Federer is still Federer, or is the best of Federer still yet to come?

This is not good. My self interest is for Fed not to retire. He’s a completest and will play maybe four more years if he doesn’t get the gold now. If he gets gold then he can retire at anytime. Selfishly, I want to watch him play for four more years. To watch his perfect game and to watch him to continue to piss in the eyes of the naysayers 🙂 which included everyone from Pat McEnroe to Mike Stupica to amature bloggers like Dan. Now the naysayers are believers, trendy lot they are.

Maybe the only challenge left for Fed is to somehow beat Nadal at Roland Garros. Hopefully, even if he gets gold this will spur him on.

Incredible match by Andy Murray and Djokovic, but this is a different Murray. He is firing serves and forehands and looking hungrier. Here’s how I wrote up the match:

Andy Murray will face Roger Federer for gold in a repeat of the
Wimbledon finals. Fighting off three break chances in three different
service games in the second set, Murray prevailed 7-5, 7-5 against
Novak Djokovic in the second semifinals match of the day. It was a
stellar display of power tennis and unfathomable court coverage by
both men, but Murray was the the sharper of the two men, pummeling
first serves, keeping Djokovic pinned to the baseline with laser shots
and displaying his characteristic fine touch. Murray clutched his back
a couple of times, and grabbed his ankle once, but he left the court
pumping his fist to the crowd as many waved back miniature Union Jack
flags at him.

For Djokovic, it was a crushing defeat. Chasing balls down with
amazing acrobatic quickness and making unbelievable gets, the Serb was
still unable to solve Murray. Djokovic has never lost to Murray in a
major, beating his one-week-older opponent twice at the Australian
Open, in the finals in 2011 and this year in the semis. But this is a
different Andy Murray then seemingly even last January’s version. The
Scot is hitting bigger serves, rifling forehands to the extremes of
the court and his slice backhand today gave Djokovic fits. Murray can
no longer be called a finesse player. He has eschewed most of his
cute-stuff and is now playing grip-and-rip, full intensity tennis.

As if to emphasize this stunning transition, the world No. 4 fired two
aces in his first service game. He regularly hit serves at 210 km (130
miles per hour) and showed off a heavier, more penetrating,
Lendl-esque forehand. Djokovic saved two break points in his first
service game. At 2-2, Murray missed a running backhand to go down
15-30 and immediately reached for his back, the ailing body part that
Murray has been criticized of late for clutching so much and so early
in matches.

“He does have a legitimate back problem,” said Brett Haber, announcing
the match with John McEnroe on American television.
“He does?” said McEnroe. “It’s all (from) pressure.”

The 3-all game with Murray serving went to deuce, the first time since
the second game of the match where the returner made a serious inroad.
But after four deuces, Murray won the game. The quality of shot-making
and competitiveness was super-human. Each player had to exert the
maximum effort to win each and every point. Murray, 6-feet-3 and
Djokovic, 6-feet-2, were like two volleyball players, extending points
and covering every inch of the turf. In one point, Djokovic pummeled a
backhand cross-court for a seeming winner, but Murray somehow bunted
it back into the middle of the court. Djokovic hit an average forehand
drop shot which Murray easily got and blasted a backhand down the
line. Somehow Djokovic tracked it down and threw up a lob volley, but
Murray put away the overhead.

At 5-6, a Murray slice backhand drew a Djokovic error to give Murray a
15-30 lead. When he nailed the top of the net on a forehand drive on
the next point, Murray slammed his palm into his forehead repeatedly.
But a beautiful backhand drop volley got Murray the break point and he
he hit yet another slice backhand on the next point, drawing Djokovic
to the net, from where he got whiplash seeing a Murray forehand
cross-court whip by him for an outright winner.

In the second game of the second set came the point of the match.
Murray shoveled a forehand inside-out drop shot that Djokovic tracked
down and hit an acute backhand angle shot. Murray dove and hit a lob
half-volley that landed softly on Djokovic’s opposite sideline.
Djokovic had break point chances at 1-1, 3-3 and 5-5. On his last
break point chance, the world No. 2 rifled a backhand down the line
and moved into the net. But once again, somehow Murray was there and
he fired a forehand back at Djokovic which he missed. Djokovic looked
crestfallen. At 5-6, Djokovic basically forfeited the game. He missed
a forehand into the net, a backhand long and another backhand into the
net. At 0-40, he tried to serve and volley, only to flub a forehand
half-volley short of the net. One of the players in the he Olympic
finals will have a home court advantage and his name is Andy Murray.

You make a good point, Michael. Although, watching Murray today, the artfulness of his game, the one-handed slice backhand combined with the power was something special to see. Murray’s one handed slice is so much better than Djoko’s, but Djoko is a master of tracking down drop shots and hitting either nice touch shovel forehands cross-court, or pounding the two-hander.

What can you say? The finesse player in tennis has long left the building. Federer is the last and best representative of that artful style. The guy he played yesterday, Del Po, is probably the least artful player in the game. We’re stuck with the Raonic’s and Harrison’s and Tsongas’s, although Tsonga is a lot of fun.

But look at the semis in D.C. today, Haas v. Fish, there’s a lot of smooth playing there. And both Dmitrov and Tomic are players with a lot of style, more so Dmitrov, and touch. I’m looking forward to this junior girl player they wrote about in the New York Times from Minnesota who supposedly plays exactly like John McEnroe. I think she’s 12 now so maybe in five more years…

Now, how about my plight. I’ve booked my first trip to Toronto to see the Masters event there (you win 800 points for winning Canada and only 750 for the Olympics), I have a one on one scheduled with Djokovic, and now Federer and Nadal have pulled out. If Djoko pulls out, and maybe Murray on top of that, I think Jan Kodes might make a comeback and win the whole thing. C’est la vie.

wouldn’t show up. But you get the point.

I believe that down the road many players will have both a match-ready one hander(not just a slice but flat & top spin) and two-hander. I’ve seen Tsonga use both in a match already.

Marc Rosset aka Big Bird, aka the luckiest man alive, he missed that flight that crashed killing the owner of Babolat, is the only guy I ever saw, hit a slice bh, a one handed topspin bh and a two gander in 3 consecutive shots in a match at the US Open.

First live match for me. Serena is destroying Maria. 3 games for a double bagel.

“Yeah Gasquet’s forehand his a bit ugly but prettier than Edbergs. ”

Can the bar be any lower ?

sorry – meant singles and mixed dubs – murray is in the gold medal match for both singles and mixed dubs

“I think this is Murray’s long awaited breakout.”

It will be a very nice win. It’s still only Oly gold (less points then Canada as Dan pointed out).

His “break-out” will come if and only if he wins a Major.

“What can you say? The finesse player in tennis has long left the building. Federer is the last and best representative of that artful style.”

Why do people say this? What about Federer’s game can even be loosely analogized to “finesse”. His game is predicated on an otherworldly backhand that he seemingly hits with the intent of hitting an outright winner every time he hits it. His backhand is just okay. He runs around it whenever possible to hit that forehand. It’s quite simple, really. And it isn’t finesse.

Can somebody explain to me why it has become seemingly common knowledge that Fed plays an artful, finesse game…when that isn’t true at all? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.