Sorry guys.
We may never know why exactly Roger did not seem to want to change things up in his loss to Tsonga.
Before that, congratulations to Jo, who played exactly the kind of tennis we love on this blog. Big forehand, big serves, and great approaches and volleys. He might very well have won this sooner if he found his range in the first two sets, but Roger feasted on his misses and moved him around nicely, hitting behind him plenty.
Back to Roger.
He's looked foggy throughout the tournament, and from his very first match against Kukushkin the writers here have expressed concern over his movement, and to some extent, his demeanour.
For the record, I think he didn't move forward enough, and that would ordinarily be OK, but it looked to me that until 1-2 in the fifth he didn't want to come in even a little bit. He came in around four times in the fourth despite knowing, with all his experience, that he had to change things up. This wasn't a lack of focus but simply a refusal to move forward and be more assertive with his forehand. By the time he tried it in the fifth, it was too late.
I highly doubt we'll ever know from Roger what went wrong. Maybe in a tell-all book someday, much like Pete Sampras explained a lot of the reasons for his big losses in his book. Right now that seems too far away, and given the criticism he faced the last time after his loss to Berdych for mentioning injury, he will probably keep mum about it this time around.
It is simply so strange to have seen him go from arguably his best Roland Garros outing to a startling Wimbledon loss, where he is supposed to have used those weapons and the brilliant advice of Paul Annacone far better.
Other things did lead to this loss besides possible injury. Tsonga was incredible and it is hard to imagine even a healthy Roger managing to break in the fourth and fifth sets. Plus, the balls here are not the same as RG, which was probably a big factor in his win there. Even his serve seemed to have far less verve here.
Discuss away here if you'd like. Nothing is off limits apart from player bashing. Cheers, and sorry again guys.
We may never know why exactly Roger did not seem to want to change things up in his loss to Tsonga.
Before that, congratulations to Jo, who played exactly the kind of tennis we love on this blog. Big forehand, big serves, and great approaches and volleys. He might very well have won this sooner if he found his range in the first two sets, but Roger feasted on his misses and moved him around nicely, hitting behind him plenty.
Back to Roger.
He's looked foggy throughout the tournament, and from his very first match against Kukushkin the writers here have expressed concern over his movement, and to some extent, his demeanour.
For the record, I think he didn't move forward enough, and that would ordinarily be OK, but it looked to me that until 1-2 in the fifth he didn't want to come in even a little bit. He came in around four times in the fourth despite knowing, with all his experience, that he had to change things up. This wasn't a lack of focus but simply a refusal to move forward and be more assertive with his forehand. By the time he tried it in the fifth, it was too late.
I highly doubt we'll ever know from Roger what went wrong. Maybe in a tell-all book someday, much like Pete Sampras explained a lot of the reasons for his big losses in his book. Right now that seems too far away, and given the criticism he faced the last time after his loss to Berdych for mentioning injury, he will probably keep mum about it this time around.
It is simply so strange to have seen him go from arguably his best Roland Garros outing to a startling Wimbledon loss, where he is supposed to have used those weapons and the brilliant advice of Paul Annacone far better.
Other things did lead to this loss besides possible injury. Tsonga was incredible and it is hard to imagine even a healthy Roger managing to break in the fourth and fifth sets. Plus, the balls here are not the same as RG, which was probably a big factor in his win there. Even his serve seemed to have far less verve here.
Discuss away here if you'd like. Nothing is off limits apart from player bashing. Cheers, and sorry again guys.
I doubt that a healthy Roger would have found himself in a 4th, let alone a 5th set against Tsonga in the QF of his most beloved Slam. No matter how great Tsonga was playing.
ReplyDeleteThis is the second year that Roger has come into Wimbledon carrying an injury. (Last year, his loss to Berdych was a combination of injury and the regressive patterns of play). I wonder if Roger needs to rethink how he schedules his clay season to prevent such niggles/injuries from creeping up.
It's unbelievable to me that in the last 4 slams that Roger has contested, his best result has come on his supposedly worst surface (clay) and his worst result on the surface he has dominated this past decade (clay). Two straight QF losses at Wimbledon. If someone had told me this in 2009, I would have laughed myself silly. But such is the game of tennis.
Sorry! I meant grass as the surface he's dominated. My bad.
ReplyDeleteRR it has nothing to do with the topic, but I just wanted to ask you if there is any chance we'll get some random articles, random thoughts from you and wcr in this summer break..like about different strategies, different players, I don't know anything.It's fascinating reading your posts about tennis in general.
ReplyDeleteHey there Andrei.
ReplyDeleteWe will do our best. For now, I'm looking forward to playing more tennis than watching it. Maybe in that capacity, I will write down whatever comes to mind.
Glad to know you're interested in what we write. We'll do our best to keep you interested.
Cheers!
Thanks for the answer.I would play some tennis, too but the weather here is more London-like than eastern Europe-like in this period of time.
ReplyDeleteAnyway good luck with the tennis and I'll be waiting for some articles.
Cheers!
RR I'm watching the Nadal-Murray match and Ion Tiriac said what you said : he said that if he was Murray he would go inside the baseline on Nadal's second serve and bash the ball.If it's good, good for him and if it's not..well it's the same.
ReplyDelete