Whats the view on Anacone now?

W

Wilander Fan

Hall of Fame
No slams since hes joined but Fed's game is clearly more consistent and better. He rolls through the early rounds like has done even more so than before. However, has to fight wars to beat the other 4. He clearly mixes it up and is striking the ball better but it takes him3-4 winners to put points away. Too many unforced errors from the aggressive style. I think Fed needs a really good cardio/endurance guy. He gets tired and loses focus now.

Does Fed go back to his old more patient style now? He has the weapons to win against anyone if he displays a bit more patience and works his way into a rally
 
Wilander Fan said:
No slams since hes joined but Fed's game is clearly more consistent and better. He rolls through the early rounds like has done even more so than before. However, has to fight wars to beat the other 4. He clearly mixes it up and is striking the ball better but it takes him3-4 winners to put points away. Too many unforced errors from the aggressive style. I think Fed needs a really good cardio/endurance guy. He gets tired and loses focus now.

Does Fed go back to his old more patient style now? He has the weapons to win against anyone if he displays a bit more patience and works his way into a rally
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It doesn't matter who he gets to coach him.He will never win another slam.He is just not good enough anymore.He saw off Hewitt,Roddick and the rst of his age group and now has to be satisfied with the semis and the occasional final defeat.The other guys have overtaken him.Thats it in a nutshell
 
Yeah, he does seem to be shanking less the last few months. I think if Murray had won today, it would have added weight to the theory of having a former GS champ as your coach being an advantage. But I still think Fed should experiment with this strategy, after all he's got nothing to lose, and his career is further towards the end than the beginning.
 
jones101 said:
Federer/Anaconda is a good matchup. Federer was playing a lot worse before Paul came on board.
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Agreed. He wouldn't have made the semis over the last year or so. There is however only so much Annacone can do. Right now Fed needs some lucky draws too.
 
It all about Lendl....who cares about Annaconda. Maybe McEnroe can help out Federer.

Honestly Federer is playing more smarter with Annacone....before he used his superior talent to get through matches. Sure he had tactics but most of the time he can get through being whimsical.

The tactics against Nadal are key proof he is doing the right things...volleying, aggresive backhands....

Federer 100 percent winning one slam this year.
 
Rodge did not follow the game plan. He went to Nadal's Fh too many times. Just watch the match. Too many unwise approaches on Nadal Fh side. At the begining he threw high balls at Nadal Fh and then quit.
Rodge, again, served very poorly.
 
OddJack said:
Rodge did not follow the game plan. He went to Nadal's Fh too many times. Just watch the match. Too many unwise approaches on Nadal Fh side. .
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Agreed. He implemented the plan well in the beginning-- DTL backhands to Nadal's forehand. But as the match went on, he started going to the Nadal forehand. I wonder if this is just habit that reasserted itself.

In any case, I think Anacone helped his game a lot, and apparently got Fed to go more DT with his backhand, which was a huge weapon against Tomic, and even Nadal in the first set.

Another good thing about the dtl backhand is that it saves Federer some movement since he's not running around his backhand as much.
 
There's been huge improvements in Federer's game since Annacone, I think at his ever ageing persona he was mentally mistaken he could continue to play a safe passive game slugging it out at the baseline. The fact was as he gets older, he would not be winning those baseline rallies.

Areas that needed work like his serve crept into his game and hurt badly all through 2009. The aggression that was once the dominant factor in his game during his prime slowly disappeared, so did his highly successful net game.

Annacone over time drastically improved Federer's volleying skills and serve, thats what's been key in him still reaching QF/SF/F's instead of R3/R4 - the variety, the timings between 1st and 2nd, not slicing back every 2nd serve etc.

A real low would be Federer vs Wimbledon 2010. A real high would be the last couple World Tour Finals.
 
Fed had a great game plan in the first set with hitting the back hand down the line with a lot of depth...he was trying to kill every ball. He also was serving and volleying a lot more to keep Rafa out of a rythem.

Some where along the line Fed tried to start taking too big of a cut and didn't come in nearly as much.

It is easy for us to sit here and criticize Fed's game, but Im sure dealing with those constant heavy body blows from Rafa's forehand has to get wearing. Its like fighting clubber lang for 5 sets!
 
BevelDevil said:
Agreed. He implemented the plan well in the beginning-- DTL backhands to Nadal's forehand. But as the match went on, he started going to the Nadal forehand. I wonder if this is just habit that reasserted itself.

In any case, I think Anacone helped his game a lot, and apparently got Fed to go more DT with his backhand, which was a huge weapon against Tomic, and even Nadal in the first set.

Another good thing about the dtl backhand is that it saves Federer some movement since he's not running around his backhand as much.
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That's exactly what I thought watching it, he was getting everything to Nadal's backhand, no matter what, then after 4-1 he stopped doing that and started losing the majority of the games from then on.
 
I think Roger is too damn stubborn at times.Thats one if his problems.The game starts getting too fast for him.I would take my time serving just like Nadal and not start rushing to serve.
 
1. Win ugly. I mean, trading backhands with Nadal's forehand when going for his backhand was clearly working for him. Coming in on weak serves/approach shots.

2. Fitness. He looked and played like he was flat after the first set.
 
His backhand was coping fairly well, especially in the first set when he was hitting it nice and early.

Then Nadal started hitting to his forehand a little more often, and suddenly Federer couldn't get it over the net.

Feds won 8 tournaments with Annacone though, they're doing quite well with each other.
 
Lets see, Annacone a S&V specialist, whose tactics and ideas were formed around fast court tennis, now coaching when there isn't a single fast court left on tour where his expertise can actually be put to use.
 
kishnabe said:
It all about Lendl....who cares about Annaconda. Maybe McEnroe can help out Federer.

Honestly Federer is playing more smarter with Annacone....before he used his superior talent to get through matches. Sure he had tactics but most of the time he can get through being whimsical.

The tactics against Nadal are key proof he is doing the right things...volleying, aggresive backhands....

Federer 100 percent winning one slam this year.
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"more smarer" hahaha
 
ACE of Hearts said:
I think Roger is too damn stubborn at times.Thats one if his problems.The game starts getting too fast for him.I would take my time serving just like Nadal and not start rushing to serve.
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This. The infamous bathroom break a few years back allowed him to collect his calm. He needs to slow things down when he loses a few points. Instead he appears to speed things up and rushes into defeat, at least against Nadal.
Perhaps he was attempting to do that in the semi, as his average serve time was a very unusual twenty-two seconds. Very high times for him. I doubt you'll ever see him going beyond those numbers, purist that he is...
 
Federer's recent titles came indoors where he always excels, so not sure iif Annacone was a big difference there. Federer still can't win outdoors (hence can't win slams). But I am convinced that having a coach makes Federer focus harder and therefore drop less or no sets to the guys he should beat. Before he hired Annacone he was dropping sets in the 1st week of slams. But, he led Tsonga 2 sets to love and lost, and also collapsed at the US Open vs Djok. Something is wrong.
 
Federer seems to like Annacone, regardless of whether or not he's winning slams anymore.

Annacone isn't going to get Federer to get back the 2 steps he lost in movement to his right, or give him that old spring in his legs.

I disagree on his volleying having improved, though. When he comes in and gets passed, it's painful to watch.
 
Wilander Fan said:
No slams since hes joined but Fed's game is clearly more consistent and better. He rolls through the early rounds like has done even more so than before. However, has to fight wars to beat the other 4. He clearly mixes it up and is striking the ball better but it takes him3-4 winners to put points away. Too many unforced errors from the aggressive style. I think Fed needs a really good cardio/endurance guy. He gets tired and loses focus now.

Does Fed go back to his old more patient style now? He has the weapons to win against anyone if he displays a bit more patience and works his way into a rally
Click to expand...

Federer is looking great, the only area left for him to improve it mentally. He did it at the FO, he needs to bring that same mentality.
 
OddJack said:
Rodge did not follow the game plan. He went to Nadal's Fh too many times. Just watch the match. Too many unwise approaches on Nadal Fh side. At the begining he threw high balls at Nadal Fh and then quit.
Rodge, again, served very poorly.
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Exactly. When he followed the game plan, it worked beautifully. But, he was too impatient and started going down the line with the forehand too soon too often. He needed to pound it to Nadal's backhand more.
 
Laver has secretly changed the speed of the AO court to Nadals liking. Too slow for Fed. It's a conspiracy!
 
marcub said:
Agreed. He wouldn't have made the semis over the last year or so. There is however only so much Annacone can do. Right now Fed needs some lucky draws too.
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What? Federer lost in the semi-final to Nadal. Are you implying that both Djokovic and Nadal appear in the same half? Or that both lose before their semi final match? The former, despite them being 1 and 2, has more chances of happening than the later.

Either way, 'lucky draw' was not what lost Federer the AO. It was an unstoppable Nadal who was just relentless.
 
I guess its a simple fact of Djok and Nadal being better than Federer. They probably would beat 2006 Federer majority of the time too. In fact until the Nadal match the other night, the media and Federer himself was saying that he's playing better than ever.
 
I always think that Federer has been hiding some ugly game all this time. An ugly game that will get him wins but make fan go "WTF?
 
kishnabe said:
I guess you didn't read my post....I said more smarter. I clearly did not make that grammar mistake nor edit my post to hide that.
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A} The grammatical mistake was your use of the comparative. "More smarter" is incorrect. "Smarter" is correct. The "more" use in an adjective is the same as adding on the "er", but it varies upon the word. "More brainy", "smarter." See the difference?

B} Just ignore him. If someone is willing to point out a grammatical error through a typo, it's not worth your time. ;)
 
What I hope Annacone will bring is a tactician and a psychologist to work with Fed.

TBH, his SF match was lost on tactics to a great extent, IMHO. I'm sure it's not too late to change some things in the head dept.

"You're never old till regrets take the place of dreams"
 
OddJack said:
Rodge did not follow the game plan. He went to Nadal's Fh too many times. Just watch the match. Too many unwise approaches on Nadal Fh side. At the begining he threw high balls at Nadal Fh and then quit.
Rodge, again, served very poorly.
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I think the game plan was ok. I did not see the first set but Nadal is a very tactically aware player and likely made some adjustments. In the 2nd set, I was surprised to see Nadal playing so deep back. Nadal probably realizes that when Fed is hitting well, he is going to get blown out trying to outhit him so he moved back and played retrieval tennis. It was a good tactic since Fed had to hit several good shots in a row to hit a winner.

Its hard to critique Fed's game in hindsight but maybe he should have started hitting droppers and that shallow slice more to keep Nadal drawn in.
 
I rekon they are a good team. Just like the french open last year Fed started great early in the first set. Really controlling and taming nadal. Then slowly he reverted his older ways trying to slug it out on the baseline going crosscourt to the nadal forehand. I also felt instead of taking advantage of the wide serve on the deuce side court, he started to go down the T more to try get an ace (more faults too).

I just feel he panicked and started to forget his gameplan once nadal leveled the match at 1 set all. At one set all it felt like nadal was already ahead and it all fell apart.
 
I can imagine how afraid Mirka/Annacone would have felt when Nadal raced to a 5-2 lead in the 2nd set. There would have been high hopes after that first set. Actually, when Nadal evened it up at 5-5 in the 1st set it probably signaled some problems were ahead.
 
OddJack said:
Rodge did not follow the game plan. He went to Nadal's Fh too many times. Just watch the match. Too many unwise approaches on Nadal Fh side. At the begining he threw high balls at Nadal Fh and then quit.
Rodge, again, served very poorly.
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Nadal smothered the slice out wide to his deuce side, though. Roger had been getting more free points with that serve until Nadal adjusted.
 
Annacone can't improve Roger's mental game. Annacone can't improve Roger's athleticism at age 30. So the changes and improvements are going to be minor and tactical, like returning more aggressively, the dtl bh as a mix up play and some s&v.

Again most of this will be successful against pre-semi opponents. I don't know honestly how much any of this will improve his chances in the second week of slams!
 
I think the game plan was ok. I did not see the first set but Nadal is a very tactically aware player and likely made some adjustments. In the 2nd set, I was surprised to see Nadal playing so deep back. Nadal probably realizes that when Fed is hitting well, he is going to get blown out trying to outhit him so he moved back and played retrieval tennis. It was a good tactic since Fed had to hit several good shots in a row to hit a winner.

Its hard to critique Fed's game in hindsight but maybe he should have started hitting droppers and that shallow slice more to keep Nadal drawn in.
Click to expand...

Nadal smothered the slice out wide to his deuce side, though. Roger had been getting more free points with that serve until Nadal adjusted.
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Nadal adjusted nothing. It was the same Nadal. Just look again.
Fed started to shank BHs, it's like his mind went blank, couldnt think. Just look how many approaches to Nadal's Fh you can count, thats suicide.
And look at Fed 1st serve % and compare it to Delpo match.

Rodge quit thinking. He hit so many first serves to Nadal's FH and those that were going into the net were also aimed at Rafa FH.
Annacone watching the match must have been flabbergasted.
 
Yeah, that's why his body is a wreck. His knees crack, his hamstring tears, his shoulders hurt. That's because he plays with his brains.
 
nadalwon2012 said:
You need more than a great coach and great work ethic to win slams. You need more talent than your rivals.
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He already does.

Lsmkenpo said:
Lets see, Annacone a S&V specialist, whose tactics and ideas were formed around fast court tennis, now coaching when there isn't a single fast court left on tour where his expertise can actually be put to use.
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Yeah, but Annacone can bring some tactical changes, like more aggression, taking the ball early, and tactics that will allow him to finish points more efficiently. But, for the most part, I agree.

nadalwon2012 said:
I guess its a simple fact of Djok and Nadal being better than Federer. They probably would beat 2006 Federer majority of the time too. In fact until the Nadal match the other night, the media and Federer himself was saying that he's playing better than ever.
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Did you watch Federer play in 2006? There's a reason he only lost 5 matches that year. Djokovic couldn't do it in 2011 and Nadal's never had a season nearly that good.

Federer can win outdoors. A great majority of his titles, including 16 of his 16 slams came outdoors. The only reason he wins against Nadal indoors is because the bouce isn't is high. He's never played Nadal on a real fast surface outdoors, which is why it looks like he can only win indoors.

nikdom said:
Annacone can't improve Roger's mental game. Annacone can't improve Roger's athleticism at age 30. So the changes and improvements are going to be minor and tactical, like returning more aggressively, the dtl bh as a mix up play and some s&v.

Again most of this will be successful against pre-semi opponents. I don't know honestly how much any of this will improve his chances in the second week of slams!
Click to expand...

Completely agree. The only changes Annacone can try to make are to Roger's tactical and, perhaps, net game and aggression. However, it's up to Roger to implement them into his matches.
 
I dont think Annacone bought any major difference to Federer's game against Nadal. I believe he did contribute a few things that helped his game against some of the other players-- that said Federer really didnt need too much help against other players anyways.

As Federer's problems against Nadal are more mental than anything else, i dont know if Annacone's efforts made any difference.
 
IMO Federer needs a coach like Larry stefansky in '08 and '09 like with roddick, improve athleticism and a slightly change of tactics (seems like roddick stopped listening to stefansky or his game reached a plateau)
 
Manus Domini said:
A} The grammatical mistake was your use of the comparative. "More smarter" is incorrect. "Smarter" is correct. The "more" use in an adjective is the same as adding on the "er", but it varies upon the word. "More brainy", "smarter." See the difference?

B} Just ignore him. If someone is willing to point out a grammatical error through a typo, it's not worth your time. ;)
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Thank you for pointing it out...
 
With a 1 handed backhand vs Nadal every player is at a disadvantage from the start.Look at his record vs Wawrinka(7-0),Gasquet(10-0) or Almagro(7-0).So that`s basically 24-0 vs those 3 players which aren`t near Federer`s level but still not losing even once says it all.
So starting with a disadavantage right from the start against a great player like Nadal is always tough to overcome.
Also for Nadal playing against a Federer or any other player is pretty much the same strategy unless he plays against another left hander.
But for Federer he might play 5 matches in the same rhythm and same way against any right hander and then he needs to change completely against Nadal.
With Annacone in his corner though he is winning the matches he is supposed to much easier and against a Nadal or Djokovic get himself into a tight situation and hope for the best.
 
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