Great final… at least in the second set.
As we have already anticipated, we were expecting a “not super fit Nole” as he has been playing back to back 3 tough tournaments for 3 weeks on 2 continents and 2 different surfaces. The worst (or the best) part of it was that Nole managed to arrive at the very end of every competition.
Playing a super fit a confident Roger in a final on a very fast hard court is already mission impossible, if you are not fit… well.. forget it! Let’s see what happened
1ST SET – 6-0 -Total annihilation
Nole was completely unfit from a mental and physical to lose a very embarassing first set 6-0 in 20 minutes! Yes only 20 minutes. Nole double faulted 4 times in 3 service games, he won 1 point out of 10 on his second serve and he couldn’t really return a ball (one of his strenghts). Roger on the other side was completely on the ball. The Swiss tactic was just to move Djokovic around as he was always heavy and a couple of hours late on each shot. Roger wisely decided to just put the 1st service in with good angles. Eventually he even managed to do a couple of aces with a kick serve (very unusual when you have Nole on the other side). The set finished 6-0, 25-10 points for Roger.
2 SET – 7-6 a battle
Then it was time for Nole to strike back. It was laready game over, so… why not trying to put all energies into this one? Djokovic came alive, still playing at his 80%, but alive. Here once again we witnessed a great Roger that quickly adapted to a completely different scenario: from playing against a ghost to play with Novak Djokovic.
The set went straight to the tiebreak with o break points. Roger won an important minibreak to lead 3-1 to then lose 2 services in a row and being 3-4 down. Nole was then “mini-broken” and the tiebreak went till the very end with Roger saving a set points on the net and then snapping the last forehand to win 9-7.
From Roger
“I came here and never dropped my serve. That’s the kind of reaction I wanted to see from myself. I didn’t have a letdown,” said Federer. “Even though I reached almost all goals already this year by securing a medal, winning Wimbledon, and getting back it World No. 1, it’s important for me to push forward and give myself the best possible preparation for New York.”
“I rarely do crazy things before slams anyway. I feel like the work is done before so there are ways of, how shall I say, preparing maybe more physically and mentally for New York or the slams. And there are others where you can do it more by playing matches and a lot of practice.”
Talking about US Open. “It’s is completely different atmosphere in New York. The pressure is going to be different. There will be a lot talk from here until the first ball is struck over there,” Federer said. “I know I have a great record against guys outside of the Top 30. I would think that’s who I’ll face in the first round. But it nevertheless could be a tough matchup. I have to look at that match and really not a whole lot further.”
