ATP 500: Basel, Valencia (The Draw Is Out)

Basel crowd are lavishing their love on Fed. It's quite moving.

Fed breaks back and Jakobshalle is on fire!!!!!!     


Come on Rog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

feds breaks back!

From 0:40 and 3:5 to 6:5, what a guy...

Yes, he has at least twice come back swiftly from 0-40 to win. That indicates a huge  rise in confidence level compared to just recently, even if he doesn’t win today’s match.

Excellent and meaningful win for Fed.
Dimi may not have purpose in his game, but he can hit the ball hard and fast, and is good in defence.

Well played Federer.  

Dimi.  

Dimi already checked out in the tb. Not enough mental fortitude to the end?
Good win for Fed.

laverfan wrote:Well played Federer.  

Dimi.  

LF, I'm not familiar with Dimi's game. Is it surprising to see him cave in so easily on the most important points?

SR wrote:

laverfan wrote:Well played Federer.  

Dimi.  

LF, I'm not familiar with Dimi's game. Is it surprising to see him cave in so easily on the most important points?

At 5-3 and having 3 Sps, Federer's experience playing tough matches and sheer will to win saw him through. He will probably get through Pospisil, but Delpo is a very different kettle of fish.

Dimi is still 22. Recall Federer at 22.

I wish Dimi well, but he needs to get mentally tougher.

@SR… BTW, Federer is the oldest top 10 player after Agassi at 35+ in 2005.

Dimi is still 22.

 "Still"? Nadal won his first slam at 19, del Potro at 21, Fed at 22... Dimi & all (?) of his "rising star" contemporaries haven't even managed to reach a slam SF/F at 22. What's the matter with the current crop of tennis youngster?

laverfan wrote:@SR… BTW, Federer is the oldest top 10 player after Agassi at 35+ in 2005.

Almost never whines about his back issues. Today still moves like a fish in water and whips the balls with a swiftness only he knows how. Doesn't look a day older than 25  . May he play for many more years to come.

Good to see Fed win this one....tomorrow will be tougher I think.

Tenez wrote:Good to see Fed win this one....tomorrow will be tougher I think.

Why?
Pospisil is a better competitor than Dimi, but has an easier game for Fed. And I think Dimi has a better serve as well.

I am happy for Vasek as he plays a nice game, but will be in awe of Fed tomorrow. I reckon a comfortable win for Fed.

It was good to see Fed serve unhindered tonight (although he missed a few). I almost forgot what that looked like...

SR wrote:

Dimi is still 22.

 "Still"? Nadal won his first slam at 19, del Potro at 21, Fed at 22... Dimi & all (?) of his "rising star" contemporaries haven't even managed to reach a slam SF/F at 22. What's the matter with the current crop of tennis youngster?

Unless there is prodigious talent and fitness, breaking down the Kings and forcing them out is very hard. This was Dimi's first match with Federer. He just won Stockholm.

Del Po has won one slam and lacks the MS pedigree, but he is playing better this year. He will be very dangerous for others at WTF.

If you take Nadal, then Chang, Becker and Sampras come to mind. It is hard to judge winning/age combinations as barometers of future success.

SR wrote:

laverfan wrote:@SR… BTW, Federer is the oldest top 10 player after Agassi at 35+ in 2005.

Almost never whines about his back issues. Today still moves like a fish in water and whips the balls with a swiftness only he knows how. Doesn't look a day older than 25  . May he play for many more years to come.

Annacone also agrees with you vis-a-vis age/perceived age. 12th WTF to play in. IIRC, Lendl is the only other one I know to have done that.

Fed's post match interview:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Media/Video-Landing/*/Tennis/Media/Videos/Uploaded/2013/10/25/Basel-2013-Friday-Interview-Federer.aspx

The old man is now in SF.  He should now probably make the WTF.  Hopefully his form can improve by then too or else he will look out of place there.

noleisthebest wrote:WHY do people measure substance and future with money

Who says anything about money?  He plays tennis, and tennis - just like any sport - is about winning, not about looking nice while playing.

noleisthebest wrote:But for him tennis is first joy and thrill and then money.

Again, who says anything about money?  It is about doing well whatever it is you are doing.  If they were doctors, you would not say "oh, surgeon A may save more people than surgeon B, but there is no joy or thrill in his surgeries; they are all calculated with no flair nor excitement".  Joy and thrill is for dilettantes.  If that is what makes you tick, then maybe you should not follow sports.  There are other places where dilettantism masquerading as brilliance is far more at home.  I recommend Modern Art.

Emancipator summed Dolgo up best:

Dolgopolov is rubbish disguised as eccentricity (he's like the guy at school/uni that wants everyone to think he's a flawed genius, when infact he's not really all that).

Another review of the Fed-Dimi match by Christopher Clarey of the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/26/sports/tennis/much-left-to-learn-for-younger-version-of-federer.html?ref=todayspaper


Much Left to Learn for Younger Version of Federer


Sports thrive on a good master-apprentice tale, and the story gets even better when the apprentice finds a way to snatch the stone from the master’s hand and finishes off the upset.
But even against a diminished Roger Federer, Grigor Dimitrov — long called Baby Fed — was not ready to deliver a changing of the guard or even a third set on Friday.

In their first, much-anticipated meeting, Federer won, 6-3, 7-6 (2), in the quarterfinals of his hometown tournament in Basel, Switzerland.That put a smile on Federer’s face near the end of a most unamusing season in which he has slipped out of the Big Four to No. 6 in this week’s rankings.
But this choppy match — as the 32-year-old Federer has played more than long enough to know — was also one that Dimitrov squandered.

Fresh off his first ATP tournament victory but perhaps not so fresh in general, Dimitrov, a 22-year-old Bulgarian, had Federer at 0-40 in his first service game but failed to capitalize.
Dimitrov had a 5-3 lead in the second set and again failed to convert with a 0-40 lead on Federer’s serve before blowing a retreating overhead to lose his own serve at 5-4.

In all, Dimitrov converted on just one of 10 break points, which was, come to think of it, yet another parallel with Federer, considering the rate at which he has been squandering opportunities in 2013.
Neither Dimitrov nor Federer seems fond of the Baby Fed label, which is a tribute to the stylistic similarities — flowing one-handed backhand and airborne forehand included — but also a reflection of the anticipation that has long enveloped Dimitrov, who turned professional in 2008.

His romantic relationship with Maria Sharapova has hardly lowered his profile, and she has been traveling with him in Europe this fall as she recovers from her latest shoulder problem.
Earlier this year, the French sports newspaper L’Équipe projected its top 5 in the rankings for May 2018 and had Dimitrov at No. 1.

For now, he will have to settle for No. 22, with one tournament victory to Federer’s 77. He remains well off Federer’s early-career pace in a top-heavy era in which maturity, particularly physical maturity, has repeatedly trumped precocious talent.
At age 22, Federer already had won 3 of his 17 Grand Slam singles titles and reached No. 1 in the real rankings.

Dimitrov, who turned 22 in May, has yet to get past the third round in a Grand Slam tournament, which partly explains why he keeps shuffling his coaching arrangements, hiring the veteran Australian Roger Rasheed — for whom fitness is a forte — on a three-tournament trial basis this fall.
So far, so promising, after Dimitrov’s victory in Stockholm, which included a victory over David Ferrer on a quick court in the final.

And yet so far to go for a man with a nickname that is part compliment, part lead weight.
“I hope people don’t call him Baby Fed so often anymore,” Federer told Swiss reporters after his victory on Friday. “At first it’s funny, but it gets annoying.”
Darren Cahill, the veteran coach and analyst, did what he could to freshen up the inevitable comparisons on his Twitter feed Friday.

“I’ve been waiting for you Federer,” Cahill wrote. “We meet at last. The circle is now complete. When I left I was but the learner. Now I am the Challenger.”
He stuck with the “Star Wars” theme later: “No Grigor ... I am your Father.”
Cahill’s conclusion? “You underestimate the power of the RF side.”

Cahill was still chuckling in a telephone interview shortly after the match.
“I’m sure Grigor doesn’t like it that much, and I’m sure Fed has a bit of a wry smile about it, but the comparisons are there,” Cahill said, emphasizing the stroke mechanics. “So I don’t think it’s bad for the public to make those comparisons. In the end, it’s going to be up to Grigor to step out of those shoes and step into his own shoes, and I think he’s on the way to doing that.

“He’s a good kid, a really down-to-earth kid. He’s got the right intentions. He’s working extremely hard. He knows physically he has to get a lot stronger and a lot better because the wear and tear of the circuit can get to him, and he has trouble playing over five sets.”

Cahill, a friend and countryman of Rasheed, likes that hire, but he said it could take two to three years for Dimitrov to lay the physical foundation necessary to produce consistent excellence.
“That will take time,” Cahill said. “And as time goes along and he starts putting himself into the second week of major tournaments, I think you’ll find those comparisons will go away, and he’ll start to become his own man. But we were just having a little fun today.”

Federer had some fun of his own. Although he was still not back to playing with the consistency, confidence and seemingly sweat-free grace that was once his hallmark, he was smooth enough under pressure to remain the master on Friday.

Your  original comment:

summerblues wrote: I find Dolgo the more overhyped of the two - all style no substance.  Dimi I think genuinely has future.

To me, beauty is very important in life as it makes it just that bit more bearable.

You choose a simple, rough black and white style of presenting your argument (the surgeon) because it somehow sounds more convincing, but, it's not as it does not reflect a much more colourful reality.

According to you, winning is everything, winners have the future (whatever you actually mean by "future").

Bombastic words that mean nothing.

I am a bit worn out from the "names" giving their hallowed opinions and judgements.
They are often so ill thought-through and disappointing, rarely revealing any insight.
Most seem to be on a gravy train trying to elbow out a niche from which they cash in a buck or two, not caring about the state of tennis in the least.
How else can one explain the statement in which McEnroe suggests Nadal as a GOAT?
Same with Cahill, Rasheed, Clarey & co about Dimitrov.

We all have the eyes to see how he plays, how many shots he needs in order to win a point.

Yes, the game is dead and physical now, and so far only Federer has been able to be successful in it playing proper tennis, due to his enormous talent.

Dimi is no Fed.

He is just a "young" player who can hit the ball fast and hard, who has an ok serve and doesn't mind scrambling around.

He is also wearing the Nike shirt, but we should all be able to see through that smokescreen media is trying to cloud our judgement with.

As Fed said in his post-match interview last night, let Dimi be Dimi.
Let him have THE PRESENT.

The future is just a projected historic hindsight.

And to finish off with Dimi:

at the moment, his game is quite chaotic, not clean.
Similar to Raonic, he is neither coming nor going, neither a counter puncher nor an attacker.

The current playing conditions and extreme physicality of the game are making it very hard to attack and win consistently, and as I said in the above post, only Fed has been able to do it.

I think most fail  to appreciate how hard it is and what a monumental achievement Fed's 2012 has been.

Had Dimi (and Raonic, JJ, Paire) had faster playing conditions, he would probably be a much more streamlined with his game, you can see that he likes to attack, just is not able to in current conditions.

That is the real problem for all young players.

So what do they all do?

There are 3 options:

1) you grind a win best as you can by playing mediocre percentage game as you don't have enough talent to cut through the court with attacking (Dimi, Raonic)
2) you play your game without compromise (you love tennis more than money) - Paire, Dimitrov
3) you do have the talent to conquer even the most resilient counterpunching (RG SF 2011, Wimbledon final 2012) with pure shot-making - Fed.

Fed's 2013 has shown how hard it is to battle physical era of tennis.
Cilic's ban reduction to a joke 4 months for testing positive is telling us things are only going to get worse physicality wise.

Not much hope for Dimi and the young crop.

We still have Fed and 2014 to look forward to.
When he's gone, it's going to be bleak in those business ends of slams, like it was most of this year.

No youtube classics. Plenty of "future", though.

Vasselin playing some really nice tennis.

Turned the TV on just to see Delpo gifting the second set away.

Vasselin levels the match with some fine tennis, managing to blunt Delpo's rhythm and power with some quick ball-striking and very skilful and smart volleying.
Looking very interesting at the moment!

Delpo seems to have awakened and reestablishes the power balance in his favour by getting more 1st serves in, 4:0

Fed-Pospisil starting, another "young gun" playing his idol for the first time.
Contrary to his baby face, Vasek is a tough cookie with a nice game.

Should be an entertaining match played in good spirit.
I expect Roger to come out of the blocks all guns blazing, just to establish who the Daddy is from the very start
The only little unknown is how Vasek will respond, will he be in awe and give away the initial momentum to Fed or will he be focused and dig his heels from the word go.
Time to check it out!

Nice start for the old man.

Given how things have worked out, he is now very likely to make WTF even if he loses today and skips Paris.  But if he wins today then - unless I am mistaken - he will be 100% certain to make it.

Pospisil shellshocked, playing by the book, only the serve keeping him on life-support machine.

It's interesting to see how Pospisil responds to Fed's fast pace, probably hasn't experienced it before against others, he is struggling to find his feet and play his game.
I wonder whether he'll be able to get used to it in this match and recover his focus and inner balance.

Basel crowd really enjoying their man this week and showing it, that's the way to go 

yes not bad from Fed so far.

What do you make of Vasek?
Any "future" ?  

Yes he is a nice player with a big game. It will be about mouvement and confidence but if he starts to get the right exposure versus the better players he will be able to get a few upsets.

he has the game to trouble the players who do not play as fast as fed.

I don;t think we are seeing the best of him though today ....the crowd is very loud and it must be a pain to play against fed and the crowd.

He did well in Belgrade in  DC match, completely unphased by the mad atmosphere, he has a really nice temper, not to passionate like JJ, not a choker like Raonic, and attacking minded/not a scrambler like Dimitrov.

Rotla is right that Fed still lack confidence. But I remember in the 2003-2007.....fed also had trouble at times closing but not because he was lacking confidence but cause he was careless. Back then he was often winning the first set and then was being broken down in the beginning of the 2nd set....before making the difference later in that second set.

Here he looks rattled and annoyed.

Yes, he lacks assurance that comes with winning, reflects as impatience in his game atm.
I didn't notice much of it this week, there was a lot more in Shanghai.

Look forward to seeing how he pounces on Vasek's serve now!
Tie-break!!!

All started with that 1st point lucky net-cord for Pospisil...

But Fed really went down, especially his serve....again.

To me, that lack of assurance cost him the momentum in that game he was broken in.
Interesting that this time he chose to play safer as opposed to his usual ultra-aggresive self.
I think right now that was the wrong tactics.
Vasek is looking fresher purely on adrenaline. Told you he is one tough cookie!

COME ON ROGER!!!    

What a game from Fed....and THAT backhand of his has ever a more glorious and magnificent shot ever been played on a tennis court.

Fed plays as if he had lots of pressure atm.....I think he is worried on few things.

noleisthebest wrote:What a game from Fed....and THAT backhand of his has ever a more glorious and magnificent shot ever been played on a tennis court.

Yes very underrated actucally as it's a piece of art.

RF      

Pops

Tenez wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:What a game from Fed....and THAT backhand of his has ever a more glorious and magnificent shot ever been played on a tennis court.

Yes very underrated actucally as it's a piece of art.

In that game alone it took me from the lump in the throat, crazy heart beat and then tears, unbelievable!

noleisthebest wrote:What a game from Fed....and THAT backhand of his has ever a more glorious and magnificent shot ever been played on a tennis court.

I'm drained.

Just wanted to say thank you for all your support for RF.