Today Roger Federer came back from the brink to beat Tommy Haas 1-6 7-5 6-3. After playing an awful first set (at least in my opinion, not his so much since he said he didn't think he was playing terrible) and then going down a quick break in the second I found myself feeling first of all very confused as to what the heck was going on, but also resigned to another early loss. The errors coming off his racquet were, simply speaking, just weird. He didn't seem fully "there" and as Darren Cahill said, he was making strange shot selection. To be honest if Tommy hadn't basically gifted the break back to him in the 2nd set I think the match would have been over before Roger could have even figured out what he needed to change. But everyone has the ability to get nervous and all of a sudden with a few errors by Haas he was back in the match. I think that gave him some confidence and he suddenly started playing like the real Roger Federer.
I purposely didn't choose a victory picture to put on this post, but more a "figuring it out" one because that's really what he had to do in this match. He was interviewed by ESPN after the match and I was both puzzled and slightly amused that he said that he had a blast out there. Wow, was he playing a different match than what I was watching? It certainly didn't feel that way to me sitting on my couch watching, wondering and shaking my head. But the thing with tennis is that until the very last point you can always come back in a match, and maybe the enjoyment of being able to do that will propel him forward.
As I am writing this the Nadal-Dimitrov match is getting ready to start. From what I have seen so far from Rafael Nadal lately it's hard to believe that Federer would be able to beat him at the level he is at right now. However, I would certainly not say it's impossible and my hope is that he will be able to take confidence from this comeback and somehow get a win in what will likely prove to be a very difficult quarterfinal.
Phew - I admit to feeling a great amount of relief right now after watching Roger Federer lose the first set in his semifinal match in Halle against good buddy Tommy Haas, only to come back to win it in three. I was getting quite frustrated in the first set watching Roger dump it into the net way too many times, wasting break point opportunities, and generally just not playing as well as I had hoped. It didn't feel like Tommy was doing anything special, just playing solid and allowing his opponent to make errors. I wasn't feeling ultra confident that Federer could turn it around after seeing his puzzling loss to Tsonga last week. But this is a different week and a different surface and he was able to do just that - cut down his errors, make a few more winners, and watch Haas begin to mount his own self destruction, including a surprising amount of double faults.
In spite of Roger's delicious play in his double bagel win in the quarterfinals (only the second of his career), sometimes I think the easy matches can work against him when he has to immediately go play against a top opponent. In my low-level but frequent club level play I have seen how I can gain a lot of confidence by beating someone who is either having an off day or not as strong of a player and then in my next match play against someone where the ball comes off their racquet differently and feel like I have no answers with errors creeping in that weren't there before, so I can understand how those things can happen. I don't like to think, however, that those at the very top have to deal with those same issues and it's frustrating to watch the level of play change so drastically from one day to the next. And when it's my tennis hero I don't want to see the humanness finding its way in.
Regardless of the level of play, however, with certainly more errors than we like to see, a win is a win and Federer is now into his second final of the year with a great chance to claim his first title of the year against Mikhail Youzhny, who he has a 14-0 record against. I don't think we should just automatically pencil in the win, however. Youzhny has been playing some great tennis this week, easily beating Richard Gasquet 6-3 6-2 to get to the final. The fact that Roger has been unable to cross this barrier of tying John McEnroe's record at 77 titles could be in his head a little bit, so I would expect it to be a tight match in the final in spite of some very convincing wins in the past against Youzhny.
Hopefully, though, it will be a happy day for Federer and his fans to be able to claim his first title of 2013, which could then propel him into a much better run for the second half of the year.
The last couple days at the French Open have been amazing for the 30-somethings. Whoever started the phrase "20 is the new 30" sure knew what they were talking about. Let's start with the ageless Tommy Haas and his gutsy win against the serving machine John Isner. Anyone who was watching the tail end of the 4th set was glued to their TV/computer, I can tell you that for sure. When Tommy failed to convert any of the 12 match points he had on Isner's serve (through hardly any fault of his own, mind you), lost the set and then was down a break in the 5th set, who couldn't be thinking it had just been too much for the 35-year-old, who had already had to play his rain delayed previous round the day before. But that wasn't taking into account that Tommy still desperately wanted to win this match. So he continued to fight through the booming Isner serves, which despite the fact that big John was practically dead on his feet after his previous 5 set match the day before, continued to come at the same fearsome speed. He finally got his opportunity to get back on serve but knew he would have to break Isner again, since there are no tiebreaks in the 5th set at Roland Garros. And finally at 8-all he got his chance, with John pretty much done in. Haas still had to serve it out, but he did that without drama and earned an incredible victory to take this much deserving fighter into the 4th round.
Not to be outdone, another 30-something Tommy, 31-year-old Tommy Robredo to be exact, pulled out not just one but three incredible wins. Coming back from two sets down is always going to be an amazing feat that gets attention, but how about doing it three times in a row? That is exactly what this comeback "kid" has done this week. Surely he must be getting exhausted by now, but I'm sure the exhilaration of coming back over and over again has to be the adrenaline that is pulling him through. Not only that, but just a year ago Robredo was ranked, believe it or not, 471 after being out for injuries. Who would have believed he would have the gumption to fight through those odds. Yet here he is now into the quarterfinals of a major, beating choker Nicholas Almagro, who surely should have won this match. The tears he shed at the end of the match showed how much it all means to him.
And the match that not only had me on the edge of my seat like the Haas match, but also with major heart attack potential was that of Roger Federer against Gilles Simon. After completely cruising through the first set I totally thought this was going to be another stressless match. However, a fall in the second set, which could have been disastrous on his ankle, was saved as Roger caught himself and fell onto his hands and knees. However, though he appeared to be ok physically, he definitely wasn't the same player for the next set-and-a-half, getting broken the same game, losing the set, and going on to win only two games in the next set. Surely something was wrong. However, all of a sudden in the fourth set something came alive once again. He starting hitting some of his beauty shots again, moving around the court better, shouting some come ons, and with an awesome grunting forehand broke and went on to win the set. The fifth set was again more dominant by Federer. Though he had some trouble serving it out, he eventually did to gain his 900th win and his 36th consecutive major quarterfinal. It was a stressful match for his fans, and I'm sure for him too, but sometimes being tested can be a good thing. I'm hoping that is the case, as his next opponent, Jo Wilfred Tsonga, has beaten him in a major quarterfinal before. Let's hope this severe test by Tsonga's countryman will be enough to pull Roger through to give him a chance at his 2nd FO title. As he said himself regarding Tsonga: "I know he can beat me, and he knows he can beat me. But I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen." Go Roger!
What a great way to start an exciting next couple months of tennis - seeing two much deserving men win build-up clay tournaments just as one of the big ones, Madrid, is getting started.
Last year at this time Tommy Haas was ranked over 100 points below his current ranking. Creeping into his mid 30s, who would have blamed anyone at that point in wondering if it was worth the effort to try to climb his way back to the top of the game. What an amazing run Tommy has put together this year. Previously with 13 titles, in the year 2013 he has now reached #13 in the rankings. But hopefully he's not too attached to that #13 (which is even in his twitter name, @TommyHaas13) because he now has 14 titles after a tremendous week in Munich, beating fellow German Philip Kohlschreiber. Now 35, he continues to amaze. I don't think anyone in their right mind has any right to ask any tennis player in their 30s when they plan to retire!
And what about Stan Wawrinka? After some incredible play already this year, taking Novak Djokovic to the brink in Australia, he finally has his hands on a trophy again, after not having won one since 2011. This will be confidence boosting for the often overlooked Swiss player, beating #4 ranked David Ferrer who is a great clay court player. Maybe this will be enough to help him get some of those really big wins that often seem to elude him.
The first round has already begun in Madrid with some of the big name women already being knocked out (Caroline Wozniacki and Li Na). What does the rest of the week hold, and more importantly, who will be holding the trophies come Sunday?
How impressive has Tommy Haas been this week? I mean, when this Miami tournament started who would have chosen Tommy in their semifinal bracket? I thought he might challenge Novak Djokovic, who hasn't really found his groove this whole month. But even after the thumping in the first set, followed by a break in the second, once he surrendered the break back I really thought Novak would do his #1 thing and get on a roll. Sure, Tommy had some help from a lot of uncharacteristic errors from his opponent, but at the same time his level of play was just amazing. Some of saves he got at the net, stretching and really giving himself for the big win, showed his passion for the game and the incredible talent he has.
A lot of times after a big win over a top player a lower ranked player, who has given their all for the victory, will have a major falter in their next match. Tommy Haas has been around for a long time, though, and he showed his experience and the way his game has really been peaking against a tired Giles Simon, rolling over him in an hour with a 6-3 6-1 victory. Will his almost 35-year-old body have what it takes to take it a step farther with a win over David Ferrer, who needed three sets in his win over a resurgent Meltzer? I like to think that Tommy's motivation level, with a day of rest for his old bones to recover, will be enough to make it to the final of this Masters 1000.
A year ago Tommy Haas was ranked 145 in the world. With this advancement into the semifinals he will crack the top 15 for the first time since January 2008. If that isn't inspiring I don't know what is, especially given the fact that he is in his mid 30s. I mean, Andy Roddick hung up his racquet on his 30th birthday.
The week started out kind of ho hum for me with Federer not participating. However, this exciting development has reignited my interest. Also, to be honest, it has given me more hope for Roger Federer's game in the months to come. I have been rather discouraged by his results in the last six months, winning no titles after such amazing results in the fall of 2011 through summer of 2012. But even if he goes through a slump for a bit, he's still a young pup compared to what we have been seeing this week and he should have lots of glory moments left for he and his fans to enjoy.
It was a busy tennis week this last week I realized as I was trying to find time to watch four different finals on Sunday. As I digested my disappointment that I wouldn't be watching Roger Federer in either the semifinal or final of Rotterdam I had to remind myself that I am a tennis fan, not just a Fedfan, and that I could still enjoy watching some good tennis even though I wasn't watching my favorite. So putting my disappointment aside I was able to appreciate the good matches that were still on the docket for the weekend.
In spite of this, though, I admit that none of the matches turned out the way I had hoped. Though I for the most part like Juan Martin Del Potro and would usually want him to win when he's not playing Roger, I couldn't help but feel the pain for Julien Benneteau for his previous losses in finals and really wanted to see him break through this time. Almost the whole match though it felt like he was just trying to keep up with the great play of Delpo and in the end there really was nothing he could do against someone playing this well. JMDP deserved this win, after a poor showing in last year's final, and poor Benneteau once again had to face another disappointment. Though not one of my favorites, and certainly a threat always now to Federer, I really hope he gets his breakthrough title at some point before he retires.
In the women's final, though I'm not always one to cheer for Serena, in this case after the emotion shown after regaining #1 I was really hoping she would be holding the trophy at the end to supplement her great accomplishment. She just didn't seem herself in this match, though, never seeming fully comfortable, and Victoria Azarenka wasn't about to be intimidated. I'm sure it felt so good to her to prove that she had been the valid #1 by beating her replacement. It will be interesting to see upcoming matches between the two.
I didn't see the full final between Nadal and Nalbandian, really only some of the second set, but my impression of what I saw was that Rafa still wasn't playing like his normal self, making quite a few errors, but when Nalbandian was in a great position with two breaks in the 2nd set he just folded and gave it away. I think it will be a test for Nadal in his next tournament where Ferrer will also be playing, so we'll see what his form is by the end of February for his next tournament. I'm sure he felt very happy to be holding another trophy, though, whether he played his best or not.
In the final match of the day I was really hoping to see Tommy Haas pull it off. I have liked Tommy for a long time, and I think it's a real inspiration to see him playing great tennis at the age of 34 after a long injury timeout. He really didn't even have a chance, however, with the way Milos Raonic was playing. I don't know what it is about the conditions in San Jose, but he wasn't giving an inch on his service games, and the return winners that he was hitting on Tommy's service games were incredible. I'm sure he wishes he could buy the tournament himself to keep it in San Jose where he has had so much success, winning it three times in a row. To be honest, though, what I was thinking at the end of the match was that I really hope he's not in Federer's draw for Indian Wells!
