Why Roger Federer Should Care about The Masters

[wangs78]

Bottom line is Fed has clearly shown that he is prone to mental lapses during matches now. Especially against players who he fully expects to win against. I think he did so well in the AO final because actually perceived Murray as a serious threat and so was fully focused for that match. Plus he lost last year's AO so probably really wanted to win it again. In contrast, against Delpo in the USO final, he probably expected to win and just lost focus and couldn't lower the hammer when he had opportunities to do so in both the 2nd and 4th sets. Same thing has happened for the last 2 months. He goes into these matches and then loses focus. Hence, it's actually more likely that he loses against some of these dangerous but inconsistent players like Gulbis and Delpo than proven threats like Djokovic and Murray. Because I really don't think he's lost anything physically in the last year or so. I think the Fed we see today is the same one we've seen since middle of 2007. Fed from 2004-2007 (that Fed is the true GOAT) is long gone but Fed from 2008-present really hasn't changed much. When he experiences his next significant decline then I think he will retire shortly thereafter. But he takes care of himself so I think he can maintain this for another year at least.

 

[wangs78]

I will add that it does seem that in the last year, Fed goes through these stretches where his serve totally abandons him. That is very troubling especially since for most players the serve isn't affected by age bc you it's a static shot (i.e., you're not chasing after a moving ball), so your physically agility won't affect your ability to hit a good serve very much.

 

[Deleted member 3771]

Fed has been practicing his shanking in his 5 our training sessions. He should cut down his shanking sessions to 2 hours so that he's physically and mentally fresher for tournaments.

 

[cucio]

His effort level in best of 3 events is becoming pathetic. Even Serena Williams gives more effort to them, yet she is criticized so harsly for hers. Of course she is a black American women, not a white European man, which is a big difference.

Nah, you are missing the real discrimination point. Serena is a FAT black American women and Federer a SKINNY white European man. People here are fat-haters, I tells ya. Pound power!

 

[Pioneer]

Obviously he's fully concentrated on grand slams. All great players make their grand slam performance a priority after some age

 

[tudwell]

His effort level in best of 3 events is becoming pathetic. Even Serena Williams gives more effort to them, yet she is criticized so harsly for hers. Of course she is a black American women, not a white European man, which is a big difference.

No way in hell Serena gives more effort to them. She hasn't won a Premier tournament (or whatever they're calling them these days) since 2008. Federer won two last year and made three more semifinals. Serena had one final and 2 semifinals. And yet she puts forth more effort?

 

[KAndersonFan]

Fed has been practicing his shanking in his 5 our training sessions. He should cut down his shanking sessions to 2 hours so that he's physically and mentally fresher for tournaments.

:lol: I know you hate Fed and are usually a clown, but this was pretty funny.

 

[OddJack]

the responses in that article page are more interesting and better written than the article itself.

 

[Big Dave]

i equate whats going on with Roger with what happened to Sampras in his last years. Pete went something like 26 months in between titles. He stated that he simply lost some motivation, got burned out, etc. It didn't mean big tennis wan't still inside him, it was just going to take some work to get it back. He got motivated, worked harder, and showed all his doubters that he still had the ability to produce great stuff.

I think people are so quick to write these great players off or say this or that. Rogers going to be just fine. He's still capable of smoking anyone on a given day, and we'll be seeing him win some more tournaments fairly soon i think.

(man, its painful to say that, i can't stand federer, but he sure is a good tennis player!)