Fed-Nalby;
Nalby played 1 set his best tennis in ages. His backhand as deadly as it ever was and he played with an extreme pace. There's wasn't much Fed could do... exept change tactics; he managed to avoid the backhand rallies (which he mostly lost) and forced Nalby to come into the net.
Fed played OK but not splendid. Nalby totally lost focus and basically gave up after the break in set 2. Like he was thinking "he we go again", and they were..

Rod-Lub
The quality of this match surprised me. Both man quite strong at the net, great serving (which isn't a big surprise) and some spectaculair rallies. I really think Roddick improved his game the last 6 months (both mentally and technically). His volleying was pretty consistant but the best part for me was his backhand; suddenly he's capable of down the line backhand winners.
I hope Roddick and Federer come through this round and i believe they will.
Rod-Nad would be a nice set up for the semies, and a long awaited one!

Interesting points about federer. :ok:

He does have that ability to draw players to the net and then just pass them off either wing. It is encouraging also to see him change tactics so successfully. Nice to see him being challenged and then having to think! Usually it's not the case as his plan 'A' is so successful.

Nalbandian, well, he certainly believes that he can beat Federer, and the first set certainly proves that. There are shades of the RG match with this scoreline/ pattern of play, and I think that regardless of his injury at RG, the scoreline would have been along the lines of the one today. That's 8-6 in the head to head and it's safe to say that Fed more or less has his number these days. But I think that he will still step on the court with Federer believing that he can and will win, but Federer is just stronger mentally and is likely to impose himself more on the court.

Roddick/ Ljubicic.. I would agree that Andy is really the other form player in the group, and that this match could almost be treated as a playoff for the other semi spot. I just see both of them beating Nalby too. I think back to how Luby just overpowered Nalby on hardcourts in the USA earlier this year (Miami I think) and maybe beat him in the DC too? Add that to his serving being so powerful right now (e.g. Vienna). And also Roddick is in good form, and must fancy his chances too.

This is definitely the tougher group of the two. I'd hope that Fed and A-Rod are the two to go through. :)

"He does have that ability to draw players to the net and then just pass them off either wing."

This way he beats Roddick time and time again...
:D

This is very true! :lol:

He does the same to Davydenko, Gonzo too, to name just a few.. :rolleyes:

It's a win-win tactic. Playing sliced shots is low-percentage error, therefore stopping any trend of UE's in match. Slice takes the pace off the ball and makes the other player have to force the pace, and can draw out the UE's from them. Also, Fed loves a target at the net, and is then able to rack up the count of winners.

Mind you, much of Federer's tactics are 'win-win' these days! :lol:

Amelie Mauresmo used a similar tactic to beat Sharapova at Wimbledon this year.

It's interesting that the sliced shot is such an easy shot to play, often a very effective stock shot, and yet so few players use it!

Agreed. I guess his ability to read his opponants game and adapt to it is Roger best skill after all.
Still, we can't take all these wins for granted. He looked very relieved after the match so even Roger has his doubts..

BTW, Petalp; i'm glad i'm not the only freak who went out of bed sunday morning at 5:45 to watch a RR match..
;)

:lol:

I have to confess that sometimes it's more of a case of catching that sort of thing whilst just back from a night out, rather than actually getting out of bed for it!! roflmao

Agreed, Fed's ability to adapt his game against an opponent is certainly one of his underrated skills. I wish that he would do it more, as I'd like to see him show his full repertoire of skills more often.

As a reminder of this, I have just been watching one of Fed's matches from SW19 this year; the one against Gasquet. Peter Fleming mentioned that Fed's backhand was a weakness, but added that it was last considered a real weakness about 6 years ago!! Somehow the anti-fed trolls are just a tad out of date. :whistle:

Great match though.. some superlative points from both players, beautiful clean hitting. :)

the critisism on Federers backhand is laughable. In fact; If his backhand will keeps improving like it did this year, soon it will be his strongest weapon.

So next week you really have to push yourself; the final is scheduled 09:00 AM, that will be some night out :cheers:

Fed's backhand is definitely one of the aspects of his game that just continues to improve. It is quite mind-blowing how good it actually is, and yet considered a weakness? :shrug:

I watched his SW19 match with Ancic last night. In both this match nd the Gasquet one, his backhand was excellent. I mean, even outhitting Gasquet on the backhand is some going. For my money Gasquet has one of the most sublime backhands on the tour.

I would also say that his serve has also improved a lot over the last year. At the moment, his ace/ double fault ratio is about 9 or 10 to 1 . Impressive, any which way you slice it (if you pardon the pun!). I noticed in the Nalby match his ratio was just that: 9:1. Nalby's powerpuffs had a ratio of 0:8. Makes a difference.

Another Fed fact. Apparently the way that he has his racquets strung sometimes depends on his opponent. For example, against players such as Roddick, he has his racquets strung slighter tighter. Something to do with enabling him to return his bullet serves more effectively.

Ooh, 9am start? Might revert to adapting my game a la Federer and do the less radical route of getting some sleep before the match.. depends on how good the night out is, I guess! :D

His levels are getting scarily high. Next year I can realistically see him getting near maximum points or even full points. This is preposterous but there is a small chance for Roger.

If his backhand does get better it will be GRandslam year in 2007

hmm, didn't know that. This is why i read the messege board, to learn something.
I won't miss the BBC board though ;)

roflmao well, it will either a perfect start or perfect beginning of the day, that's for sure. I have no doubts Fed will win this one!

perfect start or ending that is..

Did you mean his next match of the whole tournament?

I have doubts, although they are not massive, that Federer will win. I think some players will see how Nalby played him in the first set and think, maybe for once, that they may have a chance of snatching a set or two from him. I think the best thing that happened for the tournament was Roger losing his first set to start with. It gives others hope. On the other hand of course, they then see Roger hand out two 6-1 sets to Nalby, the defending champ. after that....so perhaps that robs them of hope? Tough one that is.....I can manage to change my mind within one paragraph by thinking how Feds changed his tactics in that match....what hope do the other players have playing him?

I actually think he'll win this tournament. He's fit, focused and eager to win, and that's in his case a deadly combination.
I heard the interview with Nalby after the match. He was asked what happened after the first set. He simply replied "he started to serve better and play better, that's it."
Nalby is right, what more can you say. They all have the same strategy; attack the second serve and keep him in the backhand corner. But normally that's not enough to beat Roger.
So i don't think the lost set will make any difference.
I actually think they're all hoping for the same thing to happen; an off-day from Rogers side. He did have 2 maybe 3 off-days this year, but that was on clay or on lesser big occasions.
The only person that could cause an upset is imo Davydenko. His game in Paris was flawless. Good serve, great return, great backhand, great forehand and toeing the baseline. Absolutely Rogers biggest threat this week.

It will certainly be interesting if Davydenko comes up against Roger for sure. I am also hoping that Nadal and Fed meet just to see how it goes, although I have a feeling Roger will make a victory against him look easy at the moment.

By the way you have impressive tennis knowledge and insight greasepipe, far greater than mine (I feel like an amateur posting on this board sometimes) and I look forward to your posts.

Gav

Yes its interesting how Nadal would do against Federer now. With the Aussie coming up,a win for Nadal would give him a lot of confidence.
But, I cant see it this time . The general opinion seems to be that Roger has actually improved this year esp. his serve and backhand. Nadals been pretty lacklustre since Wimbledon and cant cope with the big hitters on fast courts, and even when he was at his best their matches were pretty close even on clay.

Thnx Gav, i still have a tough time to write in english but i definitly will keep on trying ;)