Roger Federer beat Fernando Gonzalez 7-5, 6-1, 6-0 in the Madrid final, 2006 on indoor hard court
It was Federer's only win at the event as an indoor hard court tournament. Gonzalez was seeded 10th
Federer won 98 points, Gonzalez 62
Serve Stats
Federer...
- 1st serve percentage (46/81) 57%
- 1st serve points won (37/46) 80%
- 2nd serve points won (23/35) 66%
- Aces 11 (1 second serve), Service Winners 1
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (31/81) 38%
Gonzalez...
- 1st serve percentage (50/79) 63%
- 1st serve points won (26/50) 52%
- 2nd serve points won (15/29) 52%
- Aces 4
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (15/79) 19%
Serve Patterns
Federer served...
- to FH 33%
- to BH 67%
Gonzalez served...
- to FH 29%
- to BH 68%
- to Body 3%
Return Stats
Federer made...
- 64 (21 FH, 43 BH), including 1 runaround FH & 5 return-approaches
- 1 Winner (1 BH)
- 11 Errors, comprising...
- 5 Unforced (2 FH, 3 BH)
- 6 Forced (1 FH, 5 BH)
- Return Rate (64/79) 81%
Gonzalez made...
- 48 (18 FH, 30 BH), including 4 runaround FHs & 1 return-approach
- 19 Errors, comprising...
- 10 Unforced (4 FH, 6 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 9 Forced (1 FH, 8 BH)
- Return Rate (48/79) 61%
Break Points
Federer 6/13 (6 games)
Gonzalez 0/2 (2 games)
Winners (excluding serves, including returns)
Federer 25 (11 FH, 7 BH, 3 FHV, 1 BHV, 3 OH)
Gonzalez 14 (6 FH, 4 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH)
Federer's FHs - 4 cc (1 pass), 1 dtl, 2 inside-out, 1 inside-out/dtl pass, 2 inside-in and 1 longline
- BHs - 7 dtl (1 return, 1 slice pass and 1 running-down-drop-shot at net)
- 1 OH was from a return-approach point
Gonzalez' FHs - 1 cc at, 2 inside-out, 2 inside-in and 1 longline at net
- BHs - 1 cc/longline, 1 dtl pass and 2 drop shots
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Federer 31
- 19 Unforced (8 FH, 10 BH, 1 BHV)
- 12 Forced (7 FH, 4 BH, 1 BH1/2V)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 49.5
Gonzalez 42
- 25 Unforced (13 FH, 10 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV)
- 17 Forced (12 FH, 5 BH)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 50.8
(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 for these two matches are keyed on 4 categories - 20 defensive, 40 neutral, 50 attacking and 60 winner attempt)
Net Points & Serve-Volley
Federer was...
- 23/26 (88%) at net, including...
- 2/4 (50%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 2/3 (67%) off 1st serve and...
- 0/1 off 2nd serve
--
- 4/5 (80%) return-approaching
Gonzalez was...
- 8/16 (50%) at net, including...
- 0/1 serve-volleying, a 1st serve
--
- 1/1 return-approaching
- 0/1 forced back
Match Report
This was shaping to be a tough match. 10 games, 10 holds, no break points. After that, Federer wins 14/15 games. Gonzo's level does drop, especially on the serve and return, and he undergoes treatment to his right arm between the 2nd and 3rd set. He still plays decently - certainly decently enough to not lose 14/15 games. Nor does Federer lift his game to winning 14/15 games level, though playing well. The scoreline of the last two sets is thus, not easy to explain. Probably just a significantly better player having the little things fall his way on top of given superiority
Phase 1 - Upto 5-5, First Set
A very normal match. Federer missing 3 FHs in the opening game, leads to it lasting 10 points. A couple of strong returns from Fed - including a BH dtl winner - leads to a Gonzo service game going to deuce. Fed errors sees him down 0-30 in another game, but he forcefully takes charge of it from there. Otherwise, simple holds for both
Phase 2 - From 5-5, First Set
Fed holds to 15 with 4 aces
Then breaks, despite Gonzo making 10/14 first serves. He'd lost just 4/14 such points going into the game, but loses 6/10 in the game itself. Its a poorly played game by Gonzo. Missing a putaway FHV is the worst of it, but regular attacking FH errors keeps Fed in the game, as well as perfect FH inside-out/dtl pass winner
With advantage, Gonzo hits a dumb drop shot that Fed easily runs down to hit a winner without even reaching the service line. Then another Gonzo FH winner attempt miss to bring up just the second break point. Fed plays it well - a short slice leaves Gonzo slicing the ball back, which Fed comes in off and finishes with an OH
After Fed holds to love to start the second, Gonzo wins his last game in an exceptionally hard hitting game, forcing 4 groundstroke errors out of Fed
And then the wheels come of for Gonzo score-wise
There's much good play from Fed during it. He trims his UEs (helped by Gonzo's consistency falling, though not by much), gains return errors from moderate serves (some discredit to Gonzo's returning), returns with easy comfort (largely due to Gonzo's serving force dropping - though Fed's sharp in attacking with the return)
Serve & Return
Fed serves as strongly as he needs to. In first set, his first serves are placed wide aggressively for aces, strongly forced return errors or eliciting weak returns that he can wade into. He serves his 11th and what turns out to be last ace to open game 3 of second set, just after Gonzo held for the last time
Thereafter, Fed's serving is less strong, with most first serves within Gonzo's swing range
Initially, Gonzo had fended back first serves best he could and looked for chances to bash FH returns off seconds, occasionally running around to do so. Fed of course, directed majority of serves to Gonzo's BH all match
Later, not very good returning from Gonzo as he regularly misses makeable returns. He ends with 10 UEs to 9 FEs
One imagines Fed picked up on something in Gonzo's play to shift how aggressive his serve was. Even after dialing it down a bit, its still a fast and sometimes deep serve, but the sort a returner would fancy getting back in play without undue difficult. Early on by contrast, serve was very challenging and sometimes unreturnable
Similar story with Gonzo's serving. After his first 5 service games, he had 10/24 or 41% unreturned serves. Thereafter, its 5/55 or 9%... this is overwhelmingly due to his serving strength dropping to harmless levels
Its challenging without being overly strong in the initial phase, but Fed makes an effort to return with authority, likely to avoid the fireworks of Gonzo's third ball FH to anything soft
Fed continues returning with authority in phase 2. Note the large 5 return-approaches and his standard return is deep and less often, wide. By his standards, which is mostly neutral, its an attacking of mind returning display by Federer
Play - Net & Baseline
With Gonzalez, play centers around his FH and is shaped by the prospect of what he might do with it
Gonzo is apt to blast FHs off regulation balls or harder with such aggression as to end points. He also makes plenty of errors so doing
In this match, Gonzo mixes up his blaster FH in Phase 1. Fair bit of neutral-ish (even Gonzo's 'neutral' FH is above average of force) FH inside-outing to Fed's BH that draws unforced errors. One senses that Fed, facing such balls, is waiting for the other shoe to drop (i.e. knows that a huge FH could be coming any shot)
Good, neutral BH play from Fed. The shot is secure and varied. It comes under moderate attacks more than the FH, and in this light, 10 UEs is a low number (he has 8 on the FH, which isn't targeted in this way). Gonzo's BH looks unimpressive... just putting ball in court however he can, without particular attention to what he's trying to do with the shot. And he's apt to just go for crazy winners off that side from regulation positions.
Of his 10 BH UEs - 5 are winner attempts, 3 attacking shot and just 2 neutrals, with a staggering UEFI of 56. This is bad strategy... you play like this if your up against a much more consistent BH that'll out-last you if play goes neutrally. Though better of control, there's nothing about Fed's BH that warrants this type of wildness
Gonzo continues swinging with the FH in phase 2. His power of both sides is down, but off the FH, is still strong. Some excellent defence from Fed against hard hit FH cc's in particular. From well behind the baseline, Fed's able to put a bunch of tough shots back in play on the run. Most of Fed's 7 FH FEs would have been shots against Gonzo's cc and inside-in FHs
Fed's own attack is led by FH. 11 winners to 8 UEs is excellent ratio and he wins 17/17 net approaches from rallying, in total winning 88% net points. The net coverage is more impressive than the volleying and he doesn't place volleys well away from Gonzo
In phase 2, Gonzo' power is down a bit, but still meaty. Fed's defence though is extremely good and his consistency of the ground vastly superior. Gonzo becomes more error prone than previously, despite hitting out less
When Fed attacks and Gonzo's defending, its a different story. Gonzo's defence isn't good - at any stage of the match - and points are all down to Fed. As 49.5 UEFI indicates, he misses a good bit attacking too - though less than Gonzo - but comes away with a healthy net positive - 25 winners and forcing 17 errors
Summing up, something isn't right with Gonzalez and from early 2nd set, his serving strength, returning consistency and groundstroke power all drop noticeablyy. In play, he remains decent with choice, power hitting. Though facing an apparently hampered opponent, Fed's play is very good - consistent neutrally, attacking effecitvely and moving/defending well when needed. Gonzo isn't so hampered as to justify the score-line for two sets and I would primarily credit Fed's showing for the complete one sidedness of it
It was Federer's only win at the event as an indoor hard court tournament. Gonzalez was seeded 10th
Federer won 98 points, Gonzalez 62
Serve Stats
Federer...
- 1st serve percentage (46/81) 57%
- 1st serve points won (37/46) 80%
- 2nd serve points won (23/35) 66%
- Aces 11 (1 second serve), Service Winners 1
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (31/81) 38%
Gonzalez...
- 1st serve percentage (50/79) 63%
- 1st serve points won (26/50) 52%
- 2nd serve points won (15/29) 52%
- Aces 4
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (15/79) 19%
Serve Patterns
Federer served...
- to FH 33%
- to BH 67%
Gonzalez served...
- to FH 29%
- to BH 68%
- to Body 3%
Return Stats
Federer made...
- 64 (21 FH, 43 BH), including 1 runaround FH & 5 return-approaches
- 1 Winner (1 BH)
- 11 Errors, comprising...
- 5 Unforced (2 FH, 3 BH)
- 6 Forced (1 FH, 5 BH)
- Return Rate (64/79) 81%
Gonzalez made...
- 48 (18 FH, 30 BH), including 4 runaround FHs & 1 return-approach
- 19 Errors, comprising...
- 10 Unforced (4 FH, 6 BH), including 1 runaround FH
- 9 Forced (1 FH, 8 BH)
- Return Rate (48/79) 61%
Break Points
Federer 6/13 (6 games)
Gonzalez 0/2 (2 games)
Winners (excluding serves, including returns)
Federer 25 (11 FH, 7 BH, 3 FHV, 1 BHV, 3 OH)
Gonzalez 14 (6 FH, 4 BH, 2 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH)
Federer's FHs - 4 cc (1 pass), 1 dtl, 2 inside-out, 1 inside-out/dtl pass, 2 inside-in and 1 longline
- BHs - 7 dtl (1 return, 1 slice pass and 1 running-down-drop-shot at net)
- 1 OH was from a return-approach point
Gonzalez' FHs - 1 cc at, 2 inside-out, 2 inside-in and 1 longline at net
- BHs - 1 cc/longline, 1 dtl pass and 2 drop shots
Errors (excluding serves and returns)
Federer 31
- 19 Unforced (8 FH, 10 BH, 1 BHV)
- 12 Forced (7 FH, 4 BH, 1 BH1/2V)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 49.5
Gonzalez 42
- 25 Unforced (13 FH, 10 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV)
- 17 Forced (12 FH, 5 BH)
- Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 50.8
(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 for these two matches are keyed on 4 categories - 20 defensive, 40 neutral, 50 attacking and 60 winner attempt)
Net Points & Serve-Volley
Federer was...
- 23/26 (88%) at net, including...
- 2/4 (50%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 2/3 (67%) off 1st serve and...
- 0/1 off 2nd serve
--
- 4/5 (80%) return-approaching
Gonzalez was...
- 8/16 (50%) at net, including...
- 0/1 serve-volleying, a 1st serve
--
- 1/1 return-approaching
- 0/1 forced back
Match Report
This was shaping to be a tough match. 10 games, 10 holds, no break points. After that, Federer wins 14/15 games. Gonzo's level does drop, especially on the serve and return, and he undergoes treatment to his right arm between the 2nd and 3rd set. He still plays decently - certainly decently enough to not lose 14/15 games. Nor does Federer lift his game to winning 14/15 games level, though playing well. The scoreline of the last two sets is thus, not easy to explain. Probably just a significantly better player having the little things fall his way on top of given superiority
Phase 1 - Upto 5-5, First Set
A very normal match. Federer missing 3 FHs in the opening game, leads to it lasting 10 points. A couple of strong returns from Fed - including a BH dtl winner - leads to a Gonzo service game going to deuce. Fed errors sees him down 0-30 in another game, but he forcefully takes charge of it from there. Otherwise, simple holds for both
Phase 2 - From 5-5, First Set
Fed holds to 15 with 4 aces
Then breaks, despite Gonzo making 10/14 first serves. He'd lost just 4/14 such points going into the game, but loses 6/10 in the game itself. Its a poorly played game by Gonzo. Missing a putaway FHV is the worst of it, but regular attacking FH errors keeps Fed in the game, as well as perfect FH inside-out/dtl pass winner
With advantage, Gonzo hits a dumb drop shot that Fed easily runs down to hit a winner without even reaching the service line. Then another Gonzo FH winner attempt miss to bring up just the second break point. Fed plays it well - a short slice leaves Gonzo slicing the ball back, which Fed comes in off and finishes with an OH
After Fed holds to love to start the second, Gonzo wins his last game in an exceptionally hard hitting game, forcing 4 groundstroke errors out of Fed
And then the wheels come of for Gonzo score-wise
There's much good play from Fed during it. He trims his UEs (helped by Gonzo's consistency falling, though not by much), gains return errors from moderate serves (some discredit to Gonzo's returning), returns with easy comfort (largely due to Gonzo's serving force dropping - though Fed's sharp in attacking with the return)
Serve & Return
Fed serves as strongly as he needs to. In first set, his first serves are placed wide aggressively for aces, strongly forced return errors or eliciting weak returns that he can wade into. He serves his 11th and what turns out to be last ace to open game 3 of second set, just after Gonzo held for the last time
Thereafter, Fed's serving is less strong, with most first serves within Gonzo's swing range
Initially, Gonzo had fended back first serves best he could and looked for chances to bash FH returns off seconds, occasionally running around to do so. Fed of course, directed majority of serves to Gonzo's BH all match
Later, not very good returning from Gonzo as he regularly misses makeable returns. He ends with 10 UEs to 9 FEs
One imagines Fed picked up on something in Gonzo's play to shift how aggressive his serve was. Even after dialing it down a bit, its still a fast and sometimes deep serve, but the sort a returner would fancy getting back in play without undue difficult. Early on by contrast, serve was very challenging and sometimes unreturnable
Similar story with Gonzo's serving. After his first 5 service games, he had 10/24 or 41% unreturned serves. Thereafter, its 5/55 or 9%... this is overwhelmingly due to his serving strength dropping to harmless levels
Its challenging without being overly strong in the initial phase, but Fed makes an effort to return with authority, likely to avoid the fireworks of Gonzo's third ball FH to anything soft
Fed continues returning with authority in phase 2. Note the large 5 return-approaches and his standard return is deep and less often, wide. By his standards, which is mostly neutral, its an attacking of mind returning display by Federer
Play - Net & Baseline
With Gonzalez, play centers around his FH and is shaped by the prospect of what he might do with it
Gonzo is apt to blast FHs off regulation balls or harder with such aggression as to end points. He also makes plenty of errors so doing
In this match, Gonzo mixes up his blaster FH in Phase 1. Fair bit of neutral-ish (even Gonzo's 'neutral' FH is above average of force) FH inside-outing to Fed's BH that draws unforced errors. One senses that Fed, facing such balls, is waiting for the other shoe to drop (i.e. knows that a huge FH could be coming any shot)
Good, neutral BH play from Fed. The shot is secure and varied. It comes under moderate attacks more than the FH, and in this light, 10 UEs is a low number (he has 8 on the FH, which isn't targeted in this way). Gonzo's BH looks unimpressive... just putting ball in court however he can, without particular attention to what he's trying to do with the shot. And he's apt to just go for crazy winners off that side from regulation positions.
Of his 10 BH UEs - 5 are winner attempts, 3 attacking shot and just 2 neutrals, with a staggering UEFI of 56. This is bad strategy... you play like this if your up against a much more consistent BH that'll out-last you if play goes neutrally. Though better of control, there's nothing about Fed's BH that warrants this type of wildness
Gonzo continues swinging with the FH in phase 2. His power of both sides is down, but off the FH, is still strong. Some excellent defence from Fed against hard hit FH cc's in particular. From well behind the baseline, Fed's able to put a bunch of tough shots back in play on the run. Most of Fed's 7 FH FEs would have been shots against Gonzo's cc and inside-in FHs
Fed's own attack is led by FH. 11 winners to 8 UEs is excellent ratio and he wins 17/17 net approaches from rallying, in total winning 88% net points. The net coverage is more impressive than the volleying and he doesn't place volleys well away from Gonzo
In phase 2, Gonzo' power is down a bit, but still meaty. Fed's defence though is extremely good and his consistency of the ground vastly superior. Gonzo becomes more error prone than previously, despite hitting out less
When Fed attacks and Gonzo's defending, its a different story. Gonzo's defence isn't good - at any stage of the match - and points are all down to Fed. As 49.5 UEFI indicates, he misses a good bit attacking too - though less than Gonzo - but comes away with a healthy net positive - 25 winners and forcing 17 errors
Summing up, something isn't right with Gonzalez and from early 2nd set, his serving strength, returning consistency and groundstroke power all drop noticeablyy. In play, he remains decent with choice, power hitting. Though facing an apparently hampered opponent, Fed's play is very good - consistent neutrally, attacking effecitvely and moving/defending well when needed. Gonzo isn't so hampered as to justify the score-line for two sets and I would primarily credit Fed's showing for the complete one sidedness of it
