7/19/11 3:48 PM | Johan Lindahl Coach Paul Annacone remains confident of continued success for his elite client Roger Federer as the Swiss strives to end a Grand Slam trophy drought stretching back more than a year and a half.
No. 3 Federer will return to the ATP from early August at the Montreal Masters and will be defending his title the next week in Cincinnati to mark his preparation for the August 29 start of the US Open.
Annacone, who coached Pete Sampras, says the Swiss will be back a winner. "In today's men's game it's very difficult to compete," he told told local media in upstate New York. "You see Novak Djokovic having such a great year and Rafa's always Rafa, so that makes it difficult.
"But Roger got to the semis in the Australian Open, the finals of the French Open, and quarter-finals of Wimbledon: he's right there. I don't see any reason why he's not going to be really geared up and ready to play in New York."
Federer, who turns 30 next month, won five straight titles at Flushing Meadows 2004-2008 but lost the 2009 final to Juan Del Potro in a fifth set and went out in the semis a year ago to current NO. 1 Novak Djokovic.
He is currently on summer break after winning a post-Wimbledon Davis Cup rubber which put Switzerland into a World Group playoff spot in the autumn.
It's been six majors since Federer last won a major, one of his longest runs without big success. Annacone says it's now mainly about mental strength for the rock-solid Swiss.
"When you're fortunate enough to be with someone like Roger, most of it is just game management, understanding what he wants to do and how he's going to do it. A lot of it is your mental disposition and also the strategic way you're approaching the match on the day."
WASHINGTON - July 11: Martina Hingis serves for the New York Sportimes in a World Team Tennis match at Kastles Stadium at The Wharf. Photo by Kelyn Soong, a freelance tennis photographer who you can check out more of on his site and his Twitter.
WASHINGTON--Though she was twice forced out of the sport, Switzerland's Martina Hingis is back in tennis for good.
The five-time Grand Slam singles champion and Hingis is playing more (and better) than she has in years, and seems to enjoy tennis more than she has at any point in her life.
" It gave me everything I have today," Hingis said after her World Team Tennis match Tuesday.
"I'm very grateful that tennis exists, really."
Hingis has shown her appreciation for the game by filling her 2011 calendar with play. She has participated in Legends' events at the French Open and Wimbledon, World Team Tennis, and several other exhibitions.
But World Team Tennis and Legends' events would pale in comparison to the step back into the sport's biggest stage that Hingis could take in 2012.
* * *
In 2009, mixed doubles was added as a fifth tennis event at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, the tennis portion of which will be held at the All-England Club in Wimbledon).
Shortly after the announcement, more than two years before the competition, Serena Williams and Andy Roddick announced their partnership. Roddick said last summer that "24 seconds after they announced that they were going to have mixed doubles in the Olympics, I was flooding Serena's telephone."
"Calls, missed calls, text messages--borderline stalking. And I annoyed her into submission."
While being annoying at the earliest possible moment paid dividends for Roddick in finding an opposite gender compatriot to play with, other players have gone about finding partners differently, with few confirmed partnerships announced.
But that doesn't mean there hasn't been a frenzy of action behind the scenes.
* * *
Though he has accomplished so much else in his career (namely a record sixteen Grand Slam singles titles), there can't be many players more grateful for Olympic doubles than Switzerland's Roger Federer.
Federer entered the 2008 Beijing Olympics at one of the lower points of his career. He had just lost to Rafael Nadal in the epic final of Wimbledon 2008, and had suffered a crushing defeat to him in the 2008 French Open final just before that. He had lost the No. 1 singles ranking for the first time since early 2004.
Having suffered early exits in singles at both Athens 2004 (to Tomas Berdych) and then at Beijing 2008 (to James Blake), it seemed as though Federer might never find success at the Olympics.
But partnering with countryman Stanislas Wawrinka in the oft overlooked men's doubles competition, Federer won gold for Switzerland and made it atop the Olympic podium--with a little help from his friend. Federer was decidedly ecstatic, though he showed it in a decidedly unconventional way.
The gold medal in doubles (or perhaps just the celebration) brought Federer's game back to life. He won the following US Open, and three of the next five grand slams (including his first French Open). If it hadn't been for Olympic doubles, the second act of Federer's career might never have happened.
* * *
Hopefully after those first three sections (and more obviously, by the headline) you can see where this story is headed.
A bit obsessed with mixed doubles (and impressed with her current form), I asked Martina Hingis after the match Wednesday if she would consider coming back to the highest level of the game to compete for Switzerland at the 2012 London Olympics in mixed doubles with Roger Federer. And since I framed (and considered) it a hypothetical, I was surprised by her answer.
TDF: You're playing so well now, and there aren't really any other Swiss women near the top of the game at the moment...
Martina Hingis: (nervous laughter [she seems to anticipate just as well off the court as she does on it])
TDF: I was wondering--they're having mixed doubles at the Olympics next year, and someone who has had success in doubles in the Olympics is your countryman, Roger Federer...
Martina Hingis: (more nervous laughter)
TDF: Would you play in the Olympics with him, if he asked?
Martina Hingis: You're tricky, right? (Laughs) Well...he kind of was like, through the angles, he already, like, you know tried, a little bit? But I don't know...
TDF: He already tried to ask you?
Martina Hingis: Well...I don't know? Not him, personally, but...I mean, they asked that question...We're still a long way away, so...
TDF: But you're not saying no, you're open to it?
Martina Hingis: I don't know, I don't know...I'm not sure, because you have to really commit. And I feel great right now, but, you know, it's still a long way to go, it's another year.
TDF: So just to be clear, someone from his team did ask you?
Martina Hingis: Yeah, they did. But who knows...I mean, I would have to play some doubles before, or some mixed....who knows?
Whoa.
* * *
A Martina Hingis-Roger Federer pairing would be the story in tennis going into the Olympics.
Not only would it be a fascinating trans-era partnership, it would also almost certainly be an incredibly successful one. Hingis and Federer are widely considered to be two of the greatest tactical minds of the Open Era, both with incredible creativity and touch. Hingis and Federer have each won over a dozen grand slam titles, with Hingis having won five in singles, nine in women's doubles, and one in mixed, and all 16 of Federer's coming in singles.
The success of a Hingis-Federer pairing isn't entirely conjecture, either. In January of 2001, before Federer had won a single title at the ATP level, Hingis and Federer paired to win the Hopman Cup for Switzerland.
Their mixed doubles play was especially impressive, losing only 10 games in six sets of live rubber action before conceding a dead rubber in the final to the American team of Monica Seles and Jan-Michael Gambill.
* * *
Coming from a country that had never produced any great champions before they came along, Hingis and Federer have often been compared to one another. With both being Swiss finesse players, the connections are easy, and more importantly, fair.
But while questions about other players often irritate tennis players, both Hingis and Federer have always seem greatly pleased be asked about the other.
Aside from the obvious on-court reasons for them to play together, it's clear that Hingis and Federer also share a great deal of respect and admiration for one another (if not a closeness that allowed for Roger to ask Martina about London directly).
The partnership is far from a done deal, clearly. But from her uncharacteristic nervousness and evasiveness when the topic was broached, it's clear that Hingis is taking Federer's offer very, very seriously.
I just hope she has the self-belief to give it a shot.
Spent the day in Bern watching the first singles matches between Switzerland and Portugal. This post is going to run more like a stream of ideas as I'm dead tired.
There is nothing like seeing Roger play live, especially indoors. When the hall goes silent at the start of a point you hear Roger playing. He brings you into the point, into his world from the second the first ball is struck until the point is over. And then you remember to breathe again.
Rarely does anyone talk about the sound of tennis and when it's live it's just different. Kind of like how you remember the face of a friend. Without a picture, you remember the face the last time you saw it. If you have a picture you remember that image. Not the same experience.
There are nuances that you only get when you hear it yourself and they stick with you forever. The sound of tennis. And what makes it so fantastic is that Roger rarely makes any noise at all. An occasional squeak from his shoes gripping the surface and without that, you'd think he was running around in house slippers. Once in awhile you hear his diaphragm collapse as he finishes his serve. Or the C'MON when he means business. But what sticks with you is the sound of the ball as it comes off his racket. That flat forehand is LOUD. And so is his backhand slice. THWACK. You can close your eyes and know from the sound of the ball off Roger's racket if its deep, short, a winner or out. He takes you into the point with him and it's an intimate, compelling experience.
For as many times and as long as I've watched Roger play, the elegance of his game remains the most beautiful I've ever seen. By far. His technique is perfect and, what's more, so is his efficiency. Not a wasted movement. Clean. Effortless - that being less effort rather than more and never to be confused with no effort. ;)
The crowd was insane. Half the stadium was a sea of red. What are these poor souls going to do the day he retires? For their sakes, I hope Roger remains a public figure. The last person I saw adored by the public as much as Roger was former Pope John Paul. Roger means a lot to his fans globally and, most especially, the Swiss who showed unrestrained affection for him today.
Lynette
Lynette Federer is a great tennis mom. There she and Robert were, sitting side by side in the first row back from one end of the court, watching their boy play tennis in front of a sold out stadium. And they were there for both singles matches and supported Stan as much as Roger. They devoted their entire day to Swiss Davis Cup.
At some point during Stan's match I walked around the arena to check it out. I noticed that a young boy managed to pull Lynette aside and got her to give him her autograph. She spent a fair amount of time, speaking with him in French. A completely decent lady.
And as Roger played, she and Robert would call out words of encouragement to him. Once a tennis mom, always a tennis mom. She should write a book!
Roger's Game
Roger's game was technically sound. He rarely came forward. If I had one concern, it would be the height of the ball off his drop shots both from the baseline and volleys. He gave his opponent enough time to run down the shots and hit winners past him.
I noticed that Roger needed a squat/stretch early in the 2nd set after an hour of play. Probably residual aches and pains. What Roger really needs is a good vacation. He's got about 4 weeks before Canada. If he plans to get to Canada the week before the tournament starts, and he trains for two weeks before he goes to Canada, it means he's got time for a one week vacation. NOT ENOUGH. He needs to take as much as time as he needs to be as fresh as he was when he reached Paris in June. If he can't get in sufficient rest before Canada, he should plan to play Cincy and the USO only. I hope he can find some beach where he can lie in the sun and go brain dead. If he can. During Stan's match he was jumping up and down from his chair to go and talk to the suits around the event. And when he was in the chair watching Stan, he was talking practically non stop with Marco or Stefan. The guy might consider flipping the switch to the OFF position for a bit. Like mother like son or what?
Acoustic Annoyance
The arena in Bern used for DC this weekend was built for ice hockey. All I know about the sport I learned from "Slap Shot" and the documentary about the college kids who beat the Russian pros and went on to take the gold medal at the Olympic Games at Lake Placid. Both excellent films. But I digress.
The only time the arena was tolerable was during a point. And that's it. UNBELIEVABLE. And the worse part came during the last set of Roger's match when some joker in the control booth starting pushing a button that produced a sound like the QE2 was setting sail.
Heinz Gunthardt interviewed Roger post match in Swiss German. I couldn't hear a word of it but my friend told me Roger was complaining about the sound. How he managed to think his way through a single point, let alone a match, with all the noise is beyond me. He's a genius.
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.
Neither WCR nor I saw the Federer-Youzhny match in its entirety, due to generally poor coverage, and also because the Del Potro-Nadal match had us glued and both were going on at the same time.
From what I've seen, Del Potro played an outstanding match for somebody finally coming to terms with this surface, and seems to be enjoying coming forward more and more. He played well throughout, came in plenty, and as a result took Nadal to two breakers and stole a set from him as well. Seeing him evolve on this surface has been great.
He still has a lot to learn about grass, and a lot of that will have to do with hitting even better volleys behind such an amazing serve, though he did it better than most expected, and he will need to stand farther inside the court. Too many times Nadal had the opportunity to come in and sting him with drop volleys, seeing Del Potro miles behind the baseline.
Despite these issues, Del Potro and his fans should be very happy with the way he played, and he looks set mentally to win the US Open.
Nadal is by far the best player in the tournament right now, and it's not really close. Despite Del Potro being on his game for most of the match, he retrieved as only he can, and came in plenty. His statistics in this match were astonishing considering the calibre of player he faced. It's clear. Nadal wakes up differently for Wimbledon now, perhaps even more focused than his beloved French. He's serving bombs and his cross-court backhand is at its best. Quite frankly, he is playing the best I've seen him play on grass since Wimbledon 2008.
So what can his opponents do? They can still beat him. But it will take someone really taking it to him aggressively, like Del Potro did, and more clinically, to defeat him. Considering the draw that lies before us now, it's hard to see who can do this. Murray is not playing consistently good tennis, even considering his sound beating of Gasquet. He has ups and downs, and it is a fact that he simply does not know how to play a naturally attacking game on his own steam (which means that he can do it to mix things up but, but it's not his game in general). Novak is playing well, but his tennis here has been no different from his clay game earlier this year, minus the sliding. He still relies too heavily on keeping the ball in play, and as well as he does it, it seems that he is becoming less and less attacking. It does seem to be the sort of tennis that troubles Nadal, but on grass, Nadal changes things. His forehand is much flatter and he approaches with gusto, and Djokovic will probably not be able to deal with that over five sets.
Tsonga is the only player left in the draw with the right approach to grass court tennis, but I highly doubt he can do it for three whole sets against a Nadal of this calibre.
Which brings us to Roger Federer. Off the ground, Roger has been flawless. From what I saw even of the Youzhny match, he was never in trouble, and knew it. Youzhny was playing out of his skin, but to do that on grass for three sets against Federer is a tall ask. Roger played well to come back, never really looking like he was beating beaten; simply delayed.
Now, Roger's baseline game is so good that he can beat anyone off the ground here, except Nadal. If he should reach a final against Nadal here, and tries to go toe to toe with him from the back, he will lose. And badly, because of the nature of the match-up which doesn't need to be rehashed here. As Del Potro showed, the only way to get close to Nadal is to really go after him, and despite doing most things correctly, it didn't happen for him. This means Roger needs to play as aggressively as Del Potro did, but needs to be even more clinical at net, and will need to spend a lot less time at the baseline than him as well, since while DP is not troubled by Nadal's high topspin forehand to his backhand, Roger cannot handle that in a best-of-five match.
Roger is not going to beat Nadal off the ground, so he will need to come in literally on 30-40% of all points to stand a chance. This isn't hard to do, but can Roger execute once at net? How many sitters will he miss? How many shoe-lace volleys can he put in play. How much will his wrist drop? Will he approach at the right times and on the right shots? Will he use the slice as an approach?
From what I've seen, Roger hasn't done enough of any of this so far at this tournament for me to be convinced that he can do it in his next match or after. Maybe he can, but right now, I haven't seen the signs. He came in a good deal in his last two sets against Youzhny, which is good, but still didn't look entirely authoritative. And it does make me wonder whether he is a hundred percent physically when he doesn't try things out, since it seems that the obvious thing to do at Wimbledon is come in during the early rounds. I have no doubt that Paul would have stressed on this, but for some reason Roger has not been able to follow through. I just hope the reason isn't physical.
All this does seem rather grim. And maybe even a bit premature. But it is important to cover all the bases and look at the overall picture. His next match is against Tsonga, who is on a roll, and who will steal the net from Roger a good deal. Roger might very well be able to defeat him by passing him from the back court. The smart thing to do, however, will be to take Tsonga out of his comfort zone and come in and take over the net at least on serve. A good mix is what will be needed against Tsonga, but if he gets through that, his potential semi final and final will need to be mostly about approaching well.
We are now in the second week of Wimbledon and this is where it all really starts. Rust should have been scraped off by now. Weapons and tools should have been sharpened. It is an old tennis saying that, "You can't win a major in the first week." So now, it's time to bring it.
by 
0 COMMENTS
EMAIL
PRINT