Loading ...Federer Makes Winning Start In Rotterdam
Hi guys. It’s been a while. I was going to make a draw post but firstly I have been too tired from work. Yeah yeah I know you are getting tired of that excuse, but secondly this is Rotterdam. It’s an ATP 500 event and and the draw hardly matters for someone like Roger. The top four seeds are Roger, Del Potro, Tsonga, and Gasquet. These are the only guys that can threaten Roger in the draw, and they would have to play out of their mind to beat Roger 3.0. Tsonga was in Roger’s half of the draw and he already lost in the first round. That just goes to show how little draws really mean. Roger’s road to the final is now very open after he beat Zemlja 6-3, 6-1 today. I caught the last part of the second set during my lunch hour and I liked what I saw. Roger was always going to be the strong favorite to win this tournament and his first round confirmed that.
There were thoughts that this may not be as routine as expected when Roger went down break point at 1-2 in the first set, but he saved it and broke to love in the next game. From there on it was all Roger as he only lost two more games. He broke once more at 5-3 and twice more in the second set. Despite the one-sided scoreline this match had some great rallies and the crowd must have felt they got their money’s worth. Roger looked sharped, which is what I expected after his Australian Open form. He keeps impressing me, and affirmed my faith in him to win a third Rotterdam title. There aren’t many indoor events around these days which is a shame, because Roger is almost unbeatable on the surface. Was he not tired after a long season in 2012 I am almost certain he would have won Basel and the Masters Cup.
How good is it to see the most beautiful forehand in tennis back?
I can see him winning Rotterdam several more times. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself. He can still face Del Potro in the final who can be a threat if he is playing at his highest possible level. Roger next faces De Bakker who is Dutch himself. I haven’t heard much of De Bakker of late and I expect another routine win for Roger. If he wins he will face Benneteau against whom he had that key match at Wimbledon last year. If they do face off you can expect something much more one-sided. In the semis Roger will face Simon if things go according to seedings, who has been a bit of a tricky opponent for him in the past. That could be more of a test, but definitely would be a less dangerous opponent than Tsonga would have been. Then in the final you would expect Del Potro to be there, but he is so unpredictable that it could be Dimitrov for all I know.
An interesting first round was two stars of the future Dimitrov and Tomic. Dimitrov won 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. I guess Tomic doesn’t do well outside of Australia very often. That’s the way it seems anyway. Dimitrov also beat Davydenko in the second round 7-5, 6-3 after Davydenko destroyed number 8 seed Mayer 6-3, 6-2 in the first round. Dimitrov has already made the Brisbane final this year where he lost to Murray. I have said before that 2013 may just be the year where he starts to make his move. He has always had a lot of potential but hasn’t really broken through. Maybe he can so so this week and make the final so that we can have a Fed vs Mini-Fed final. I have the last three days of the week off so I will be able to watch some tennis for a change. I will also have some more time for blogging and look forward to catching u with you guys.
Fed FTW!
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Reader Comments
Hi Ru-an, thanks for blogging already at this stage again, I was worried you would start to kind of skip the smaller tournaments. Hope your work-life balance allows you to watch the mighty Fed as often as possible. Any words about Nadals comeback? I found the remarks from Federer hilarious: “Oh, he’s still a lefty, I kinda hoped he would come back as a right hander :-)”. Roger then moved on to ask for more serious doping tests in tennis…, interesting.
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Ru-an Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 5:44 pm
Hi Chris my plan is to make a post for every match of Roger at least. I missed a post for the De Bakker match but Valentines Day depressed me so I skipped it. I was going to say something about Nadal’s loss to Zeballos but didn’t have time. I watched the end of that match and it was nice to see. Zeballos was only the 3rd guy Nadal lost to in a clay final after Roger and Djokovic. So that may definitely hurt is unbeatable aura on clay. Zeballos did play awfully well though. Funny comment by Roger.
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Hi Ru-an, so glad to hear from you, missed you.
Your blog is important to us and so are the commentators that come here. I watched some of Roger’s match yesterday and liked what I saw. Also, enjoyed reading Steve’s comments on your previous blog. Chris, I had a good chuckle, too, on Roger’s remarks about Nadal’s left/right handed tennis….
Good luck, Roger, today and beyond!
Kindly,
Dolores
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Ru-an Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 5:44 pm
Hi Dolores, nice to hear form you too. But where is Veronica???
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Federer did not loose in Basel and the World Tour Finals because he was tired, he lost because his opponents played better. And Del Potro does not have to “play out of his mind” to beat Federer.
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Ru-an Reply:
February 14th, 2013 at 11:42 pm
There is too much wrong with this comment to make a serious reply.
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Vily Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 5:34 am
I think that everyone has to play out of their mind to beat Roger. The difference is that at one time people would play out of their minds and still lose. Now, it could happen here and there.
Nadal is an exception to the rule but that’s more due to the match-ups between the two.
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I expected Roger to lose today and he did. Valiant effort towards the end but that’s it. Roger is going to drop in the rankings and the future will belong to the likes of Dimitrov.
It is sad but Roger is just not looking sharp. He put himself in a position at 5:5 with 15:40 and he didn’t capitalize.
The fact the he didn’t even make the semis is a bad sign.
Not good. Not good!!!
He can’t expect to always fall behind and try to come back in the match. It’s just not a winning strategy. Plus that double fault to give Benneteau the match point is just pathetic.
I am not writing Roger off completely but just as expected Roger is not taking those matches and tournaments seriously and it showed.
You can’t be losing 6:3 and be 4:1 down and expect that the fight alone will help you win.
You have to be just sharper and be in control. It just didn’t happen but as a result ranking points will be dropped and I feel it will take sometime before Roger regains his confidence.
After today I don’t expect him to defend neither his Dubai or IW titles.
And he had a really clean draw so it’s really a big shame,
Very disappointed. Roger has to better step it up quickly. Wake up or go home!
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Vasco Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 8:38 pm
Aren’t you over-reacting a bit? He played badly today, that’s it. It’s always the same crap… Roger wins he is the greatest; he loses and suddenly is shit and should go home to Mirka and the twins… Can´t win them all, and today he played terribly, like I haven’t seen in a while.
Let’s wait for the next tournaments instead of going bezerk right away
Best
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Vily Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 8:52 pm
Look. I am disappointed because this should be the type of tournament that Roger should be winning. It’s not a Grand Slam, it’s not a Masters 1000. It’s an indoor 500 event.
Come on. If he got to the final and lost against Del Potro, I’d understand. If he got to the semis and lost against Tsonga, I might understand also.
But with Tsonga out, to lose at the QF, it’s inexcusable. Granted that Benneteau is a tough opponent – but didn’t Roger learn his lesson from Wimbledon last year. I mean he got so lucky last year you don’t even know.
I thought that won’t allow Benneteau to get up front again.
But he did and so he deserved to lose today.
He needs to wake up and just play better. If the AO result was good and uplifting towards the future, this result is certainly not.
If Roger doesn’t make at least the final in Dubai and at least the SF in Indian Wells it won’t bide well for him.
He can’t just mess up like that. His confidence will go down the drain as a result and he’ll fall into a trap like he did in 2011.
Unfortunately sometimes it takes time for the good result to show up. Hopefully Toger can shake this off quickly but he has to be dissapoint end because I don’t see a real chance for him to win a title until Madrid and then Halle.
Rotterdam was another great chance and he just missed it, if he won Rotterdam, I would have predicted a Dubai victory also but that’s less likely after this result…
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Fed will be fine. He had two losses like this last year to Roddick and Haas and we know what happened in the tournaments after those losses (wins in Madrid and Wimbledon). He had a bad day and Benneteau played great tennis (he is very underrated and his ranking should be higher than it is). He has always given Fed problems and it just wasn’t Roger’s day. The good thing is that he stayed in it mentally until the end when he was 4-1 down in the 2nd.
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Also, we know Fed is so experienced that he is able to just shake off losses – I get that sense even more so now as he enters the next phase of his career. He was so close to losing to Davydenko last year and didn’t and that boosted his confidence. This loss was like that match except he couldn’t turn it around completely in the 2nd. Still, the only worrying sign right now is the serve but he’ll have plenty of time to practice.
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Stopped watching the Benneteau match 5 games into the match. To painful to stay on. Fed was never into the match. Maybe we are asking too much of him. I think he was amazing to watch in Melbourne, all the way including the semi. It is very possible that Feds lackluster performance is simply the result of conditioning in preparation for the summer. I’m not quite sure what would be the best preparation for a tennis player to build a peak form in June. We can at least watch the shadow of Federer for yet another match as Dimitrov is having a good run (although into delPo).
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