Match Stats/Report - Federer vs Nalbandian, Rome semi-final, 2006

[Waspsting]

Roger Federer beat David Nalbandian 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(5) in the Rome semi-final, 2006 on clay

Federer would go onto lose in the final to Rafael Nadal. The two would meet again shortly in the French Open semi, with Federer again winning. The two had last met in the 2005 Year End Championship final, where Nalbandian came back from 2 sets down to win

Federer won 115 points, Nalbandian 114

Serve Stats
Federer...
- 1st serve percentage (56/117) 48%
- 1st serve points won (39/56) 70%
- 2nd serve points won (27/61) 44%
- Aces 9
- Double Faults 2
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (30/117) 26%

Nalbandian...
- 1st serve percentage (64/112) 57%
- 1st serve points won (40/64) 63%
- 2nd serve points won (23/48) 48%
- Aces 2
- Double Faults 8
- Unreturned Serve Percentage (21/112) 19%

Serve Pattern
Federer served...
- to FH 30%
- to BH 63%
- to Body 6%

Nalbandian served...
- to FH 10%
- to BH 86%
- to Body 5%

Return Stats
Federer made...
- 83 (18 FH, 65 BH), including 10 runaround FHs
- 3 Winners (1 FH, 2 BH)
- 19 Errors, comprising...
- 10 Unforced (2 FH, 8 BH), including 1 runaround FH & 1 drop-return attempt
- 9 Forced (1 FH, 8 BH)
- Return Rate (83/104) 80%

Nalbandian made...
- 85 (24 FH, 61 BH)
- 5 Winners (3 FH, 2 BH)
- 21 Errors, comprising...
- 10 Unforced (2 FH, 8 BH)
- 11 Forced (7 FH, 4 BH)
- Return Rate (85/115) 74%

Break Points
Federer 5/9 (5 games)
Nalbandian 5/16 (7 games)

Winners (including returns, excluding aces)
Federer 27 (14 FH, 7 BH, 1 FHV, 3 BHV, 2 OH)
Nalbandian 28 (11 FH, 9 BH, 2 FHV, 5 BHV, 1 OH)

Federer's FHs - 4 cc, 1 cc/inside-in, 4 dtl (1 return), 2 inside-out, 1 inside-in, 1 inside-in/cc at net and 1 longline/inside-out
- BHs -3 cc (2 passes - 1 a return), 3 dtl (1 at net) and 1 inside-in return

- 1 OH on the bounce from just behind service line that's been marked a net point

Nalbandian's FHs - 3 cc (2 returns - 1 not clean), 2 dtl (1 pass, 1 at net), 1 inside-out/dtl at net, 1 inside-in return, 3 drop shots (1 at net, 1 possibly not clean) and 1 lob
- BHs - 1 cc, 4 dtl (2 returns, 1 at net), 2 inside-out and 2 drop shots (1 at net)

- 4 from serve-volley points (2 FHV, 1 BHV, 1 OH), all first volleys

Errors (excluding returns and serves)
Federer 63
- 46 Unforced (24 FH, 20 BH, 2 OH)... with 2 FH at net, 1 BH at net & 1 OH on the bounce from the baseline
- 17 Forced (10 FH, 5 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BHV)... the BHV was a lob
Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 49.1

Nalbandian 50
- 35 Unforced (13 FH, 19 BH, 3 BHV)
- 15 Forced (6 FH, 7 BH, 1 FHV, 1 BH1/2V)... with 1 FH running-down-drop-shot at net
Unforced Error Forcefulness Index 48.3

(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 a measure of how aggressive of intent the average UE made was. 60 is maximum, 20 is minimum. This match has been scored using a four point scale - 2 defensive, 4 neutral, 5 attacking, 6 winner attempt)

Net Points & Serve-Volley
Federer was...
- 14/24 (58%) at net, with...
- 0/2 forced back

Nalbandian was...
- 21/32 (66%) at net, including...
- 8/10 (80%) serve-volleying, comprising...
- 7/9 (78%) off 1st serve and...
- 1/1 off 2nd serve
---
- 1/2 forced back

Match Report
Match of uneven standard, with some good stuff interspersed with distinctly ordinary stuff. And virtually dead even. On the whole, Nalbandian has edge in play, but last half of third set, its Federer who's the slightly stronger. There's nothing in the result - third set tiebreak, where one against-run-of-match return is crucial in the result. Conditions are particularly quick for clay

Two points stand out. On serve in the tiebreak at 4-5, Nalbandian serve-volleys behind a kick serve out wide to the BH. It'd been his occasional surprise weapon in the match and he'd won 8/9 so doing, with Fed missing the return or leaving an easy volley to putaway. This time, Fed gets the return cc wide for a winner. And wraps match up on his serve a couple points later

Earlier, serving for first set, Fed falls to 0-40. Saves 2 break points, but is outmanuvered on the third, Dave dashes to net and misses an easy, finishing BHV. And Fed goes on to serve out the set

That's the difference between winning and losing the match. Flip of the coin stuff amidst equality

Points won - Fed 115, Dave 114
Points served - Fed 117, Dave 112
Break Points - Fed 5/9 in 5 games, Dave 5/16 in 7 games

Several points of interest

Fed's serving - on whole, not particularly good. Just 48% in count (Dave has 57%), but in second half of decider, its a handy weapon. That's the only part of the match where first serve from either player is good enough to give server a huge advantage

Fed outaces Dave 9-2 and force 11 return errors to 9. Much of the return FEs drawn by Dave is product of serve-volleying, not the serve itself

Both players returning aggressively well, particularly Dave who steps in and spanks second serve returns in particular. For that matter, he takes his counter-attacking shot at first serves out wide to his FH too

8 return winners between the 2 players (Dave 5, Fed 3) - just 1 a pass - is very high for a baseline, clay match.

For that matter, Fed's attacking 2nd serve returns in first set is among the best I've seen from him. He's generally not an attacking returner, but steps in and spanks returns early near as well as Dave in that period. That doesn't last for whole match, but he's apt to swat the odd return with near point ending strenght. As for Dave, when he hasn't gotten the winner off or something attackingly wide, he's hit hard and early enough to leave Fed a pseudo-defensive third ball

2nd serve points won read Fed 44%, Dave 48% reflects job well done by returner. Fed's figure is mostly about Dave's attacking returning. Dave's has more to do with double faults - he has high 8, to Fed's 2 - sans which, he wins 58% (Fed's 46%)

Very good attacking returning, particularly from Dave. Some good stuff on that front from Fed too. And a double faulting problem for Dave, several of them at not good times

Dave serves relentlessly to Fed's BH, directing 86% serves there. Often kicks the first serve even up high. Fed struggles with these and can't pack a punch on the return when it gets up high, but unwilling to try to take them earlier. Good ploy by Dave to serve-volley in this context and he gets what he wants out of the play like clockwork, all the way to the crucial point in tiebreak when he doesn't

 

[Waspsting]

Forcefully ended points are near even
- Winners - Fed 27, Dave 28
- Errors forced - Fed 15, Dave 17

Its normal for Dave to be aggressive off the BH, but rare for Fed. While his BH isn't good, it is attacking. Plenty of sharply angled cc and dtl shots of placement or otherwise, hard hit shots longline or less angled cc's to extent of being damaging. Misses more than he makes, but he's willing to go for it. Fed trails BH winners by 7-9. Versus Dave, that's a relative win, particularly as UEs are near even too (Fed 20, Nalby 19)

Some beautiful BH play by Nalby. Couple of times he hits runaround BHs, at least once, forcing an error with it. Who hits runaround BH inside-out point ending shots? Also a couple of winners with the BH inside-out, though those aren't runaround shots. And plenty of wide angled shots that leave Fed running

Fed's movement and defence is off. In this period, he usually has a zipping quality to his court coverage and a twinkly quality to his footwork. The former is almost entirely missing, the latter makes a show late in match. Just on movement, you'd think this was a 2014-15 match of Fed's

He needs to move because Dave sends him running after wide shots, particularly to FH side. He's not made to run around all over because the first wide shots usually forces the error. Good shots by Dave and court is relatively quick, but it doesn't take too much to get the error out of Fed. He was in habit of making balls of this type around this period. Not here

On the stability front, UEs read Fed 46, Dave 35
BHs near even (Fed 20, Dave 19) and there's a big gap on the FHs (Fed 24, Dave 13)

Over different parts of match, base rallying dyamics change. Early on, Fed's more loose neutrally - without being particularly bad. For much of second set and early third, he looks to attack - and usually misses. Dave is usually steadier and has hitting advantage (degree of which varies), particularly off BH, though Fed's quite hard hitting off that side too

That changes in 2nd half of last set, when Fed has advantage and tightens up on the errors and he leads, Dave reacts

Both players are apt to utilize leading position to attacking outright. Its bold. Fed isn't particularly good at it and has 12 attacking UEs to go with forcing 15 errors out of Dave. Would probably be better off coming to net instead of trying to finish from back. Dave does better with 9 such errors while forcing 17 out of Fed. Dave in fact has consistency advantage across all shot types -

- Neutral - Fed 19, Dave 16
- Attacking - Fed 12, Dave 9
- Winner attempts - Fed 13, Dave 10

Fed's attacking UE number is the particularly poor number (given the number of errors he's able to force). Room for improvement for both on the neutral front. Not bad on the winner attempts - though there's scope for Fed to improve there too

So Dave leading in all areas +1 winners, +2 forcing errors and +11 on UEs (with advantage in all types)
Counter-balanced by Fed having advantage in serve-return complex of +7 on aces and +6 on double faults and overall 7% lead in unreturned rate

Very close stuff

Match Progression
4 break in a row to start match, mainly due to poor play by server

From 30-30, Fed double faults and misses a routine third ball FH to start. Dave double faults to start and end the next game. Then breaks to love (3 UEs from Fed - a Dave move around BH throws him a bit for one of them). Then another break, with Dave missing his attacking shots

2 superb FH dtl winners (1 return) gets Fed another break (with anothe Dave double and an easy BHV miss helping) as he steps up to serve for set. He's falls to 0-40 so doing, and Dave misses another easy BHV on the last break point, before Fed holds to take the opener

2nd serve points for the set read Fed 8/19, Fed 2/10. Some excellent returning in it

Fed's outhit in 2nd set, and turns to trying to hit his way out of trouble by going for winners. And fails badly. Just the 1 break, but Fed's regularly in trouble and serves 10 points per game to Dave's 5.8

Decider carries on in same vein, with Fed missing attacking shots to get broken at start. He chucks his racquet to the ground in rare show of frustration. Fed gets the break back in a lively, 16 point game with 8 winners it in to level at 2-2

Thereafter, its Fed who has better of play and is able to dictate more. Not completely, and still missing odd attacking shots, but big step up from before

2 trade breaks in long games (Dave broken in 10 pointer, Fed in 12) to keep match on serve. Dave's pushed to 10 points in last regular game of the match (no break points)

Double fault from Dave gives up first mini-break of the 'breaker, before Dave takes net to get it back. A lazy of feet BH UE by Dave puts him behind again, before a slapping FH cc return to baseline again restores parity. The key point is Fed for first time in match making a strong BH return to pass the serve-volleying Dave

Summing up, not a good match but an interesting one. A whole bunch of things get thrown together. From Nalbandian - double faults, wide hit shots and early, aggressive returns and from Federer - choice strong serving, choice attacing returning along with struggling to return the high BH, being outhit, unable to turn it around with shotmaking before finally getting on top from baseline playing balanced way and not great movement - and somehow, it all comes out even

Nothing in the result - a point here and there settles it Federer's way

Stats for the final between Federer and Rafael Nadal - Match Stats/Report - Nadal vs Federer, Rome final 2006 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)
Stats for pair's '05 YEC final - Match Stats/Report - Nalbandian vs Federer, Year End Championship final, 2005 | Talk Tennis (tennis-warehouse.com)

 

[The Big Foe fan]

Its quite staggering, how after this sh!tshow federer upped his level several notches to nearly conquer unbeatable prime nadal in BO5 on clay. (Unlike the vacuum cleaner who needs declined players to feast upon)