.
In meetings with his small circle of advisors, which includes his girlfriend Mirka Vavrinec, his agent Tony Godsick, his longtime fitness coach Pierre Paganini and confidante and hitting partner Reto Staubli, Mr. Federer has been talking through various theories about how to overcome Mr. Nadal and win his fifth consecutive U.S. Open title. In a sign of the stakes involved, he's also decided to bring his new coach, the former Spanish pro Jose Higueras, with him to New York this week. It's the first time he's had anyone in his corner at this event since 2003.
Mr. Federer has lost to Mr. Nadal four times this year, most notably at the French Open and in their epic four-hour, 48-minute Wimbledon final in July. Since then, the 27-year old Swiss has dropped three of his last seven matches overall, often looking tentative and hesitant. His footwork has been a little slow and he's not stepping in on shots aggressively, observers say. Mr. Higueras, who has coached Mr. Federer since April, is known for teaching footwork and shot selection.
This week, the 22-year-old Mr. Nadal claimed the No. 1 ranking Mr. Federer had held for a record 237 weeks. His quickness and the extraordinary topspin he puts on his groundstrokes have blown a hole in Mr. Federer's balanced, cerebral game.
Observers say Mr. Federer's struggles are as much about his temperament as his tennis. To beat Mr. Nadal, they say, the calm and careful champion will have to turn back the clock to a time when he attacked, gambled and sometimes even lost his temper.
[Roger Federer during his loss to Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in July]
AFP/Getty Images
Roger Federer during his loss to Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in July
The question is whether Mr. Federer wants to follow this advice and, more importantly, whether he can. "Do you want to come to the net against the guy who hits the best passing shots? I don't know," he says. "Maybe."
To understand what made Mr. Federer great, and what makes him vulnerable to Mr. Nadal, is to understand what makes him different. He is the rarest of commodities in pro tennis -- an independent thinker. His resistance to hiring a full-time coach (at times he hasn't had one at all) is virtually unheard of in this sport and his game is very much his own invention. As a junior, Mr. Federer was a demonstrative, and even volatile, player. "I was completely crazy," he says. "Smashing rackets, I was always screaming, very down on myself. I was the guy who was commentating every shot."
He also played an impulsive, attacking brand of tennis, trying to hit winners at the earliest opportunity. When he first emerged on the world stage by beating Pete Sampras at Wimbledon in 2001, "he served and volleyed on almost every point," recalls former world No. 1 John McEnroe.
But his harried style was complicated by an inherent problem: an enormous repertoire of shots. Playing the game at a hair-trigger pace often left him with no time to make up his mind. "I had too many possibilities," he says. "A one-dimensional player is just going to hit the backhand crosscourt again and again. I had the opportunity to slice it, to spin it, to hit it short, to hit it long, to come to the net."
The transformation that made him a 12-time Grand Slam champion began in Hamburg in 2001 when Mr. Federer reacted to a loss by having an emotional meltdown. Embarrassed, he decided to try to hold his emotions in check from then on. What followed was the worst slump of his career. In 2002, Mr. Federer lost in the opening round of the French and then again at Wimbledon. That summer, his mentor, Peter Carter, was killed in a car crash. "I was like 'Oh my God, this doesn't really work,'" Mr. Federer recalled. "Honestly, I have to say I doubted myself a little bit."
With his confidence in tatters, Mr. Federer had an epiphany -- he would try to tone down his game as he'd calmed his emotions. "I decided I'd rather hit 10 great shots on center court than 20 outrageous shots on court 14 where nobody sees them." He focused on making more conservative, defensive shots that would allow opponents to make mistakes.
"There's a great beauty in defense," he says. "That's my big advantage. When my offense isn't so good on a day, I can rely on my defense. Whatever comes now I'm ready for it."
Most modern champions fell into one of two camps -- Mr. McEnroe, Mr. Sampras and Andre Agassi were offensive players who constantly attacked opponents with big serves and volleys or aggressive baseline shots. Others, like Bjorn Borg and Mats Wilander, played defensively. By fusing caution and aggression and learning to use both at once -- often within the same point -- Mr. Federer put himself on a higher plane. "One of the things he does better than anyone," says tennis coach Paul Annacone, "is turn defense into offense very, very quickly."
At last year's U.S. Open, during a decisive point against American Andy Roddick, Mr. Federer scrambled wide to blunt an almost perfect forehand, then, unshaken, ended the point four shots later with a backhand winner that left Mr. Roddick stunned. "He keeps you guessing," says Mr. McEnroe.
If you designed a player to beat Mr. Federer, he would look very much like Rafael Nadal. What makes Mr. Nadal so dangerous is this: He hits the ball better than anyone ever has.
As a youngster, Mr. Nadal's uncle taught the natural righthander how to play lefthanded, giving him a forehand that eats up the backhands of righties like Mr. Federer. It also carries so much spin it makes the ball bounce and skip at befuddling angles. Researcher John Yandell, who analyzes slow-motion video of top pros, says the spin on Mr. Nadal's forehand is 3,300 rotations per minute compared to 2,700 for Mr. Federer. "His normal safe forehand is the toughest shot in the world," explains U.S. Davis Cup Captain Patrick McEnroe. "It's got incredible rotation, and he never misses."
With his quick feet, Mr. Nadal can reach balls most players can't and then turn them into scorching winners. "He makes you feel like you've got to hit an extra shot," Mr. Federer says. "Or a shot closer to the line."
During a crucial service point late in the fifth set of July's Wimbledon final, Mr. Federer traded groundstrokes with Mr. Nadal until he saw an opening. He hit a sharply angled crosscourt forehand that should have been a winner. But the cat-quick Mr. Nadal arrived in time to hit a blistering backhand that caught Mr. Federer flat-footed. The Spaniard had turned a defensive predicament into an offensive opportunity.
As the U.S. Open begins, the consensus inside tennis is that Mr. Federer should attack. "He doesn't come out with an aggressive enough game plan," says Patrick McEnroe. "Normally when he sees a ball to attack he's on it like a cat. Now he's just second-guessing his moves."
If Mr. Federer has any model for what he would like to do, it's a match these two played in Miami in 2005. Mr. Federer fell behind Mr. Nadal by two sets and a service break before roaring back to beat him in five sets. It was, as Mr. Federer remembers, a show of physical domination. "The guy was almost KO'd standing," Mr. Federer recalls. "He didn't know what to do any more. And as the match went on I was getting stronger and stronger."
Can Roger Get His Game Back?
Entering the U.S. Open as No. 2 to Nadal,
Federer Weighs a Tougher, Less-Cerebral Style
By ALLEN ST. JOHN
August 22, 2008; Page W1
At the U.S. Open, which begins Monday, Rafael Nadal, the young, ferocious-hitting Spaniard, is heavily favored to win. But Roger Federer is not going away without a fight.
The fiercely independent Mr. Federer has begun a process that may result in a retooling of his tennis game. "I want to move on as a player," Mr. Federer says. "I want to have new ideas."
Roger Federer says it's time to try "new ideas" on the court.
In meetings with his small circle of advisors, which includes his girlfriend Mirka Vavrinec, his agent Tony Godsick, his longtime fitness coach Pierre Paganini and confidante and hitting partner Reto Staubli, Mr. Federer has been talking through various theories about how to overcome Mr. Nadal and win his fifth consecutive U.S. Open title. In a sign of the stakes involved, he's also decided to bring his new coach, the former Spanish pro Jose Higueras, with him to New York this week. It's the first time he's had anyone in his corner at this event since 2003.
Mr. Federer has lost to Mr. Nadal four times this year, most notably at the French Open and in their epic four-hour, 48-minute Wimbledon final in July. Since then, the 27-year old Swiss has dropped three of his last seven matches overall, often looking tentative and hesitant. His footwork has been a little slow and he's not stepping in on shots aggressively, observers say. Mr. Higueras, who has coached Mr. Federer since April, is known for teaching footwork and shot selection.
This week, the 22-year-old Mr. Nadal claimed the No. 1 ranking Mr. Federer had held for a record 237 weeks. His quickness and the extraordinary topspin he puts on his groundstrokes have blown a hole in Mr. Federer's balanced, cerebral game.
Observers say Mr. Federer's struggles are as much about his temperament as his tennis. To beat Mr. Nadal, they say, the calm and careful champion will have to turn back the clock to a time when he attacked, gambled and sometimes even lost his temper.
[Roger Federer during his loss to Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in July]
AFP/Getty Images
Roger Federer during his loss to Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in July
The question is whether Mr. Federer wants to follow this advice and, more importantly, whether he can. "Do you want to come to the net against the guy who hits the best passing shots? I don't know," he says. "Maybe."
To understand what made Mr. Federer great, and what makes him vulnerable to Mr. Nadal, is to understand what makes him different. He is the rarest of commodities in pro tennis -- an independent thinker. His resistance to hiring a full-time coach (at times he hasn't had one at all) is virtually unheard of in this sport and his game is very much his own invention. As a junior, Mr. Federer was a demonstrative, and even volatile, player. "I was completely crazy," he says. "Smashing rackets, I was always screaming, very down on myself. I was the guy who was commentating every shot."
He also played an impulsive, attacking brand of tennis, trying to hit winners at the earliest opportunity. When he first emerged on the world stage by beating Pete Sampras at Wimbledon in 2001, "he served and volleyed on almost every point," recalls former world No. 1 John McEnroe.
But his harried style was complicated by an inherent problem: an enormous repertoire of shots. Playing the game at a hair-trigger pace often left him with no time to make up his mind. "I had too many possibilities," he says. "A one-dimensional player is just going to hit the backhand crosscourt again and again. I had the opportunity to slice it, to spin it, to hit it short, to hit it long, to come to the net."
The transformation that made him a 12-time Grand Slam champion began in Hamburg in 2001 when Mr. Federer reacted to a loss by having an emotional meltdown. Embarrassed, he decided to try to hold his emotions in check from then on. What followed was the worst slump of his career. In 2002, Mr. Federer lost in the opening round of the French and then again at Wimbledon. That summer, his mentor, Peter Carter, was killed in a car crash. "I was like 'Oh my God, this doesn't really work,'" Mr. Federer recalled. "Honestly, I have to say I doubted myself a little bit."
With his confidence in tatters, Mr. Federer had an epiphany -- he would try to tone down his game as he'd calmed his emotions. "I decided I'd rather hit 10 great shots on center court than 20 outrageous shots on court 14 where nobody sees them." He focused on making more conservative, defensive shots that would allow opponents to make mistakes.
"There's a great beauty in defense," he says. "That's my big advantage. When my offense isn't so good on a day, I can rely on my defense. Whatever comes now I'm ready for it."
Most modern champions fell into one of two camps -- Mr. McEnroe, Mr. Sampras and Andre Agassi were offensive players who constantly attacked opponents with big serves and volleys or aggressive baseline shots. Others, like Bjorn Borg and Mats Wilander, played defensively. By fusing caution and aggression and learning to use both at once -- often within the same point -- Mr. Federer put himself on a higher plane. "One of the things he does better than anyone," says tennis coach Paul Annacone, "is turn defense into offense very, very quickly."
At last year's U.S. Open, during a decisive point against American Andy Roddick, Mr. Federer scrambled wide to blunt an almost perfect forehand, then, unshaken, ended the point four shots later with a backhand winner that left Mr. Roddick stunned. "He keeps you guessing," says Mr. McEnroe.
If you designed a player to beat Mr. Federer, he would look very much like Rafael Nadal. What makes Mr. Nadal so dangerous is this: He hits the ball better than anyone ever has.
As a youngster, Mr. Nadal's uncle taught the natural righthander how to play lefthanded, giving him a forehand that eats up the backhands of righties like Mr. Federer. It also carries so much spin it makes the ball bounce and skip at befuddling angles. Researcher John Yandell, who analyzes slow-motion video of top pros, says the spin on Mr. Nadal's forehand is 3,300 rotations per minute compared to 2,700 for Mr. Federer. "His normal safe forehand is the toughest shot in the world," explains U.S. Davis Cup Captain Patrick McEnroe. "It's got incredible rotation, and he never misses."
With his quick feet, Mr. Nadal can reach balls most players can't and then turn them into scorching winners. "He makes you feel like you've got to hit an extra shot," Mr. Federer says. "Or a shot closer to the line."
During a crucial service point late in the fifth set of July's Wimbledon final, Mr. Federer traded groundstrokes with Mr. Nadal until he saw an opening. He hit a sharply angled crosscourt forehand that should have been a winner. But the cat-quick Mr. Nadal arrived in time to hit a blistering backhand that caught Mr. Federer flat-footed. The Spaniard had turned a defensive predicament into an offensive opportunity.
As the U.S. Open begins, the consensus inside tennis is that Mr. Federer should attack. "He doesn't come out with an aggressive enough game plan," says Patrick McEnroe. "Normally when he sees a ball to attack he's on it like a cat. Now he's just second-guessing his moves."
If Mr. Federer has any model for what he would like to do, it's a match these two played in Miami in 2005. Mr. Federer fell behind Mr. Nadal by two sets and a service break before roaring back to beat him in five sets. It was, as Mr. Federer remembers, a show of physical domination. "The guy was almost KO'd standing," Mr. Federer recalls. "He didn't know what to do any more. And as the match went on I was getting stronger and stronger."
He's a really nice guy and it's all good in the end.
