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.
