Tennis: Miami Masters Round Up

Rafael Nadal had to fend of a spirited battle from Federico Gil to go through the 4^th round in yesterdays clash, he went through after a tough first set winning 7-5, and then claim the second 6-3 after some impressive tennis from his opponent.

Murray also went through in straight sets Nicholas Massu, but the score line didn’t reflect how well the Chilean played, I watched this game in full and he played aggressively, but Murray did the business and took down the sets to join Nadal in the fourth round.

Roger Federer is another top seeded player to advance into the fourth round of the Miami masters, he is on a mission this season to hold his 2^nd spot and challenge for 1^st, Murray is catching up and head to head Murray has disappointed Federer several times. The Swiss star was very convincing in his victory against Nicholas Kiefer 6-4, 6-1 to reach the 4^th to face local Taylor Dent, should be a good match up.

Former world No.1 Andy Roddick powered into the fourth round by defeating Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov 7-6 (11-9), 6-2. The fifth-seeded American, who won the title here in 2004, will face either French ninth seed Gael Monfils or Russia’s Marat Safin after coping with strong winds.

So that’s the update with some of the top names left in the tournament. I will update from every round now so keep posted. These masters are really exciting now as everyone apart from Nadal needs to win in order to hold their rank.

Tennis: US Open Final: Federer Vs Murray

Federer bt Murray

6-2, 7-5, 6-2

Andy Murray felt the full wrath of Federer yesterday as the world number 2 showed no mercy in his victory at the US Open, it was one of the most sensational one-sided finals I have ever seen, no discredit to Murray who just never had a chance to get into the match, Federer was simply awesome
 

First Set 

This set started off with Federer pushing from the off-set, making his intentions clear that he is going for the line every shot. He knew this was Murray’s biggest match-up ever so he took advantage of the fact that he may be nervous. Murray was on edge and Federer won two clean serves without dropping a point.

We got to 2-1 Federer and some good serves from Murray were not good enough for Federer’s returns, as he approached the net the whole game and broke Murray early on, 3-1. Federer went on to take the next and Murray held, 4-2, Federer held again and broke Murray in another David vs Goliath game where Murray’s shot looked extremely feeble and Federer just looked so overpowering with his forehand smashes!

This match really depended on how Murray played his first set, and you really can’t say he played bad, Federer just had too much momentum.

Second Set

Federer managed to carry his momentum into the second set to break in the very first game, Murray went down 0-40 and really now way back with the mood Federer was in. However, we all know Murray isn’t the type to just sit there and get rolled over, he went straight on the offensive, and broke back! Well done to Murray and at this point it was looking good. 

Federer never lifted his foot off the pedal, no matter how much Murray pushed he just kept going, and we got to 6-5 Federer in the second, and the game got to 40-40, one amazing rally and an unforced error by Murray led to a set point to Federer, another amazing rally, Murray came into the net and laid off a drop shot, Federer ran in and hit a forehand down the line and took down the second set.

Third Set 

At this point it looked like an ominous victory for Federer, and he was looking to pick up his 13^th title, and that’s exactly what happened, Federer won the first, broke the second, and carried on the same pattern until he got to 5-0, this really looked bad for Murray, who pushed back to win 2 games to save some pride, and Federer broke finally to win and for us to see his trademark celebration.

Overview 

Unfortunately, there really wasn’t much analysing to do in the game, the reason Murray beat Nadal is that he is the best at returning serve, and Nadal’s serve is no way good enough for Murray, and at times you saw Federer was troubled in his serves against Murray because he stands so far back but comes in really quickly. But that’s about it, a few back hand winners for Murray but Federer was simply awesome, he didn’t give Murray a chance to get into any kind of rhythm.

Tennis: US Open Round 1 Update

Federer bt Gonzalez

6-3, 6-0, 6-3

A predictable victory for Federer, his first tournament as number 2 (excluding the Olympics) and we saw the determined Federer that we have missed all season, smashing winners all over the court and hitting 15 aces.

Maximo Gonzalez wasn’t expected to put up a fight anyway but he looked helpless with the way Federer was playing, to the next round now for him to meet Thiago Alves, most likely another walkover.

 

Haas bt Gasguet

6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2

A brilliant game between a veteran tennis player Tommy Hass and the world number 12 Richard Gasquet, this was the most talked about opening game out there and it didn’t fail to deliver, a 5 set thriller ending in a victory for Haas.

This was Haas’s comeback match after his third shoulder operation, but the 31 year old looked in the best form of his life, he is know for his speed around the court and being able to return any shot (quite similar to Nadal), and with Gasquet firing some amazingly powerful forehands and back hands, the game looked to be his. However, Haas used all his experience and energy to really frustrate Gasquet who made many uncharacteristic unforced errors as a result. Haas broke twice in the 5^th set and took home an amazing victory.

Tommy Haas is now potentially looking in line to a quarter final meeting with Roger Federer. Which should be another great game.

That’s it for me, my apologies I was not able to watch either games fully at the times they were on, but will try to watch as many games as possible for the rest of the tournament.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts on the game.

Tennis: The End of Federer’s Reign?

Roger Federer was in a shock defeat against an unseeded Gilses Simon at the Toronto Masters. The great man is no longer looking immortal, hard court and grass has always been his forte, he has suffered more defeats on and had less winning streaks because they do vary in pace and bounce depending on climate. But, this leaves no excuse for him, to lose to an unseeded is shocking.

Watching Federer was like watching an average player, flashes of brilliance here and there but it just seemed lazy! I don’t want to give him such a hard time but when I watched him over the last 5 years he seemed to effortlessly decided how he would win the game, it always seemed to me that he just purely dictated the game no matter what postion his opponent was in he would hit the perfect winner. A friend once told me that he genuinely believes Federer pick and chooses which points he wins or loses just for sheer entertainment, and the way he way playing it was certainly looking like that. The Tiger Woods of Tennis.

The question that worries me is that is this just a glitch in the system and all will be restored by the Aussie Open or have we seen the best of Federer come and gone? Maybe now is the time Federer needs to be knocked off the top spot by Nadal in order to come back bigger and stronger. He still has age on his side with at least 3-4 years until he reached the “Andrei Agassi” stage where he is playing for the sheer desperation for one last Grand Slam. Fortunately, Federer is more of a Sampras than an Agassi, he’ll know when to quit.

Is Federer just going through a rough patch as all greats have done once in their career, or is Nadal simply just better – and now is it playing on Federer’s mind? One thing is for sure the rivalry will continue.