Tennis Forever

[JamesDap]

Fed gets his second ATP 1000 title of the year. Much more scrappy affair, this one, with a lot of attritional tennis. Fed looked a shadow of the player from yesterday but nevertheless got the job done. Simon kind of choked on the big points, again underlining the difference between the Big Four and the rest of the field.

[omega]

I thought this was an excellent win from Federer.
Contrary to the SF where both were hitting clean the conditions today was a touch slow inspite of closed roof.
With Simon not giving any pace during baseline exchanges, Fed found it very difficult to rip his ground strokes which is his strength.
Simon is the type of player who can shake off the free flowing tennis from Fed. He has done so on most of their meetings.
However Fed quickly adapted to both the conditions and Simon's style of play and was more patient in the back court..
These are the type of matches he would lose pretty easily when things are not going his way. Now he is showing lot of fight.
Truly remarkable & well deserved.

[raagadevan]

Congratulations to Roger, the #2 ranked player in the world!

This week's "Race to London" rankings:

#1 Novak Djokovic 8650
#2 Roger Federer 7020
#3 Rafael Nadal 6735
#4 Stan Wawrinka 4795
#5 Kei Nishikori 4255
#6 Marin Cilic 3980
#7 Tomas Berdych 3765
#8 Milos Raonic 3740
#9 Andy Murray 3565
#10 David Ferrer 3535

[JamesDap]

True that Simon was not giving Fed any pace. He was very patient and stuck resolutely to his gameplan. Still, Fed shanked some forehands early on, I think right in the first game, which probably shook his confidence. He didn't seem to trust either DTL drive, forehand or backhand, though he did rip a brilliant backhand pass to win the first set tiebreak. It was his slice that worked for him today. Yes, do agree that it was great how he adjusted his tactics and settled for a more ugly style of play to wear out Simon, realizing he was not going to be able to out hit him today.

[JamesDap]

Fed didn't do too well in the year ending indoor season last year. So he has a chance to leapfrog to no.1 in the rankings should Djoko have a below par outing in these last few tournaments....and..should he able to hold onto his rhythm that long. It will be very interesting if he actually winds up to no.1 so late in his career. He would be the oldest ATP no.1, older than Agassi by a few months then. Let's see.

[Arvind Srinivasan]

Good win for Federer. Simon can be tricky. Little by little he chips you away and then he can hit winners if the ball is sitting up. I really don't get it as to people call this guy a pusher as seen in many a forum. It's not the case I would have to say. He can be very infuriating for his opponent across the net. And CK, with regards to the wind, they had closed the roof 30 minutes before the start of the match fearing it.

[JamesDap]

I can see why he gets called a pusher. Like Murray, he often hits regulation rally shots over and over, placed decently enough that it won't come back with interest but not nearly powerful/fast enough to be a winner. Fed or Djoko (even Nadal in top form for that matter) are more offensive and hit every baseline shot with the intent to go for a winner or at least build up to a winner rather than waiting for an error. Of course, Simon is a very smart player with great depth in his game. Even the so called pushers in men's tennis tend to be very interesting and technically accomplished players so we're definitely not thinking of WTA-style pushers when the label is applied here. I do think it is used derisively when there's no need to as it's just another style of play. I would put it down to the North American obsession with first strike tennis so anybody who doesn't come up with a winner within 5 shots is branded "pusher" and "boring".

[Arvind Srinivasan]

^ True. Also its gonna be interesting to watch as to how the race for the Year End Championships plays out. Will Federer play all the remaining tourneys considering what's in the line? Or will he opt against it with hopes of clinching the elusive Davis cup ? And what of Djokovic and his wife's imminent delivery?

[raagadevan]

Latest ATP Rankings:

#1 Novak Djokovic 11,510
#2 Roger Federer 9,020
#3 Rafael Nadal 8,105
#4 Stan Wawrinka 5,385
#5 David Ferrer 4,585
#6 Kei Nishikori 4,355
#7 Tomas Berdych 4,325
#8 Marin Cilic 3,945
#9 Milos Raonic 3,88
#10 Grigor Dimitrov 3,745
#11 Andy Murray 3635
#12 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 2,705
__________________________

Latest "Race to London" list:

#1 Novak Djokovic 9,010
#2 Roger Federer 8,020
#3 Rafael Nadal 6,745
#4 Stan Wawrinka 4,805
#5 Kei Nishikori 4,265
#6 Marin Cilic 3,990
#7 Tomas Berdych 3,945
#8 Milos Raonic 3,750
#9 David Ferrer 3,715
#10 Andy Murray 3,655

The top 8 will qualify.

[JamesDap]

Making up 2400 points is a long shot. But the thing is Fed did not win any of those last three tournaments (will he play Basel by the way?) and only got to semis at London. Djoko on the other hand won both Paris and London and if he performs poorly at both, will LOSE a lot of points. In other words, Fed doesn't have to earn 2400 more points to get there. But Djoko will have to play well and defend enough points to keep Fed at bay.

The odds favour Djoko finishing no.1. But the fact that Fed should even figure in that discussion at all is itself amazing, considering how badly 2013 ended for him.