Pages

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

USO 2011 Roger v Giraldo

Interesting match to say the least. Prior to its start, Chris Evert was talking to Chris Fowler about Roger's game. Evert expressed her desire to see Roger 100% focused on all points during a match. Evert would know something about concentration. What she lacked in a big serve she made up for with impeccable ground strokes and the focus of a professional assassin. Chris once said that her retirement was a result of her waning focus more than anything else.

Roger's game and concentration looked exceptional until he was serving at 5-1 for the first set. And that's when ESPN switched coverage to the Monfils v Dimitrov match. Unfortunately for this fan, ESPN did not get back to Ashe Stadium until the 2nd set where Roger was down a break and missing his shots by a mile.

Due to the cover breakup I lost track of Roger's game. On the one hand it seemed that Roger was working on his attacking game. Big groundies and serves and throwing in s/v even though the odds were some times too low to win a point that way.

He also played like he was late for a plane. Even through his patches of mishits, which I attribute to loss of focus, he still moved beautifully around the court. In a fever pitch.

Roger played fast tennis in Cincy. What I'm looking for is how Roger adapts his game - and speed - when he hits rough patches. Against Giraldo, he wasn't tested. It's against the likes of Tsonga, del Potro and Berdych that speed tennis can get away from Roger when momentum shifts in a New York minute. I'll be looking for ways he modifies his aggression against better players when/if he loses focus and misfires here and there. Roger could benefit immensely by working more on his second serve for the remainder of the tournament.

All in all, it was another Federer match where his fans could feast their eyes on the best to ever play the game.
Posted by at

3 comments:

  1. Mangai BashyamAugust 31, 2011 at 2:54 AM

    wcr,

    i watched his game yday. his second serve is still bothering me a LOT. his kick serve is still one of the best.

    i loved the way he hit his BH (he hit very similar to WTF 2010), his wide-angle cross court BH looper seems to be his biggest strength now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 31, 2011 at 4:29 AM

    Thank you for your thoughts, wcr. I was beginning to miss this blog and the impeccable writing from the three of you. Welcome back.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 1, 2011 at 11:10 PM

    It's always such a pleasure to read this blog! So insightful, and one actually learns something. Thank you for taking the time to do this.

    By the way, I am curious if one of you could put up a post on the slow-courts of the USO this year, and how you see it affecting the game. There's been a lot of chatter about it, and I am curious to hear your take on it, particularly as it concerns players like Del Potro.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)