Please Tennis Gods, Make A Djokovic vs Federer Final in Cincy

Scoop, you got the first part of your wish – Novak just defeated Marin in 3 sets.

Let’s hope for a good match. I fear someone will retire and make it an abomination.

Simona will be playing even more tennis if she goes to New Haven as promised. Bertens ran off with the towel.

Let’s not forget this assessment by the legendary Robin Soderling, the only other player besides Djoker to conquer Nadal at RG:

“If they are both at the top, I think Novak would beat Roger more times than the opposite. ‘He moved so well, got so many balls back. That’s really tough for Roger because he might play too fast, he would panic a little bit.”

The Swede is correct. Djoker at his best has played the best tennis the world has ever seen.

Wow! Djoko completes the Golden Masters.

However, read in some forum that Lendl also won all of the 9 Grand Prix Super Series tournaments. However, they are not counting it since ATP Tour renamed the tournaments in 1990 and took over the entire tour from that year. So they are only seeing 1990 onwards.

Still a big achievement by Novak since Agassi, Sampras, Fed, Nadal, Murray — the other 4 big Masters players since then have not been able to do this!

Novak played well today and was very calm, but Roger made lot of unforced errors, played far below his best. I dont think age was a factor for Roger — I think it was more of the mental edge Novak has over Roger since he has won 6 of their last 8 matches, and simply that Roger’s reason to be super motivated is going down. He has won Cincy 7 times, and he knew that Novak lost 5 finals here. This may have caused a drop in the motivation to win the 8th one — instead he may have been okay with Novak winning the 1st Cincy title.

I remember in a post-match speech in one of the final losses of Novak against Roger, Novak said that he would have to wait until Roger retires to be able to win this tournament. I think Roger may have been feeling bad that …. well…. he is just not retiring… so let him win one!

Regarding the general level of play — as I have said before, Novak has taken tennis to heights that were never achieved by anyone. And this is not just superior shotmaking — since perhaps Fed and Nadal do better than Novak in that — I mean, in simply match-winning ability. Novak is the strongest match winning machine the world has seen.

Roger and Rafa though have played really well in the last 1-2 years. Their game has reached their peak, and I believe has reached very closed to Novak’s peak. It will be interesting matches going forward if Novak reaches his peak again (he is close).

It bears mentioning that Federer has not beaten anyone in the top 10 since February and has lost in 3 finals, the others to DelPo and Coric. His level has dropped since the AO and it was bound to happen sometime. Although Djoker has won more in recent years I would hardly call 24-22 convincing.

Scoop, well I think agree that Fed may not have given the trophy so easily. But I just feel, still, that he is not as motivated to win yet one more masters title. He has achieved it all — 20 slams — what more can one do? A record that is likely never going to be surpassed in the next 50 years. (only Rafa has a chance if he stays healthy for a few more years). I think for the remaining career, Fed will mostly focus on winning slams, and will take it easy in the masters.

I am not sure whether Djokovic is playing better than ever. I think he is getting there, but significantly below his standards. He wouldnt have gone to 3 sets in 4 matches here if he were at his best.

But Djokovic’s current game is fine tuned to defeat Nadal, Fed and other players of his generation. I think he will fall short of defeating Kyrgios, Zverev, Tsitsipass, Chung, etc consistently.

I believe Djokovic needs to adapt his game to be more aggressive, and go for winners earlier (he can do it). He will need to be more aggressive in his service returns, try to go for outright winner instead of returning deep straight. He will need to improve his backhand down the line and use it as a weapon much more often. He may need to hit flatter often to get an advantage earlier.

We have seen Federer and Nadal adapt their games for the new generation. Fed improved his backhand to become a weapon, and started to use drop shots much more. He invented SABR. Nadal became much more offensive, improved his backhand a lot, and improved his wide serve to an incredible level winning the point often in 1-2 shots.

No question a stinging loss for RF. The hate is real. He didn’t reach out to Djoker and offer any words of wisdom when Djoker was going through his marital woes and hired that crazy guy. Fed just sat back, laughed silently and collected Slams. But now he can’t hide from Djoker anymore.

Roger only likes the players he dominates, like Roddick and Stan. Those are his buddies. Players who are serious threats he can’t be true friends with. Unlike Djoker, who is friends with Murray. This is why Roger really is the ruthless competitor he is.

That finger wag at RG was Rog reminding Novak he wasn’t there yet. Then later on Novak hit the “lucky shot” heard round the world at the Open that rattled Roger. It is epic stuff. Yesterday was just a superior player beating an inferior one.

Scoop is right. Djoker’s contortionist returns rattled Fed and he went for too much. That accounts for the bulk of the errors, Fed going for too much out of fear.

I also think Rog doesn’t have the match practice these days he needs. But the draw in NY could work in his favor and he could sneak this out. I won’t count him out.

I will count out the NextGen. Domi Thiem is nowhere to be found these days.

Look at this Fed post match interview:

https://youtu.be/o1TCUTpEOIc

He seems almost indifferent to the result.

I didn’t think that he sounded indifferent to the result, more that he did not want to dwell on why he played poorly. After acknowledging that his RoS was “awful” and that he hadn’t moved well, he wanted to change the subject away from his 2nd serve returns.

What I found concerning was Fed saying he needed a rest. After playing no matches after Wimby and then 4 matches plus a set at Cincy, he needs a rest? He is getting old!

Let’s not pretend that Fed is a bum walking around with a wooden racket. He is 37-5 and been in the final of every tourney except SW19 and Miami.

I just think he is not playing enough tennis. Skipping the clay season makes sense to get ready for SW19 but getting ready for hardcourts is another matter. He is also having trouble playing consecutive days now.

It’s why with a favorable draw he has a chance in NY with the extra rest in between. But this could be his last crack. On the other hand if he draws someone like a Rublev or Tiafoe in round one, he could go right out.

Fed definitely didn’t want to give Djoker the satisfaction of beating him. Still he has a nice cushion of seven more Slams than Djoker.

I will say that Pliskova is the worst No. 1 ever, worse than Dinara. The only thing that gone right for her this year is her wedding. That and getting some revenge over Coco.

Remember she was the No. 1 seed last year at the USO.

Scoop – Roger might play but he won’t be winning. Getting old – we all think it won’t happen to us.

(You know I can see quite a few players making their farewells after Tokyo 2020.)

I am beginning to think that Fed could retire after US Open or ATP Finals this year. He is still playing well, but I am beginning to think that his motivation to win and desire to keep going are going down a bit.

But yeah, Olympics is the only thing that he hasnt won, so that could be one reason for him to play on.

Agree that Rafa is the best player right now. Djokovic, if he continues to play like he did since Queens, could be second along with Roger. I do feel Delpo is becoming very strong though. He has finally, after a LONG time, reached his peak level that he had reached in end of 2009. I would put him second as well along with Roger and Novak.