Federer vs Murray: The Story of a Forehand gone Wrong

A New Script for Andy:

Andy played a poor match against Roger in New York. Murray served poorly, made too many unforced errors and had no answers for Federer’s exceedingly aggressive game; as one of the commentators while I was watching said, “that’s grand slam winning tennis”. Roger tried the same aggressive game in Madrid and for the first set, the match followed the US Open script. The second and third set was completely a different story – it was as If Andy suddenly got the script in his hand and realized what a bad story it was for him and decided to amend it himself. Suddenly Andy started attacking the Federer serve, surprisingly not just the second but the seemingly untouchable first. Andy changed gears even further in the third set putting Roger under pressure in nearly every one of his service games. If you were a Fed fan, you would have definitely been telling yourself that all Fed has to do is turn it on and break serve unexpectedly and the match for Andy will be over in no time. That line of thought is pretty good – after all that’s what Rodger is so good at; suddenly elevating his game and breaking, even though there was no indication that he would be able to throughout the set – however not this time!!! Andy in the end did everything; he played very aggressively and therefore disrupted every shot Federer was using as a precursor to a winning shot. In short, Andy didn’t allow Roger to construct the points at the same ease as he done against Del Potro. Every time Roger looked like he was on top, Andy would hit an eye-grabbing passing shot. He took the risks when it was appropriate but knew how to confine his play to drawing out the error at other times. Murray has now defeated the top three in all his most recent encounters with them – Djokovic at Cincy, Nadal in New York and now Federer in Madrid – once you’ve achieved that at his age, the sky’s the limit - all I can say for now is, “Novak, watch out”!!!

Vintage Federer vs Clever Federer:

Despite the brilliance of Murray, Rogers game was very defective in the wing that he adores the most – the great liquid whip – his forehand. Not at any point during the match did Roger feel comfortable with his forehand. Surprisingly his backhand was working perfectly, but against a player of Andy’s quality, he really needed his iconic forehand. Now it must be said that this is not the first time that Roger’s forehand has given him some trouble. During the US Open, in that third set against Djokovic and his epic 4^th round five setter, his forehand displayed the same error-prone behaviour. Why it happens…. well I’m not quite sure if even Roger knows himself and the fact is that the problem is not going away. The good news is that this error-prone behaviour lasts only for a set or sometimes as it did in Madrid, a bit longer but rarely does it last for more than two sets. This is why Roger is still quite successful at the grand slams but having a little difficulty in other tournaments where the matches go up to three sets. So what must the great Roger Federer do to overcome this? Well firstly, Roger has to realize that until this problem ‘leaves’, returning to being ‘vintage Federer’ is not really viable; he has to start playing within himself. He can continue to play aggressively but these miraculous shots that he has no doubt got accustomed to over the last five or so years have to be contained and used only rarely… its time that Roger starts to play not like ‘vintage Federer’ but more like ‘clever Federer’…… at least until the magic returns. In the end Roger is such a momentously brilliant player that ‘clever Federer’ is enough to win the grand slams and masters tournaments – there’s no need for magic anymore, he provided us with magic of the most unbelievable and unprecedented kind for over 4 years; victories will do!!! – especially one that will bring grand slam no. 14.