So why doesn't Federer always hit his forehand that hard?

BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
So I just finally watched the replay of the Federer-Haas Gillette Tour exhibition from Sao Paulo, Brazil (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxWQnDvReBw&feature=plcp). Very entertaining and high-level match for sure.

So my question is: Why doesn't Federer ALWAYS hit his forehands that hard?

He hit numerous forehands (including a swinging forehand volley near the end) that were ridiculously hard! Harder than I've ever seen any other human being hit a tennis ball off the ground! I mean, if they had measured them with a radar gun, they would all have been well over 100mph easily! And he made almost all of them and hardly missed. So if he can hit the ball that hard consistently, why doesn't he do it during real matches? He would be blowing all the top players off of the court if he did.

As a side note: After watching this match, one has to ask: Is there a shot this man CAN'T hit???
 
M

monfed

Guest
Coz he'd make a lot of UEs? But Yea I see your point.

And umm Fed can't hit a 2HBH ;)
 
DolgoSantoro

DolgoSantoro

Professional
It's an exo, there's less pressure than actual matches so he can swing freely and screw the consequences. I hit many more winners when I'm just goofing off with my dad than during real matches as well.
 
Homeboy Hotel

Homeboy Hotel

Hall of Fame
Unforgiving racquet results in a trade off between having complete control with your shots/speed/placement (Fed prefers) but being dangerous close to hitting a high level of unforced errors and some awful club-level mis-hits.
 
stringertom

stringertom

Bionic Poster
^^^For Mick & monfed: I direct you to post #2070 of the Eagle thread for visual confirmation that SexiRogi can indeed hit a 2hbh!

Better to state he chooses not to rely on the mobility-limiting technique that would also curtail his almost limitless creativity off the backhand wing!
 
underground

underground

G.O.A.T.
At least someone agrees with me. I was astonished by the FHs in his exhibition, the ones against Haad and Delpo were insane. He's whipping them so fast it leaves people in shock. Let's see if he can produce this sort of stuff in the AO. Maybe he's using these exhibitions as practice for his weapons. :)
 
Carsomyr

Carsomyr

Legend
DolgoSantoro said:
It's an exo, there's less pressure than actual matches so he can swing freely and screw the consequences. I hit many more winners when I'm just goofing off with my dad than during real matches as well.
Click to expand...

Yep.

He was crushing forehands against Delpo and Tsonga as well, and it was absolutely devastating. But Fed doesn't really play that way any more. Though he's never mentioned himself as in decline (as well he shouldn't), he did admit to playing percentages more, which I take it to mean using the forehand less to blast winners than to construct points. For a guy with as much success as he has and who's been able to survive at the top despite the age and mileage, one can hardly argue with the results.

Though I confess, it was pretty awesome seeing some of those forehands of old. :)
 
BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
monfed said:
And umm Fed can't hit a 2HBH ;)
Click to expand...

Mick said:
A shot that Federer can't hit is a 2hbh :)
Click to expand...
A 2HBH is not a shot. It's a backhand using 2 hands.

A "shot" is like a backhand overhead winner, tweener line drive passing shot, overhead off of an overhead, backhand slice drive disguised as a drop shot, slam dunk shot, 120mph swinging volley, slice forehand approach shot, sidespin backhand, etc. :)
 
roundiesee

roundiesee

Hall of Fame
Actually, towards the end of that last match with del Potro, I think he won the breaker 7-1, and Fed was hitting very hard shots and ridiculous winners all over the place. See if he can duplicate that in real matches, :)
 
firepanda

firepanda

Professional
Also, when he's playing an opponent seriously, the balls are coming at him with more depth and spin, so he has to stand further back. That means he needs topspin, instead of pure power to put the ball in.
 
kishnabe

kishnabe

Talk Tennis Guru
He doesn't play like that, since he wants to ease his way to retirement.

If he dominated the sport in 2013 and retired in 2013....it would be weird.

So lose some slam matches on purpouse.
 
Mick

Mick

Legend
kishnabe said:
He doesn't play like that, since he wants to ease his way to retirement.

If he dominated the sport in 2013 and retired in 2013....it would be weird.

So lose some slam matches on purpouse.
Click to expand...

I feel sorry for the guys on the senior tour if Federer decides to play the senior tour after retirement :)
 
BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
PCXL-Fan said:
Maybe they provided him with a 100 square inch racket?
Click to expand...
Nope. Same old 90 sq. in. racquet:

27901_529648137046983_1455096903_n.jpg
 
BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
I understand the people who say these are exos so he can just go for it without worrying too much about the results. However, he was hitting those huge forehands CONSISTENTLY! So if he has the ability to rip massive forehands consistently, then he doesn't have to worry about missing in a real match. I think he should just go for it. Djokovic, Murray, Berdych, Tsonga, and Del Potro better watch out in 2013! :eek:
 
W

wy2sl0

Hall of Fame
It wasn't because it was an exo, because he was hitting them consistently. I watched a few entire matches from S.A and he was repeating these shots consistently.
 
flyinghippos101

flyinghippos101

Legend
Errr exo conditions =/= match conditions. The stakes are higher and the mental conditions differ dramatically from a likely predetermined exo with no losers. With that said, Fed absolutely does not play a game grounded on razor thin margins. The shots he was going for were "why the hell not" shots, shots that are simply too high risk to consider. Granted, Fed doesn't play wholly within the margins, but its not like he plays constantly on the edge either.
 
SwankPeRFection

SwankPeRFection

Hall of Fame
He was having a blast out there throughout that whole Tour. I am a firm believer that this far in his career with the results he's had, he needs to maybe play a few matches this same way. He came out swinging this way against Nadal at the French last year and if he had kept his cool past that bs timeout that Nadal took in the first set, he would have won that match.

He needs to go out there and have some fun. Imagine how crazy the fans would go if he's out there hitting shots like this in a semi or a final against one of the top guys and laughing while he hits them. That would be like a total mental shock to those players. Something like that happening during a match is what messes with people's minds. The tweener at the USO a couple of years ago did that to Novak. The return from Novak on match point this year at the USO did that to Fed after he got the crowd rowelled up. Stuff like that makes you seem invincible just enough to throw the other player off. That's all that's usually needed to shift the momentum.
 
smoledman

smoledman

G.O.A.T.
Carsomyr said:
Yep.

He was crushing forehands against Delpo and Tsonga as well, and it was absolutely devastating. But Fed doesn't really play that way any more. Though he's never mentioned himself as in decline (as well he shouldn't), he did admit to playing percentages more, which I take it to mean using the forehand less to blast winners than to construct points. For a guy with as much success as he has and who's been able to survive at the top despite the age and mileage, one can hardly argue with the results.

Though I confess, it was pretty awesome seeing some of those forehands of old. :)
Click to expand...

You can't argue with 5 slams post Mono.
 
BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
SwankPeRFection said:
He needs to go out there and have some fun. Imagine how crazy the fans would go if he's out there hitting shots like this in a semi or a final against one of the top guys and laughing while he hits them. That would be like a total mental shock to those players. Something like that happening during a match is what messes with people's minds. The tweener at the USO a couple of years ago did that to Novak. The return from Novak on match point this year at the USO did that to Fed after he got the crowd rowelled up. Stuff like that makes you seem invincible just enough to throw the other player off. That's all that's usually needed to shift the momentum.
Click to expand...
I agree. Two years in row, Djokovic went for it and hit ridiculous winners down match points at the US Open, and each time it rattled Federer enough for him to lose composure and eventually lose both matches because he couldn't mentally recover from being shell-shocked. Federer needs to turn the tables on Djokovic and do it to him from now on! :)
 
6-1 6-3 6-0

6-1 6-3 6-0

Banned
BreakPoint said:
As a side note: After watching this match, one has to ask: Is there a shot this man CAN'T hit???
Click to expand...

Every professional tennis player can hit every shot. But who cares if you can hit every shot well? What matters is WINNING. And Rafael :D Nadal does that better than anyone. :p
 
BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
6-1 6-3 6-0 said:
Every professional tennis player can hit every shot. But who cares if you can hit every shot well? What matters is WINNING. And Rafael :D Nadal does that better than anyone. :p
Click to expand...
Au contraire. As a spectator, YOU don't win, the player playing wins so why does it matter to you if he wins? As a spectator, I want to see amazing tennis with amazing, jaw-dropping shots and lots of variety and to see every possible shot in the book. That's what Federer provides by the bucket-load and Nadal can't come remotely close to matching! All Nadal does is hit the same shot over and over a million times until his opponent gets bored and quits!
 
Harry_Wild

Harry_Wild

G.O.A.T.
BreakPoint said:
So I just finally watched the replay of the Federer-Haas Gillette Tour exhibition from Sao Paulo, Brazil (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxWQnDvReBw&feature=plcp). Very entertaining and high-level match for sure.

So my question is: Why doesn't Federer ALWAYS hit his forehands that hard?

He hit numerous forehands (including a swinging forehand volley near the end) that were ridiculously hard! Harder than I've ever seen any other human being hit a tennis ball off the ground! I mean, if they had measured them with a radar gun, they would all have been well over 100mph easily! And he made almost all of them and hardly missed. So if he can hit the ball that hard consistently, why doesn't he do it during real matches? He would be blowing all the top players off of the court if he did.

As a side note: After watching this match, one has to ask: Is there a shot this man CAN'T hit???
Click to expand...

Federer is not that hard of a hitter in the tour compare to other pros - like Djokovic for example! He wins by placement of his shots - strategy to get an open court and angled shots. His serve is the same way; placement!
 
6-1 6-3 6-0

6-1 6-3 6-0

Banned
BreakPoint said:
Au contraire. As a spectator, YOU don't win, the player playing wins so why does it matter to you if he wins? As a spectator, I want to see amazing tennis with amazing, jaw-dropping shots and lots of variety and to see every possible shot in the book. That's what Federer provides by the bucket-load and Nadal can't come remotely close to matching! All Nadal does is hit the same shot over and over a million times until his opponent gets bored and quits!
Click to expand...

Tennis is Nadal's job (and Nadal's passion). I'm interested in seeing good tactics work to beat the opponent. And in a Federer :mad: vs Nadal :D match, I always see the man who sticks to his tactics win the match (just like we saw at AustralianOpen2012). :p
 
BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
Harry_Wild said:
Federer is not that hard of a hitter in the tour compare to other pros - like Djokovic for example! He wins by placement of his shots - strategy to get an open court and angled shots. His serve is the same way; placement!
Click to expand...
That's why I started this thread! If you watch all of those South American exos, you'd see that Federer is actually more than capable of hitting the ball extremely hard, harder than ANY other pro currently on tour, including Djokovic, Del Potro, Berdych, Tsonga, etc.

So that's why my question is : Why doesn't he hit that hard in the real matches? Because he's shown that he can do it very well and consistently. If he did, he'd be blasting the likes of Djokovic and Del Potro off of the court!
 
BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
6-1 6-3 6-0 said:
Tennis is Nadal's job (and Nadal's passion). I'm interested in seeing good tactics work to beat the opponent. And in a Federer :mad: vs Nadal :D match, I always see the man who sticks to his tactics win the match (just like we saw at AustralianOpen2012). :p
Click to expand...
Watching Nadal hit every serve and every groundstroke to Federer's backhand puts most real tennis fans to sleep.
 
M

merwy

G.O.A.T.
BreakPoint said:
That's why I started this thread! If you watch all of those South American exos, you'd see that Federer is actually more than capable of hitting the ball extremely hard, harder than ANY other pro currently on tour, including Djokovic, Del Potro, Berdych, Tsonga, etc.

So that's why my question is : Why doesn't he hit that hard in the real matches? Because he's shown that he can do it very well and consistently. If he did, he'd be blasting the likes of Djokovic and Del Potro off of the court!
Click to expand...

I don't know what you guys are talking about. Federer always used to have a semi-offensive style of play. Now that the other guys have become more defensive, compared to the early 2000s, Federer is one of the most offensive playing guys on the tour. Take his match against Djokovic in the 2011 US Open, how hard do you want him to hit?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXNc_iMkSIY
 
hyperwarrior

hyperwarrior

Professional
BreakPoint said:
So I just finally watched the replay of the Federer-Haas Gillette Tour exhibition from Sao Paulo, Brazil (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxWQnDvReBw&feature=plcp). Very entertaining and high-level match for sure.

So my question is: Why doesn't Federer ALWAYS hit his forehands that hard?

He hit numerous forehands (including a swinging forehand volley near the end) that were ridiculously hard! Harder than I've ever seen any other human being hit a tennis ball off the ground! I mean, if they had measured them with a radar gun, they would all have been well over 100mph easily! And he made almost all of them and hardly missed. So if he can hit the ball that hard consistently, why doesn't he do it during real matches? He would be blowing all the top players off of the court if he did.

As a side note: After watching this match, one has to ask: Is there a shot this man CAN'T hit???
Click to expand...

Like me, Breakpoint, I've always have a lot of respect for you when it comes to kissing Fed's ***.

Federer has too much respect for the game and playing like that, will kill the depth of today's competition. Nowadays, it's all about sharing and having fun on tours. We all know that he's the most empathic tennis player we've ever seen.
 
Last edited:
TheFifthSet

TheFifthSet

Legend
Gonzo_style said:
If you're Nadal what would you do in the match against Federer?
Click to expand...

Pains me to say this as a Fed fan but this is absolutely right. Who should the onus be on, the guy doing the right thing in order to win or the guy unable to consistently adjust?

I mean, is Nadal supposed to handicap himself to appease others? I think if Nadal started changing his strategy only for the sake of pleasing tennis "purists", he would be insulting the game and it would bring him down a notch in terms of his tenacity as a champion.
 
Smasher08

Smasher08

Legend
BreakPoint said:
That's why I started this thread! If you watch all of those South American exos, you'd see that Federer is actually more than capable of hitting the ball extremely hard, harder than ANY other pro currently on tour, including Djokovic, Del Potro, Berdych, Tsonga, etc.

So that's why my question is : Why doesn't he hit that hard in the real matches? Because he's shown that he can do it very well and consistently. If he did, he'd be blasting the likes of Djokovic and Del Potro off of the court!
Click to expand...

You're comparing how Fed can hit in exo's -- ie no pressure, noting to lose, what-the-hell moments -- with how he performs under match pressure.

Whacking the fuzz off the ball is higher risk tennis, so in the end it's probably a factor of risk analysis.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

TennisFan3
Why doesn't Nadal HIT his forehand like this?
Replies
35
Views
9K
FedExpress 333
FedExpress 333
Cesc Fabregas
Why can't Nadal hit his forehand like that all the time?
Replies
20
Views
2K
TopFH
TopFH
S
Why doesn't Dimitrov hit a lob?
Replies
10
Views
1K
Starbuckingham
S
B
why doesn't Nadal hit the ball hard on hard courts like he does on clay and grass?
Replies
16
Views
2K
willgonase10
W
G
Why do Safin and Nalbandian etc run around their backhands to hit a forehand?
Replies
27
Views
3K
habib
H
Top