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Federer Falls To Tsitsipas At Nitto Finals
104 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Bios
Stefanos Tsitsipas masterclassed Roger Federer today at the ATP Nitto World Tour Finals first semi 63 64, saving eleven of twelve break points.
Federer took an unsportsmanlike swipe at Tsitsipas’s serving under pressure success today, saying to the media after, “Spinning a second serve into the body and getting an error…I’m not sure that’s mental toughness.”
Federer was broken in the second game of the match, missing two normal overhead smashes at net. “I think getting broken with missing two smashes in one game, that hasn’t [happened] in a long, long time or ever. So that was tough,” Federer said. “That’s not something you can train or practise for. [My] feet were not quite there yet, still not quite getting used to the high ones.”
Federer was simply outplayed by the 6th ranked 21-year-old Greek who also beat him at the Australian Open this year. Federer also beat Tsitsipas twice this year in Dubai and Basel.
This Tsitsipas performance commanded some respect by the master. “I thought that he played really well. He took the ball early. I know he does that. I thought I returned pretty good on the first serve… But for the most part, I wasn’t quite getting into the rallies the way I wanted to,” Federer said. “I think I have to credit him for pushing me to not play at the level I was hoping to today.”
Gunning for his third ATP title of 2019, Tsitsipas described the victory. “Sometimes in matches like this, you wonder how you overcome all these difficulties, all these break points down. It’s really a mental struggle, so I’m really proud that I managed to save so many break points today,” Tsitsipas said. “I was trying not to give an easy time to Roger. He was playing good and shout out to him as well. He did pretty well this week.”
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« Previous 1 2 3catherine · November 20, 2019 at 2:55 am
Sorry my mistake and apologies to Colombia – it’s Bolivia which is currently in turmoil.
catherine · November 20, 2019 at 4:34 am
Gabriela has a home in Switzerland as well as BA so she may sees a bit of Fed there.
I think Roger would have a lot to offer one or two women players – not coaching as such, just maybe a few suggestions. Perhaps Belinda has benifitted ?
Hartt · November 20, 2019 at 6:12 am
Jeff asked if anyone in the US cared that their team fell to Canada yesterday. It sounds like there hasn’t been much interest, which is a shame. The American matches are being carried on Foxsports2 and I wonder how many people even have that channel. In any case, American fans were posting about how difficult it was to find the American team’s matches.
According to an article on Tennis.com there aren’t a lot of American fans in Madrid.
“Opelka and Fritz said they were not surprised by the small number of American fans cheering for the team in the Spanish capital. The Canadians largely outnumbered the Americans and were much louder throughout the matches.
“Being an American tennis player, you are kind of used to not getting the support,” the 22-year-old Opelka said.
Fritz said there are just “more dedicated tennis fans in Canada.”
“I’m not going to lie, I think the U.S. has so many other great sports, tennis isn’t really the focus,” he said. “The Canadian fans were strong and they flew out and they came out. I don’t think it has anything to do with the federations or anything.”
There is a group of Canadian fans who go to every Davis Cup tie, wherever it is. Some of them are organized by Pospisil’s brothers and are called “Vasek’s Army.” But I was surprised to learn that about 400 went to Madrid.
There has been a fair bit of interest in Canada about Davis Cup. A major sports network is covering the Canadian matches, although not on their main channel. But in Canada, just as in the States, tennis is way down the pecking order of sports interest. I hope that the success of the youngsters like Bianca and Shapo will increase interest in the sport. Robert Bettauer, one of the Canadian commies, said there are many more people taking up tennis in his area, so that is a positive sign.
H · November 20, 2019 at 6:26 am
Catherine, thanks for the link. I hope they do this type of interview with other coaches as well.