“I guess I’m a clay court specialist now.” Roger told the press after losing to Julien Benneteau on Wednesday. “Indoors is not my surface anymore. . .”
“I’m kidding.”
Is he?
Federer’s loss to the No. 49 ranked Frenchman was certainly a surprise – even greater than his lackluster loss to Djokovic in last weekend’s Bercy final. Roger admitted yesterday that his game is not where it should be:
“I definitely had chances. I missed them. Seems to happen a bit to me now looking at the Basel final and the US Open final. I have to be sure I don’t let chances go by like this all the time.”
“I definitely have some work to do. It’s a matter of how I played last week in Basel. I played very conservative. It got me through to the final and then I couldn’t change my game against Djokovic. So I just have to make sure I play more aggressive and don’t let the other guy dictate play too much.”
Conservative? You mean like a clay court specialist? Roger says he’ll be hitting the practice courts (hopefully hard, fast ones!) as soon as he returns to Switzerland:
“I’m back home tomorrow and back to the practice courts to make sure I’m in top shape for London . . . Hope I can at least make a good run there (at the year end championships) because I feel like I have some good tennis left in me. I’m not going to let my head hang after this tournament. These matches sometimes happen for me.”
When asked if he was feeling pressure to do well at Bercy after taking Roland Garros in the spring, Roger grinned and said: “The pressure is long gone since Paris and other great victories I’ve had. It was just more pleasure staying in Paris (this week) and coming back as the Roland Garros champion.”
There’s some great video of Roger Federer’s presser – click here and here to watch.
It’s hard to know what to make of Roger’s comments. They’re like lighter-hearted versions of statements he made this spring. Remember “thank God the hard court season is over”? Of course, things worked out pretty well after that!
Roger was wrong about Benneteau, who he (jokingly) tipped to win the tournament. Quelle surprise, J.B. flamed out against Gael Monfils on Thursday. Andy Murray also looked hungover in his loss against Radek Stepanek.
Rafael Nadal scraped by Tommy Robredo, who failed to serve out their match in the third set. Perhaps knowing he’s closing in on the year-end No. 1 ranking helped the top Spaniard to persevere. From the ATP:
Following the top-ranked Roger Federer’s shock exit to Julien Benneteau on Wednesday, Nadal could significantly close the gap on his rival at the top of the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings. At the start of the week, Federer led by 1,495 points, but could see his lead cut to a mere 305 points should Nadal capture his sixth tour-level title of the season this week.
In other Thursday action, Nikolay Davydenko lost to Robin Soderling but still qualified for the seventh spot at the World Tour Finals when Fernando Verdasco lost to Marin Cilic. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Novak Djokovic dominated their French opponents, Simon and Clement, respectively. Del Potro and Gonzalez have yet to finish their match.
Friday features some mouthwatering quarterfinal matchups: The match of the tournament in my mind will be Tsonga vs. Nadal, but Soderling vs. Djokovic, Monfils vs. Cilic and Stepanek vs. either Gonzo or del Po should all be great, as well.
This tournament is turning out to be pretty fun! Who needs that old clay court specialist from Switzerland, anyway?
Tags: ATP, Benneteau, Bercy, Cilic, Davydenko, del potro, Djokovic, Federer, gonzalez, Monfils, Murray, Nadal, Paris Masters, Soderling, Stepanek, tennis, Tsonga
RELATED ARTICLES ON GOTOTENNIS |
Loading ...
Interesting presser. I think this loss was harder for Roger than he let on. When he starts talking about his Slam victories this year (as great as they are) and saying that he’s not too dissatisfied with his game, it’s a bit of whistling in the dark. The good news is that, underneath it all, he knows that he did not play well — that he’s letting opportunities go by. He knows that he has to improve his timing, raise his game and become more aggressive. I’m hoping that, in London, he’ll play like he did in Cincinnati (to my mind, the best he’s looked all year, with the possible exception of the FO and Madrid finals).
“I definitely have some work to do. It’s a matter of how I played last week in Basel. I played very conservative. It got me through to the final and then I couldn’t change my game against Djokovic. So I just have to make sure I play more aggressive and don’t let the other guy dictate play too much.”
knew this already, but i’m still veeeeeeery glad he’s realised as well that he’s playing too defensively, and that he was basically put to sleep in basel before djokovic came along. i’m disappointed he couldn’t change his game in time for paris, but i guess only a few days isn’t enough.
i’m flipping out over the #1 ranking, though! robredo just HAD to lose against nadal, didn’t he, despite serving for the match (though i blame almagro more, for not taking any of his five matchpoints). i was vaguely happy when i heard murray had lost (just so that fed wasn’t the only top player out, haha), but now that i think about it, he’s only one of few players who can actually beat nadal… :/
i’m hoping for a tsonga win tomorrow. haven’t watched any of tsonga’s matches lately, but i hear he’s playing well. and if nadal keeps playing like this, a tsonga win should be very possible. even if nadal manages to get past him, i really hope either djokovic or soderling takes him out. the previous djoko-nadal match, in cincinnati went to djokovic in straights, and soderling’s best surface is indoor hard (and he might have the crowd’s support again), so…
/babbling again
i am with you on the robredo-nadal match… i thought, maybe, just maybe he’ll take him out… he was so close and played so well! i hate nadal for playing every point and his always keep fighting attitude. ok, i don’t really hate him, but i don’t want him to finish #1. i’d be ok if tsonga won bercy, or someone else who has yet to quality for london.
ff, maybe it’s the maroon getup? fed might need a new kit for wtf!
i want tsonga to win bercy now. or soderling. don’t mind if djokovic wins, because that means he probably won’t win the tour finals (especially since i don’t think he’s ever even defended a title successfully, but i could be wrong about that). i mean, basel, paris AND the championships? i don’t think that’s likely… but then again, who knows.
Basel, Paris and WTF for Djoko… that would be a dream come true.
Gotta love Federer.
regardless of what happens in London, for me, ROGer is the undisputed nos 1.Imagine, someone is on the verge of claiming the no 1 because of the crappy ranking points system of the friggin ATP?Seriously?Not deserving at all.NOT CREDIBLE AT ALL.It must be a big JOKE if and when that happens.
If Nadal wins Paris and then wins 2 round robin matches in London then he becomes #1 regardless of what Fed does. It’s out of Federer’s hands now. It is so scary that it has come down to this.
I’ve heard that going around the web, and it’s just not true. if Rafa wins Paris, he will still be 305 points *behind* Roger. if Federer doesn’t *play* in London and Rafa wins two round robin matches, Rafa finishes the year as #1. math! it’s not my strong suit but numbers don’t lie.
points going into London:
Roger: 10,150
Rafa: now 8,845, potentially up to 9,845 if he wins Paris.
if Rafa wins Paris AND does significantly better than Roger in London, then I guess he could end the year as #1, but trust me, that is very much still in Federer’s hands. not to mention (with all love) Rafa is just not that great on hardcourt.
(also? if Rafa does manage to pry this out of Fed’s hands, props to him. the ATP’s points system doesn’t suddenly become less credible just because someone other than Federer winds up on top. the computer doesn’t care which name it spits out.)
It is less credible imo.I cant believe someone should be named nos 1 when his performance this year was lackluster.
ah, how quickly we forget! =) the computer remembers the whole year. Nadal had a fantastic first third, a terrible second third, and a reasonably good (for him, anyway) final third. if he manages to bring his final results back up to fantastic (and I’m not saying he will, because he is playing pretty terribly at the moment, but you never know with him) and does better than Federer, who had a mediocre season until Madrid and seems to be having a let-down after losing the USO, then that’s the way it goes. the points system is exactly the same it’s been all year long, whether Nadal or Federer (or Djokovic, or Murray!) is number one.
Sorry to burst your bubble dear but nadal wont reagain his top form ever.Djokovic and Delpotro has his number already so brace yourself for his downward spiral.(channeling Agassi.LOL)
Does this take into account that Fed has 200 points to defend in the WTF and Nadal has zero? I’m not trying to doubt you, I’m just trying to figure out exactly what scenarios enable Fed to maintain no.1 ranking.
I hope TMF shows up in Longdon and LAYS DOWN THE LAW.
P.S. Pundits criticize Nadal for playing so much on clay but his ranking depends heavily on him winning most of the clay tournaments. Without it he’d never even be in contention for the #1 ranking. It means someone like Federer has to replicate that success on hard courts, which I think is more challenging.
Nadal just can’t win Paris then!!!! C’mon Tsonga!
Yes , i believe Tsonga will win.Come on Tsonga!
Lets keep it cool.
Roger didn´t really play that bad. You could see he tried to be more aggresive at the end of the match but Bennetau really played well, and didn´t make any mistakes. Roger will bounce back in London.
And for Nadal taking over the number one spot will not happen. Nadal should have lost to Almagro ut he was lucky Almagro got injured. And Robredo couldn´t close the match. But Nadal will loose today to Tsonga. Nadal isn´t at his top right now and Tsonga is playing really great right now.
But I had so high hopes for Roger at this tournament, so seing him loose so early wasen´t fun. Looking foreward to London now.
What you say about Nadal not being in top form makes sense, but… he’s Nadal. I never count him out, unless he’s already at the net congratulating the other guy. He’s certainly not playing his best, not even close, but for him and a few (very few) others, while it might make it more difficult, impossibility doesn’t seem to be a part of his vocabulary.
If he manages to win Paris in spite of a strangely “shaky” game and does well at the YEC, I won’t be too upset if he gets the #1: he will so have deserved it!
Now that I think of it, Paris only has players I like left in the draw. Well, players I like and Stepanek, but since it was either him or Murray, I won’t complain much
That´s right about Nadal, he never gives up, he´s a born a fighter and that´s the way it should be. But again he hasen´t been quite him self after the injurie and some of the guys left in the field are fighting for the last place in London.
But I don´t even see him beeting Tsonga today. The french crowd will back him up, and Tsonga is a show man he loves that.
And I like what you say about Murray and Stephanek, it´s the better of two worse
Yes, come to think of it.Had Nadal drawn Benneteau in the first round and Roger , Almagro, Nadal was already long gone by now.So yeah, come on Tsonga!
With FEd, am I the only person who thinks he really isn’t that bothered – as in, as bothered as he’d normally be at losing – at the moment unless it’s a more important (to him) tournament as he’s working on a bit of paternity leave?
Sorry, ‘Fed’.
Yeah – I saw Fed was very upset losing to Gilles Simon (twice and upset both times). This time he seemed OK.
Must have been Marat’s party! Can’t think of anything else.
Roger has said in the past that if he’s played well but still loses, because his opponent played that bit better, the loss doesn’t affect him so much as if he’d played poorly and had basically given the match away. Julien played unbelievably well and Roger really didn’t play that badly – just on the big points, ie, tiebreak and not able to convert any of the break points after the 1st one. It was a very good match, and I think that’s why Roger doesn’t “seem” that upset. I’m sure he badly wanted to win, but there wasn’t a lot he could do about Julien’s level of play.
Seems like Roger has not been as quick to anticipate his opponents
on court lately. Maybe he is just a little out of practice — tournament practice, that is. Also, it seems to me that he really enjoys “playing” tennis these days. Watching him, he doesn’t seem so one-pointed in his focus on winning until he is down a bit. Then he tries to get in gear and win — and it hasn’t worked so well. But,
if he really wants to win, I’m sure he can. He’s got the experience and the know-how, that’s for sure. Hope he can win in London.
Bueno mi comentario hacerca de roger federer es que el me cambio la vida simplemente por que hizo que yo conociera un mundo muevo y emocionante como es el temis y que es muy profesional y si en este momento pudiera hablar con el le diria la siguiente, no te conosco como persona pero creo que puedo ver en ti un jugador extraudinario, y un carisma que pocos tienen y te le pido a dios que bendiga tu hogar y tu persona.