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.

Is Federer on a come-back trail?

Its strange to even ask the question; is Federer on a come-back trail? He reached the semi’s of the Australian Open despite being unwell, got to the finals of Rolland Garros and Wimbeldon and yet, everybody seems to be asking this almost silly yet somehow very significant question. After visiting Tennis.com and reading Steve Tignor’s predictions for the Masters series in Madrid, it seems that the answer is a resounding no!! Steve seems very much certain that Federer won’t win, in fact, Roger supposedly won’t even reach the semi finals – Del Potro however, after being unable to even beat Murray at the US open is predicted to reach the semi’s; very strange indeed!!!! I decided to go for a second opinion, just in case, after all, Steve thought that Roger wouldn’t even get to the semi-finals of the US Open… could it be that he was wrong again? I therefore looked to ESPN’s Ravi Uhba and surprisingly, I confronted the same prediction – Del Potro over Federer. It was truly strange, Roger Federer, one of the greatest of all time who just won the US Open having to pass Novak and Andy. It then hit me, it must be because Novak was tired and Andy didn’t play his best game… it must be that the critics feel that Federer isn’t back, he just got lucky. Being lucky enough to win a grand slam…. that’s definitely a first but I decided to overlook this assumption.

Perhaps Steve and Ravi have good reason to rate Del Potro over Roger. Roger was pretty dismal at his last two master’s tournaments. But I still wasn’t convinced, it still felt quite strange and bizarre that Del Potro, a player that seems to think that the baseline should rarely be crossed can defeat Rogers elegant all-court game. Okay, fine, perhaps I’m not giving Del Potro enough credit; his wins at the Davis Cup were pretty impressive – there was a lot of fantastic hard-hitting from the young Argentine… but still, to rate him above a player that has won 13 grand slams and counting… I mean I don’t think anyone will be surprised if Del Potro never wins a grand slam. In the end, considering Roger’s status in the game, and his overall performance this year, it seems only sensible to place him above Del Potro. Anybody that says, “Nadal will beat Federer” may have a point; I mean after Wimbledon, that statement has a lot of credibility but “Del Potro will beat Federer”; that just sounds quite absurd no matter how you look at it.

Now it may be the case that Del Potro beats Roger, and Steve and Ravi end up being right… I’m not saying it won’t happen but to make that prediction now seems unjustifiable. The question that keeps striking me pointedly in the head when I even try to give some credibility to the prediction is this simple statistic – Del Potro = 0 grand slams, Federer = 13 grand slams. Yes yes, Del Potro’s just a youngen, but do we give youth that much value and 13 grand slams so little value????? I look forward to a competitive encounter between them and if Del Potro’s industrial baseline play triumphs over Roger – fine, and it might not even shock me but to predict it will happen – that just seems a tad disrespectful. The king of tennis may not yet be back in full flight and he may have lost the coveted no. 1 ranking but he’s still royalty and well….. Del Potro isn’t..... not yet.