2007 ATP Discussion Thread

and Haas withdaws. He was injured going into Wimbledon but did well to make it to the round 0f 16. Now will this disrupt Federer? haha, yeah

 

Federer is the first man into the quarters. Either Tipsarevic or Ferrero awaits him. Ferrero gave Federer a wonderful match in the fourth round in 2005 at Wimbledon. He has lost his title as King of Clay to Rafa, and many other players have also overtaken him on that surface, including Federer.

Federer beat him in the semis at Monte Carlo in April, and Hamburg 3rd round in May on clay. On grass, Ferrero has improved alot, but unlikely to cause an upset. Tipsarevic had his biggest win a few days back, the first time he beat a top ten player in Gonzalez. But is Federer just one step too far, I think it is.

The other players in the bottom half really have their work cut out for them. They have third round and fourth round matches to get through. Maybe some upsets can take place as a result of this. Should be an interesting week ahead.

 

I'm so sick of the rain delays

Not much to report today, except Mauresmo losing to Nicole Vaidisova, Ferrero winning and Hewitt beating Canas.

It should be very interesting to see the match between Ferrero and Federer, considering also that Federer had extra rest cause he didnt have to play Haas

 

I don't think it'll be close, considering Federer's "resting" time. Unfortunately Ferrero won't have a chance against Roger.

 

Wow, I was just watching the final set of the Venus vs Sharapova match. Coming back from the rain delay at 1-1 the first game lasted for another 8 or so deuces. Some very good tennis, with Venus dominating. She won it 6-3 in the end. Great stuff!

 

Ugh Venus

Nadal had a tough 5 set match today, and Roddick won against Mathieu

The possible matchup i'm looking forward to at the moment is Baghdatis against Hewitt, i think that could be one of the best matches yet, because both are playing good

I can dream about it though, cant i?

 

Youzhny had a decent chance to beat Nadal. I hope he does

 

Noooo! dont say that!

Nadal beat him in 5 sets, but it was a tough one!

The biggest surprise for me today was Hewitt losing to Djokovic... for some reason i expected Hewitt to take that one.

 

Im pulling for Bahgdatis now

 

Baghdatis/Djokovic was an absolute classic. I was pulling for Marcos but it was an excellent effort by both men. the cypriate should have taking it to Djokovic earlier in the 5th set

 

what a day

Henin v Bartoli was super but disappointing(I was rooting for Henin)

Roddick v Gasquet -- caught only the last set.. but what a set that was.. absolute classic

 

2 classic 5 setters today. the best day of wimbledon so far by far.

 

Another poor Womens final - 6-4 6-1 to Venus Williams

 

Federer and Nadal are tied up at two sets each.

Looking like a classic match.

 

Federer wins in five sets for his fifth consecutive championship at Wimbledon.

I think it's safe to say that Nadal has made more progress at challenging Federer on his natural surface than Federer has with clay.

 

But Nadal still hasn't done ,much at the Australian or US Open. Nadal also struggled to win some of his matches at wimbledon but overall he has made great progress

 

All in good time.

Nadal is just 21, and has several more years to go until he reaches Federer's age now, let alone his peak.

 

Oh man, what a thriller. Talk about unnerving! The gap between Federer and Nadal is narrowing tremendously. There were several times when Federer seemed quite vulnerable. Definitely one of their best matches head-to-head.

 

Hopefully they'll meet in the US Open final, ie on relatively neutral ground. Tha's one match I'd watch for sure.

 

There's nothing neutral about Flushing Meadows. It's the fastest surface, and that's to Federer's advantage.

 

Faster than grass? Maybe things have changed since I watched tennis regularly, but Wimbledon was always the tournament that had the biggest edge for serve and volley players. Is that no longer true? Regardless of speed, the bounce on a hardcourt is truer than on grass, so that the advantage of that style is somewhat more neutralized.

 

I thought grass was the fastest surface as well. It may have changed though....

I saw bits and pieces of the Wimbledon final. The commentators down here were really giving the edge to Nadal. After the second set one of them said he thought Nadal had the upper edge, and then after the fourth set I think everybody thought he did. Especially with those break chances in the fifth.

Nadal played well in this particular match. But I really don't think he should have been there. Or, well, he was lucky to be there. Some of his earlier round matches definitely didn't show this sort of capability. But he had an exceptionally good day on the final, no doubts there.

 

He definitely seems to rise to the occasion against Federer, is 8-5 against him.

As for grass vs hardcourt, I don't think it's "speed" per se, just the nature of the bounce. The ball skids on grass, and there#s always the possibility that it will take an odd bounce on the grass, especially as the tournament wears on and the surface gets torn up. On hardcourt, the ball travels faster, but the bounce is predictable. Thus, a more patient, clay-court style is more likely to be rewarded on hardcourt than on grass, where there's a huge incentive to get points over with as quickly as possible.

EDIT: And the focus on speed relates to serve, which isn't really the key element. It relates far more to style of play, volley vs baseline. Look at two of the best ever at Wimbledon, McEnroe and Edberg. Neither had overwhelming serves, but were sublime at net. And that#s where the difference between Federer (and Sampras) vs. Nadal comes in -- the former generally come to net as quickly as possible (more true of Sampras than Federer, admittedly), Nadal and other "clay court specialists) stay back on the baseline, regardless of how hard they serve (Roddick is a perfect example of this). By staying back, you risk points going longer, and thus are more likely to fall victim to irregular bounces, and are unable to hit your ground strokes with the same regularity as on clay or even hardcourt.

 

Indeed... last year Federer beat Nadal in straight sets and this year he barely beat him in 5 sets... dare i predict that next year Nadal could be the man to stop Federer at Wimbledon? stay tuned folks!

 

I thought grass was the fastest surface as well. It may have changed though....


Wimbledon's grass has slowed considerably in recent years, giving some help to slower court players like Nadal. Borg would have been even deadlier in today's game, as he really had to work upstream in his era.