It seems there is too much over analysis of this in my humble opinion. It was a huge moment and the Swiss star had clearly outplayed his opponent and had two championship points on his own service. Nine times out of 10 he’s going to win. Novak had a very good return on the first one and, in light of the nerves, Fed could not get out-of-the-way in time and hit it back in the court. That is all on Novak. It was a clutch shot. Think of how many service returns by Novak before and after that one serve sailed long during the match! It did not happen at that moment, though. Then comes the next point, there was a minimal amount of rallying and then Federer, as he so often has in the past, tried to be and was in fact the aggressive player by forcing either a winner from Novak to stay in the match or victory. Was it the best approach shot? No, but he was feeling the pressure too. He was so close he could taste it and, again all credit to the Serbian, Nole actually pulled off what some may call a routine passing shot, if there is such a thing. I do not believe it was a routine passing shot when you’re championship point down in the fifth set of a classic final at—of all places—SW19. , He did it, however, and then he fought tooth and nail with Roger for the remainder of the match. They both had opportunities and they both scrapped and saved and pushed the other. Roger would never see another championship point. He failed in the tiebreakers and part of that is the style of play, but he has won many clutch tiebreakers over his career, so he died with his style of play this time. He got nervous because he had lost two tiebreakers earlier and now he was in a final one. I think it would be unrealistic for him to not also recall that he had lost two big matches against the very same player after he had match points. Did it get to him? I have to believe it did. Yet, Novák still had to play and he still had to believe and he still had to do what he did. One mistake and Roger would’ve one. Was Roger the better player during the day? I think it is clear he was. Can he still win these types of majors? Obviously he can.
I think everyone is being too critical. It was heartbreaking if you are Roger fan and exhilarating if you’re a fan of Nole. Roger can handle pressure as he mentally has had some issues he had with the Spaniard and has proved he can get past that again and again. It may take some time, but he is running out of time to do it against the Serbian. All in all, it was thrilling and we should all be thankful.
agreed entirely.
There is a middle ground here. It was an emotional match, hard to watch at times. As a Djokovic fan, i felt the pressure when Federer approached the net, never did i think 'OH, YES! easy passing shot', it took GUTS to hit that passing shot and go for that placement, that is not an easy shot for even #1 player in the world, in that situation above all. When Novak made that shot, i was like 'phew!' and i bet Federer fans were like 'F-CK' how did he come in behind that!' Of course, had that pressure play paid off, Federer fans would've been 'phew!'.
In the end, that play wasn't nearly as bad as Federer fans make it out to be. One of the basic things a tennis coach teaches players is that sometimes, it's a smart play to come in and force opponent to make a good shot, under pressure. Guys, this is tennis 101. Sampras did it all the time, Federer has done it literally hundreds of times. Serve and Volleyers and net rushers have never just employed a strategy of 'only come in behind the perfectly struck and placed approach'. It is fact that Federer has won hundreds of points at the net, behind similarly struck approach shots.
A big part of tennis is playing the situation. Have you heard of chip and charge? usually, the chip is not struck that great but it's a play of surprise, a pressure play. The situation at 40-30 was that Federer had a match point, after having squandered one. He was probably a bit nervous, thoughts racing through his head 'should i stay from the back, oh, but Novak is so solid', 'should i risk hitting a very good approach shot, what if i miss, i'm a bit nervous, i could miss badly' etc.. etc... and so he basically made a simple decision - hit a safe approach shot, force Djokovic to come up big, down match point. This is not a horrendous, stupid, dumb play, it could've paid off, as it has hundreds of times throughout his career. If we want to criticize the play, to me , the most reasonable criticism would be - 'never go safe in that situation, especially against one of the GOATS, never bank on a one of the GOATs succumbing to pressure, go for it, risk it, if you miss, you miss'. But honestly, would it have felt any better if Federer would've shanked that approach had he gone for that perfect shot, under pressure, nervous as he was? probably not... he would have been criticized as aggressively...
