A lot of people are retiring during matches at the moment and it seems like we’re in some kind of injury period on the ATP Tour. Although clay can be more body-friendly to move on, the long rallies and matches (less reliance on the serve for example) really takes a toll for a lot of the players.
But let’s not dwell on injuries and instead look at what happened in Rome yesterday.
Little Italian man Fabio Fognini tired pretty much EVERYTHING to beat Wavrinka, but it didn’t work out for him. At least he got a set. Italian players seems to have one thing in common: big talent, but lack of mental strength. Both Fognini and especially Bollelli have the game to make an impact on clay, but they just don’t seem to be able to keep it together for one set at a time. I thought Bollelli had a chance against Almagro yesterday, but he ended up swinging for the fences, exactly what his opponent is known for. The problem is, Bollelli is not half as good at doing that as Almagro.
The Berdman Berdych played an excellent match against Juan Monaco. He always seems to find his best game against the Argentine and is now 5-0 H2H.
The effortless way which Berdych flattens the ball out reminded me of myself yesterday (I write, boastingly). I had one of those days when everything comes together and it feels like you’re floating around the court, painting the lines and having eons of time to hit the ball. It felt fantastic. I wish I could bottle that feeling though, because it doesn’t come that often.
In other news, Federer told reporters not to count him out of the world number one debate. “It is important for me to get to back to being No. 1,” Federer said Tuesday. “I said this at Wimbledon and it is still very real and very possible. I still have the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in my pocket and I do not have any Grand Slams yet. If I maybe got one of those, things will change drastically all over the place.”
Can he do it? As a Fed fan, I would like to believe so, but as hard as I try, I just can’t. Djokovic and Nadal seems just one small level above him right now, and that’s enough to leave him on a solid and stable third spot in the world. But he should have at least one or two slams in him. So why not Wimbledon 2011?
