Match Stats/Report - Federer vs Djokovic, Davis Cup play-offs round rubber, 2006

Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Roger Federer (Switzerland) beat Novak Djokovic (Serbia and Montenegro) 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 in a Davis Cup play-offs round rubber, 2006 on indoor hard court in Geneva, Switzerland

The winner of the match would qualify for the world group the following year, the loser moved to the zonal group. Earlier in the event, Switzerland had lost 2-3 to Australia in the first round of the world group (Federer did not play the match) and Serbia and Montenegro had come through Europe/Africa Zone by beating Israel and Great Britain (Djokovic winning all 4 of his rubbers across the two matches) to reach this play-off match and a chance to enter world group follwoing year. Russia would go onto win the Davis Cup

The result sealed the match 3-1 for Switzerland and they would further go onto win 4-1. Earlier,
Federer had beaten Janko Tipsarevic to give his team 1-0 lead, Djokovic had beaten Stan Wawrinka to level 1-1 and Federer had teamed with Yves Allegro to beat Ilija Bozoljac and Nenad Zimonjic in the doubles rubber

Federer won 103 points, Djokovic 75

(Note: I’m missing 2 points, both won by Federer. Missing points -
- Set 2, Game 2, Point 1
- Set 3, Game 1, Point 1

The second of these is possibly a passing winner from Federer, most likely FH cc, based on partial replay but has not been marked in anyway)

Serve Stats
Federer...
- 1st serve percentage (55/80) 69%
- 1st serve points won (40/55) 73%
- 2nd serve points won (15/25) 60%
- ?? serve points won (1/1)
- Aces 10
- Double Faults 1
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (30/80) 38%

Djokovic...
- 1st serve percentage (67/96) 70%
- 1st serve points won (37/67) 55%
- 2nd serve points won (13/29) 45%
- ?? serve points won (0/1)
- Aces 3
- Double Faults 2
- *Unreturned Serve Percentage (21/97) 22%

(With Djokovic losing the unknown service point, his unreturned rate figures are complete. Point could also have been a double fault, so Federer's return rate figure is not)

Serve Patterns
Federer served...
- to FH 35%
- to BH 58%
- to Body 6%

Djokovic served...
- to FH 37%
- to BH 62%
- to Body 1%

Return Stats
Federer made...
- 73 (26 FH, 47 BH), including 1 runaround FH & 2 return-approaches
- 1 Winner (1 FH)
- 18 Errors, comprising...
- 9 Unforced (5 FH, 4 BH)
- 9 Forced (4 FH, 5 BH)
- *Return Rate (73/94) 78%

Djokovic made...
- 49 (19 FH, 30 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 20 Errors, comprising...
- 5 Unforced (4 FH, 1 BH)
- 15 Forced (4 FH, 11 BH)
- Return Rate (49/79) 62%

Break Points
Federer 6/14 (9 games)
Djokovic 1/5 (3 games)

Winners (excluding serves, including returns)
Federer 33 (20 FH, 8 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV, 2 OH)
Djokovic 12 (4 FH, 1 BH, 3 FHV, 3 BHV, 1 OH)

Federer's FHs - 13 cc (4 passes - 1 at net), 1 cc/down-the-middle pass, 3 dtl (1 pass), 2 inside-out (1 at net), 1 net chord dribbler return
- BHs - 3 cc (2 passes), 5 dtl (1 at net, 3 passes)

Djokovic's FHs - 3 cc, 1 inside-in
- BH - 1 cc

- 2 from serve-volley points - a first volley FHV & a second volley BHV

Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Federer 41
- 26 Unforced (17 FH, 8 BH, 1 FHV)... with 1 FH at net
- 15 Forced (3 FH, 9 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH)... with 1 FH running-down-drop-shot at net, the FHV was a non-net shot & the OH was flagrantly forced, on the bounce from the baseline shot against an at net smash
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 48.1

Djokovic 36
- 24 Unforced (8 FH, 14 BH, 1 FHV, 1 OH)... the OH was on the bounce from the baseline
- 12 Forced (7 FH, 3 BH, 1 BHV, 1 Back-to-Net)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 49.6

(Note 1: all half-volleys refer to such shots played at net. Half -volleys played from other parts of the court are included within relevant groundstroke counts)

(Note 2: the Unforced Error Forcefulness Index is an indicator of how aggressive the average UE was. The numbers presented are keyed on 4 categories - 20 defensive, 40 neutral, 50 attacking and 60 winner attempt)

Net Points & Serve-Volley
Federer was...
- 14/19 (74%) at net, including...
- 1/1 serve-volleying, a 1st serve
---
- 1/2 return-approaching
- 1/1 forced back

Djokovic was...
- 17/34 (50%) at net, including...
- 3/10 (30%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 3/9 (33%) off 1st serve and...
- 0/1 off 2nd serve
---
- 1/5 (20%) forced back

Match Report
Happy hour time for Federer as he does whatever he likes in dismissing an outmatched Djokovic. If serve, FH, passing and movement all ‘stand out’, do they really stand out? If its possible, Federer’s does here. Djokovic starts with a normal, base game and tries a number of things from there, with none of it slowing down dashing opponent. Court is normal paced

On the serve, Fed has 38% unreturned (Djoko has 22%) and 10 aces (Djoko 3). There’s quality, there’s variety, there’s disguise, there’s precision. Its not a fast court, but Fed comes out with a fast court yield

Off the FH, Fed with 20 winners (Djoko has 12 total winners, and 4 FHs). 9 of them are cc in baseline rallies, with a 5 cc based passes. Fat lot of FH winners is always a good thing, and having bulk of them going cc is a great one. It also has match high 17 UEs (next highest groundie has 14), so there is a price to pay, though its less than value

On the pass, Fed with 11 winners, evenly distributed (6 FH, 5 BH). Djoko has 7 volley winners and is kept to low 50% net points won. He turns to net play after getting dominated from baseline, but Fed’s passing is as on point as his ground shot-making. Just 1 volley UE from Djoko too - his volleying isn’t too decisive but its not missing them that sees him kept to winning just half his net points

No stat to convey Fed’s movement. Djoko’s not passive from the ground and does attack with dtl shots (especially BHs, which has doubtful value of going to Fed’s FH). Fed’s retrieves out of corners silkily and soon has dynamics back to neutral (or passes Djoko as necessary). Djoko would need an extra weight of power behind his moderate wide attacks to perhaps gain more success against such a fleet opponent

BH doesn’t stand out compared to the above list, but 8 winners, 8 UEs ain’t too shabby. Djoko has 1 winner, 14 UEs to put in perspective. 5 of the winners are passes and he does lose more than he wins on the BH pass (which is normal)

Fed’s 60% second serve points won is higher than Djoko’s firsts of 55%
Djoko manages to win 50/97 service points. He holds 7 times, is broken 6. Fed’s broken once, and Djoko conjures break points in 3 games, which isn’t bad in 3 medium-short sets against what he’s up against

Other random points of interest. This match features the first tweener play between the two players. It’s a forced back Djoko who plays the shot, leaving Fed an easy block volley putaway. In their matches, the two have had 4-6 tweener plays exactly in line with the most famous one from US Open ‘09

Post-match handshake is the most coldest one I’ve seen from Fed. He barely waits for Djoko, is moving towards the Chair as he cursorily shakes hands with his body half-turned away towards direction he’s walking. Djoko had apparently annoyed him with medical time outs in earlier rubber with Stan Wawrinka and he takes another what looks like just about the most unnecessary medical time out I’ve seen late in this match in the middle of a game, after playing a common, strained running FH

Serve & Return
Fed with much better serve, Djoko’s being plain
On return, Fed doing so easily (its not a tough task), Djoko with little read

Similar in counts - Fed 69%, Djoko 70% is end of similarities

Fed hitting his spots and mixing up his serves. Some flat and powerful. Some sliced and well wide. A few routine in swing zone. The sudden more powerful ones tend to jar Djoko. Fed with games serving ordinary, Fed with games serving very aggressively of power and placement

Basically, Fed doing whatever he wants. Djoko with little read on the serve. Expects and looks for BH return and not quick to cover serves to his FH, where Fed serves minority 35%. Does look to swing at returns and only rarely gets a deep-ish one off

Very ordinary serving from Djoko, with bulk of his serves in swing zone. About half of of his first serves wouldn’t qualify as forceful. Fed blocking BHs or swinging lightly through FHs with little movement needed. Hitting a bunch of a dtl return winners is on against this kind of a serve (Fed doesn’t try)

Unreturned serves - Fed 38%, Djoko 22%
Aces - Fed 10, Djoko 3
Return FEs drawn - Fed 15, Djoko 9 (with Djoko serving 67 first serves to Fed’s 55)
Return UEs drawn - Fed 9, Djoko 5

Djoko’s return info is in line with being up against a very good serve - take at face value
Fed’s could be product of exceptional defensive returning (that is, making tough returns and getting racquet on potential aces) or being up against an ordinary one. Its being up against an ordinary one
Fed occasional deliberate short-block return to draw Djoko in, with ball staying low. Not too ambitious with return. There’s no reason for him to be

Gist - Fed with much better of things, flowing out of having much better serve. Takes a 16% freebie cushion into rallies, with same quality of returns by two players
 
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Waspsting

Hall of Fame
Play - Baseline & Net
Action starts with standard cc baseline rallies, with Fed leading with FHs. His cc shot of that side is more powerful than Djoko’s and he whips a few winners away from anything a little softer. Djoko’s not great at covering ball on running FH, which is do-able, if difficult

Those whipped, winning FH cc’s is enough to have Fed in drivers seat. Djoko not making point of avoiding FH rallies. BH-BH exchanges are roughly even, with Fed throwing in a few slices while Djoko drives BHs

Djoko not shying away from attacking dynamic. He plays attacking dtl shots and often as not, is the one to open court with wider shot. Fed’s quick to run down first offensive shot and is very good out of the corners. Open court rallies tend to go Fed’s way - dtl shot from Djoko, running wide cc shot from Fed starting off the process and Fed usually getting winning wide cc shot off to end them (mostly, but not always off the FH)

Getting short end of stick, Djoko turns to net play. He’ serve volleys 10 times (Fed does so once) and rallies to net 24 (Fed does so 16). Likes approaching off BH and gets firm ones off. Initially, preferring dtl approaches. Those are met by perfect FH passing winners. He turns more to BH cc approaches, often set up by serve and is more successful, though Fed with a few excellent BH passes too

Late in match, Djoko looks to attack with choice dtl’ish or inside-outs. It brings home how rarely he’d done so all match, and been content to play a keep-ball-in-court and wait for errors game

How does it look in numbers?
Winners - Fed 33, Djoko 12
Errors Forced - Fed 12, Djoko 15
UEs - Fed 26, Djoko 24

Only significant difference are the winners, where Fed has 20 FHs, sans which, those are virtually equal too. So Fed’s huge lot of FH winners is statistically, only difference in play

9 cc FH winners from Fed (along with 5 passes), so he’s got more undivided FH cc winners than Djoko has total winners. He keeps central court position (there’s minimal runaround FH’ng) and dispatches whatever isn’t heavy for winners in that direction. Djoko also has 7 FH FEs, many drawn by wide FH cc

Djoko with just 4 FH winners (3 of his are cc too). He uses FH to stay in rallies, which leaves if up to Fed to miss or make

FH UEs - Fed match high 17 (including 1 at net), Djoko joint match low 8

So Djoko’s FH game is on track to working. Power and depth of his stock cc are but average and unable to keep Fed from indulging shot-making brilliance. That and Fed’s more powerful, if if slightly looser stock FH cc is enough to draw slightly weaker balls that he’s able to putaway

BH UEs - Fed 8, Djoko 14

Speaks for itself. Fed very secure off BH, and winning bulk there. Neither player are purely neutral off the BH. Djoko indulges with dtl attacks (which Fed’s upto defending nicely) and approaches off that side. He doesn’t go for winners from the back though and has just the 1 winner. Fed has 2 in baseline rallies and 6 more passes or net shots

Neutral UEs - Fed 12, Djoko 6

Sign of both Djoko being proactive (if not outright attacking) with his BH which has lions share of UEs so most are attacking shots, and not doing much with FH. From Djoko’s point of view, he’d have to hit heavy ball and keep Fed from going on offensive on top of that to possibly comes out ahead

9 baseline-to-baseline FH cc winners isn’t a sign of that being the case. In baseline rallies, Fed has 14 winners, Djoko 5

Drop shots are part of Djoko’s offence. Not good ones. He’s drawn a couple of errors with them (1 a UE), but also makes errors (he’s got 13 attacking UEs to Fed’s 7) and Fed usually runs them down. Sometiems easily and he can play orthodox groundstoke at net (his 2 passing winners at net would be of this type) but he’s also adept at running-down-drop-shot shots

Fed 14/19 at net. Cherry on top of big offensive cake
Djoko’s 17/34 - comprising 3/10 serve-volleying and 14/24 rallying to net

Fed with 11 passing winners, Djoko with 7 volleying ones
Fed with total 3 FH FEs (and 1s a running-down-drop-shot at net), while he has 6 FH pass winners. BH dtl approach from Djoko, even good ones are thwarted by near flawless passing, including on the run by Fed

Good approach shots by Djoko, often springing out of his serve, but his volleying isn’t well placed. Still, just 1 volley UE, so at least not missing much. Fed’s FH passing is exceptional even when pulled wide and passes he can reach are dealt with still more severely. Far more credit to Fed for great passing than anything being wrong with Djoko’s net game. Good approaches + not missing volleys is generally good to be winning bulk of net points. He wins 50%, with Fed not having stable looks on the pass

Match Progression
First set isn’t one-sided, like rest of match. Just 1 break and it comes in a long 16 point game. Other than that, both players enduring a 10 point hold (Fed having the sole break point across the 2 games)

Fed starts match with a third ball FH cc winner and adds a BH one later in game to end an open court rally before holding. Djoko saves a break point to get on the board, before extending Fed to 10 point game, that Fed begins and ends with FH cc winners

Break comes in game 6 which lasts 16 points. Djoko’s at net 4 times in the game; he’s passed 3 times and forced back once, but comes away with a winning OH on the bounce from the baseline on the last. It finally takes a double fault and Djoko mixing an attacking third ball BH dtl error to finish the game

Beautiful, flick BH cc pass winner from Fed next game against a deep ball. In time, he serves out to love with very damaging serves that make it seem like he’s been fooling around with the serve shot upto now

That’s it as far as match being competitive goes, if the first set qualifies as competitive. Rest of the way, Fed dominates
Starts second set with a FH dtl winner and a winning FH inside-out return approach. Djoko makes bad third ball BH UEs to give up break

Djoko holds deuce game to get on board for 1-2, but is broken next go around in a 10 point game where Fed has 5 winners, including last 3 points (wrong footing BH dtl, superb BH cc pass and by now normal FH cc)

Two trade tough holds (Fed saves 2 break points - 1 of them with a brilliant FH cc pass winner against a good BH dtl approach - Djoko 1 with a serve-volley), before Fed against serves out to love with particularly strong serves

Fed opens up 3-0 lead with 2 breaks in the third. Winners from FH cc and BH dtl pass get him to break point in first game, where Djoko missing a baseline OH on the bounce after being forced back serve-volleying to end the game. Bad game by Djoko with 3 ground UEs, including 2 third balls, to be broken to love for second break, with Fed getting low return to force BHV error against serve-volley to wrap up the game

Game with attacking shots and misses as Fed loses serve for only time in match makes things 3-1. Djoko adds attacking FH play for the finale, which brings home how little he’d done earlier in match; at most, it catches Fed out slightly and its 2 attacking FH misses from Djoko that see Fed hold for 5-3 after being down break point

Prior to that, Djoko had endured another tough hold, saving break pint with a serve-volleying winner. Djoko strikes a difficult, counter-attacking running FH cc winner game after. And calls a medical time out immediately with score at 15-15, Fed serving up 3-2

Looks like a run of the mill strained running shot and nothing that would require such a time out, let alone immediately. 0 show of concern for opponent by Fed, who calmly takes it in stride, as Djoko has his thighs rubbed and treated for a few minutes. Fed

Later Fed breaks to 30 to end the match. Winning return to baseline to start the game, the tweener point mentioned earlier and Djoko missing a couple of attacking BHs do the trick

Summing up, top class, wipe-out showing from Federer. Serves with beautiful variety and well, FH is star of show with whipping cc winners against anything half-loose, excellent passing on the move off both wings, with FH particularly good there too. Movement and play out of corners to thwart opponents moderate attacking play is also high end

Djokovic with ordinary serving and a standard baseline game of keeping ball in play and attacking moderately with dtl shots, especially BHs. Not bad weight of shot, but it proves meat drink for Federer’s shot-making. Switches tacks to attacking net with good approach shots and at least, safe volleying but that’s meat by spectacular counter-passing also
 

metsman

Talk Tennis Guru
Federer actually wanted to make a point here given he wasn't happy with Djokovic after the match against Wawrinka (the incident that started the "bad blood"). Granted Federer usually always gave it his all in Davis cup even against lower tier opponents in a way he didn't anywhere else.
 

Biotic

Hall of Fame
Strange idea for a match thread. Like reporting on one of early Federer matches where he got dragged by Grosjean and Enquist.
 
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