Topic: Who Can Stop Roger Federer

[hercules]

he is like a runaway freight train. he has now won 6 of his last 8 events.  39 of his last 41 matches is quite an achievement. federereeeeeeesians have a reason to get excited and to celebrate this success.

at any rate, who will be the first player to stop fed?

how long does he ride this wave of confidence and good fortune? when does it come to an end?

and a related question: can he make it to the top of the mountain again?

you have the floor. have at it.

[swish]

 
 
Better to make this thread before clay season, at least he'll have a chance at Miami.
 
As you know folks, he trails Nadal by a close margin and has a chance of making #2 in Miami.
 
The result of this would be that Nadal could meet Djokovic in the semi-finals and this would favor Federer if he can make the finals. He has a better chance with Djokovic especially with the clay season coming up.
 
The other area is that if Djokovic can continue his mastery over Nadal then Nadal would only get SF points if they are on the same side of the draw.
 
 
 

[hercules]

good to see you around general swish. i decided to hang around here from time to time.
 
this is a nice, calm place and some of the people are cool.
 
at any rate, this may be a timely topic as fed just said that he may be playing his best tennis in a while.
 
he took care of a loaded field in dubai and then dusted them all in indian wells.

**8 of the top 10 players were in dubai.
 
 
 
 

[swish]

good to see you around general swish. i decided to hang around here from time to time.
 
this is a nice, calm place and some of the people are cool.
 
at any rate, this may be a timely topic as fed just said that he may be playing his best tennis in a while.
 
he took care of a loaded field in dubai and then dusted them all in indian wells.
 
 
 
 

A magnificent run of late, but the courts coming up are not his best.
 
I give him a lot of credit to be in his best condition to take advantage of any openings.
He was rewarded for doing this many times and it got him a RG trophy.
 
There's really three players not doing their best out of the top 4 so he may continue....
 
 

[tennisfan78]

he is like a runaway freight train. he has now won 6 of his last 8 events.  39 of his last 41 matches is quite an achievement. federereeeeeeesians have a reason to get excited and to celebrate this success.

at any rate, who will be the first player to stop fed?

how long does he ride this wave of confidence and good fortune? when does it come to an end?

and a related question: can he make it to the top of the mountain again?

you have the floor. have at it.

Rafa would be the one to stop Fed.

I would like to see him on top of the mountain again, but the season is long, he needs to play consistently well , while Rafa and Djokovic not perform as well. I think it would be a difficult task.

[hercules]

they also said the same thing about the indian wells courts general swish:
 
they said the courts were slow as hell and the ball bounce was high.
 
and still nobody could touch his serve or his forehand.

[mikey11]

Sometimes we seem to forget that Federer is also a clay court specialist largely because he is constantly overshadowed by Rafa. But if you're interested, FTBT made their own compilation of exclusively Clay Court rankings.

Here is the top 20 for 12th Mar, 2012:

1. Rafael Nadal ESP
2. Novak Djokovic SRB
3. Roger Federer SUI
4. Andy Murray GBR
5. David Ferrer ESP
6. Richard Gasquet FRA
7. Robin Soderling SWE
8. Juan Martin Del Potro ARG
9. Nicolas Almargo ESP
10. Fernando Verdasco ESP
11. Tomas Berdych CZE
12. Gael Monfils FRA
13. Jurgen Melzer AUT
14. Gilles Simon FRA
15. Florian Mayer GER
16. Stanislas Wawrinka SUI
17. Ivan Ljubicic CRO
18. Viktor Troicki SRB
19. Juan Ignacio Chela ARG
20. Marin Cilic CRO

From the source:
FTBT has come up with our own clay court rankings system.  A player must have played four clay court events this year to be included. The system includes ATP Tour event main draw and qualifying and Challenger main draw results. The idea of these ranking is to reward conistency for betting purposes – treat them as interesting, but do not regard them as your god! They are based on performances over the last 12 months.

[monstertruck]

Fed is playing well and is rebuilding his confidence.

I still believe that on any given day the other top 3 are all viable candidates to stop this 'train' in it's tracks. 

I think Fed and Annacone have settled into a nice relationship that does not bode well for the rest of the ATP.  IMHO Paul is one of the best coaches for a player of Fed's style.

[mav140]

Indeed Fed is playing great! His great run will ultimately end, when? I still don't know.. But to tell you the truth, I really though Nadal would beat Fed at IW and I got a really nice surprise when I saw the scoreboard... Miami? Well, I would think Fed has all the motivation to win Miami considering that if he does, that would mean he would be #2 again, so I believe that is a hell of a motivation. Can he accomplish it? who knows. Yeah, Roger is playing great, but you still got Djokovic, Nadal and even Murray to deal to win the title and that is a tough achievement that can be done but I don't think it will be easy..


Whether or not Fed can continue this run remains to be seen. I have seen his strategy of play and I really do like it, it gives him a lot of aggressiveness to his new style and what I did like the most was to see him go into the court against Nadal and stick to that plan for the entire match, that was new... BUT, I still think that if Rafa continues to hammer Fed's backhand every time he has a shot he has a lot of opportunities to beat Fed, so, yeah, I think that if anybody in the top 10 that is most likely to end Fed's run will be Nadal.


The thing is that Fed, even if he continues to play the way he is, has a lot of competition and any of the top 4 today could win vs Fed on any given sunday, as welll as the other way around.. I am just happy to see him play like this, I haven't seen Fed this "confident" since years back. This confidence might be what he was lacking and we will have to see if that is enough (apart from his talent, strategy) to get to the top again.


Will he ever be on top again? I, as a Fed fan, would like to say that I am confident of this, but I am not, it will be really hard work and if he could win SW19 he might have a shot at it... but its a long way to go still... we will see. I would be really happy to see Fed get to the top spot again (even if its for only 2-3 weeks) and break Sampras record, and win another GS while we are at it!

The good news for Nadal is that Fed is not on his bottom half of the draw, he is on Djokovic's part of the draw, the other good news, after watching the draws is that Murray and Djokovic have the hardest run to the finals on Miami, while Nadal and Federer have been given "cake walks" to the semis. Nadal should be happy about that, just as Fed. My prediction for the tournament for SF would be Del Potro vs. Federer and Murray vs. Nadal..


Anyway, we will have to wait and see how it pans out. Good luck Fed.

[Nole nº1]

he is like a runaway freight train. he has now won 6 of his last 8 events.  39 of his last 41 matches is quite an achievement. federereeeeeeesians have a reason to get excited and to celebrate this success.

at any rate, who will be the first player to stop fed?

how long does he ride this wave of confidence and good fortune? when does it come to an end?

and a related question: can he make it to the top of the mountain again?

you have the floor. have at it.

Djokovic can stop Federer.

[pawan89]

Just as people are now calling the end of the Djokovic supremacy because he has now gone 2 tournaments (Dubai and IW) and lost in the semi's, I think it's un-warranted to make a big deal about Fed.

Keep in mind that he lost to Djokovic in the USOpen despite having match points on his serve. He then rolled through the season without meeting Djokovic or Murray (the latter had a fairly solid Asian swing), and beat Nadal on arguably Nadal's worst surface in a season when Nadal had almost no highlights. He then lost to Nadal again at the AO despite having been playing some of his best tennis and beat Murray on the faster courts of Dubai. The people he has taken care of are the likes of Del Potro and Tsonga who, for the most part have never actually threatened Federer outside the rare upset.

At the same time, he might be playing good tennis but the upcoming season is one where he's always stumbled to one person and there's NO evidence that anything will change - even if you don't bring up the fact that he's aging since he seems to be playing good tennis, things at best remain the same. He had a good win over Nadal, but he's also had good wins over Nadal every now and then (even wins on clay) and it's never translated into long term success.

Nadal is still his kryptonite and unless he can win the next 3/4 matches against Nadal and show that he's somehow found a solution, Nadal will have the upper hand BY FAR, especially on slower courts and clay. So we can easily see Nadal stopping him.

Then there's Djokovic who for all we know might have resolved his Federer problem as well - that's a lot easier and likely than Federer solving the Nadal problem, after-all Djokovic has beaten Federer many times and on the biggest stages as well, just happens to be close matches but Djokovic is still in his prime and improving.

Then there's Murray who's improving under Lendl and has had just 1 bad result this year. He too like Nadal has a winning record against Federer and while he might not look as scary as Nadal and Djokovic, he is more than capable of beating Federer.

The only thing that this recent run of Fed's suggests, to me at least, is that the top 2 can no longer count on Fed sliding down and out and that Fed will still be in the mix. And it's that much harder for any of the top 4 to win titles when they have to go through 2 of the other top 3 and none of them is on the way out. That is the only change compared to last year when it was almost a given that Djokovic and Nadal were the two big guns.

I want to see Federer regain number 1 but he'll have to make it happen this year before the USOpen, that's his only chance. It'll be that much harder to defend everything in the fall again. He'll need to win one of Wimbledon/USopen and for good measure both of those slams. He stands to gain at Wimbledon if he makes the semis or beyond and he stands to gain at the USOpen. The French will be a tough call especially if he's in Nadal's half, he'll probably end up losing ground and Djokovic gaining ground.

[Nole nº1]

Just as people are now calling the end of the Djokovic supremacy because he has now gone 2 tournaments (Dubai and IW) and lost in the semi's, I think it's un-warranted to make a big deal about Fed.

Keep in mind that he lost to Djokovic in the USOpen despite having match points on his serve. He then rolled through the season without meeting Djokovic or Murray (the latter had a fairly solid Asian swing), and beat Nadal on arguably Nadal's worst surface in a season when Nadal had almost no highlights. He then lost to Nadal again at the AO despite having been playing some of his best tennis and beat Murray on the faster courts of Dubai. The people he has taken care of are the likes of Del Potro and Tsonga who, for the most part have never actually threatened Federer outside the rare upset.

At the same time, he might be playing good tennis but the upcoming season is one where he's always stumbled to one person and there's NO evidence that anything will change - even if you don't bring up the fact that he's aging since he seems to be playing good tennis, things at best remain the same. He had a good win over Nadal, but he's also had good wins over Nadal every now and then (even wins on clay) and it's never translated into long term success.

Nadal is still his kryptonite and unless he can win the next 3/4 matches against Nadal and show that he's somehow found a solution, Nadal will have the upper hand BY FAR, especially on slower courts and clay. So we can easily see Nadal stopping him.

Then there's Djokovic who for all we know might have resolved his Federer problem as well - that's a lot easier and likely than Federer solving the Nadal problem, after-all Djokovic has beaten Federer many times and on the biggest stages as well, just happens to be close matches but Djokovic is still in his prime and improving.

Then there's Murray who's improving under Lendl and has had just 1 bad result this year. He too like Nadal has a winning record against Federer and while he might not look as scary as Nadal and Djokovic, he is more than capable of beating Federer.

The only thing that this recent run of Fed's suggests, to me at least, is that the top 2 can no longer count on Fed sliding down and out and that Fed will still be in the mix. And it's that much harder for any of the top 4 to win titles when they have to go through 2 of the other top 3 and none of them is on the way out. That is the only change compared to last year when it was almost a given that Djokovic and Nadal were the two big guns.

I want to see Federer regain number 1 but he'll have to make it happen this year before the USOpen, that's his only chance. It'll be that much harder to defend everything in the fall again. He'll need to win one of Wimbledon/USopen and for good measure both of those slams. He stands to gain at Wimbledon if he makes the semis or beyond and he stands to gain at the USOpen. The French will be a tough call especially if he's in Nadal's half, he'll probably end up losing ground and Djokovic gaining ground.

You are right.

[Start da Game]

no big deal hercules.......he will continue struggling to beat them where it matters the most.......nadal was idiotic with his scheduling in IW and djokovic is just feeling the early season pressure of defending the tournaments......no such things at roland garros.......

[Nole nº1]

no big deal hercules.......he will continue struggling to beat them where it matters the most.......nadal was idiotic with his scheduling in IW and djokovic is just feeling the early season pressure of defending the tournaments......no such things at roland garros.......

I agrre, but Djokovic fell income and Nadal and Federer increased income

[Start da Game]

no big deal hercules.......he will continue struggling to beat them where it matters the most.......nadal was idiotic with his scheduling in IW and djokovic is just feeling the early season pressure of defending the tournaments......no such things at roland garros.......

I agrre, but Djokovic fell income and Nadal and Federer increased income

i agree......djokovic should have played doubles and increase his income.......

[Nole nº1]

no big deal hercules.......he will continue struggling to beat them where it matters the most.......nadal was idiotic with his scheduling in IW and djokovic is just feeling the early season pressure of defending the tournaments......no such things at roland garros.......

I agrre, but Djokovic fell income and Nadal and Federer increased income

i agree......djokovic should have played doubles and increase his income.......

Maybe.

[falcon]

Fed definitely has a good shot in Miami but come clay its going to be Nole and Nadal all the way is my guess. Nole wants this slam and Rafa has to show that he is still king there. Btw, no one seems to be talking abt Murray. Any thoughts?

[Dallas]

Fed definitely has a good shot in Miami but come clay its going to be Nole and Nadal all the way is my guess. Nole wants this slam and Rafa has to show that he is still king there. Btw, no one seems to be talking abt Murray. Any thoughts?

Well, maybe because this thread is "who can stop ROGER FEDERER"?

Just having some fun with ya!

Murray still has a lot to prove, not only to his fans but to himself.  I'm one of those who will agree that there is a "BIG 3"...NOT a "BIG 4".  I can't include Murray in the big anything until he wins at least 1 slam. But that's just my opinion.  I've said before, when Murray starts being more aggressive - he'll start winning slams.  He will never win one being 100 feet behind the baseline trying to 'out-rally' the other opponent.   Again - that's just my opinion.

[Nole nº1]

Fed definitely has a good shot in Miami but come clay its going to be Nole and Nadal all the way is my guess. Nole wants this slam and Rafa has to show that he is still king there. Btw, no one seems to be talking abt Murray. Any thoughts?

Yes.

[hercules]

murray has to be really hungry by now but the current moment belongs to fed.
 
others will just have to fight a little harder.