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Mar/17

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Federer 2017 Grand Slam?

0607-113437I have never seen Roger Federer playing better tennis than he is right now. The Federer backhand actually broke down the Nadal forehand in their one-sided duel three days ago.  Today Federer “dominated nicely” (his words) from the baseline to dispatch the red hot Jack Sock 61 76. After the win today Federer said “I still have a lot of confidence from Australia.” Does he have enough confidence to last the rest of the year? Because if he does the sky is the limit for the way Federer is playing now. The way Federer is blasting winners all over the court whenever he wants with both his forehand and backhand must be a frightening challenge for the rest of the ATP. I know it sounds quite ridiculous but a Federer grand slam is looking pretty possible at this moment. It’s even possible that we haven’t even seen the very best of Roger Federer yet.

71 comments

  • catherine bell · March 20, 2017 at 3:34 am

    And Simona – PLAY DOUBLES

    Muguruza isn’t ready yet. She could surprise in 17 but I don’t think she will.

  • catherine bell · March 20, 2017 at 4:01 am

    The 2 big national dailies in the UK, Telegraph and Guardian, didn’t even mention the women’s final on their websites, or haven’t yet, they are so infatuated with Federer.
    Now that does irritate me.

  • Scoop Malinowski · March 20, 2017 at 8:39 am

    Catherine: Proof that a media bias against Russia exists? Two beautiful nice Russian women play a scintillating Indian Wells final and it’s totally ignored – no coincidence – If it was Serena vs Venus yesterday it would have surely gotten a mention –

  • Hartt · March 20, 2017 at 9:23 am

    I suspect the bias is more against women’s tennis. Serena and Venus are big stories, especially in the US, but coverage of women’s tennis is terrible in general. Here in Canada we get some stories about Bouchard on occasion but, with her slump, even that is rare. I am going to check how the Canadian media has handled Vesnina’s win.

  • Hartt · March 20, 2017 at 9:44 am

    That exercise did not help much. Three of the four media that I looked at used an AP (or CP) story that had Fed in the headline but actually devoted about half of the article to the women’s final. Have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. The fourth, the Toronto Star, at least online had no story at all about the Indian Wells finals! The only thing they covered was Pospisil beating Murray. I guess if it’s not hockey or basketball a sport just does not count for them.

  • catherine bell · March 20, 2017 at 10:00 am

    Ye – and in UK if it’s not a Brit playing then the story won’t run. I think it’s a disgrace that this major women’s final, and a very good one too, was ignored. If I were a woman player I think I’d feel like giving up. This is supposed to be 2017 after all.

  • catherine bell · March 20, 2017 at 10:38 am

    I did see a couple of paras about Kerber’s invidious position as No 1 and I expect there’ll be more to follow if she fails in Miami.

    I admit to feeling a lot of sympathy for Angie – she’s in a slump at an inopportune time and open for sniping. She may have personal problems which we don’t know about, she may simply be in a confusion about all the things which have happened to her over the last 6 months or so.
    She may just have lost her touch. People do.

    It would be highly impertinent of me to offer advice to Angelique Kerber but maybe she should shut down her social media for a while, throw out all the lipstick, say no to any activities not to do with tennis, stick close to her team and friends and hope a pleasure in simply being on court can come back to her.
    So good luck for Miami 🙂

  • Scoop Malinowski · March 20, 2017 at 10:49 am

    Kerber needs to ask Vesnina for advices 🙂

  • catherine bell · March 20, 2017 at 11:47 am

    Heh heh – I don’t think players cooperate to that extent 🙂

  • Andrew Miller · March 20, 2017 at 1:36 pm

    Kuznetsova seems pretty Spanish to me! How about they just aren’t huge names and they got the coverage they needed such as AP Tennis.co. EsPn I mean there aren’t bigger outlets than those, plus the biggest story really is Federer again. Those are the media rules, you cover the big players. And Federer is far and away bigger than the Vesnina epic effort. For those that love tennis both matches were the gift that kept on giving. It’s usually this way.
    Hey I’ve been disappointed in coverage on tennis for many years. Why I gulp down so much ESPN tennis dot com local media that covers matches in places like Memphis, tennis channel. As Agassi faded coverage of the sport tanked here in the states.

  • Andrew Miller · March 20, 2017 at 1:38 pm

    Ahhh player friendships, a tour of frenemies.

  • catherine bell · March 20, 2017 at 1:55 pm

    There’s a lot of sport here in the UK over the weekend so I imagine both the papers filled up with all the rugby, football, racing, cricket etc and then just went with the Federer final.
    But as I said, if a Brit had been involved things would have been different.

  • Scoop Malinowski · March 20, 2017 at 2:13 pm

    Lets face it: Anything to do with Russia such as their two WTA heroes Vesnina and Kuznetsova is not going to get positive coverage by the mainstream media – these are the current political times where there is an agenda to demonize and discredit Russia which like Trump wants to destroy terrorism and ISIS – Russia hacking the election is a ridiculous “Fake News” story with zero evidence that has been brainwashed into the unsuspecting public conscious –

  • catherine bell · March 20, 2017 at 2:36 pm

    It wasn’t that they didn’t get positive coverage – there was no coverage at all.
    Just women’s tennis not being important.

    And dark days ahead without a marquee name.

  • Scoop Malinowski · March 20, 2017 at 2:58 pm

    It was news that was ignored – in my paper the Bradenton Herald today gave the ladies final a tiny four line paragraph (as part of the Fed def Stan story) and the score was also posted in the results page – so that’s better than nothing I guess –

  • Andrew Miller · March 20, 2017 at 3:20 pm

    Who cares? Sorry, Vesnina is about as big a name as Hantuchova 🙁 And Hantuchova’s was bigger because she posed for the SI swimsuit issue like Wozniaki, Bouchard and others. Such as my favorite she plays tennis too player Kirilenko.
    This is a total non issue. But hey we get bragging rights if Vesnina wins the French Open, everyone will read Scoop’s biofile!!!

  • Andrew Miller · March 20, 2017 at 3:26 pm

    Scoop I wish newspapers covered tennis better. The dc event newspaper covered its tournament pretty well last year but posted photos from past tournaments including Wimbledon (!) and Dubai (!) vs great shots they could have used from other outlets. Instead they put their cub photographers, and I mean every local news outlet, out on local high school events. Those are the kinda of tradeoffs papers make, cover local in hyperlocal hyperdepth and short shrift a tournament with some of best players on planet, or cover the best players on the planet and make local sports dads and moms upset because their kid wasn’t covered.
    It wasn’t as if the tournament directors did a great job either, they didn’t!
    Recently I listened to a few podcasts with Memphis open players like Donaldson and DY that were excellent, so maybe Memphis Open has a superior pr team.
    I guarantee you area papers in California around Indian wells covered the bleep out of the tournament as well as Paul from Norcaltenniscsar.
    But you can tell Vesnina I loved what she did. And her gazillion fans told her too 🙂

  • Bryan · March 20, 2017 at 6:48 pm

    “I know it sounds quite ridiculous but a Federer grand slam is looking pretty possible at this moment.”

    Yes, it’s ridiculous. No, it’s not possible. Clay is a far different scenario and Federer won’t get past the quarters. Wimbledon of course is possible. US Open, probably not. A long season usually is a roller coaster and someone will get hot in the 2nd half. Probably Djokovic if his elbow isn’t a chronic problem.

  • Bryan · March 20, 2017 at 6:52 pm

    “I suspect the bias is more against women’s tennis. Serena and Venus are big stories, especially in the US, but coverage of women’s tennis is terrible in general.”

    There’s no bias against women’s tennis. There’s a bias against anyone who’s not a star. Kutsnevawhatever and Vesnia are not name players. If Venus, Serena, Genie or Kerber won it’d get widespread coverage.

    Likewise if my favorites Gulbis, Jerzy or Isner won IW then nobody would cover it. Federer is a global star in the sports world whose name goes beyond tennis and into the mainstream.

  • Andrew Miller · March 20, 2017 at 8:17 pm

    Agree with Bryan, bias is versus non stars.

  • catherine bell · March 21, 2017 at 3:53 am

    Not in the UK. If Genie had won there wouldn’t have been a story. Or Kerber. Serena yes – but she’s a story on her own.
    There was just too much sport on Monday and the women’s event didn’t make the cut – at least not online.
    That’s all.

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