What Lesser-known Tennis Moment Drives You Crazy?

triforce defender

triforce defender

Semi-Pro
We all remember pivotal points that drive us crazy especially if one of our favorites is hurt negatively by it. Top examples are Roddick's missed volley in the 2nd-set tiebreak of 2009 Wimbledon Final and Djokovic's forehand return on the first of Federer's match point in 2011 USO Semifinal. But what about random, less-talked about moments that you can't forget? For me these 3 I think about a lot despite the fact that I am not even a fan of all the players who were negatively affected:

1. 2007 Wimbledon Final: Everyone talks about Nadal's missed opportunities on 4 break point chances in the 5th set. But what drives me crazy is Nadal losing his first service game of the match at 0-1 in the 1st set after leading 40-0! Of course Nadal broke back later in the first set and went on to lose it in a tiebreak. But losing serve from 40-0 up in the first set drives me crazier than the missed chances in the 5th set.

2. 2007 US Open Final: I'm not a Djokovic fan but how did he get broken while serving for the first set and leading 40-0? Djokovic had 3 consecutive set points on his serve at 6-5 in the first set! It was inevitable he would lose the tiebreak thereafter having failed to serve out the set. What's insane about this instance and drives me crazy is that it was the reverse mirror image of what happened between Djokovic and Federer at the Canadian Masters Final a month before. Federer had broken Djokovic's serve at 5-5 and served for the first set; he went up 40-0 and was broken from there. Of course Djokovic won the ensuing tiebreak and later the match. Then the same thing, except in reverse happens in the USO F; if a screenwriter pitched this scenario in Hollywood, the script would be rejected for being too coincidentally unrealistic.

3. 2006 French Open Finals: Even though as a Rafa fan I was happy about the result, it still drives me crazy what happened to Federer at the start of the 2nd set. Having won the first set 6-1, Federer goes 40-0 up on his serve at 0-1 and gets broken! Nadal would of course go on to win that set 6-1 and eventually the match. But how did Federer, with all momentum on his side, lose his serve while leading 40-0????????

Ok, I admit all of the examples I've given are of players losing their serve while leading 40-0; maybe that just drives me crazier than anything in tennis regardless of whether it impacts a player I'm rooting for or not.
 
Something people never talk about and for me is the crime of the century. Edberg losing to Chang at the FO. A serve/volleyer to win at the FO would have been amazing.

EDIT: woops misread the post.
 
Aretium said:
Something people never talk about and for me is the crime of the century. Edberg losing to Chang at the FO. A serve/volleyer to win at the FO would have been amazing.

EDIT: woops misread the post.
Click to expand...

Well, it's not a "moment", but your example is still in the right spirit of this thread. The Chang-Edberg match is very overshadowed by the epic Chang-Lendl match. People often forget that Chang still had to win a 5-setter in the final for the title.
 
Agree on the 2006 FO final. I watched it when it was live.. I was certain Federer was about to steamroll Nadal.. and then the second set happened. I don't think it ever crossed my mind that we'd see a 5th set after that, even when the 4th set tiebreak started.
 
Wimbledon 2012 Finals : Federer was a set down and saved multiple break points in the second .

Murray was serving 5-6, 40-15 to take the 2nd set to a tiebreak , when Federer worked his magic to even the set.

The rest is history.
 
Aretium
If a win by serve-and-volley Edberg "would have been amazing" on the red clay, then why is his losing "the crime of the century"?????
 
Robredo failing to convert 5 match points on two occasions against Murray! I didn't see their China match but Valencia final...Tommy blamed Murray for it but Tommy screwed himself by playing each of those match points too tentatively.
 
Backspin1183 said:
Robredo failing to convert 5 match points on two occasions against Murray! I didn't see their China match but Valencia final...Tommy blamed Murray for it but Tommy screwed himself by playing each of those match points too tentatively.
Click to expand...

Maybe on some of them but I do recall him hitting a massive forehand into the far corner on 1 of his match points in the final set tie-break in Valencia and Murray just hitting a massive Djokovic-like cross court return to save it. I think, at that point, Robredo almost felt like giving up there and then but he didn't and fought hard to the end. But Murray was just in some kind of defending zone, the kind of zone he often seems to enjoy playing in the most! :wink:

Lol...I wonder if Robredo's 10 lost match points is some kind of record for most match points unconverted at least in the space of a single season and surely against the same player? :)
 
Federer's drop shot serving for the 2nd set against Del Potro in the 2009 US Open final, up 30-15. If Federer wins that set, that's all she wrote. No way Del Potro comes back at that point - his body language made it pretty clear to me he already thought he was out of it after getting beaten soundly by Federer in the 1st. Federer goes up 40-15, I believe Del Potro would've thought the game was over and Federer wins the 2nd set and the match.

But instead, he plays a stupid drop shot when he had a wide open court for a FH winner, Del Potro gets there and wins the point, then breaks his serve and goes on to take the set.

Another one for me that nobody ever talks about - Federer failing to convert 5 match points against Monfils at Paris 2010 in the SF. While Federer did come back and finally win the title the next year, that match made me briefly renounce my fandom of Federer in anger as I shouted at the walls. Granted, it was on Monfils's serve, but I think I vaguely remember him getting a good look at a forehand pass or something and netting it.
 
Perhaps the epitome of a point that didn't matter (but still drove me crazy) comes from Djokovic/Gulbis at Indian Wells in 2011. Djoker at this point was cruising - Gulbis had started the match playing poorly and against 2011 Novak that just won't fly - and at one point Gulbis decides to take a shoulder high ball as an overhead and misses spectacularly. I wish it was on YT, because the 'WTF?!' in the announcer's voice really sells the absurdity of the shot choice, as well as the fact that Gulbis had checked out a while ago.
 
FD3S said:
Perhaps the epitome of a point that didn't matter (but still drove me crazy) comes from Djokovic/Gulbis at Indian Wells in 2011. Djoker at this point was cruising - Gulbis had started the match playing poorly and against 2011 Novak that just won't fly - and at one point Gulbis decides to take a shoulder high ball as an overhead and misses spectacularly. I wish it was on YT, because the 'WTF?!' in the announcer's voice really sells the absurdity of the shot choice, as well as the fact that Gulbis had checked out a while ago.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't you have expected that type of shot selection by Gulbis by then? :)
 
The recent 2014 FO final in which after Nadal converts a break point, sister Nadal decides to slap their Mama Nadal.

Still drives me mad with confusion :confused:


slap_zps79df9541.gif~original
 
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