Roger Federer and Andy Murray started the final of the Australian Open 2010 in a very controlled manner. There was of course a lot on stake for both players.

Roger Federer volleys at the Australian Open 2010 (Photo by PAUL CROCK/AFP/Getty Images)

Andy Murray was looking for his first Grand Slam title while Roger was looking to extend his record of Grand Slams to 16 and slowly but surely create a record that most likely won’t be broken for many years to come.

Here’s what happened in the match…

First set

Andy’s tactics was immediately obvious – play to Roger’s backhand over and over again and hope that Roger becomes frustrated with his inability to finish the point and get out of backhand-to-backhand exchanges. (more…)

Roger Federer lost his 2nd round match at the Paris Bercy Masters 1000 to Julien Benneteau 3-6, 7-6, 6-4. I watched the whole match and here are some tennis thoughts on it:

Roger Federer’s backhand (Photo by AP)

1.    Roger Federer played many more drive and top spin backhands than he did last week in Basel.

Some possible reasons can be:

a.    The court in Paris is slower and Roger had more time to set up for his backhand

b.    Roger saw that his slice backhand didn’t do much damage to Djokovic in the final and wanted to start working on the backhand to get it in form for the Masters Championship in London where he has to be in top form to win.

2.    Roger still isn’t in his top form but it seems to be improving. He missed some very important shots (forehand approach shots) and was unwilling (afraid?) to play winners down-the-line with his backhand when he had a chance. (more…)

The interviews with top tennis players can teach you so much about the mental game and the how champion minds work.

Roger Federer is one of the most intelligent tennis players on the tour and taking the time to think about his answers in interviews can be extremely rewarding.

Roger recently won the Cincinnati Masters tournament where he beat Andy Murray in the semifinals and Novak Djokovic in the final.

Here’s are some of the more interesting parts of Roger’s interview Roger after his semifinal win against Murray… (more…)

The Montreal Masters ATP tournament ended with Andy Murray winning it and reaching the #2 ranking, but there were also many interesting things that happened in this tournament.

While you may have read the headlines of magazines or online sites and thought:«Hmm, that’s interesting.«, you may have missed the deeper meaning of the events that took place in Montreal.

The most interesting were these two:

1.    The Top 8 ranked players on ATP ALL reached the quarterfinals in the modern history of ATP.

This might sound as an interesting headline but when you think more deeply about it, you realize that the top 8 players on ATP (when they entered that tournament) have NEVER ALL reached the quarter finals of the tournament until now.

Well, what does that mean? (more…)

Roger Federer has just surpassed Pete Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slams with his 15th win at Wimbledon but one common argument that keeps repeating is that Federer had easier opponents than Sampras.

Roger Federer and Pete Sampras / Photo by Getty Images

I had the same feeling too and while it doesn’t matter for the record books, it’s an interesting topic to discuss.

The goal of this post is to measure the difficulty of winning 14 Grand Slams for Pete Sampras and for Roger Federer. (more…)

Let me just say for the record , that I would really like to see Andy Roddick win at least one Wimbledon since he is a great player, has been improving his game and is really an honest guy.

I’d also like to see Roger Federer crack that record of Pete Sampras too since he is really in a league of his own when it comes to the mastery of the complete tennis game.

So I basically wanted both players to win but that’s of course not possible. So let’s see how the match went…

Roger Federer wins against Andy Roddick in the Wimbledon 2009 / Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images

Roddick started the match very relaxed, hitting his first serves around 135 mph and easily won the first game. Federer showed in his first service game that he can serve well too although the players did engage in 2 baseline rallies.

But the games went really fast as there were many first serves in (around 80% for both players!) and the Federer and Roddick finished the first 3 games in 5 minutes… (more…)

Tommy Haas started the first set against Roger Federer with his usual tactic at this year’s Wimbledon; serve & volleying on almost all first and second serves.

But even in the first game it was evident (to me at least) that this will not work against Federer.

Roger Federer winning against Tommy Haas in Wimbledon2009 / Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP/Getty Images

Federer was hitting returns early and cleanly and putting them low to Tommy’s feet. Tommy held his service games thanks to first serves which he nicely varied between forehand and backhand sides of Federer.

Haas was too emotional on a couple of missed shots and that’s not a good sign. Being so tense prevents a player from playing in the zone and that’s what’s needed to win a semifinal match in a Grand Slam…

Luckily for Haas, Federer lost his feel for a few games and made a few unforced errors that allowed Haas to win his service games. Very high first serve percentage helped too.

Tommy served very well throughout the first set even on his second serves. He forced the serves, played very aggressively and prevented Federer from getting into the return rhythm. Perhaps Tommy felt the power and control of Federer’s returns from the first two games and decided to up the risks a little bit. (more…)

Roger Federer and Robin Soderling met again after the Roland Garros final in the fourth round at Wimbledon 2009. Here are some thoughts on the match…

Soderling played the first set exactly the way he should have played the final of Roland Garros; he played very aggressively, hitting close to the lines and he didn’t give Federer enough time to get into an attacking position.

Federer was constantly in defense and barely got a chance to force the game with his forehand. In fact, Federer seemed to play more defensively intentionally because he had time (just a few times) to force with his forehand but he chose just a solid rally forehand deep to Soderling’s backhand.

The same thing happened at 4:4 on Soderling’s serve with one exception; Soderling was unable to keep the same level of play. He committed a double fault and missed a few shots – just barely out which he didn’t miss in the previous 8 games.

Roger didn’t do much for that break of serve except forcing Soderling to play every ball. Federer hung in there defending with backhand and even forehand slices and Soderling missed them.

Federer committed only 3 unforced errors in the first set and Soderling made 9. Roger also served better with 7 aces to 4 and was most of the time winning service games pretty easily.

Soderling played extremely well again in the second set, serving aces and winners and forcing the game from the baseline. Roger Federer’s plan – in my opinion – was to disrupt the rhythm of Soderling and he started to incorporate a few more drop shots and short slices in the game. (more…)

Nike Tennis has just launched a fun, interactive website that offers tennis fans around the world, the ability to view and post messages of support to Roger.

If you’re a Roger Federer fan, then this site offers the following interactive experiences:
- Send/Post a message of support to Roger
- Share your message with friends via Facebook & Twitter
- View other fan messages, including key athletes, such as Pete Sampras
- Review Roger’s Grand Slam wins on his road to greatness

I’ve sent my support message too and Roger is on his way to get his Grand Slam #15 at Wimbledon 2009. (more…)

Roger Federer finally won his first Roland Garros title today against Robin Soderling and here are my thoughts on the final…

Roger Federer Wins His First French Open title Photo by BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images

Today’s final showed the difference in experience in Grand Slam finals even before the first ball was struck.

When Roger Federer and Robin Soderling chose the sides and who was going to serve first, they had to pose for a few seconds for photographers on both sides of the court and Roger had to remind Robin to do that.

Robin namely just wanted to start playing and had not done this procedure in a Grand Slam final before. Maybe that was already the first mental battle won for Federer who immediately established himself as a more experienced player and the one who controls the happening on the center court.

Here are some thoughts on each of the sets: (more…)