Federer played his first singles match of the year in Brisbane today and beat Nieminen comfortably 6-4 6-2. What impressed me the most is how lethal his forehand was. It really looked like the increased racquet size (from 90 to 98) helped his pace on that shot. If that’s the case we have interesting things in store. Federer also looked hungry and ready to play and moved well. Nadal on the other hand has struggled finding depth and aggression on his shots in his first two matches (in Doha) and was taken the distance by German Tobias Kamke today, but …
Australian Open
Two spectacular quarter-finals took place today, and they were spectacular in very different ways. Federer‘s trashing of Del Potro was masterclass in efficient and brilliant tennis. Whatever Del Potro threw at the great Swiss, the tennis maestro had an answer to which shows in the final score 6-4 6-3 6-2. Del Potro didn’t play bad at all, but today he was still a class below Federer who looks really eager to play his best in 2012. He will sure be a tough nut to crack for… Rafael Nadal, who was really on the ropes against a Tomas Berdych playing the …
The tennis year was supposed to start with a bang with Federer and Nadal (Fedal) playing in Qatar. It looked like a very likely final. In the end neither Federer nor Nadal made it all the way there; Federer withdrew for the first time since 2008 because of back pain and Nadal was swashbuckled by an inspired Monfils in the semis. This left the title open for Tsonga who due to Federer’s semi-final withdrawal instead play an exhibition set against Stefan Edberg! And this is exactly what happened. Tsonga continued his great form from 2012 and beat Monfils in final …
And so here it is, the match we’ve been waiting for, another grand slam final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. In some way this final feels different then the previous ones, especially since they played their last GS final against each other in the 2009 Australian Open 2,5 years ago. A lot has happened since then. Djokovic has showed he’s probably the best player in the world right now. Federer has won the French Open and reached 16 Grand Slam titles. Nadal has proven that he wants to be in the GOAT discussion by making a career slam and winning 9 …
Tennis is all about confidence. Everything can change with millimeters. A ball lands in, a ball lands out. Game point or break point. Feeling good or smashing your racket. One guy who seems to be in no lack of confidence right now is Novak Djokovic. He is on a tear, having won 24 straight matches since November. If he keeps this up he will bag the difficult triple of Australian Open, Indian Wells, and Miami. A feat only three players have done before, one of them being Federer. I wouldn’t be surprised if he pulls it off. But what has …