With Federer and Serena winning, I think the thread title has been asked and answered.
Thx for PS Vue tip – I watched the first set and a half (all I could stay awake for). Great to see that Fed got the win.
First a note about PS Vue: It’s annoying to me that you can’t pause live TV for very long on Vue. I think it is a maximum of 10 minutes or so? When I signed up for the free week, I took the most expensive package, since it was free for a week, so why not the best? It was also a good reminder that most channels don’t have anything worth watching most of the time. Also, instead of getting access to HBO Go, I got access to HBO Now instead. It’s the first time I’ve used HBO Now on PS4. For some unknown reason, I can never get through a full episode of Veep on HBO Now without it freezing.
Anyway, reflecting on the game, when Federer went down early and lost his serve at the beginning of the fifth set, all seemed lost. Then he had a couple of chances to break back. But couldn’t convert. Then next chance he had another couple of chances, but couldn’t convert. Then on the next service game of Nadal’s, he had chances and he finally coverted. Now it was 4-3 and he got more chances. That really was an amazing game in a great set. It’s one of those moments where a marathon game keeps going and going and you can feel it in your gut that the winner of this game will likely decide the winner of the match. And the game was such a delightful mix of tentativeness, aggressiveness, wonderful shot-making and even some errors. It really was the culmination of what’s best about this matchup. These two have gone up against each other a lot in big moments, and when the games are this close, there are now 3-3 when it comes to 5 set matches.
So an excellent match, and I’m so happy for Federer. I think Nadal will still get his #15 at the French Open this year, and maybe more than that later in the year. The way he played, you can tell he’s still got the fire and spirit and energy to keep going maybe for several years, if his body holds up.
So even though I’m not completely happy with PS Vue, I’m grateful. I’m glad I was able to use my one free shot and cashed it in and saw this classic match. @Gordon_Cameron, I thought of staying up late, but I had a gut feeling it would be a long match, which is why I went to bed at 11:30pm and set my alarm for 3:30am. I figured four hours of sleep was long enough to give me the energy to stay up and watch most of the match.
Federer beats Nadal again in the Miami Open. Fed is having a great year – only one loss so far. And it looks like he will stay fresh this year. He’s going to skip the clay court tournaments until the French, reportedly. Makes perfect sense to me. The long points on clay will just sap his energy and he’s not likely to win those events anyway. Skip those and focus on the French and then the short grass court season.
The big difference I see in Federer is his backhand is more of a weapon than it’s ever been. He’s pouncing on short balls and punishing them with his backhand. Before he seemed to use his backhand to set up points or to hit passing shots, but I don’t recall him going for that many backcourt winners from the backhand side. He just ripped it at times against Nadal.
And Nadal? He’s playing great but his forehand isn’t what it used to be. I’d love to know how many rotations he’s getting on it now. I bet it’s really dropped off from his prime when his ball was spinning much faster than any other pro’s. Against Fed today he missed a lot of forehands, many by several feet. He doesn’t have the answers against Fed he used to have. He seemed to press more.
Anyway, as an older guy, hail to the 35 year old king. Although he’s not ranked #1, Federer is the best player in the world right now. And he’s 35 – amazing!
Nadal won Monte Carlo today for the 10th time, a record. He has a chance to win another couple of upcoming clay court tournaments for the 10th time as well, including the French. That’s how dominant he’s been on clay.
It’s really deja vu all over again in the men’s tennis world. Federer and Nadal are ascendant, and Djokovic and Murray have fallen back. Djokovic won the French last year to complete the career slam, but hasn’t won much since. With 12 majors I thought he might make a run at Federer’s 17, but instead Fed won his 18th and Djokovic has struggled. Likewise, Murray won Wimbledon last year and fought to the #1 world ranking, but injuries have held him back since.
It’s time for the younger players to step up, but none of them are doing much. I don’t know what will happen to tennis once the Big Four are gone and the Williams sisters have retired.
Still happy at this year’s Fedaissance – slam at 35, over four years after the last one, beating his resurgent nemesis in 5 sets to claim it – had I not still been traumatized by the election I’d have enjoyed it more.
The French Open starts on May 22nd. I’m kind of excited. Federer’s not competing this year, so I guess I can put all my support behind Murray and Nadal.
And of course, the best parts of any tennis tournament for me are the middle rounds. Usually the 3rd, 4th and quarterfinals have the most entertaining matches. In those, I’m always looking forward to seeing the French players. Tsonga, Mon Fils, Gasquet, for example. Throughout the 90s, those rounds always featured exciting matches by the likes of Michael Chang and others. I do miss him. He might be coaching him, but Nishikori is no Michael Chang.
I don’t think Fed has ruled out the French. He’s just skipping the rest of the clay court season.
I’d ditch the French too if I were him, but with the way he’s playing maybe he can make a deep run there, too. I just don’t want him to get worn down before Wimbledon, where he has a real chance.
The young players just aren’t stepping up, which is disappointing. Nick Kyrgios may be the best of the lot, but he’s a head case – he’s also the only player I’ve ever seen hit between the legs shots not because he had to but because he likes to.
Nishikori is solid but it seems like he’s hit his ceiling. Grigor Dimitrov looked like he might challenge but he’s up and down and will be 26 in May. Outside of the Big Four the next best player is 32 year old Stan Warwrinka!
Maybe Alexander Zverev is going to be the next big star. Then again, the Big Four may keep the door slammed shut for another couple of years.
Fed used to be insanely consistent at slams, so I’d be disappointed if he skips the French after his comeback. But maybe he’s trying to be strategic about picking his spots these days.
The guy is unreal. He realizes he has lost a step at 35, so he is just moving up slightly and taking balls earlier. Which I guess you can do if you have superhuman reflexes, have made a pact with the devil, or are made of magic nanofibers (even odds).
Yep. He ripped some backhands in this last match he played against Nadal that I’ve never seen him do before. He just took them early, stepped up, and absolutely ripped them. It was inspiring.
So much so I went out and bought a new racket and have been working on my game since. I haven’t played in years, and really haven’t played all that much in the last 25 years after having played extensively until nearly 30. As long as the weather agrees I hit against the wall for 20 minutes in the morning on my way to work, and 20 minutes going home. I can’t move the way I used to, but I can still rip a forehand and my backhand, well, for some reason I decided to develop a two-hander. It’s really interesting to hit it that way. My left-hand takes the lead. It’s interesting to attempt to learn a new trick when 60 isn’t far away. I will dominate the senior circuit in a few years!
Go get 'em!
Although I never understood the appeal of hitting against a wall. If you really crank an awesome shot, you are only penalizing yourself!
It’s good for consistency and as a cardio workout. Also, walls tend to be willing to play whenever you want to. However, they always win.
This is the thing. The wall is the only tennis partner I have now. Like most relationships, we settle for less than the ideal.
Soon I’m going to a tennis meetup to play against humans who aren’t as good as the wall. I did find a human tonight, a self-professed 3.5 player, and we had a good 30 minutes of hitting before they turned out the lights. I drove by and he was hitting serves by himself and they were nice serves, so I parked, walked up, and asked him to hit and we hit. What I discovered is that my work-in-progress two-handed backhand doesn’t have as much progress and I’d like and needs more work. My tennis memory gets in the way. I don’t always have the right grip for it and I need to take the shots a bit closer to my body because I can’t extend my arm as much with a second hand on the racket, so my footwork is a bit awkward.
Still, good stuff, though the bastard was a bit too free with the drop-shots. I don’t have the court coverage I used to have. It’s looking more like a doubles future for me.
Federer will not play in the French, he’s announced. I will be sad not to see him play, but his chances of winning there are not good. He’s going to focus on the grass and hardcourt seasons. It’s smart.
If you’ve been surviving on clips of the French Open since Sunday and Monday’s NBC coverage, like I have, rejoice! NBC coverage is back this weekend. Saturday and Sunday afternoon coverage. If this was on ESPN, I would even splurge on getting either Playstation Vue or Sling TV’s Orange package. But it’s only on Tennis channel again for weekdays. It really pisses me off. And even Tennis Channel Plus, their online yearly subscription service, seems to be meant to supplement cable coverage, not replace it. So I’m not even sure what I would get there without also having cable.
Anyway, Saturday and Sunday! Really looking forward to it. As always, the French Open is my favorite Grand Slam. Long, punishing, grueling rallies. All in all, the best tennis has to offer in my opinion.
Man, I’ve practically forgotten this was even happening. I used to follow tennis slavishly. Now I just don’t have the attention.
Thanks Trump!
Looks like Rafa is stomping the opposition as of old. Party like it’s 2010?
Not quite as unbeatable as he was then, nor does his forehand seem as powerful, but the favorite nonetheless.
5 hours until Tennis on NBC!
I heard Djokovic had a tense 5 set scare yesterday. I wonder if they’ll go back and cover that? Hopefully a nice highlight reel.
When I first came to the U.S. in 91, that was the biggest difference in Tennis coverage to me from coming oversees and seeing BBC coverage of tennis: the U.S. networks were absolutely terrible at putting together highlight reels. On the BBC, they would show what you would expect to see from a highlight reel: A few spectacular rallies from each set, maybe some key points where one side or the other had break point and they were either broken or held serve. Basically all the key moments of the match, and the most entertaining points of a match.
In the U.S., the short highlight reel always consists of one thing: match point. It doesn’t matter if match point was a double fault, that’s the point they would always show. Even on ESPN, where they had the rights to all the coverage. I was just flabbergasted. You guys own all the coverage! You can show whatever you want! And then the longer highlight reel was the same thing, they would show set point from each set. And then show talking heads again, talking about the match. Facepalm***. You could be showing coverage while you talk instead of showing commentator’s faces, you idiots.
But I’ve noticed that after several decades of coverage, ESPN has finally gotten good at highlight reels. Over the last decade or so, they do finally show highlights like the one I talked about above with the BBC. It’s like they finally hired someone on staff in the back that actually goes through footage and picks the best moments instead of just someone who says “put together some clips of set points and match point for me”. I always thought it showed that the people who used to work in the booth in the background at NBC/CBS/ESPN didn’t love the sport. They were just doing their jobs as minimally competent as they could manage.
I didn’t watch on HBO when they used to have Wimbledon coverage, so they might have been different. One network that was always different was USA. USA used to cover the U.S. Open, and I was always impressed by their coverage. Their booth people really loved the sport, and it really showed. I was really sad when they finally lost the rights to show the U.S. Open.
Edit: I feel like I’ve given that rant here before. Apologies for the repetition!
Boy, as a Del Potro fan, that was agonizing. So close and yet so far against Murray. I missed what happened after the second set. Did they say that the match then went to a rain delay after that?
I hope we get some rain-free tennis in the 3 hours of coverage tomorrow.