Roger Federer is wearing a red shirt for his day time matches at the US Open for the second year running.
Fed turned out for his opening round match against Devon Britton in a very similar outift to last year - but this time he wore black shorts instead of grey.
Ususally the Swiss master enjoys experimenting with different colours and styles for grand slams however on this occasion he has kept with what he knows.
Personally I am not a fan of red but he pulls off the outfit well with a black bandana and wrist band.
For night matches he has opted for the ‘Darth Federer’ look which was last seen at the Open in 2007. This includes a black shirt, shorts, socks and trainers which I think looks pretty cool.
This was the perilous position Roger Federer found himself in yesterday against Tommy Haas who had been bossing the match.
This break point seemed like a virtual match point for Haas as he had been serving like Karlovic and Federer had been really struggling to make any sort of impact when returning.
Federer missed his first serve and nervously spun in his second and I think at this point everyone around the world watching this match was biting their finger nails off.
A short rally commensed before Federer, flirting with destruction, attempted a low percentage inside out forehand.
He slapped the ball as hard as he could in a desperate attempt to win the point as Haas has been playing unrealistically well.
In a heart in mouth moment the ball flew over the net seemingly in slow motion and caught the very outside edge of the line and from this point forward the match completely turned.
Federer held his serve, broke Haas in the next game, took the set 6-4 and then the German crumbled winning just two more games in the contest.
I wasn’t surprised Haas lost his way because after coming so close to serving for the match his confidence was bound to drop significantly.
Something that amazed me in this match was the fact that Federer did not drop a point on serve for the first SEVEN games.
Haas is surely the first man to win a set having not managed to rack up a single returning point leading up to the first set tie break.
Read the full match report on the ATP website here.
Fernando Verdasco was the surprise package of the Australian Open and I am now wondering if he can follow up this performance in the coming year.
How many players do you see who have a brilliant run in a big tournament and then fail to bring their best form to any other event afterwards.
For example Kohlschrieber, Nieminen and Tipsarevic in the 2008 Australian Open and how about Rainer Scheuttler and Arnaud Clement at last year’s Wimbledon.
The Spaniard, despite being a top 30 player for the last four years, has never really lit any tournament alight with only two singles titles in his career. Two.
The other surprising fact is that the last of his title wins came in 2004 in Valencia so to summarise he is currently ranked ninth in the world and hasn’t won a title for five years.
The one thing to Verdasco’s credit that I have noticed through looking at his results is that has delivered consistent performances reaching the last 16 and quarter finals in a number of events throughout his time on the professional circuit.
He played quite simply unbelievable tennis in Australia to beat Tsonga and Murray and then he came so close to upsetting Nadal. His shot making was at a level I had not seen before and against Nadal, although he fired around double the amount of winners, his legs would carry him no more and the more resilient (hacker!) Nadal prevailed.
For me Nadal was always going to win the final as he now has Federer’s number. The main fact being that Federer has a definite weakness in the backhand side and Nadal exploits it brilliantly.
Federer wants to be known as the best player ever and he needs to win two more grand slam titles to prove this and I have my doubts as whether he will achieve this goal.
Andy Murray showed once again why he is the best player in the world at the moment as he fought out a 3 set victory over Roger Federer 4/6 7/6 7/5 in the Shanghai Masters Cup.
This match was fascinating from start to finish with the majority of the crowd in support of Federer. The atmosphere couldn’t have been more different for Murray when compared with the match he played against Gasquet at Wimbledon where everyone was behind him. However he didn’t seem too bothered.
The only incident where the crowd did effect Murray came in the second set where clapping could be heard every time he missed a first serve. This proved crucial as he double faulted on break point after appearing frustrated to allow Federer to break back bringing the score back to 5-4.
This just shows the world wide respect that Federer has earnt over the years during his time at the top of the mens game.
With Federer serving at 4-5 in the third, I witnessed the most spectacular service game I have ever seen. The world number two saved seven match points by playing some breathtaking tennis and then won the game which took over 15 minutes to complete.
I even found myself slightly wanting the Swiss master to come back from the dead and win the match after an amazing show of courage and fight to bring the contest to 5-5 despite clearly being extremely tired.
I have to say that Murray at this point with the match duration approaching 3 hours, still looked as fresh as ever and I knew there was only going to be one winner.
The question is, will Murray be tired for his next match tomorrow against Nikolay Davydenko? He certainly can’t play any better than he did today and if Davydenko, who has had a day to prepare, plays as well as he did in his last match I think we could be seeing the Russian advance into the final.
I was hoping this shot would pop up on Youtube. I happened to be watching it live and I could not believe my eyes.
Had a better known player hit this winner, it would have been talked about for years.
It happened in the first round match between Dominic Hrbaty and Roger Federer. Hrbaty is lobbed by the world number one and from nowhere he comes up with something really special.
I really am astounded at the fitness levels and drive of Rafael Nadal.
Many times this year the winner of a previous weeks tournament loses in the first round of the next.
Fatigue and niggling injuries are usually cited as explanations but with Nadal this simply does not happen.
Nadal was the winner of TWO previous tournaments on clay winning twelve matches in a row and he then breezes into London wins another five and claims his first grass court title.
To go with all this, his tennis at the Artois Championships was simply breathtaking all week and this says what an amazing athlete and true competitor he is.
I really wasn’t sure who would win the final as Djokovic is also a brilliant player and I gave the Serb the slight edge because of the amount of matches Nadal has played recently but the Spaniard really dug deep in an entertaining match.
As for Wimbledon many people are now saying Nadal can go one step step further than in two previous attempts and win it.
Well why not? He is on the form of his life at the moment and has adapted his game quickly to suit the grass courts playing further up the court and therefore taking the ball early hitting lower to the ground than he would on clay and hard.
But Federer has also claimed at title in a far less documented tournament (due to being held in Germany) and he should never be written off and in my eyes still remains the favourite.
The Spaniard though is moving ever closer to ending Federer’s grass court reign and if they do meet in the final for the third year in a row what a spectacular battle it could be.
I always seem to have a problem getting into the French Open. It simply doesn’t inspire me to write about or watch it.
Once again Rafael Nadal won the event and this time did so without dropping a set. This is obviously a spectacular achievement however I don’t think it makes for spectacular viewing.
I’m all for the dramatic side of tennis. Five setters, racket smashing and arguing with the umpire are more my style and the French Open seemed to breeze past too easily.
Federer was very disappointing and to win only four games is poor and my immediate reaction is that he just ran out of gas after a long clay court season.
It seems superhuman Nadal will be dominating the clay court game for years to come.
In my opinion this will be Federer’s best chance to beat Nadal on clay this season. The Spaniard came through against Djokovic in three as I predicted but was tested to the limit both mentally and physically. The three hour long match was fantastic with at least 10 points that could be included in the collection of ’amazing point’ videos on Youtube.
Nadal will definitely feeling the after effects of that match today and the Swiss master will be much fresher having cruised through every round. If Federer goes 4-0 ahead in a set like in the Monte Carlo final I very much doubt the Spaniard will perform the same sort of fight back. I really fancy the world number one here to reclaim his title here but this will be no walkover however and Federer will need to be on top of his game attacking the Spaniard’s backhand as much as possible. A three setter could be on the cards but Federer will prevail.
Federer has not been pushed in this tournament as yet and it is hard to see Seppi providing him with too much trouble here. The Italian looked very nervous a number of times during his quarter final clash with Kiefer yesterday and if the highly charged German could have kept his cool at the crucial times he would have advanced. Instead Kiefer lost focus moaning at the referee and line judges at balls that were clearly in.
To a certain extent I think that the German deserved a semi final place as he has played very well this week but he got lost in the moment. Fair play to Seppi for plugging along but against Federer he will not allowed a second chance and I think a routine straight sets win is on the cards here for the Swiss master.
Predicted Winner :: Federer
Novak Djokovic SRB (3) – Rafael Nadal ESP (2)
The biggest match of the year so far in my opinion. Can Djokovic reach number two in the world? I’m not so sure. Nadal will do everything possible to beat the Serb here to protect his ranking and I think he will pull a big performance out of the bag.
Djokovic is without question a better player on hard but on the dirt its a different story. The Spaniard is known as an unbelievable mover, particularly on clay and I can back this up having seen him training in Monte Carlo a couple of weeks ago. He is extraordinarily quick around the court and Djokovic will have to be at the top of his game. The Serb is yet to take a set of Nadal on clay but I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened here.
The player of the year so far is full of confidence and he will surely fancy his chances as Nadal possibly isn’t 100 percent after his second round exit last week, due to a blister on his foot. With Djokovic’ solid groundstrokes we are sure to see some long rallys and he will have to keep away from Nadal’s forehand wing as much as possible as it has been devastating in recent weeks.
I think this match will be close but Nadal will come through in three.
Two sets down.
