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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

What’s Wrong With Roger?!?

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FOLKERT HESSE

So Federer lost to Thomas Berdych 4:6, 7:6, 6:7 in the round of 16 in Miami last night. A shock for most of his fans and the tennis fans in Miami, who were looking forward to a possible final Federer – Nadal. And ‘Fed’ lost to Marcos Baghdatis in the third round of  last weeks Indian Wells tournament already (in straight sets). How can that happen?!?
Is Federer struggling again with his form … and his forehand … and his overhead … and his backhand?
No, He isn’t!
He lost 6:8 in the third set of the tiebreak, had one matchpoint and had 10 break chances during the whole match, compared to only 4 for Berdych and he won as many points in total as the Zcech No. 1, as well. So, it was a really close match that he lost. Unlike the early exits of Djokovic and Murray, Federer was very close to winning, but just came up short a tiny little bit in the end.
On top of that Djokovic and Murray have been the two finalists of last years event, and they will lose a lot of points due to their early departures. Federer reached only the semi-final last year and has only 360 points to defend. The only player left in the draw, who can be dangerous for his No. 1 ranking spot, is Nadal and he is more than 4000 points behind Federer. So, no worries for ‘Fed’ in that department.
And this is one of the two things Roger is really concerned about. He wants to break Pete Sampras’ record of total weeks at No. 1 and total year-end finishes as No. 1.
If you have some money to spend, go ahead and place a bet on him reaching these goals this year. The only problem is that you won’t get much money back, if you are right…
His other big goal for this year and main focus is winning a Grand Slam. And in order to do that he needs to have enough energy a, motivation and focus during the last 3 Grand Slam events of this year. So, he cannot go 100% all year long. A big mistake Nadal has made over the past years. Of course both players have very different attitudes and work ethics. And they have to have (at least Nadal), because god did not give both the same amount of talent. Nadal always has to work hard to win his matches. But Federer can win with less effort most of the times, and that is the reason why he is not injured so often. And it is also the reason why he suffers some surprise early exits in some tournaments that are not so important for him. But it does not happen when he really care, as his Grand Slam record clearly show. Federer always tries to save as much energy as possible and win his matches with ease, because he is always aiming for the title. And that means a lot of matches in a row. And if he is not aiming for the title, but for the big titles (grand Slams) he is trying to save even more energy.
So, there is nothing to worry about for the Federer fans. He thinks French Open already and I think he will have a great chance this year to get the Grand Slam.
And then the Federer fans have reason to worry, because if he can accomplish that, he will also break the other records for the No. 1 ranking, and then he has nothing to play for anymore besides exercise and fun. And I don’t know if he will have enough motivation to travel around the globe to exercise… His wife might ask him to play with his daughters on the court next to the house instead…



FOLKERT HESSE

HESSE TENNIS TRAINING
High Performance Training and Coaching for Top Juniors and Professionals

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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Men’s Favorites Drop Out Early In Miami


BY

FOLKERT HESSE


Like in many other years already, a lot of top players drop out of the men’s draw at an early stage. In other years the strong winds at Key Biscayne had a big influence on many frustrated players unable to control their shots. But this year the surprise upsets were real surprises, since the winds have not been strong at all.
And the player who benefits the most from these early exits is Andy Roddick again, who had a good draw at Indian Wells already, with Tipsarevic, Monfils, Federer and Murray going out of the tournament before meeting Roddick.
Now he avoids potential match-ups with Blake, Djokovic, Robredo, Querrey and Ljubicic before he would reach the semi-final with Nadal or Tsonga. On the top half of the draw it is Soderling and Federer who still have a tough draw, but will not have to face Andy Murray anymore.
Nadal has probably the toughest draw, with Nalbandian in the 3rd round (he won in 3 sets last night) and many other top players to come before he can reach a potential semi-final against Roddick. Even though difficult opponents like Isner and Karlovic fell to Ferrer and Ferrero. But Ferrer in the next round and Ferrero or tsonga in the quarters will also give him a hard time for sure.
With Federer waiting for Berdych and Cilic or Verdasco, before he will meet probably Soderling in the Semis, who will have to battle Gonzales, Youzhny and wawrinka, it looks like the safest pick for the semi final is Andy Roddick.
I think it will come down to Tsonga and Roddick in the bottom half and Roger and Soderling in the top half. In the final we will see Roger and Tsonga, for sure an exciting ending of the hard court season, before the guys will grind it out on clay. If Fed wins this one, he will secure his No. 1 spot for a long time and go with good hopes into the clay court season aiming for a grand slam this year.
I think he can do it and it will all depend on Nadal and performance on clay this year.



FOLKERT HESSE

HESSE TENNIS TRAINING
High Performance Training and Coaching for Top Juniors and Professionals

Folkert Hesse Tennis