The year that wasn’t… and more importantly, THE YEAR THAT WAS!

Only 4 tournaments left to go till the year ends and we all know what has not happened this year. Roger Federer did not win Wimbledon, he did not win any Slam, nor did he get close to reaching the #1 ranking. But what those big “fails” hide from us is that plenty HAS happened nonetheless. So I thought I would take a moment to recount all those milestones our champ reached this year.

Please keep in mind this is not a list of ALL the records he holds. That post would be way too long. For example, I didn’t include his record for most Grand Slam titles won in this post. What I have listed below are ONLY those stats that he added to or improved upon in the past 9 months. Turns out, even in this 3/4^ths of a year, he has achieved so much that I had to split them up into categories. Without further ado, I present Roger Federer’s 2015 in Stats and Records – thus far.

Grand Slams:

Appearances:

• Roger has now appeared in 66 Grand Slams as of 2015 US Open. He trails Santoro who had 70 appearances.
• Roger has now appeared in 64 consecutive Grand Slams as of 2015 US Open. This is an all-time record for both men and women.

Finals:

• By reaching the US Open final this year, Roger has now appeared in an all-time men’s record of 27 Grand Slam finals. Nadal is in 2^nd place with 20.
• During the Open Era, only Roger has reached 10 finals of a single Grand Slam by reaching his 10^th Wimbledon final this year. This is also obviously a record for most Wimbledon finals reached in the Open Era.
• Roger reached his 7^th US Open final this year and is now tied with Connors for 2^nd place. Both are behind Sampras and Lendl with 8.

Semifinals:

• Roger extended his all-time record by reaching his 38^th Grand Slam semifinal in New York which is 5 more than the previous record set by Connors.
• Roger reached his 10^th Wimbledon semifinal this year and is now 1 behind Connors with 11. However, unlike Connors, Roger has won every Wimbledon semifinal he reached.
• Roger has now reached 10 US Open semifinals and is tied with Agassi for 2^nd place. Both trail Connors with 14.

Quarterfinals:

• Roger reached an all-time record 46 quarterfinals in total at the US Open this year and has long since surpassed the previous record of 41 held by Connors.
• Roger has also reached a record 11 quarterfinals overall in the French Open as of 2015; Nadal trails him with 10.

Individual Records:

• Roger has reached the round of 16 a record 54 times (2000 French Open – 2015 US Open) holding a 45–8 record at this round.
• As of 2015 US Open, Roger has a 32–1 record when playing night matches at Flushing Meadows surpassing Agassi’s record of 28.
• Roger continued to extend his all-time record of total match wins at all Grand Slams combined with 297 wins.
• Roger continued to extend his all-time record of total matches played at all Grand Slams combined by playing 346 matches as of this year. Connors is next on the list with 282 matches played. This means no other player has ever even played 300 Grand Slam matches. In fact, Roger has won more Slam matches, i.e. 297, than any other player has even played.
• Roger extended his all-time record of hardcourt matches won at the Grand Slam level with 153 wins. He is in 2^nd place with 79 grass wins behind Connors’ 106.
• Roger is the only male player in history to win over 60 matches at all four Grand Slams and the only player to win over 70 matches at 3 Grand Slams. After participating in all 4 Slams this year his total match wins at each Slam are as follows: His 65 match wins at the French Open is his lowest figure (he is in 2^nd place behind Nadal’s 70). He has won 79 matches at Wimbledon (2^nd behind Connors’ 84), 78 matches at the US Open (3^rd behind Agassi’s 79 and Connors’ 97) and 75 matches at the Australian Open – which is a record for that Slam.

Are you already reeling from all the stats? Because that was only the Grand Slam records; there’s plenty more he did on the ATP Tour. So splash some water on your face, get a cup of coffee or tea and curl up for part 2!

ATP World Tour records:

Aggregate records:

• Roger has won 87 titles in his career. He’s at 3^rd place in the all-time record. In the Open Era only Connors (109) and Lendl (94) have won more titles.
• Roger has reached 133 finals during his career, 3^rd in the Open Era, behind Connors (163) and Lendl (146).
• Roger won his 1,000^th match earlier in this year by winning the Brisbane final. He is now 3^rd on the list of most career match wins with his 1,049 wins behind Connors (1,254) and Lendl (1,071). The next active player on the list is Nadal with 751 wins.
  
• Roger is 3^rd on the list of total career matches played with 1,284. The next active player on the list is Ferrer with 946 matches played. This means Roger has won more matches, i.e. 1,049 matches than any other active player has even played.
• Roger is the only player to win 7 different tournaments at least 5 times each and also to win 6 different tournaments at least 6 times each. As of 2015, he has won 5 titles at US Open, 6 titles at Basel and the ATP World Tour Finals, 7 at Dubai, Wimbledon and Cincinnati and 8 at Halle.
• Roger has now won at least 50 matches in 7 tournaments: Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open, Indian Wells, Basel and Halle.
• By winning his first title of the year in Brisbane, Roger continued his streak of 15 years of winning a title in every season from 2001 to 2015. This is an ongoing all-time record, with Lendl in 2^nd place for winning at least one title for 14 consecutive years.
• Roger has won singles tournaments in an Open Era record of 19 different countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Qatar, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, the United States and added Turkey to the list this year.

Service records:

• As of this year thus far, Roger has played the most tiebreaks since the introduction of the tiebreak. He has played 593 tiebreaks. Karlovic is close on his heels at 2^nd place with 587 tiebreaks played.
• Roger has won the most tiebreaks in history as well. He has won 386 tiebreaks. Sampras is in 2^nd place with winning 328 of them.
• Roger currently still has the highest career winning percentage in tiebreaks – 65.09% (386–207 as of the 2015 US Open). Ashe is in 2^nd place and Isner is in 3^rd.
• Roger hit his 9,000^th ace in the final of the 2015 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. He is the 4^th player to cross the 9,000^th ace mark and is in 3^rd place with 9,386 aces hit so far, behind Karlovic and Ivanisevic.
• From the 1^st round of Halle 2015 to the Quarterfinals of Wimbledon 2015, Roger went on a streak of 116 consecutive service holds, 2^nd only to Karlovic’s 129 holds in a row back in 2009.

Surface records:

• Roger won his 200th match on clay with his R2 win at the 2015 Istanbul Open.
• Roger won his first title on clay this year at Istanbul since 2012. This was his 11^th clay title.
• With titles at Istanbul and Halle, in addition to this 3 hardcourt titles, 2015 is now Roger’s 8^th year of winning titles on clay, hardcourts and grass.
• By winning in Halle this year, Roger extended his all-time record of winning the most grass titles (15) in the Open Era.
• By winning his clay title in Istanbul this year, Roger is now the only player to win at least eleven titles each on clay, grass, outdoor hardcourt and indoor hardcourt in the Open Era.
• By winning in Cincinnati this year, Roger has now won an all-time record 66 outdoor titles. Nadal is right behind him with 65.

Hang in there! We’re almost done except for a few more records that I thought I should break down according to each level of the Tour. Otherwise I was drowning trying to comprehend all of it!

ATP Masters 1000:

• Cincinnati has been Roger’s most successful Masters Tournament. He holds the Cincinnati record for most finals reached (7) and most titles won (7), meaning he has never lost a final at Cincinnati.
• By winning in Cincinnati this year, Roger has extended his all-time record of winning the most hardcourt titles (59) in the Open Era. He is currently the only player who has won over 50 titles on one surface.
• Roger extended his record of most matches won at the ATP Masters 1000 level with 326 matches won.
• Roger is the only player to win a Masters 1000 title without dropping serve and therefore obviously he is also the only player to do this twice, both times at Cincinnati, in 2012 and now in 2015.
• Roger has won a record 18 hardcourt Masters series titles by winning in Cincinnati this year.
• With the Cincinnati 2015 title, Roger now has the 2^nd highest number of Masters titles with 24 and is tied with Djokovic. Both are behind Nadal who has 27 titles. 
• Roger has reached a record 42 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 finals by reaching the Cincinnati 2015 final and is tied with Nadal for the most SFs reached at this level; they have both reached 56 SFs.

ATP 500:

• Roger won his 16th ATP 500 title when he won in Halle this year; he now shares the record of most ATP 500 titles with Nadal.
• Halle has been a very successful event for Roger. With this year’s win he now holds the Halle records for most overall titles (8), most consecutive titles (4), as well as most finals (10).
• Dubai has also been a great tournament for Roger. He holds the Dubai records for most titles (7), most finals (9), and shares the record for most consecutive titles (3) with Djokovic.

ATP 250:

• By winning in Istanbul this year, Roger has won 24 ATP 250 titles which put him at 2^nd place behind Muster with 26.
• By reaching the Istanbul final this year, Roger has now reached 32 finals at the ATP 250 level tying with Muster and Roddick for the top spot.

ATP World Tour Finals:

• This year Roger has qualified for the ATP World Tour Finals for his 14^th consecutive year, from 2002-2015. This is an all-time record both for consecutive and total number of years.

Rankings:

• Roger might not be able to end the year ranked #2 but regardless of whether that happens or not, Roger holds the all-time record for total number of weeks being ranked in the Top 2. As of October 5^th, 2015 he has been in the Top 2 for 469 weeks. Lendl is behind him with 409 weeks.
• He is also close to overtaking Connors for the total number of weeks of being ranked in the Top 3. Connors’ record is 595 weeks. As of October 5^th, 2015, Roger is at 582 weeks. He needs 14 more weeks to take the top spot. If Roger can remain ranked in the Top 3 from now till January 11^th 2016, he will overtake Connors with 596 weeks on that day.

Performances against Novak:

Lastly I want to quickly touch upon Roger’s performances against Novak. This was particularly helpful for me because Novak has shattered our dreams quite a few times the past 2 years. But, it’s important to remember that first of all, Novak has done that to all the players on the tour, he is the dominant #1 by a mile right now. And second, compared to the rest of the tour, Roger has challenged Novak the most.

Roger has won 5 titles in 2015, 2^nd only to Novak’s 7. Roger has reached 9 finals this year (also 2^nd to Novak’s 11) and lost 4 but all those losses were to Novak only. Important to note that of the 5 titles Roger won in 2015, 2 of those came by defeating Novak as well. In fact, from January 2014 till now, Novak has lost only 13 times in these 21 months. Of those 13 losses, Roger is responsible for 5 of them. Stan defeated him twice and 6 other players including Rafa and Andy have only defeated him once each in this time period. So clearly, despite having 1,284 matches in his body, 34 year old Federer is still pushing the current #1 more than any other player. I honestly don’t know whether to feel proud or saddened by that statement but there you have it.

******************

Phew! I think I am done! It was exhausting listing the many new records that the Maestro has achieved in the past 9 months of 2015. And honestly, I am pretty sure I missed a few. But this took me 3 days to write up so I give up!

As we know, Roger has reached that legendary status where each time he steps on the court he either breaks an old record or sets a new one. They’re not all big ones like winning a Grand Slam or even a Masters. As such, I think we have a tendency to take these “smaller” successes for granted. At least I sometimes do. Only a Federer fan would do this because Roger spoiled us all for over a decade with crazy, massive accomplishments like no other player before or since.

But when you put all these achievements together as I just did above, 3 truths hit you at once. 1. Roger is still playing an extremely high level of tennis. 2. He is not just playing good tennis but also consistently testing the #1 ranked player. 3. He still plays with flourish, flair and finesse that are unmatched on the tour.

Roger’s vigour and enthusiasm leaves me flabbergasted when I realize he has been on tour for 17 years now. Looking at him smiling at practice and you would think he’s a newbie who is simply happy to be playing the sport he loves. I think it’s that joy that keeps him going. Why else would a father of 4 still constantly innovate, push and change his game? Why would he still find a way to invent a new shot while achieving all that I listed above?

Then you watch him play the SABR and listen to the crowd’s reaction and you know why he still keeps playing and why we still keep watching. Because for those few seconds, we all simultaneously experience a Federer Moment. The point, the match and the opponent almost don’t matter as you draw your breath in admiration to realize Roger Federer can still make time stop ticking. The world melts away and it’s just us and him and magic.

Thank you Roger for all that you do and congratulations on another great year on tour! We are blessed that you continue to give us excellence when you really have nothing left to prove. But then, this was never about proving anything was it?

“…Maybe you have to go back and think, “Why have I started playing tennis?” Because I just like it. It’s actually sort of a dream hobby that became somewhat of a job. Some people just don’t get that ever. So for us, the players, it’s logical that we love doing what we’re doing and you want to do it as long as you can.” – Shanghai 2012

I hope you enjoy your dream hobby for a long, long time Roger, because we never tire of watching you play! Good luck for the rest of the season! Allez Maestro!

***There may be errors/typos in some of the stats above. There was a LOT of information to sift through and I am only human, unlike Roger! If you spot something, I would appreciate it if you let me know but please don’t be mean about it. Thanks!***

***Photos are from Zimbio.com***

Federer wins his 7th sailboat!

Roger Federer won his 7^th Dubai title! Hurray for another sailboat! Yes I know I’m a week late, but sometimes life gets in the way. However, though I’m late, it doesn’t mean I forgot about the win. On the contrary, I have been savoring it over the past 7 days. And I realized that the reason I enjoyed this title so much is because this win was important on many levels. Where to start? The records, yes I know. I’ll get to those at the end I promise. That’s the obvious answer: the records and stats. But this win was so much more.

For starters, this was his first tournament back after the much talked about early exit at the Australian Open earlier this year. He was gone for a full month during which he had a long vacation and then a training block. While that meant he was fresh and ready, he hadn’t had any match practice. I’m sure he was a bit nervous about how he would fare being back on tour. So it was quite uplifting to see him get more and more comfortable with every match he played. He also faced a variety of opponents. Youzhny was good as a first match to get his confidence up; then came lefty Verdasco, a player he hadn’t played against in a while. After that was Gasquet who had the potential to be dangerous but wasn’t. Then in the SFs he faced Coric, an unknown entity. It certainly wasn’t the easiest of draws, especially on the quick courts of Dubai where there is less room for error. Roger had to adjust quickly and get in the groove right away, which he thankfully did 🙂

He also defended his points and more importantly, defended his title. He came in as a defending champion and stayed unbeaten and we haven’t had that feeling for a while except at Halle last year. Considering he won 5 titles in 2014 I was wondering if he would be able to keep up with the pace and defend all of them again this year but at least now we know we already have one title defense in the bag. Plus, Dubai was the first title of 2014; this year we got our first one in Brisbane. So we know already that 2015 will be better than 2013 when he won just Halle.

In addition to the joy of Roger defending a title, Dubai will also be etched in my memory for the style of tennis he played. Even though Roger won in Brisbane and the conditions there are fast, I felt he didn’t deliver his optimal level of tennis there. He won the tournament with a combination of will, determination and good-enough tennis. He also looked tired by the end of Brisbane and that slight feeling of ennui continued during his matches in Melbourne. He didn’t look like he was enjoying playing as much as he usually does. All that changed in Dubai. Roger went from strength to strength in every match and produced scintillating points all throughout. He was super aggressive and hit some of the most beautiful volleys ever. His serves were accurate, his shots were clean and even his breakpoint conversion was impressive. He played with his vintage flair and lethal precision and didn’t drop a single set on his road to victory.

He exhibited a high level of tennis in all his matches but if I had to pick one, it would undoubtedly be the final which brings me to yet another important matter, his opponent in the final, Novak Djokovic. Even though Roger has defeated him a few times the last few years, they have always been in SF matches. The last time Roger defeated Novak in a final was at the 2012 Cincinnati Masters. Going into the Dubai final, the H2H was ever so slightly in Roger’s favor at 19-17 but Novak has been constantly threatening to get that to par. And on paper, it looked like Djokovic might get closer to that goal. He had just become the brand new Australian Open champion and further distanced himself from the pack as the World #1. Also, except for his loss in Doha, he had been undefeated since last year in Bercy. Funnily enough, a certain Mr. Federer was responsible for his last loss before that, in Shanghai 😉

Given that he was armed with the confidence that comes with being at the top of the world, many would have said Novak was the favorite. I myself thought it would come down to day-form and who got the quicker start, and I was right. Roger played his best match of the tournament in the final. He stepped it up a whole other level from his previous matches. The Swiss unleashed his entire arsenal against Novak and didn’t let him breathe as he bore down on him with offensive play from the first point to the last. Novak had an opportunity in the beginning but Roger held on and from then he didn’t look back and took the set with just one break of the Serbian’s serve. The second set was tougher with Novak creating more chances for himself, but every time, Roger dug himself out. He faced 7 break points in total and saved them all with fantastic serving, coming back from 15-40 multiple times. Despite getting passed a few times, Roger continued to move forward and his commitment to his net play paid off in the end.

This post wouldn’t be complete without mentioning another milestone he reached right in the midst of the wonderful final match. Roger hit his 9,000^th ace. He is only the fourth player to ever cross the 9,000 aces barrier and he’s in the company of elite servers, Roddick, Karlovic and Ivanisevic which is what makes this record extra special. Those three names are known for their massive serves and those super-bullets have earned them a total of 60 titles with 2 Grand Slams amongst the 3 of them. That sounds impressive till you realize the Maestro has won 84 titles including 17 Grand Slams all by himself. Clearly one of these four is not like the other. While the three have been lauded for their serves, Roger’s serve is always mentioned as one of the many tools in his toolbox. He also has that powerful forehand, exquisite backhand, eerie anticipation and feline footwork that dominates the narrative of the Swiss.

As such, Roger’s wonderful serve is possibly also one of the most underrated. But by reaching this milestone, he gives us the chance to put his serve under the spotlight for once. Roger’s serve is not the fastest nor does he hit a dozen of aces in every match. But his serve certainly has some magical qualities. For one, the toss is the same each time so the opponent has a hard time guessing where he is going to hit it. He is also unnervingly accurate with it. He seemingly picks and chooses his spots at will which makes returning his serves much more difficult and thus leading to more aces. Even more importantly, he often produces his aces right when he needs them the most. The final vs. Novak was a clear illustration of this. During crunch time, he can serve his way out. Check out this ATP tribute video where his opponents talk about Roger’s fantastic serve.

For me personally, I love his serves not for the stats or accuracy but for how beautiful the service motion is. I’ve always thought if there was ever a statue to be made of the Maestro it should be of his service stance. Two to three bounces of the ball is all he needs before the momentary positioning of the ball in the neck of the racquet. After that he starts his motion and it flows uninterrupted each time like a well-oiled machine. In one smooth movement he gently tosses the ball up, while his right arm gets the racquet ready and his knees bend in anticipation. Then at the right moment of the toss he uncoils his body, getting strength from his core and legs and smacks the ball making whatever adjustment he needs depending on what kind of serve he has decided to hit. Through it all, his arms are loose, his face is unconstrained, his eyes are relaxed and he finishes the motion by landing perfectly on his left leg with the balance of a ballerina. If you shoot photos of his service motion, it is pure perfection no matter when you snap the camera. It is the best example of art and athleticism coming together to produce beauty.

OK I’ll stop praising the Maestro’s serve now even though I could go on and on. I did promise at the beginning of the post that I would end by mentioning some of the stats and records he achieved with this win and so without further ado, here they are!

• Federer has now won 84 titles in his career, at 3rd place in the all-time record. In the open era only Connors (109) and Lendl (94) have won more titles.
• Federer has appeared in 126 finals during his career, 3rd in the Open Era, behind Connors and Lendl.
• Federer has won an all-time record 58 hardcourt titles.
• Federer is the only player to win 50 titles on a particular surface.
• Federer is the only player to win tournaments 7 times each on two surfaces, grass (Halle and Wimbledon) and hardcourts (Dubai).
• Federer is the only player to win 7 different tournaments at least 5 times each. As of 2015, he has won 5 titles at the US Open, 6 titles at Cincinnati, Basel and the ATP World Tour Finals and 7 at Dubai, Halle and Wimbledon.
• Federer is the only player to record 600 match wins on hardcourts. He currently has 628 hardcourt match wins. Agassi sits at #2 with 598.
• Federer is the 2nd player to record at least 600 wins per any court type –Vilas leads with 644 match wins on clay.
• Federer has now won 63 outdoor titles and is tied at 1st place with Nadal.
• Federer is 3^rd on list of career outdoor match wins with his 755 wins as of the 2015 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
• Federer is 3rd on list of career matches played with 1,235 as of the 2015 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
• Federer is 3rd on list of most career match wins with his 1,007 wins as of the 2015 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
• Federer has reached a record 21 ATP 500 finals.
• Federer has now won 15 ATP 500 titles. He is tied at 1st place with Nadal.
• Federer hit his 9,000th ace in the final of the 2015 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. He is the 4th player to cross the 9,000th ace mark behind Roddick (9,074), Karlovic (9,375) and Ivanisevic (10,183).
• On March 9^th, 2015, Federer will have completed a record 440 weeks ranked in the top 2.

Dubai was a wonderful tournament for Roger and a very important win that will give him confidence not just for the upcoming Masters at Indian Wells but for the year too. As we know from his schedule, he will skip Miami so Indian Wells will be his last hard court tournament till after Wimbledon. He was a finalist there last year and will be looking to see if he can go one better. The tournament will kick off on March 12^th but remember he’ll have a bye in the first round. Good luck in California Roger!

 

***The first photo is a Getty Image from the ATP site. The rest are from the Dubai Duty Free Championship site.***

My rant… in stats

As we know by now, Roger Federer lost in the third round of the Australian Open. I don’t like to write about losses so I figured I would come back to the blog when I finally had something else to talk about. But then came the deluge of stats all over the media: of streaks getting broken, measurements of his failure and indicators of his fall from grace. So I decided I had enough of this nonsense and compiled my own list of stats and records that ‘measure’ Roger Federer, as of his latest matches in Australia in 2015. Here we go!

• Roger holds the record for most Grand Slam titles (17), most Grand Slams finals (25), SFs (36) and QFs (43) and NONE of these records will get crossed in 2015. The closest active players are Nadal for total Grand Slam titles (14) and finals (20), while Djokovic is the first active player behind him for most SFs (25) and QFs (31).
• Roger holds the record for many consecutive Grand Slam streaks as well. He won 3 Grand Slam titles in a row and shares that with Sampras, Nadal and Djokovic. But guess what? He is the only player who did this twice, in 2006 and 2007 😀
• Roger holds the record for most consecutive Grand Slam finals by reaching 10 finals in a row from Wimbledon 2005 to US Open 2007. But guess what? He holds the 2nd place too with 8 consecutive finals reached from Roland Garros 2008 to Australian Open 2010 🙂
• Roger holds the record for most consecutive Grand Slam SFs with 23. It started in Wimbledon 2004 and continued till the Australian Open 2010. The closest player behind him is Djokovic with 14.
• Roger holds the record for most consecutive Grand Slam QFs with 36. This started in Wimbledon 2004 and stretched on till Roland Garros 2013. Djokovic is in 2nd place with 23 and this is an active streak. But in order to cross Roger’s record, Djokovic needs to reach the QFs of every Grand Slam from now till Wimbledon 2018.
• Roger shares the record for the most consecutive Grand Slam matches won with Djokovic. They both won 27 matches in a row but guess what? Roger did it twice, meaning he has two streaks of winning 27 Grand Slam matches in a row 😉
• By participating in the 2015 Australian Open Roger has now played in 61 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments extending his own all-time record. Ferreira trails him in 2nd place with 56.
• Roger has played in a total of 63 Grand Slam tournaments. He is tied at 2nd place with Hewitt and they both trail Santoro in 1st place with 70.
• Roger has won 281 Grand Slam matches which extended his own all-time record even more. Connors is a distant 2nd with 233 Grand Slam match wins.
• Roger has won a record 75 matches at the Australian Open. Nobody else has even won 60 matches at this tournament and in fact, Edberg is in 2nd place, with 56 match wins.
• Roger has won a record 147 hardcourt Grand Slam matches. Agassi is in 2nd place with 127.
• Roger won his 1,000th career match in the Brisbane final and has a total of 1,002 wins now. He is in 3rd place behind Lendl and Connors.
• Roger has now played 1,230 matches in his career. He is in 3rd place behind Lendl and Connors. Ferrer is the next active player to have played the most matches, 905. Thus, Roger has more match WINS (1,002) than the total number of matches PLAYED by any active player.
• Roger won his 83rd career title in Brisbane. He is in 3rd place behind Lendl and Connors.
• Roger played his 125th career final in Brisbane. He is in 3rd place behind Lendl and Connors.
• Roger won his 23rd ATP 250 title in Brisbane. He is in 2nd place behind Muster with 26.
• Roger played his 31st ATP 250 final in Brisbane. He is in 3rd place behind Muster and Roddick who reached 32 finals each.
• Roger set a new record in Brisbane for winning at least one title for 15 consecutive years from 2001 to 2015. The previous record was by Lendl for 14 consecutive years.
• Roger now has 62 outdoor titles. He is tied at 1st place with Nadal.
• Roger has 57 hardcourt titles extending his own all-time record. No other player has ever won even 50 hardcourt titles; Connors is in 2nd place with 49.
• Roger has won a career total of 750 outdoor matches. He is in 3rd place behind Connors and Vilas.
• Roger has won a career total of 623 hardcourt matches extending his own all-time record. No one else has ever won 600 hardcourt matches. Agassi is in 2nd place with 598 hardcourt match wins.
• Roger continues to hold the record for most matches won against top 10 opponents with 183 wins. Nadal and Djokovic are behind him in 2nd and 3rd place.
• We all know Roger holds the record for most weeks ranked as #1, both total and consecutive. However, Roger also holds the records for most weeks ranked in the top 2. Roger has spent a total of 433 weeks ranked in the top 2 as of January 19th, 2015. Lendl is in 2nd place with 409 weeks. Furthermore, Roger spent a record 346 consecutive weeks ranked in the top 2 ahead of Connors in 2nd place with 300 consecutive weeks.

There it is. A quick snapshot at the records the Maestro holds and will continue to improve on once he comes back on tour in a month’s time in Dubai. The crazy thing is, this list is only the tip of the ice-berg. So the next time people try to bring you down by quoting a stat of his recent ‘failures’, just throw back a few of the above in their faces and tell them, with all that winning, and setting records and being insanely great over a ridiculously long period of time, even super heroes can have an off day. Therefore, they can shove their faces into the nearest pillows available because their favorites could never dream of the heights we have reached and they will never know how glorious the view is from that far up into the stratosphere. Game, set and match, Federer and his fans.

 

 

***I used older photos from my collection to depict the many faces of Roger rather than the sad images that were being used in the media recently. Unfortunately I don’t know the sources of these photos, they have been collected by me over many years. If you know of the sources, do let me know and I will include them here.***

Roger Fighterer is through to the US Open SFs!

I don’t even know where or how to begin. My thoughts are all scattered in various bullet points and headlines: ‘Roger Federer is through to the US Open SFs for the 9^th time in his career’; ‘This is the first time Roger has reached the US Open SFs since 2011’; ‘Roger has reached his 36^th Grand Slam SF, which is of course just extending his all-time record’. But embedded in the stack of data is this: ‘Roger Federer saves 2 match points to reach the SFs’. And also this: ‘This is the first time Roger has won a Grand Slam match after facing match points’. I think those two in particular should tell you how tumultuous this 5 set match was.

The QF match started off in the worst possible way for the Maestro. Basically nothing worked. His first serves were on a holiday and his returning was average at best. Monfils meanwhile brought that rare version of himself that he had displayed throughout the tournament, Monfils the tennis player rather than the entertainer. He reigned in the crazy and played to win and the results were immediate. He saved two early break points in the set and then held serve resolutely despite not having many first serves of his own. And then in the 5^th game of the set with Roger serving he offered the Frenchman break points, one of which Gael took. Just like that, Gael was up 3*-2 and quickly consolidated to 4-2*. After that, both players held which meant Gael was able to serve it out, 6-4 in 41 minutes.

On to set 2 and Roger started to serve a bit better. But then his returns started to falter even more. It didn’t help that Gael’s serves got better as well. Instead of getting his act together Federer seemed to sink deeper into his funk as he got broken in the first game of the set. After that, even though he held quite comfortably, he couldn’t dent the Frenchman’s service games as the set raced to 5-3* with Roger to serve to stay in the set. But Roger blinked again as Gael broke him one more time to seal the set, 6-3 in 37 minutes. Monfils was nearly untouchable in this set committing only 4 unforced errors compared to Roger’s 13.

The match had quickly gone from bad to dire in 78 minutes. The equation was now simple. Roger would need to make a heroic comeback and win the next 3 sets in order to extend his stay in New York. No room for error any more. Obviously Roger did the math himself and he started the third set fighting. He broke Gael in the first game and consolidated with a love hold to take the lead for the first time in the match at 2-0*. But Gael was still in the zone and quickly recovered with his own love hold and then as Roger blinked, Gael had 3 breakpoints on the Swiss. Roger saved the first 2 but couldn’t save the third and the set was back on serve at 2 all. But this was a different Roger compared to the first 2 sets. He kept pressuring Gael immediately, got one break point and took it with a winner to take the lead again, 3*-2. From then on, Roger made no mistakes. Despite Gael easily holding serve, he didn’t get a peak into Roger’s. At 5*-4, Roger served the set out to love, 6-4 in just 34 minutes. Both players played a very high level of tennis in the set but Roger was absolutely clinical; just 1 unforced error with 12 winners.

Set 4 and both players struggled a bit more in this set than the last, and Roger’s first serve went off to the beach again leaving him behind to deal with the Frenchman alone. Roger broke Gael in the 3^rd game of the set to go up 2*-1 and yet again Gael broke him right back to level the score at 2 all. After that both players held, often precariously, but they held. Soon Gael was up 5-4* with Roger having to serve to stay in the match. And then horror of horrors, 2 bad errors from our champ gave Monfils 2 match points. Roger had never saved match points at a Grand Slam to go and then win the match. But the man is still re-writing history as we speak so there’s a first time for everything. Roger came in behind his serve for the 1^st match point and then watched with the rest of us in slow-motion as Gael’s shot sailed long. One saved and one to go. A great serve from the Swiss, a short rally ending with a forehand winner from Roger and Boom! 2 match points saved, and we had deuce! An error from Gael gave the Swiss advantage and a great serve gave him the set! We were level at 5 all!

Arthur Ashe broke out into thunderous applause that continued well beyond the usual time as thousands in the stadium realized what they had witnessed. Roger Federer, 17 time Grand Slam Champion had shown them what had gotten him those records was not just his godly talents but his mettle, his spirit, his will to win. The crowd knew they had seen something special and the love he felt from them definitely helped to carry him through this difficult match.

Gael had to start serving even as the applause continued but I’m sure he knew the momentum had changed. Roger pushed him to a deuce and then another deuce before Monfils threw in a double double-fault to gift the Maestro the break. Roger wasn’t going to mess it up this time and he held to 15 to take the set 7-5 in 61 minutes. 2 sets a piece and we were headed to a final 5^th set!

Roger was in a very confident and aggressive mood at the start of the set. He immediately broke Gael and then quickly held to go up 2-0*. With some difficulty Monfils managed to get on the board but Roger’s first serves had come back from the beach by then and helped Roger get a love hold for him to go up 3-1*. Monfils was feeling the pressure and his level dropped a bit which was enough to give Roger 3 break points in his service game. Roger needed only one to go up a double break, 4*-1. Roger consolidated the double break and Monfils was left to serve to stay in the match at 1*-5. He held to love, a last burst of exemplary tennis from the Frenchman, and it was up to Roger to serve for the match. The Maestro didn’t even blink as he served it out to love. Game, set, match, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 in 3 hours and 20 minutes. Here is the on-court interview, a clip of the fabulous part where he saved 2 match points, the presser and the stats.Roger’s game was all over the place this match, though of course from set 3 onwards, he kept improving and by the 5^th set you could see he was in full flow. He was also splendid at the net, winning 53 of 74(!) points. Hopefully that will give him confidence going into the SFs. But this match was less about Roger’s tennis and more about Roger the champion. I never understand why Roger is always thought of as all-talent and no fight. In fact, a great example of someone with that description was right across the net from the Swiss. Gael Monfils has a ton of talent, no question. He has extraordinary athletic abilities, fantastic shot-making skills and is probably the fastest mover on court in the entire tour. Yet, he doesn’t have any Grand Slam titles or even finals to show for it. Talent is a very important part of the formula but talent alone does not equal success.

Roger didn’t get to 80 titles without having the discipline, determination, will, self-belief and fighting spirit needed to overcome a series of hungry opponents in a row. And times like this QF, when his best tennis might not be there, these attributes of a champion’s mind to go for that extra shot, are what bail him out. Roger has won 977 career matches but I’m positive not all of them were won with his amazing tennis abilities but rather his desire to win.

Roger’s next opponent is Marin Cilic, a 25 year old player with a big game who gave Roger hell only 4 weeks ago in Toronto when Roger needed 9 match points to finally eek out the win. Marin is ranked 16 in the world but has been ranked as high as 9. He is enjoying a resurgent year and playing the best tennis of his life. He has already won 2 titles this year and defeated Berdych in straight sets to reach the SFs. Not only that but he’s had more rest than Roger and is used to the day time conditions unlike Roger who has been playing mostly at night. The H2H is 5-0 in favour of Roger but that doesn’t mean much here. Recent form counts for more and Marin is having a great time. He has nothing to lose and everything to win. Let’s hope reaching the SFs is all he is allowed to enjoy 😉

But before I go, we still have a few hours left before all the frazzling begins. A few hours to enjoy what Roger accomplished with this win. So without further ado…

• Roger Federer is through to the US Open SFs for the 9^th time
  
• Roger has reached his 36^th Grand Slam SF, which is an all-time record.
• This is the first time Roger has won a Grand Slam match after facing match points.
• Roger now holds the record for most hardcourt match wins with 599, surpassing Agassi’s 598 wins.
• Roger is now at fourth place for the most US Open match wins with 72 wins. He has moved past Sampras who won 71 matches.
• This was Roger’s 26^th US Open night match win.

The SF match will be the 2^nd SF of the day and will not start before 1:30pm local time. Here’s hoping for a great win by the Maestro! Allez Roger!

 

***Photos are Getty Images from Zimbio.com and stats are from the US Open site***

Into the QFs… for the 43rd time!

In yet another night match, dressed in black, Roger Federer defeated Roberto Bautista Agut in straight sets to reach the QFs of the US Open. It took a bit of time for Roger to figure out Roberto’s game, especially given the windy conditions. Roger initially had a tough hold to get on the board but then broke Roberto quickly in just the third game to go up 2*-1. Then the Maestro held, broke and held again to quickly go up 5-1*. Roberto had to serve to stay in the set but almost gave it away when Roger had a set point. He saved it and held which must have given him some confidence because wouldn’t you know it, when Roger stepped up to serve for the set, Roberto suddenly had break points. Roger was able to save 2 but not the 3^rd as Roberto got one of his two breaks back. The Spaniard then held his own service game to push the score to 4-5* and Roger had to serve for the set a second time. This time however the Swiss made no mistakes and took the set 6-4 in 43 minutes.

Set 2 started off with Roberto still feeling quite confident due to his surge in momentum towards the end of set 1. He got on the board with an easy service hold to 15. Roger countered that with a love hold of his own to level the score at 1 all. Roberto couldn’t sustain his level though and was again broken in the third game of the set. Roger consolidated the break with another love hold to go up 3-1*. Bautista Agut held with some difficulty and saved a break point to keep the score to just one break down. But then, the Swiss got into a bit of trouble on his own serve, also facing and saving a break point before he finally held to go up 4-2*. Both players held their next games and soon it was time for Roberto to serve to stay in the set at 3*-5. The pressure got to him and he provided Roger 3 set points. He saved the first one but then double-faulted to gift the set to the Swiss, 6-3 in 34 minutes.

Two sets to love down and you would think that Bautista Agut would be feeling the pressure. Instead, Roger lost his concentration and almost got broken at the start of the third set but steadied the ship with some good serves to get the hold. Roberto on the other hand held quite comfortably indeed to get the scores level at 1 all. In the next game Roger struggled to get his first serves in but held nonetheless to go up 2-1*. And then, just like the previous sets, Roger went up a gear and put immense pressure on the Spaniard as he tried to hold to level to 2 all. Some brilliant net play led to Roger having two break points but needing only one as the Swiss broke Roberto right when he wanted to and went into the lead at 3*-2.

It wasn’t all easy for Roger however, he had great difficulty consolidating the break in his own service game which had 4 deuces, one break point and a double fault but ultimately the Maestro held to go up 4-2*. In the next game Bautista Agut had a much easier hold but was still a break down at 3-4*. Meanwhile Federer continued to struggle with his first serves but was never in any real danger as he served to go up 5-2*. Roberto was left to serve to stay in the match. It was an intense game with Roberto saving the first match point. Unfortunately for him he couldn’t save the second and Roger took the set, 6-2 in 39 minutes.

Here is the link for the press conference interview and transcript. Here is the link to the ESPN post match interview which is a MUST-watch and of course, here are the match stats.Despite the straight sets win Roger had some trouble with his performance. His first serves went missing in patches and he double faulted 5 times which is a bit high considering the match was only 3 sets. The conditions were windy however so perhaps that had an impact. He was also facing a brand-new and in-form opponent so that probably needed some adjustment on his part I’m sure. What did work well were his net points; he came to the net no less than 52 times and won 35 of those points. He also returned quite well, he never let his unforced errors count go above his winners and his movement has been sublime throughout the whole tournament actually. Pretty good day of work and more importantly he saved energy by keeping it to a straight sets win.

Speaking of energy, his next opponent has tremendous amount of energy… provided he’s in the mood for it. Roger will face Frenchman Gael Monfils in the QFs and if you remember, these two faced off very recently in Cincinnati only 3 weeks ago. It was a fast and furious match full of creative shot-making and momentum swings to keep us on the edge of our seats till the very last point. The good news is that memory is still fresh in Roger’s mind so hopefully he knows exactly what game plan will work as opposed to his R4 match with Roberto, a player he had never played before.

Roger’s H2H with Monfils is 7-2 but that really means nothing because Monfils is highly unpredictable. He won his R4 match in straight sets but at times looked so annoyed and angry that you could have been forgiven for thinking he was down 0-5* in the 5^th. I am quite worried about this match and at this point, I just need to get it over with. Gael loves the big stage but I’m hoping maybe that will be his downfall. And besides, Arthur Ashe at night is Darth Federer’s domain. As long as Gael remembers he’s the guest, I will be fine 😉

The match will be held at 8pm local time so get ready for another sleepless night. However, before you go off, let us pause to take a step back and be in awe of some records our Maestro set with this R4 match win.

• This was Roger’s 1,200^th career match!
• This was Roger’s 71^st US Open match win, tying him with Sampras for 4^th place in the all-time list.
• This was his 25^th night match win at the US Open.
• He has now reached his 43^rd Grand Slam QF; he extended his own all-time record with this one.
• He has now tied Agassi with most number of hardcourt match wins with 598 wins on this surface.
• Roberto Bautista Agut was the 290^th player Roger has faced in his career.

Hoping for a drama free win Roger! Allez!

 

***Photos are Getty Images from Zimbio.com and stats are from the US Open site.***

“ROGER, YOU’RE A NINJA!!!”

Curse the time zones but here I am yet again with no time to write up my Toronto SF report. So with less than 3 hours to go till the final, I decided to summarize this post in bullet points. Without further ado, here we go!

• Roger Federer defeated Feliciano Lopez, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the finals of the Rogers Cup!
• YAY!
• He played much better than the past two matches and cut down on the errors while still hitting some scintillating shots.
• He even served better, though not as well as he would probably like.
• He will play Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final.
• The H2H with Jo is 11-4 in Roger’s favour but don’t let that fool you. Jo has won important matches against him.
• Jo has been playing the best he’s played in a long time right here in Toronto. It will be a tough match for sure.
• Back to Roger, he has now reached his 120^th career final.
• This will be his 37^th Masters final.
• This is also his 5^th Rogers Cup final.
• This SF match was his 1,190^th match and his 967^th match win.
• And last but not the least I believe Roger has already qualified for the World Tour Finals! Although the ATP hasn’t confirmed it so it’s not official yet.
• This means Roger has now tied Agassi’s record of qualifying for the World Tour Finals for 13 years.
• However, unlike Agassi, Roger has qualified for 13 consecutive years which is crazy impressive indeed!

So there you have it! My teeny, tiny random post. I leave you with this preview interview clip and also this special video clip which serves two purposes: 1. It illustrates how well Roger played and 2. It explains my title of this post, so go watch it NOW! ALLEZ ROGER!!!!

 

***Photo is from Getty Images in Zimbio.com.***

Federer kicks off the French Open with a routine win

Roger Federer is through to Round 2 at RollyG! Our champ wrapped up his opening match in 84 minutes with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 score line vs. the Slovak player Lukas Lacko.

Lacko started well enough. He had solid service holds for his first two games similar to the Maestro. Then, in his 3^rd service game the errors started to creep in while Roger demonstrated great defense to get a break point which he converted right away. By then, Roger began to look very confident indeed and despite being pushed to 30, Roger held his own serve to consolidate the break and go up 4-2*. In Lacko’s next service game Roger mixed it up with  a dropshot, a backhand volley and a cross-court forehand. Add an error from Lukas and boom, our champ got the double break. Serving for the set at 5*-2, Roger gave away only one point before sealing the set in 24 minutes. Here are the Set 1 stats.Credit to Lacko, he held his nerve and started Set 2 very well with a love hold. Roger countered with a love hold of his own. But poor Lacko got into trouble again right away in his next service game. An error gave Roger a break point but a counter error from the Maestro, brought it back to deuce. Lacko hit a backhand into the net to give Federer a second chance and after an intense rally the Swiss got the break. In a flash Roger quickly consolidated with a service game that included three service winners. Down 1*-3, Lacko had yet another tough service game where Roger had another break point opportunity. But subsequent errors from Roger ensured a hold for Lukas.

Serving at 3*-2, Roger thundered down 3 service winners in a row followed by a volley winner to hold to love. The same format repeated again in Lacko’s next game as Roger had yet another break point only to miss it and letting Lacko hang on at 3-4*. Roger then held with ease to push the score to 5-3*. Serving to stay in the set, Lacko got pushed again and Roger had a set point but an error from the Maestro wiped that away and Lacko ultimately held. Roger might have missed 4 out of 5 break points in this set with some uncharacteristic errors but his own serving had been impeccable and that continued when he served for the set, taking it in 34 minutes. Here are the Set 2 stats.Those errors must have annoyed the Maestro because he started Set 3 strongly putting pressure on the Lacko serve. A double fault from Lacko gave Roger a break point only to let it go with a forehand error. Back to deuce. But Roger kept up the onslaught, extracting another error out of Lacko for another break point. The nerves got to Lukas as he double faulted right then to hand the Swiss the break. Serving to consolidate, Roger hit his only double fault of the match but consolidated the break nonetheless. Serving to get on the board, Lacko held to love in large part due to sloppy play from the Maestro. Still, the Swiss was up a break at 2*-1. And he served to perfection in his next game to quickly hold to love and push the score to 3-1*.

The pressure was firmly back on Lacko’s serve as Roger fought for every point: 0-15, 15 all, 30-15, 30 all and then 30-40 and break point. This time the Swiss took it to go up a double break: 4*-1. Another super quick love hold meant Lacko had to serve to stay in the match at 1*-5 down. Federer had a break point again but lost it with his own error. Despite being pushed to deuce 2 more times, Lacko held and Roger had to serve for the match. A beautiful love hold finished off with a gorgeous inside-out forehand won Roger the match. Here are the stats for the match.This was a good match for Roger. He was never in trouble and didn’t face any break points. He served very well and while his return game was a bit sloppy, mostly in Set 2, he made sure he was in complete control at all times. I got the feeling he tried out a few different shots to get some practice in. He came to the net very well too; though to be honest, Lacko didn’t really make him play difficult volleys. For a first Grand Slam match, this was a good performance.

What made it more special was Mirka was court-side! This is the first time we’ve seen her since the twin boys were born and she looked lovely! The twin girls were there too, looking chic in their black and white polka dot dress, matching pink headbands and sunglasses 😀 Roger was very sweet in giving a shout-out to Mirka in his on-court interview and we learned from the presser later that the whole family, including the boys, is there with him in Paris. Here is a link to a tiny presser clip.Up next is a new opponent for Roger, the 21 year old Argentine qualifier Diego Sebastian Schwartzman, ranked 109 in the world. Neither Roger nor we know much about him so I expect it will take Roger a bit of time in the beginning to figure out his game. Hopefully, it won’t take too long! In the meantime, I leave you with these crazy stats our Maestro achieved with this win.

• Roland Garros 2014 is now the 60^th Grand Slam Roger has participated in. He shares this with Lleyton Hewitt who is also playing his 60^th Grand Slam this week. They are both behind Andre Agassi at 61 and the record holder Fabrice Santoro with 70.
• This French Open is also Roger’s 58^th consecutive Grand Slam which is a record.
• This match win was his 59^th French Open win. He currently shares this with Rafa but of course Rafa hasn’t played his first match yet.
• Roger is the only player to have over 50 match wins at all Grand Slams.
• This was also his 266^th Grand Slam match win which is wayyyyy ahead of Jimmy Connors who is at second place with 232 match wins. The next active player behind him is Rafa with 177 match wins.
• Roger is 4th on the list of career matches played with 1,173 matches (behind Vilas, Lendl and Connors). The closest active player is Tommy Haas with 875 matches.
• Roger is 3rd on the list of most career match wins with 952 wins (behind Lendl and Connors). The closest active player is Rafa with 692 match wins.

Well that’s it from me. The Maestro isn’t playing today and might not play till Wednesday so in the meantime, chillax! 😉 and enjoy the rest of the tournament!

 

***Roger’s photo is from http://www.zimbio.com/ and the twins’ photos are from http://www.blick.ch/***

Thoughts on Federer’s stellar first quarter of 2014

Roger Federer lost his Miami QFs to Kei Nishikori in a somewhat surprising and unexpected manner. And just like that, we were done with the first quarter of 2014.

I had expected a QF run in Miami but was hoping for the SFs so he could keep his SFs (or higher) streak alive that had started in Basel last year. More importantly, reaching the SFs would have ensured a new ranking of #4 come Monday, March 31^st 2014. Instead, that fate was left on whether Berdych would win Miami. But then Berdych withdrew from the tourney which means that after 38 weeks outside the Top 4, Roger is back in it 😀 Allez! I am not sure yet how long he will be there since after playing the Davis Cup QF this weekend, he will be off the tour for a month while the rest of the players start their clay season. Furthermore, we don’t know when his baby is due and naturally the new arrival will alter his schedule. However, it’s still very nice to know he’s back to the top 4 and even if he falls out of it, we know he has the ability to get back into it provided he stays healthy.

A quick word about the QF match with Kei. It wasn’t so much the loss but rather the nature of the loss that was jarring. After serving so brilliantly across 2 tournaments back to back, all of a sudden, Roger couldn’t find his serves at all. The backhand down the line that he was hitting so beautifully produced shank after shank and soon, it seemed to be a domino effect, with everything unraveling one by one. It should be mentioned here that this was Roger’s first night match at Miami and the temperature had dropped significantly to what he was used to in the tournament thus far. This is what he had to say in the presser.

“I just couldn’t find my rhythm on the serve today, which was surprising, especially after how well I’ve played and served, especially this week, but I think it didn’t take off the way it did during the daytime.  You could expect that, but then plus the temperature drop had something to do with that. In the dark, for some reason, I just‑‑ you know, I haven’t played many matches this year, or maybe lately.  Only one against Tommy Haas in Indian Wells and maybe the switch didn’t work that well for me. But still, you know, I had the set and a break, and then another break again, so it’s a bit frustrating.  But the thing is I could never really get my service games going.”

There is more there where he spoke very frankly about his troubles including the strange lights of the night matches at Miami and the fact that he focused too much on the windy conditions, so do read it in full. Of course he gave credit to Kei for playing well and hanging tough and predicted he would be in the top 10 soon. 

Clearly he was troubled by many factors that night; some of them were external which I was surprised to hear. Federer has always been able to play his game no matter what the conditions. But that night he seemed lost, frustrated and rushed. Roger is still not as confident as he used to be pre-2013 and when the elements and conditions are against him, they magnify the negativity. I also feel that despite playing 3 matches, none of them were helpful to him for getting into rhythm. Karlovic is unique with his serve based game, De Bakker didn’t test Roger in any way and surprisingly neither did Gasquet. He served very well in those matches and his serves were all he needed, no testing baseline rallies. So maybe he became reliant on that serve. When it stopped working in the QF, he panicked.

Regardless of his performance however, to say that the Roger of 2013 is now back would be unfair and incorrect. I still stand by my assessment of Roger that I made at the end of the Dubai tournament. This is not Federer of 2004-2007, but nor is this Federer of 2013. This is Roger Federer circa 2014. This Roger will sometimes lose matches he shouldn’t lose but will also win matches that he would not have won last year. He will not always win them convincingly but at the same time, I don’t expect him to lose to a 100+ ranking player either. 2014 Roger might be in similar situations of self-doubt in future tournaments but I feel more often than not, he will work his way out of it like he did in Dubai. The journey won’t be smooth and there might be painful bumps along the way. But I really want to stress the fact that this loss does not warrant hitting the panic button.

In fact, I think Roger has had a fantastic start to the season! If you don’t believe me, then step back from that match vs. Kei and take a look at the bigger picture. I’ll help you! Here’s my summary on where we are right now.

• Roger already has a title this year; last year we had to wait till Halle.
• He has already won 5 matches against the top 10 this year; in 2013 he won 4 matches against the top 10 in the whole year.
• Federer has never defeated four top 10 players by March in any previous year.
• He has already won 22 matches this year. In 2013 we had to wait till Roland Garros for him to reach this mark.
• Roger’s 22 match wins currently puts him at the top of the list for most match wins by a player so far in 2014.
• He has jumped up 4 spots in the rankings from #8 back into the top 4.
• He has reached 3 finals (with 1 win of course!), 1 SF and 1 QF in the 5 tournaments he’s played so far.
• Federer has defended or bettered his points from last year (except for Rotterdam which he skipped) plus added some more points with Brisbane and Miami to help with his Race to London.

That’s mighty impressive don’t you think? Especially when you reflect back to his low points last year, with some disastrous losses and the recurring back issue. As such, I firmly believe that this one loss in Miami does not undo any of the fantastic progress he’s made so far. Miami hasn’t been a good hunting ground for him anyway since his last win there in 2006. In the end, he gathered some valuable extra points and is now in Switzerland for the Davis Cup QFs. This year, after a long time he played in the first leg of the Davis Cup right after the Australian Open and he thoroughly enjoyed himself as Switzerland reached the QFs. A win for Team Swiss this coming weekend will be a lovely way for him to head into his month-long hiatus from the tour with some positivity.

A few more closing thoughts, the first one being about his racquet. We know Roger has been playing with a new, bigger racquet this year. So far, it’s been working very well, especially with his serves and the backhand. But as of now it’s still a demo racquet. It’s all black with no paint-job on it meaning he is not done testing it. When asked about it in Indian Wells he said he was going to talk to Wilson and make some final adjustments but it will be ready soon. I suspect he wanted to see how it would play on the slow humid conditions of Miami and while it seemed fine for day matches, maybe he has some ideas on potential changes for night conditions. For sure he will be making final tweaks in his month off and Miami probably gave him more information in this regard.

Another happy take-away is the partnership between Federer and Edberg, or Fedberg 😉 Fedberg has been going very smoothly so far. It was initially a 10 week association but as those weeks drew to a close, fans were thrilled to hear the news that Roger and Stefan have agreed to make it a one-year partnership. So we get to see Fedberg for this whole year!

Before I sign off, here is a sample of the Maestro’s Hot Shots from the ATP tour that more than illustrate what a great start to the year it has been for our champ. The Australian Open site doesn’t really do Hot Shots so I included the on-court interviews plus more ball kid awesomeness, the Night with RF and Friends and Kids Day clips 😉

Brisbane: Doubles smash

Australian Open: A Night with RF and Friends (I included the full video link because if you haven’t seen it you REALLLY should), Kids’ Day clip 1, Kids’ Day clip 2, Ball kid catch, R1 interview, R2 interview (forward to 1:53:13), R3 interview, R4 interview, QF interview, lob vs. Murray

Dubai: vs. Becker, vs. Rosol, vs. Djokovic, vs. Berdych

Indian Wells: Doubles, vs. Anderson, vs. Dolgopolov, vs. Djokovic

Miami: vs. Karlovic, vs. De Bakker, vs. Nishikori

I will end the post by listing some of the staggering records Roger has broken and/or set in just the past 3 months. It’s a lot so brace yourself!

• Roger broke the record for playing the most consecutive Grand Slams with the 2014 Australian Open. The new record is now 57 consecutive Grand Slams.
• By playing in the Australian Open Roger is tied with Hewitt at 3^rd place for total number of Grand Slams played. They have both played 59 Grand Slams. If they both play the three remaining Grand Slams of this year they will be tied for 2^nd place with 62 Grand Slams, overtaking Agassi’s 61.
• He reached a record 11^th consecutive SF at the Australian Open.
• By reaching the Australian Open SF, he extended his own record of Grand Slam SFs to 34.
• By reaching the Australian Open QF, he has tied Connors with a record 41 Grand Slam QFs.
• Roger has now won 265 Grand Slam matches extending the record he already holds.
• Roger has now won 73 matches at the Australian Open, the only player in history to win over 70 matches at this Grand Slam.
• He is also the only active player to win over 70 matches at any Grand Slam.
• Roger extended his record of most Grand Slam hardcourt match wins – he has won 140 hardcourt Grand Slam matches. This is more than any player in history, on any particular surface.
• By winning in Dubai, Roger has 78 singles titles, one more than McEnroe. He is now #3 on the all-time list behind Lendl and Connors.
• Federer is now tied with Lendl with 14 consecutive years of winning a title.
• He has now won a record 6 titles in Dubai. He also has 6 titles in Basel, Halle and the ATP World Tour Finals – and of course 7 titles at Wimbledon 😀
• He surpassed Agassi’s record of outdoor matches won and is 4^th on the list with 709 match wins, behind Lendl, Connors and Vilas.
• He added to his record number of hardcourt titles with Dubai. He now has 53 of them. Roger is the only player to win 50 titles on a particular surface.
• Federer has appeared in 116 career finals, 3^rd behind Connors and Lendl.
• Federer has appeared in 158 career SFs, tied at 3^rd with McEnroe, behind Connors and Lendl.
• He is 4^th on list of career matches played with 1,164 as of Miami. This is the highest number of matches played by any active player – Haas is at #2 with 867 matches played.
• Roger is 3^rd on list of most career match wins with 945 wins as of Miami. This is the highest number of matches won by any active player – Nadal is at #2 with 679 matches won.

Phew! That’s some list isn’t it? And that’s after I left out some! 😀 By the time you are done processing all that greatness, hopefully Roger’s month-long break will be nearly done and we will be back for the second quarter, ready for the clay season. Till then, good luck with the Davis Cup QFs Roger and enjoy your month off! 😀

 

 

***Dubai photo from http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk. Photos of Roger as “Runner-up in Indian Wells”, “The Davis Cup in Serbia”, and all the Australian fun photos from the Brisbane and Melbourne collage are from http://www.zimbio.com/ ***

Another roller coaster win for Federer

Roger Federer is through to R4 at Indian Wells after yet another roller coaster of a match which took 1 hour and 44 minutes, even though it was in straight sets. I expected Tursunov to be a tough opponent but perhaps not quite so tough. Both sets went to tie-breaks meaning at any point Tursunov could have won at least a set if not both. But he didn’t. Because what usually happens to players like Tursunov when they have top players like Roger on the ropes, happened to Dmitry too. He blinked.

The first set started emphatically for Roger. He broke Dmitry, partially helped by the Russian’s double faults and then he consolidated to go up 2-0*. In Tursunov’s next game Dmitry saved a break point and held to get on the board. Another easy hold for Roger and the score was 3-1*. Finally Dmitry had an easy hold himself followed by another quick hold from the Swiss to go up 4-2*. Roger pushed the Russian in his next service game but by then Dmitry was getting settled in and he held. Not only that, for the first time in the match he started pushing back and took Roger to deuce on the Maestro’s own service game. But some fantastic serving from the Swiss ensured the break remained and Tursunov was left to serve to stay in the match at 3*-5. Tursunov was in the groove and held quickly putting the onus back on our champ to serve it out. And wouldn’t you know it; the nerves of closing out a set/match came back. Before anyone could process what was happening the Russian had 3 break points. Roger saved one but Dmitry took the next and it was 5 all. Buoyed by this break back, Tursunov held his next game, closing it out with an ace and now Roger had to serve to stay in the set instead. 2 aces from the Maestro ensured that he held to take the set into a tie-break.

The tie-break had its own ebbs and flows. Roger got the first mini-break to go up 3*-2 but then gave it right back to be 3 all at the change of ends. He got a mini-break again to go up 5*-4 with the possibility to win the set on his own serve but gave it back yet again for the score to be 5 all. It then went to 6 all prompting the next change of ends. Then Dmitry committed a double fault to give Roger yet another mini-break at 7*-6. But guess what, Roger gave it back AGAIN and it was 7 all. *facepalm* Roger held the next point on his own serve to go up 8-7* and he had set point on Dmitry’s serve. A short rally ended with a gorgeous forehand winner from the Swiss and finally Roger had taken the set in 53 minutes. Here are the stats.On to Set 2 and even though Roger was a set up, he still looked vulnerable while Dmitry still looked formidable. Though both players held their first service games to love, some uncharacteristic errors from Roger in the next game saw him getting broken after being up 40-15. That break however was the last straw for Roger and he came back immediately with a vengeance and broke Tursunov to love to take the score to 2 all. After that both players held serve, Roger with a bit more ease than Dmitry but still unable to push the Russian to a break point. The set lead to yet another tie-break but by this time Roger was playing more freely again and compared to the last tie-break this one was mostly devoid of drama. Roger hit an ace to get on the board. At 1 all Dmitry committed a double fault to give Roger the mini-break which he then consolidated with a service winner and another ace of his own. Up 4-1* and Roger got another mini-break with a fantastic forehand winner to take the score to 5-1*. Dmitry held the next point and it was up to Roger to close it out. This time there was no mistake. A fantastic serve brought out an error from the Russian and it was 3 match points for the Swiss. He only needed one and sealed the win with an ace. Here are the stats for the match.If you look at the stats there isn’t much to complain about actually. Nice serving stats and winners to unforced errors ratio is positive. It really did come down to the confidence and mental strength that is needed to close it out whenever the opportunity presented itself. He played 2 bad service games and got broken. I would say the first one was worse because he was serving for the set. And he didn’t break back immediately but rather let it go to a tie-break which was quite stressful to say the least. This mental walkabout he was on continued till he got broken again. But that seemed to wake him up and from then on he played with much more conviction. Although he couldn’t get into Tursunov’s games, he played his games much better and that form carried into the final tie-break.

I think the clear positive take-away from this match is same as the last match. Yes, it became a dicey situation but yet again, he stayed calm, and was able to work through it. He said in his presser clip too,

“Now I feel like I’m in a good place. Zen on the court. I know what my solid level is. Even if I won 6 and 6 today, I just feel like I was calm and served for the set. Okay, got broken. Still managed to stay calm. Down a set in the second; stayed calm and came back. So those are the moments where you feel there is confidence around somewhere.”

I believe we will see more of the same in the next match as well. He will face off against good friend Tommy Haas. The H2H is 12-3 in Roger’s favor. But their last match was at Cincinnati last year where Tommy was a set and a break up in the 2^nd before Roger was able to turn it around. Plus Tommy played very well last night against Kei Nishikori. He will be a formidable opponent for sure. All I can hope is that Roger remains calm and patient and has enough self-belief to know he can get there no matter how circuitous the path might seem to be.

He gets a much deserved day off today, especially considering he also played (and won!) his doubles match with Wawrinka too last night. They are now in the Doubles QF at Indian Wells and this is great practice for their Davis Cup QF coming up at the beginning of next month. They won the doubles in 2 sets that went to tie-breaks as well so Roger played and won 4 tie-breaks in one day! No wonder he was #Happy! 😉Before signing off, one tiny stat. With this win, Roger has now won 703 outdoor matches surpassing Andre Agassi’s 702. This puts him at 4^th place in the all time record of outdoor matches won behind Lendl, Connors and Vilas. Good luck for tomorrow Maestro!

***Photo from http://www.zimbio.com/ and stats and screencaps from @TennisTV ***

Federer reaches the Round of 16 at the Australian Open

As you all must know by now since it’s been over 24 hours, Roger Federer is through to the Round of 16 at the Australian Open. He defeated Teymuraz Gabashvili in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 in 1 hour and 41 minutes.

The match started somewhat ominously for Roger as he immediately provided 2 break points. He saved them and held and then for the most part, there were no significant problems. Gabashvili started well too, at one point early on, he was hitting more winners than Roger. Roger meanwhile began to look comfortable and held his second game to 15 and third game to love with three beautiful forehand winners and kept building pressure on the Russian. Sure enough, when serving at 2*-3, three unforced errors gave the Maestro three break point opportunities. Gabashvili saved one but then double-faulted on the 2nd to give Roger the break. Serving to consolidate at 4*-2, Roger got into a bit of trouble with a few errors and some winners from Teymuraz. He gave the Russian a third break point opportunity of the set. However, his serve came to the rescue just in time and he held to go up 5-2*. Gabashvili was 40-15 up in his service game when 3 errors gave the Maestro his first set point. The Russian saved that one but Roger got the opportunity back with a gorgeous forehand winner. Gabashvili netted the next point giving the set to Federer, 6-2 in 33 minutes.

Set two and while Gabashvili pushed him, he held on and the score was 1-0*. Gabashvili then had a very difficult service game as Roger got two break point opportunities, one via a double fault. Nonetheless, after being pushed to deuce 4 times, the Russian held and it was 1 all. After a quick hold to go up 2-1* the same story repeated again. Roger got two more break point opportunities but couldn’t convert. After 3 deuces Teymuraz held to 2 all. Yet another quick hold for the Swiss and looking back at the stats of each set, Roger clearly served the best in this second set with 76% of his first serves going in. In the very next game, though Gabashvili was up 40-30 he soon found himself staring at a break point. A failed volley gave the Swiss the break and Roger was up 4*-2. In the blink of an eye Roger got the score line to 5-2* and Teymuraz had to serve to stay in the set. Maybe the Russian’s spirit was already broken by then; he barely offered resistance and gave Roger two set points. A short rally followed by an error from Teymuraz gave the Swiss the second set 6-2 in 39 minutes.

Set three and yet again, there was a blip in Roger’s concentration as he was quickly down 2 break points at 15-40. Two errors from Gabashvili and two strong serves got Roger out of the hole and he held 1-0*. Gabashvili showed renewed energy perhaps because it was now or never; he held to love to level the score at 1 all. Roger held more comfortably in the next game and pounced in the Russian’s next service game extracting errors to have 3 break points. Gabashvili saved two but Roger grabbed the third and the score was 3*-1. Then, to add insult to injury, Roger consolidated the break with a love hold of his own. Teymuraz held on for his next games despite being constantly pushed by the Maestro and even saving a break point in the process to keep the difference to just one break in this set. At 5*-3 Roger served for the match and he showed no nerves as he served it out to love.  Here are the match stats.Roger’s serve held up quite well for the most part. Though a few more first serves in would have been nice (he had 62%), he served with more consistency than in his Round 1 match. His serves weren’t as sublime as the previous match but that makes sense because that was in indoor conditions where no elements can disturb his line. It was actually quite windy at the Rod Laver Arena during this third round match. He also returned well too and kept his winners to unforced errors ratio nicely positive. His backhand down the line was on song throughout the match which was just gorgeous to see. The only significant dip in his stats was his net points. He missed a few volleys which was strange considering how well he had been placing them in the first few matches.

Nonetheless, given that he found this match tricky, I think it was a solid effort. He didn’t expend too much energy out there either. He has now spent a total of 5 hours and 14 minutes on court and hasn’t dropped a set. Here is the presser and here is the presser clip. Here is the on-court interview with Jim Courier who I was especially pleased to see! I love their interviews! A bonus clip here of Roger’s post-match ESPN interview too 🙂

All this bodes well for his next match which is bound to test him to the limit and then some. He faces Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the next round. There are no secrets here. They have played each other 13 times with the H2H of 9-4 in Roger’s favour. I would say based on the form Jo has shown so far in this Australian Open, after Andy, Rafa and Novak, he is the strongest player left in the draw with Tomas close behind him. He isn’t in awe of Roger and has defeated him at multiple Slams including their last meeting at the French Open in 2013.

Of all the 8 Round of 16 matches on the schedule, this is by far the toughest. Jo is serving very well at the moment and similar to Roger he too likes to play aggressively. Roger will need unbelievable defense and grab break points when he gets them for Jo won’t offer that many to spare. I really don’t know what will happen but I do know I will probably forget to breathe a few times. Here’s hoping the Maestro can rise to the occasion.

Before I conclude, I wanted to highlight some amazing records the Maestro has set so far just with these three wins.
•    With his first round match, he set the record for participating in the highest number of consecutive Grand Slams. This is his 57th Grand Slam in a row.
•    With his second round match win, he set the record for the only player (male or female) to ever win 70 matches at the Australian Open.
•    With his third round match, he went past Agassi and is into 4th place on most number of career matches played with 1,145 matches.
•    With his third round win, he is now tied at 3rd place with Vilas for most number of career matches won with 929 wins.

His humble, friendly attitude, youthful exuberance and general dorkiness can make you forget how legendary this man is. Every time he steps foot on the tennis court, he creates history. Consider yourselves lucky you are here to witness it. I sure as hell do, every single day. C’mon Roger!

*Photos from Zimbio.com*