Roger Federer knows what it means playing a marathon in Wimbledon. The Swiss Maestro has won a memorable title at the Championships when in 2009 he defeated Roddick 5-7 7-6(8) 7-6 (5) 3-6 16-14. That was still ok because there was no other match after the final, but Roger remembers that he couldn’t properly compete in the final at the Olympic Games after he defeated the day before Juan Martin Del Potro 3-6 7-6 19-17. The last set lasted 2 hours and 43 minutes.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has recently defeated John Isner 6-7 (3) 3-6 7-6(5) 6-2 19-17 in Wimbledon. The Frenchman was very lucky that his compatriot, Richard Gasquet, conceded the next match after retiring when he was trailing 2-4, but this match opened again the debate of the opportunity of introducing a tiebreak in the last set of a slam (this has already been introduced at the US Open).
Federer’s idea
During a recent interview, Roger shared his view how to avoid these marathons
“Maybe they could make a tie-break at 12-all. Yeah, it is rough for not only the players playing, but also the players that follow that court.
I think it’s super cool, and that’s the match I was watching: Isner v Tsonga. I didn’t care about any other match that was being played other than that match. It is very cool if it goes 12-all, 14-all, 18-all, 20-all, further and further. But the chances get slimmer and slimmer to win that next round. Like the [US] Open, they have a breaker in the fifth.
They can make a compromise and make a tie-breaker at 12-all. Play another six service games each. Usually, it doesn’t go to that, anyway, to 12-all. If it does go there, you had your chances to break or not to break, so you’re happy maybe to be in a tie-breaker.”
Interesting.
Do you think it is a good idea?
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