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In my last post, I said literally anything can happen in tennis, and it almost did. The world number one almost lost to Simon but scraped through 6-3, 6-7(1), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in spite of 100 unforced errors. Extraordinary scenes.

In tennis terms, Simon is really the ultimate troll. He takes huge pleasure in dragging opponents down to his despicable level of pushing and counterpunching tennis. Even Nadal is more entertaining to watch. That shit made my eyes bleed.

I really took no pleasure in watching the tennis, but the fact that Djokovic won gave me immense satisfaction. Aside from the quote I posted yesterday Simon also said the following before the match:

“Players start being fed-up (with Djokovic’s dominance), it’s annoying. It’s a bit humiliating for everyone. It’s not that Novak has become arrogant but, on Sunday, there will be many people rooting for me in the locker room. Almost everyone.”

#Djokovic takes advice from audience member #nomoredropshots #AusOpen Watch more https://t.co/Ek545Zh2D9 https://t.co/0f7nlx5BBY

G’day tennis fans. I missed the post for Day 4 of the Australian Open because my sleeping pattern is a mess and I didn’t think there was anything particularly interesting happening anyway.

The biggest stories were that Ferrer retired Hewitt, Verdasco lost to Sela as expected after playing one good match, and Sock lost in straight sets to Rosol, which means Stan’s draw opens up even more. A good example of draws being only a rough guideline.

They rarely work out as you expect.

First of all, let me just say congratulations to Federer for his 300th grand slam win, the first man to do so in the open era.

The third round is usually the point in a slam where you start to get a better of the top players’ form. I think after Day 5’s matches we can make a distinction between the respective forms of the top two players in the top half of the draw.

[1]DJOKOVIC, Novak SRB
CHUNG, Hyeon KOR
HALYS, Quentin FRA
DODIG, Ivan CRO
KRAJINOVIC, Filip SRB
KUDLA, Denis USA
GABASHVILI, Teymuraz RUS
[28]SEPPI, Andreas ITA

[22]KARLOVIC, Ivo CRO
DELBONIS, Federico ARG
VESELY, Jiri CZE
(Q)QUALIFIER
DONSKOY, Evgeny RUS
CERVANTES, Inigo ESP
POSPISIL, Vasek CAN
[14]SIMON, Gilles FRA

[9]TSONGA, Jo-Wilfried FRA
BAGHDATIS, Marcos CYP
(W)JASIKA, Omar AUS
MARCHENKO, Illya UKR
ANDUJAR, Pablo ESP
(Q)QUALIFIER
(W)RUBIN, Noah USA
[17]PAIRE, Benoit FRA

[26]GARCIA-LOPEZ, Guillermo ESP
MATHIEU, Paul-Henri FRA
ESTRELLA BURGOS, Victor DOM
(Q)QUALIFIER
KRAJICEK, Austin USA
(Q)QUALIFIER
KOHLSCHREIBER, Philipp GER
[7]NISHIKORI, Kei JPN

[3]FEDERER, Roger SUI
BASILASHVILI, Nikoloz GEO
BERANKIS, Ricardas LTU
DOLGOPOLOV, Alexandr UKR
(Q)QUALIFIER
(Q)QUALIFIER
LORENZI, Paolo ITA
[27]DIMITROV, Grigor BUL

Hey, friends. You know I don’t put much stock in draws as they hardly ever play out the way you expect, but I will indulge you. The first question was on whose side Nadal would be, and unfortunately it turns out he is on Roger’s side. And it pisses me off that it always seems to be the case in Melbourne. I don’t like to talk about rigged draws because there is no proof, but sometimes you wonder. And what pisses me off even more is that Nadal got the easiest quarter final opponent of the top four in Birdshit. Birdshit is his absolute bitch and if he ever needed Berdych in his quarter it was now. Also, Roger got Murray in his quarter who is one of the top two most difficult quarter-final opponents for the top four. The other being Nishikori who is in Stan’s quarter. I am just overall pissed off with this draw but like I said it hardly ever plays out the way you imagine and Nadal, for instance, could lose before the semis.

I find it hard to imagine to whom though. Maybe first round to Youzhny if Youzhny plays a blinder but after that it’s hard to see him lose. Maybe Rosol but once Nadal has two wins under his belt he already becomes hard to stop. Nadal lost his first match in Doha to Berrer, but he did win the doubles title with Monaco which would have already helped his confidence. If Nadal makes fourth round I don’t see him losing to Gasquet or Anderson who is both massive chokers. If Anderson wins it would be the biggest win of his life anyway. Then should Nadal play Birdshit it is almost impossible for him to lose. Birdshit will do whatever it takes to lose to his hero. So it is difficult to see Nadal lose before the semis but not impossible. If Roger does play Nadal in the semis then he will just have to win. His record against Nadal in slams is poor and given his new found mental strength and Nadal’s lack of tennis it would provide a good opportunity to get one back.

But of course, there is no guarantee Roger will make semis either. His path to the title is Lu, Monaco/Bolelli, Chardy, Karlovic/Kyrgios/Robredo, Dimitrov/Murray, Nadal/Berdych, Djokovic/Stan. That is a pretty tough draw right there. The first three rounds are not that tough but then it gets difficult. After my last post, some people have brought up the fatigue factor for Roger. My view was optimistic about it all, but I suppose he could feel the effects of not having taken much of a break after the long 2014 season. It’s not gonna change my optimistic outlook though. I’m sure some Fedfans have thrown in the towel as far as winning the title goes after having seen the draw, saying that Roger is too tired to get through it. Personally I don’t see much excitement in taking such a stance. As I said in my last post Roger’s game is in peak shape now and if he can conserve some energy early on he will have his chances.

He also said in an interview which someone posted on my blog that he is actually intentionally playing more at the recommendation of Edberg, with the argument that as you age it is easier for the body to keep playing than to take long breaks and come back. He is also focusing on playing more points in practice. Someone also made the remark that sometimes Roger gets an easy draw and loses while a hard draw can work out. It once again comes down to the fact that draws don’t mean much and that it is useless to look much further than the next round, which for Roger is against Lu. As long as Roger keeps focusing on what is in front of him and takes care of it well he will have his chances at #18. I have already said I am quietly confident and I am not concerned about the draw. As long as Roger keeps playing the way he has been playing I believe in his chances.

http://www.menstennisforums.com/showthread.php?t=186368

I’ve been wondering for a while now about the different court speeds and the above table pretty much sums it up. In the table the court speed is determined by the percentage of points won on serve, which I think is pretty accurate. As expected Paris is number one and is probably the only event on the list which is still conducive to serve-and-volley play. Interestingly Paris has probably been Roger’s worst Masters Series event. Last year was his best result yet where he made semis and lost to Monfils after having match points. I think it shows that he hasn’t really worked that hard on his attacking game over the years. Last year when he joined up with Annacone he started to work more on coming to the net which could be why he had his best result yet in Paris. I wish Roger gave more attention to his net game over the years.

When Wimbledon was still fast he was right up there with the best serve-and-volley players. Then as the surfaces became slower he became a base liner and his net game basically died. I think that hurt him especially against Nadal. He was too stubborn and wanted to dominate Nadal from the base line. I don’t think it was as much the slowing down of the courts that hurt him against Nadal as his stubbornness to go to the net. Now that Annacone is helping him to be more attacking it is at a pretty late stage and a lot of the damage has already been done. To get back to the table, I’m a bit surprised that Wimbledon is still in second spot. Wimbledon has been slowed down some, but I think it is mostly the height and consistency of the bounce that has changed, which have helped someone like Nadal. The surface itself still seems to be pretty fast.

Cincinnati is high up as expected. Cincy has been one of Roger’s best Masters Series events especially of late, having won it the last two years. This to me shows that he does enjoy the faster surfaces, coupled with the fact that he has done so well at Wimbledon over the years. Canada is also pretty high up, although I’m not sure if the stat is conclusive since they alternate between Toronto and Montreal. Anyway Roger has won it twice and made two finals. It’s also quite interesting to see the US Open having about average speed, but I suppose that’s more or less expected. The US Open have been slowed down along with all the other courts, but is still a surface which Roger loves to play on. Then it’s quite surprising to see a clay court event ahead of Miami, Indian Wells, and the Oz Open.

The altitude in Madrid obviously has a lot to do with it but it also shows how slow some of the hard courts have become. Indian Wells, Miami, and the Oz Open are classified as slow hard court. In Indian Wells and Miami Roger was doing really well earlier in his career, while the results have dropped off a little of late. And this year at the Oz Open he lost in straight sets to Djokovic. In that match it looked like the slower courts really got to him because he was unable to penetrate Djokovic’s defenses. Finally at the bottom of the list we have Roland Garros and Rome, which is to be expected. It is worth noting that Roger beat Djokovic on a slower court than the Oz Open when he beat him at Roland Garros this year. How could he not get through Djokovic’s defenses at the Oz Open but was able to do it at the French?

“Walking to the net, I’m certain that I’ve lose to the better man, the Everest of the generation. I pity the young players who will have to contend with him. I feel for the man who is fated to play Agassi to his Sampras. Though I don’t mention Pete by name, I have him uppermost in my mind when I tell reports: It’s real simple. Most players have weaknesses. Federer has none.”

http://www.menstennisforums.com/showthread.php?t=154414

Since I was ‘let go’ at my previous job and will start my tennis coaching career only on Monday, it gives me some time to make up to you for the period when I wasn’t blogging much. I found the above excerpt from Andre Agassi’s new and controversial book at Men’s Tennis Forum. It seems like the Agassi book will be a stimulating read, and hopefully I will get my hands on it soon. The quote from Agassi’s book apparently pertains to the 2005 US Open final, where Roger beat Agassi in four sets. If you read the comments of the poster who started the thread, you will see that he also refers to their meeting in 2004, where Roger won in five sets. But of course as a Sampras fan, he conveniently leaves out the fact that there was a gale force wind blowing that day, which is the ultimate equalizer.

He also says that in the 2005 final Agassi was 35 years old and that he had played three five set matches to get to the final, and still gave Roger a run for his money. But again he fails to mention that if a player gets through close matches like that, they often become very confident. It just goes to show that people will always change the facts in a subtle way to make the player they support look like the best. I don’t need to change any facts to show that Roger is better than Sampras. Anyone with half a brain can see that. And if you don’t have half a brain, then I’ll point out to you that Roger has won more grand slam titles than Sampras, as well as the career grand slam which Sampras couldn’t manage. And on top of that Roger is not finished with his career.

You will also see that this genius of a poster made the thread title so that it makes Roger look bad again. Now this post of mine is not about debunking some clueless Sampras fanboy, but the things he wrote gives me a good place to start at. Again he conveniently leaves out the fact that more than half of the meetings between Roger and Rafa have been on Rafa’s favorite surface, just because of the fact that Rafa is not good enough to make it far enough outside of clay to meet Roger on a regular basis. We saw it again this year at the US Open, where Rafa was crushed 2, 2 and 2 by Delpo in the semi’s, while Roger kept his end of the bargain again by being in the final for the sixth consecutive year. If Sampras and Agassi had met more then half of the time on clay as well, I guarantee you Agassi would have led the rivalry as well, but only five of their thirty-four matches was on clay.

The Rome Masters was an interesting event and since I haven’t blogged a lot of late I wanted to make one more post before the French Open draw comes out. There is an exciting time ahead in the tennis world and there is a lot more to be said.

I have already made it clear what I think about Djokovic’s week in Rome as well as the others for that matter. But I want to go into some more detail here because I didn’t say everything I wanted to say. A lot has been made of Djokovic’s ‘bizarre’ week in Rome.

I think there has been a certain amount of overreaction from fans. I admitted in my last post that he had a bizarre week but I also made it clear that he did what needed to be done. He could not have done any better under the circumstances.

This must be clearly understood. Someone commented on my last post that Djokovic not only had a brutal draw but he also had a tough schedule by playing at night and then having to play the final with less than 24 hours of rest during the day.

It was reminiscent of the French Open last yeat where Djokovic had to play the semis and the final over three days after the semis against Murray were delayed due to rain. It proved to be his undoing because he was not fresh enough in the final.

OK so it’s time to update this page since this it’s not Ru-an’s Federer Blog anymore but Ultimate Tennis Blog. Tennis has always been a big passion of mine. I started watching tennis at a young age. The first match I remember watching was the 1985 Wimbledon final when Becker had that historic win. I remember watching Edberg, Lendl, Wilander, Mcenroe and all those legends too. The first time I picked up an old wooden racquet was around the age of 8 years and it was love at first shot. I spent hours just hitting against the wall and acting out imaginary matches in my head. Strangely enough, I started out with a one-handed backhand. That’s right. I never had a two-handed backhand! And, in general, I tend to be a fan of one-handers

Anyway, to skip ahead a few years I tried playing some professional tournaments for a while, beat some players with ATP points, but that was as far as it went. I never had an ATP ranking myself. I don’t think I reached anything close to my full potential, but then again I probably wasn’t talented enough to make it anyway. I’ve tried some tennis coaching since but for me that love was always in playing and competing. I have however found something which I enjoy quite a lot which is writing about tennis. In the past it was more like a hobby I did on the side while I did other full-time jobs. But I didn’t find anything I was really passionate about so I want to try and make writing into something more full time.

I love following the very best in the men’s game, writing about it, and interacting with my readers. I hope you join us!

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