Follow Up On Round One

Thanks to wcr for a great post on Roger's first round win over Kukushkin who surprised us with some great play.

First set had some great baseline tennis, which was a little disappointing because neither player really looked to steal the net away from the other. The grass seems incredibly lush with the ball dying very quickly thus allowing for a great opportunity to come forward on nice heavy slices. Many times Roger seemed to reach for the ball on the forehand, and the wind didn't help things. But with his sublime feel on this surface, he did better in windy conditions on a quick surface than anyone else on tour could. Blistering crosscourt forehands, and backhands which he seemed to be able to hold until the very last second. A lot of his tennis was of the "great hands" nature from Roger, which brings me to a comment wcr made in reference to his post.

Roger didn't seem to want to get down low on his volleys. He's been this way for a while but this time it seemed more like he was snatching at them and hardly ever really committed to a good forceful volley into the open court until late in the match off great serves. I do hope this has nothing to do with the groin niggle he had that forced him to pull out of Halle. Luckily his baseline movement seemed superb apart from on very low backhands which he was brilliant enough to handle with great wrists.

Off the ground, he was faultless.  His forehand was great and he seemed intent on using the backhand slice as much as possible, really knifing them which is what helped him towards the end of the first set until which point there was little between the two. Kukushkin has a great forehand and played with admirable confidence, and I'm surprised to know nothing about him until now. His inside out forehand from near the centre of the baseline, in particular, really gave Roger problems since it didn't allow him to set up at all. However, Federer's serve was so good that it mattered little since it was clear that on the bigger points, Roger was determined not to make errors, hence the excellent tiebreak.

Roger really opened up the shoulders in the third. I do hope Roger reaches the middle of the tournament not having being broken since it seemed to fuel his focus at the French when his serve was so good early in the tournament. It will be doubly important here.

So assuming his serve stays as good as the first round, I look forward to Roger coming in with more purpose and looking to hit a lot of volleys even if they're not perfect technically. Let's hope that he bends his knees lower and really punches those volleys, preferably behind devilish slices like the ones he struck during this match. By the end of this one, he really seemed eager to come forward. What matters is intent.