This went from sublime display to pity party to mildly interesting to sublime display all over again.
Roger was pretty scary during this one. Clearly with all his experience, he knew the importance of getting off court as soon as possible, which is why he wasn't willing to charge in too much or mess around with drop shots. It's pretty clear what his baseline plan is. Compared to the first match, he stood far more inside the court and was determined to take ball on the rise even in defence, which is why when Mannarino finally got hold of a point, which was very rare, he would usually win it. Roger wasn't going to scramble too much, but I felt he definitely looked a lot more sprightly than his first round, during which I worried about whether his groin was still annoying him since he wasn't bending low enough even on some groundstrokes and was using his wrists to compensate for a lot of good core use. At least from the backcourt today this didn't seem to be the case. He got down low on all backhands and ran around forehands marvelously. The first set and a half was not much worse than the Federer of 2006, hitting the ball early, serving unbelievably (at one point 22 of 22 service points won), and just outright killing anything short or hitting anything short with an inside-out forehand into Mannarino's backhand corner with contempt.
Mannarino for his part, really tried his best. He came with a bit of a game plan on serve, but I felt it was all too easy for Roger to read, especially in the ad court. He was going either body or out wide, and both were very easy to read since he telegraphed his intentions very early on in his action with his ball toss (throwing the ball well to his left for the out wide serve and straight up or slightly behind him for the flat/kick body serve).
I loved Federer's attitude on the return. I think his baseline template should remain the same for the rest of the tournament (except against Nadal who I think he should just approach with a go-for-every-return attitude). On the return he came over almost everything, but during rallies he really knifed his slices and at times he seemed more willing to hit a slice than topspin/flat backhand, which of recent has been rare, and is probably the result of some advice from Paul Annaocone.
Roger did get a little carried away by how pretty his game was, and nearly paid a price for not putting the foot on the gas when he went ahead. He served a great game out to come back from 0-40 and stayed true to my hope that he would not get broken until at least the fourth round here. With his next opponent being Nalbandian however, that might be a tough ask.
I'll have to let the lack of approaches slide this time because clearly Roger needed to get off court quickly and couldn't mess around too much. He did seem a little more eager towards the end of the match to try and come in.
He will be playing my second favourite player on tour in his next match, David Nalbandian, and a man who certainly knows how to counter his aggressive baseline game with supreme changes in direction and down-the-line drives. It's a tricky match, but not something Roger should spend more than three sets on. The real challenge will be to see if he can get through it without losing serve. If Roger gets through that match he can be sure of his baseline game since it would have been put to a rather stern test.
Roger was pretty scary during this one. Clearly with all his experience, he knew the importance of getting off court as soon as possible, which is why he wasn't willing to charge in too much or mess around with drop shots. It's pretty clear what his baseline plan is. Compared to the first match, he stood far more inside the court and was determined to take ball on the rise even in defence, which is why when Mannarino finally got hold of a point, which was very rare, he would usually win it. Roger wasn't going to scramble too much, but I felt he definitely looked a lot more sprightly than his first round, during which I worried about whether his groin was still annoying him since he wasn't bending low enough even on some groundstrokes and was using his wrists to compensate for a lot of good core use. At least from the backcourt today this didn't seem to be the case. He got down low on all backhands and ran around forehands marvelously. The first set and a half was not much worse than the Federer of 2006, hitting the ball early, serving unbelievably (at one point 22 of 22 service points won), and just outright killing anything short or hitting anything short with an inside-out forehand into Mannarino's backhand corner with contempt.
Mannarino for his part, really tried his best. He came with a bit of a game plan on serve, but I felt it was all too easy for Roger to read, especially in the ad court. He was going either body or out wide, and both were very easy to read since he telegraphed his intentions very early on in his action with his ball toss (throwing the ball well to his left for the out wide serve and straight up or slightly behind him for the flat/kick body serve).
I loved Federer's attitude on the return. I think his baseline template should remain the same for the rest of the tournament (except against Nadal who I think he should just approach with a go-for-every-return attitude). On the return he came over almost everything, but during rallies he really knifed his slices and at times he seemed more willing to hit a slice than topspin/flat backhand, which of recent has been rare, and is probably the result of some advice from Paul Annaocone.
Roger did get a little carried away by how pretty his game was, and nearly paid a price for not putting the foot on the gas when he went ahead. He served a great game out to come back from 0-40 and stayed true to my hope that he would not get broken until at least the fourth round here. With his next opponent being Nalbandian however, that might be a tough ask.
I'll have to let the lack of approaches slide this time because clearly Roger needed to get off court quickly and couldn't mess around too much. He did seem a little more eager towards the end of the match to try and come in.
He will be playing my second favourite player on tour in his next match, David Nalbandian, and a man who certainly knows how to counter his aggressive baseline game with supreme changes in direction and down-the-line drives. It's a tricky match, but not something Roger should spend more than three sets on. The real challenge will be to see if he can get through it without losing serve. If Roger gets through that match he can be sure of his baseline game since it would have been put to a rather stern test.
I'm glad you also think he needs to get off court quickly. Sometimes he looks content to just win in a tiebreaker... then he has some kind of WTF brain cramp and 'oops' there goes the set. Then he has to play an extra set to win. I don't want to see him turn into Nadal and 'play every point like matchpoint' as they say, but a little ruthlessness never hurt. Look at Novak winning all those bagel sets, no wonder he wasn't tired for 6 months.
ReplyDeleteRoger is just this massive mountain any player has to climb. No matter how many times Mannarino has seen Roger either live or on tv, there’s nothing like staring down the barrel of a gun. You know Roger’s going to hurt you a few dozen ways, just what will it be shot by shot. Punishing
ReplyDeleteRR/wcr,
ReplyDeletegiven how well david returns and redirects the ball, would it be not fair to expect that there will be break of serves?
Hi Mangai.
ReplyDeleteYup. That's why I mentioned it would be a challenge. But it is grass and Roger is serving unbelievably well, so it isn't unthinkable that Roger could go through it without a break of serve. If Sampras could do it against Agassi at the US Open at the age of 29, so can Roger at Wimbledon against Nalbandian at the age of 29. :-)
If any of you guys remember the Basel match against Nalbandian well, maybe we can find out if Roger got broken in that win (6-4 6-4 I believe it was).
In that Basel final ( 08, 6-3 6-4 for roger ), Roger didn't even have to face a break point ! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you RR as always. Not broken until 4th round...even in Rog's heyday I don't know if it really happened. XD
ReplyDeleteHey WG.
ReplyDeleteRoger could afford to be broken in his heyday. Off the ground he was untouchable. :-)
I'm hoping he keeps serve that long mainly because I believe it was his serving so well during the early rounds of the French that allowed him not to crumble against Novak. He had complete faith in it even when he was broken repeatedly in that match.
Enjoy the third round!
Yeah, I forgot the Mighty Fed didn't scared of being broken. XD
ReplyDeleteAnyone watching Lujbicic-Murray match?
I guess Lujbicic has thousands of ways to approach, even a loop FH shot which was unfortunately lobbed by Murray to the backcourt. But he impressed me tonight with his brilliant old-school tennis! Not bad for a 30 sth guy, isn't it? XD Tennis now for him may not be only victory, though I really want him to make it happen.
RR
ReplyDeletethanks for the response and now i understand where you are coming from :-) (i went and re-read the blog post as well).
it would be amazing if Roger gets thru this match without being broken.
now onto the Juan Martin match, i wish he gets rid of the "simon virus".
That backhand pass down the line to get to set point in the 2nd reminded me of the legendary pass that saved championship point back in '08. You know the one? :) it was in the same court position too, Roger in the far court, stretched wide, goes for broke, a gleam in his eyes as he knows it's going in. That was a little bit of magic for me.
ReplyDeleteI saw this match live and I have to say Fed was not about to let any of his time get waisted. The atmosphere in the stadium was sth to be seen though. I got goosebumps when the 4th Mexican wave came around.
ReplyDelete