Tennis 2019: Tennis without Andy Murray

Djokovic left a barrel of unclinched break points on the table. He had 7 break points in the second set, and I think he lost most of them to errors. There is something not right about him, even when he was running away with the first set he was uncomfortable and making faces / barking at his camp.

Yeah, who knows with Djokovic? He lets non-tennis stuff affect his tennis game, or so it seemed in the past.

It may be simply motivation. He’s won three slams in a row. He’s climbed to the mountaintop yet again. He may be having trouble staying interested, especially with Murray gone, Nadal out with injury, and Federer not quite the same Fed anymore.

Or it could be something physical. I don’t think he said anything about his elbow until he took time off to get it fixed.

I’ve always thought that odd. He’s tough to lob over and he’s got a lot of reach.

Today in tennis news, Roger Federer defeated the lifeless rotting corpse of John Isner in straight sets.

Could Fed have had a better matchup? There was no way Isner was beating Federer.

Now Fed as 101 tournament championships. That’s an amazing number. Connors leads with 109 but he played a lot of smaller tournaments. He spent his first couple of years avoiding the big tour and playing satellite events, other than the slam events.

I don’t know if Fed has another 8 in him, but I wouldn’t put it past him.

Djokovic and Murray are the better returners overall, but Federer was always unparalleled at beating the monster servers. He broke Isner three times in the first set. That’s absurd considering how well Isner was serving this tournament.

I’m curious to see how clay season goes for Federer. I hope playing it isn’t a mistake that tires him out for the tournaments he has a better chance of winning later in the year, especially with Djokovic struggling again and Nadal injured again.

Federer vs Isner H2H: 6 - 2
Murray vs Isner H2H: 8 - 0
Djokovic vs Isner H2H: 9 - 2
Nadal vs Isner H2H: 7 - 0

Everyone owns Isner, but Federer owns him least.

That’s interesting. I guess I assumed Federer did better against him than the others due the way he dominated Roddick all those years. At the very least, Fed doesn’t have a losing record against Karlovic, unlike Djokovic. I also forgot how well Murray did against big servers.

So about that. At the Monte Carlo Masters today, Thiem lost in straight sets to Dusan Lajovic (28 years old, no titles, ranked 48, just short of his career high ranking of 42). This is a really ugly loss for Thiem: to a journeyman on his favorite surface after winning his first masters. Zverev lost too, but at least it was to Fognini so it’s somewhat reasonable.

I think Thiem’s fun to watch when he’s ‘on’ and was hoping he was finally going to become a consistent threat, at least on the slower surfaces. But alas. . .

Tsitsipas and Shapovalov have also lost, so most of the new wave of young players have gone out.

I think Federer could play another two years and still be beating these young guys at 40.

Federer thinks so, too, then someone like Millman makes him look old and tired.

Well, all these young players are having their highs and lows all the time. The secret to Federer winning more would rely on getting a string of these opponents in the same tournament that are not having their high days. It should still be possible I think. But the older he gets, the more young guys there are with possible high highs, the less likely it gets.

Has Fed experienced any big injuries? Seems like that would be a risk besides just naturally slowing down.

He loses to players like this more than he used to, but he’s still dominating most players.

He hurt himself bathing his kids and missed about six months. That’s been his biggest injury that I recall.

My guess is he gets a serious injury at this point and he’s about done. He may train and recover enough to make a few farewell appearances at some tournaments, but I can’t imagine ever coming all the way back from a serious injury at his age.

Fognini beat Nadal 6-4, 6-2, and the score makes it look closer than it was (Fabio was serving at 5-0 in the second). He gets Lajovic, destroyer of youth, in the final, who beat Medvedev earlier. Fognini should be the heavy favorite, but he’s enough of a headcase that it would be completely on-brand for him to lose to someone like Lajovic after beating someone like Nadal. Fognini probably deserves a Masters title at this point, so I’m hoping he gets one. He’s always been fun to watch.

Nice that whoever wins deserves / is overdue for a big title. I’m also rooting for Fognini, but this will be a great title for either one of them.

Federer alert! Federer is making his first appearance on clay in three years at the Madrid Masters this week. The draw rewarded him for his return by sticking him in the same quarter as Monfils, Fognini, and Thiem, and should he make it through his quarter, he (maybe) has Djokovic in the semis to get (maybe) Nadal in the final.

Also, three young Americans (Fritz, Opelka, and Tiafoe) each won their first round matches earlier today (over Dimitrov, Carreno Busta, and Basilashvili, respectively; each a solid win). Interesting to note that all three played some of the smaller clay events between Monte Carlo and Madrid, a rarity for an American in the past 20 years or so. Maybe the 15 years of relative futility for the USA in the men’s game has taught the younger generation not to ignore the dirt.

This is a big tournament. All the big names are playing in it. That hasn’t happened on clay in awhile. I think both Djokovic and Fed missed all or most of the clay season last year.

Good luck to the Americans. Fritz is playing Djokovic tomorrow. Opelka is playing Thiem. At least Tiafoe is playing the more beatable Philipp Kohlschreiber. Kohlschreiber did knock Djokovic out of Indian Wells earlier in the year. He can play a bit.

The most interesting match tomorrow is Nadal against the very young but up and coming FAA – Felix Auger-Aliassime. He got to the semis in Miami and lost to Isner and got to the finals of the Rio Open too. He’s only 18 and has beaten Shapovalov, Tsitsipas, and Fognini this year. I watched a bit of one of his matches. He has a nice attacking game, very quick on the court. Another one of the tall, rangy youngsters at 6’4".

Fritz and Opelka out. Tiafoe is playing tomorrow, as is Nadal. Fed rolled into the third round. He still knows how to play on clay.

Federer’s return to clay ends the same as his last attempt on the surface: with a loss to Thiem. But Federer lasted three sets, one of which Thiem won in a tiebreak, so it’s at least encouraging for him that he hasn’t become helpless on clay against the top players since his absence.

The tiebreak Fed lost today was 13-11 btw. That’s how close he was to winning the match.

I think it was a good tournament for Fed. He got in three matches on clay. I don’t think he has much of a chance to win the French, but he’s Roger Federer. He has a better chance than most of the players.