Roger Vs Rafa Today Final London

[llll]

heres a place to post your thoughts before and after the match
i hope its another epic battle with both playing their A game throughout.
will be interesting to see any tactical changes by roger now with anacone in his corner.
thats why anacone was brought on wasnt it ???
ill admit id like to see roger win because he epitimizes tennis the way it should be played.
i admire rafa's ability to do what he does better than anyone and especially how he has continued to work on his game and become more mutidimentional.
i'll be rooting for roger but hope for an exciting super high level match.

[gzhpcu]

I like both players, but, even though Swiss, I'll be rooting for Rafa. Just love his fighting spirit! That win over Murray yesterday was a real cliff hanger! His matches are thrillers.

This is Roger's best chance to beat Rafa: the surface defuses a lot of Rafa's topspin. Kind of a playback to earlier times, when the Wimbledon grass was faster...

Looking forward to a great match!

[rosheem]

I'm thinking Rafa might be worn down just enough to give Roger a bit of an edge.

But Rafa will be solid as usual, and it will come down to which Roger shows up.

Will Fed be able to dominate with his first serve like he has been? I feel like he's been serving so well, he's primed for a let-down with his first serve.

Side note: seems to me Federer has been working on some new things and it will be interesting to see how he uses them against Rafa. He's been taking high-bouncing balls in his forehand corner and creating some insane cross-court angles by hitting a high reverse-forehand with limited hip and shoulder turn that almost resembles a hook-shot in basketball.

He seems to have really found some rhythm with his backhand as well.

I hope he keeps going for that inside-out forehand bomb. It's been money. Hope he does NOT try to come in on too many bad approach shots. Rafa has been like an assassin with his passing shots.

[stotty]

Only saw the last set. Federer served well to Rafa's backhand on the deuce court, great tactic. Nadal looked off the pace though...maybe a bit jaded...not quite back on top form. Shame I missed the first two sets...stuck in traffic....grrrrr.

[uspta990770809]

First serve percentage

Stotty,
It was all about first serve percentage, and Roger being aggressive whenever he had the chance to go forward. And Roger was 3/3 on break points. He won every point on first serve in the first set. lost only one in the second and two in the third. But he only made 4 on his first 15 serves at the beginning of the second set. That almost let Rafa back in. But Rafa did look a half step slow today. Roger owes a thank you for the assist to Murray!

Great to see Roger changing the way he is playing those break points and coming in a little more in general. It will be interesting to see how it works on the higher bouncing courts down under when Rafa is going for the Rafa slam. Where is AirForce when we need some statistical breakdown of the approaches?!

don

[uspta2712824457]

Stotty,
It was all about first serve percentage, and Roger being aggressive whenever he had the chance to go forward. And Roger was 3/3 on break points. He won every point on first serve in the first set. lost only one in the second and two in the third. But he only made 4 on his first 15 serves at the beginning of the second set. That almost let Rafa back in. But Rafa did look a half step slow today. Roger owes a thank you for the assist to Murray!

Great to see Roger changing the way he is playing those break points and coming in a little more in general. It will be interesting to see how it works on the higher bouncing courts down under when Rafa is going for the Rafa slam. Where is AirForce when we need some statistical breakdown of the approaches?!

don

Don brings up a great point...3 for 3 on break points! thats huge. If you look at the stats for some their previous matches the chances Roger had were huge (double digits) but may have only converted 1 or 2 of the chances. This is an aspect that Roger had to improve if he wanted to beat Nadal. Take advantage of opportunities. At that level of play, you never know when you'll get another shot. Happy for Roger. Also, happy for Nadal for his amazing year. Davis Cup is next week then tennis is done for the year. What will I do???

Kyle LaCroix USPTA

[gzhpcu]

What can you do Kyle? John has tons of interesting articles on this site...

[uspta2712824457]

What can you do Kyle? John has tons of interesting articles on this site...

Ahhhh, of course. I set myself up for that.
I will definitely go back and read some classic articles. Its always good to brush up on some of the articles a 3rd, 4th, or 5th time. I can never get enough. Thanks

Kyle LaCroix USPTA

[gzhpcu]

Rafa was, as usual, hitting a lot to Roger's backhand, only on the London court, his ball loses bite and height. IMHO, the backhand crosscourts made the main difference. Roger got them practically all back...

[johnyandell]

Agree about the effectiveness of the backhands! Rafa was obviously not at a physical peak but this had to be a huge confidence booster for Roger. He needed it and as a huge fan of his, it was great to see him so happy.

[oliensis]

One key thing: When Rafa went down a break in the 3rd, seemed to me he upped the elevation on his shots and made his most concerted effort to force Roger to hit balls above the strike zone, esp. on the backhand. Caused a blip in Federer's 3rd-set dominance. But Federer adjusted, warded off the change in tempo/strategy. And when that happened, Rafa gave up the ghost.

Seemed that generally Federer was making sure he took the ball early in order to avoid getting into those grinding points in which he would have to hit numerous shoulder-high-or-higher backhands. Hitting tens and tens of those is what seems to drain him of the initiative against Nadal.

Of course, the court was Roger's friend in London. Question is, will he be able to keep the points on his terms so successfully outdoors and on higher-bouncing courts. To do so, he would have to get "inside" the bounce even more aggressively. And that takes even better movement.

Roger's movement seemed better that through most of 2008-10. Close to how he was moving in '07 and before, even if not quite as airborne quite as much of the time as back in the day. His first 2 steps had that syncopated darting quality that he has when he's at his best.

[rosheem]

I just went through the whole match at 3x fast forward on my DVR.

I was looking for a point I remembered where I was impressed with Federer's side-to-side movement.

It was on Nadal's serve with Fed leading 1-0 in the 3rd set. Nadal was up 30-15. Federer gets pulled wide to both sides and it's absolutely amazing to watch his footwork in slow motion during the point.

He knows that Nadal has him on a string during the point, so he's basically hitting, recovering, split stepping, running, and setting up for the next shot all in one fluid motion. He gets served wide on the ad side, then uses a clay-courtish slide step to recover from a reverse forehand out wide on the duece side. He bounces out of that and he's immediately running around a forehand on the other side. Back-and-forth one more time until finally he takes a ball that could easily have been controlled if he went cross-court, but instead he tries to force it down the line and barely misses.

The beauty is that he maintains perfect balance throughout the point and never even really looks rushed. His combination of racquet skills and footwork really open up so many options for him.

[bman]

There is another big factor that nobody mentions: Fed was deadly on short forehands.

In the last few years I have detected a lack of confidence in that shot...even sometimes going to the drop shot. Today...he was just ripping those balls for winners.

[uspta146749877]

Syncopated?

One key thing: When Rafa went down a break in the 3rd, seemed to me he upped the elevation on his shots and made his most concerted effort to force Roger to hit balls above the strike zone, esp. on the backhand. Caused a blip in Federer's 3rd-set dominance. But Federer adjusted, warded off the change in tempo/strategy. And when that happened, Rafa gave up the ghost.

Seemed that generally Federer was making sure he took the ball early in order to avoid getting into those grinding points in which he would have to hit numerous shoulder-high-or-higher backhands. Hitting tens and tens of those is what seems to drain him of the initiative against Nadal.

Of course, the court was Roger's friend in London. Question is, will he be able to keep the points on his terms so successfully outdoors and on higher-bouncing courts. To do so, he would have to get "inside" the bounce even more aggressively. And that takes even better movement.

Roger's movement seemed better that through most of 2008-10. Close to how he was moving in '07 and before, even if not quite as airborne quite as much of the time as back in the day. His first 2 steps had that syncopated darting quality that he has when he's at his best.

What do you mean by "syncopated" above?
See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncopation

[bottle]

I didn't have any trouble understanding this. He hits the court with his feet and gets the shot off fast. There's a strong rhythm to it-- very musical. Footwork and racket work seem interconnected. The connection between impacts is not exactly regular, but it's fast and holds together.