Quote:
Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis
The Wimbledon match against Nadal this year was the same. Roger dialed back the net aggressiveness because it's a recipe for disaster, and because he knows he can (and recently will) out rally Rafa. He didn't he a great approach at 40-30, yet he was already pre-commited to coming in. Why he didn't trust himself to win a rally in that situation, I'll never know. I get wanting to apply the pressure, but it's Novak Djokovic, not Kevin Anderson. It was a lapse in judgement, and it cost him dearly.
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without looking at the official numbers, I'm going to assume Fed's long rally winning percentage against Djoker was below what he was getting against Rafa. I remember his net point conversion rate was pretty high throughout, so he decided to play the higher percentage, hoping that his mediocre approach shot wouldn't result in a perfect pass (which of course it did).
it's just amazing how a couple of inches left or right of the racquet/ball, or a 10th of a second different timing on the one serve, return, etc. has utterly changed tennis history. I think both players realized that which is why their reaction right afterwards looked a lot more like shellshock than the regular celebration/despair.