Roger’s 70th Win In A 100th Final
Roger Federer did it again – winning the year end masters tournament for the 6th time. He had to beat Jo Wilfried Tsonga for the third time in 3 weeks to confirm his supremacy over Jo.
Roger Federer winning 6th ATP World Tour Finals title / AFP PHOTO / GLYN KIRK
I followed the match and did my usual analysis but there’s nothing spectacular to report except that all sets were decided in flashes of brilliance of both players.
First set: Roger has committed 3 unforced errors on the backhand and zero winners until 4-3 where he suddely hit 3 winning backhands. Tsonga added an unforced volley error and that was the deciding break of the first set.
Roger’s backhand was especially bad yesterday against David Ferrer where it seems he couldn’t even rally with it – let alone create anything with it.
Second set: This time it was Tsonga who handed the service game to Federer at 3-2 by making 3 unforced errors on the forehand and allowed Roger to serve for the match at 5-4.
But with the back against the wall Tsonga went for broke on second serve returns and broke Federer back with 3 return winners.
Roger had his chances in the tie-break but it was Tsonga again who went for broke. I wonder why he doesn’t do that all the time.
I personally don’t think he can beat Roger in this form playing his usual, smart and controlled tennis. He needs to let go of thinking and just play based on emotion and instinct.
Of course, that’s easier said than done.
Third set: Both players held their serves easily until 4-3 where they played 13 points on Tsonga’s service game and where Federer eventually prevailed.
I think it was a real mental game where Tsonga simply went for too much too many times. Roger then finished the match with surgical serving.
One interesting stat that was shown on tennistv.com was the this image below:
It shows you how few backhands Federer actually played (the image was based on 1st and 2nd set stats) and how accurately you need to play the ball to actually force Federer to hit a backhand.
And it’s quite likely that because Federer hits so few backhands that he loses the fine feel needed to play the shots he wants.
He still comes with brilliant backahds here and there but in the last two matches his backhand was very inconsistent.
In any case, the 2012 looks the be extremely interesting with Djokovic, Nadal, Federer and Murray all hungry for more. Looking forward to it…
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November 30th, 2011 at 3:51 am
Very symbolic photo of Roger holding the cup… It shows how much he wanted and needed this title. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photo of him so humbly thankful and ‘aware’ of his achievement… He’s definitely raised the bar for the tennis history once again, and we spectators of the show can be very happy to enjoy this era of such extraterrestrial players, which will hopefully last for a few more years.
Otherwise, what I also found very interesting in this match is how Roger’s become much more emotionally ‘expressive’; especially during the second set… His face just showed so much emotions and ‘vulnerability’ (like you could almost hear him think: “Not another Djokovic US Open ending…”), he was scrubbing the floor with his shoes all the time etc., his game started to decompose…
I also enjoyed watching Tsonga; I like his boldness and how he has the capability of ignoring the result and coming back from almost unsolvable situation. He’s a great example of ‘It ain’t over till it’s over’ tennis mentality…
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November 30th, 2011 at 12:13 pm
Very nice analysis! I really think that Tsonga is caught playing a small man’s game in a big man’s body. He reminds me a lot of Becker who would simply hit a very big ball. The thing is that Becker played in an era when people still ended the point at the net. Most importantly, he had a one-handed backhand. Tsonga has a functional backhand but I think with his strength he would have been better served hitting it with one hand and learning to play more aggressive tennis. Remember, the one handed winners he hit against Federer and how he was toying with this shot. He is naturally aggressive and athletic. Maybe the courts are too slow and the strings create too much spin. But if he just went and attacked in the matches against the best I think he could pull it off. He just needs to let go and let his athleticism take over. He should call Becker and talk to him.
Fed is a god. Supremely talented and incredibly controlled. He kept playing high percentage tennis until Tsonga could not go any more. That is why he won so many slams. He can go into full flight and hit incredible shots. But he also knows when to just play his percentages and stick with it even if he loses. The big matches are like chess and Fed does it as well as anyone else.
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November 30th, 2011 at 12:16 pm
One more thing. I agree with the fact that Fed loses his backhand. I think it is mental for him. He is used to covering for his weakness with his forehand and it has worked for him. His backhand tends to desert him at times. But it is still good enough to win him the match. Even Nadal could not attack it enough to make him uncomfortable.
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