So Bianca Andreescu had a tough loss in her semifinal against the girls #1 seed, had a chance to serve for the match but got broken, lost the tiebreaker and then the third set in a bagel. But she did win the girls doubles with her American partner, so not a bad consolation prize.
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It's probably too ambitious to think he's on tour this time next year, but maybe by summer next year he's just about there. He figures to fly up the rankings this year.
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I don't know how much court/rest time will really play into this. in 2009 Rafa played the same type of mega marathon against Verdasco in the semis, and came back fresh as a daisy to beat Roger a couple days later. maybe it does play more of a factor now that they're both in their 30's, but I don't think it's enough to wipe out the huge matchup advantage he's always had.
if Rafa is on, he can only be beaten by hitting through him (e.g. Stan) or physically outlasting him (e.g. Nole). Grigor is hitting a lot harder these days and was almost able to take option #1. Roger's finesse game doesn't fit either of these options, so his only hope is to serve and volley out of his mind and/or hope Rafa has a bad day.
and also the mental aspect of having been ragdolled by the guy for the past 12 years, it's a tough mountain to climb. As a Fedfan I'm sad to say he probably can't get this one done, but I'll still savor a match that I thought had zero chance of ever taking place again.
also, special shout out to the AO organizers for speeding up the balls/court and succeeding in breaking the Djokovic - Murray pattern that just would never end.
I agree. Federer has had a great run to the final, but Wawrinka had a better chance of beating Nadal in the final. When Nadal is in form, the best way to beat him is to hit him off the court, which has never been how Federer plays. Understandably, ESPN is trying to hype this as an epic match, but unless Federer has an incredible serving performance, I don't think it'll be close.
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It's pretty crazy that even most Fed fans expect him to lose tonight. Even when he was playing Novak the past few years they thought Fed had a chance, even though Novak's level in that run is much higher than Nadal's current form. Shows just how afraid Fed fans are of Rafa. Obviously how Roger serves is important, but it's more about the break chances he'll get than anything. Nadal is going to give Roger a good amount of break chances, Roger just has to take advantage of them. Dimitrov only went 4 for 16....which actually is probably better than Roger would normally do in a big match with something like a 1 for 11. But if Roger can get 4-6 breaks in this match, I would think he's going to win. Can't see Nadal getting that many breaks unless Roger is serving poorly, and he's not getting 4-6 breaks off Rafa if he's serving that poorly (assumption being his ground strokes would be poor to be getting broken that much).
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Last edited by Senator Clay Davis; 01-28-2017 at 10:40 AM.
They've each won a set now, looks like this will be a close one. Kind of sad this is likely the last time these legends face off in a major final, hopefully they make it an epic one.
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Well in the scenarios I had Roger losing, his forehand betraying him was probably at the bottom of the list. So there's something new in this matchup, attack the Federer forehand and not the backhand.
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