Internazionali BNL d'Italia - ATP 1000 - May 11th to May 18th

[kskate2]

Now 5-5

 

[Murat B.]

Final set TB for Roger and Chardy. Let's see how this goes.

 

[kskate2]

Still not aggressive enough. Chardy leads 4-2

 

[Murat B.]

Clutch serving from Roger when it matters. Up 5-4.

 

[kskate2]

DF gives Fed MP

 

[kskate2]

oh my. can't believe Chardy got that on MP 6-6

 

[Murat B.]

Chardy double faults but comes up wit an amazing pass on match point! Wow...

 

[kskate2]

Fed commits the error. MP for Chardy

 

[Murat B.]

Chardy with the MP now...

 

[kskate2]

Aggressive 2nd serve and Fed commits the return error. Bye bye Roger.

 

[Murat B.]

Congrats to Chardy. The pass on Roger's match point was insane. The match looked over right there but it was not.

Well, Roger never REALLY wanted to leave the twins anyways, right?

 

[Murat B.]

The edge was not there from Roger. After the first set, he was not the one initiating things, asking questions. Chardy was. Still Roger almost pulled it off but it would not have been fair to Chardy. I know, tennis does not care about "fair" but I thought Chardy did everything correct, deserved the win.

 

[bobvance]

Annoying loss for Federer. If he doesn't frame that ball on match point he wins. Chardy actually looked gassed to me even in the second set, but he played pretty well on big points, and didn't miss very much considering the conditions and how aggressive he was trying to play.

 

[pavlik89]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abDA1RuYubo[/video]

 

[Ricardo]

It's about right that Chardy won it, as he was clearly the better player there (isn't always the case).

 

[Murat B.]

^Agree

 

[El Dude]

Oh well. At least Roger gets to be with his family. This also means that in order to warm up properly for the French Open he either has to enter Nice as a wildcard (unlikely?) or do it the hard way, which is hope to play into form during the early rounds.

 

[Murat B.]

Dimitrov survives the mandatory TB that you have to play against Ivo. Good for the kid. And he just broke in the second, so it should be smooth sailing from here since Ivo is not known for his breaking capabilities.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Oh well. At least Roger gets to be with his family. This also means that in order to warm up properly for the French Open he either has to enter Nice as a wildcard (unlikely?) or do it the hard way, which is hope to play into form during the early rounds.

Are you kidding? Roger will not enter a tournament in the week before Grand Slam.
He will go home be there for a week and come to RG by Wednesday or Thursday of
next week and start hitting with other players. He is not JMDP or Isner to even think
of such scheduling.

However, one has to seriously downgrade his chances of winning FO (even
if Rafa losses along the way) considering that he has played only one match
(and lost that too) in the five week period before FO.

Finally, if Ferrer reaches SF or better in Rome, Roger's seeding will be #5 at RG
which will further complicate his situation at RG.

 

[Tennis Miller]

Oh well. At least Roger gets to be with his family. This also means that in order to warm up properly for the French Open he either has to enter Nice as a wildcard (unlikely?) or do it the hard way, which is hope to play into form during the early rounds.

Are you kidding? Roger will not enter a tournament in the week before Grand Slam.
He will go home be there for a week and come to RG by Wednesday or Thursday of
next week and start hitting with other players. He is not JMDP or Isner to even think
of such scheduling.

However, one has to seriously downgrade his chances of winning FO (even
if Rafa losses along the way) considering that he has played only one match
(and lost that too) in the five week period before FO.

Finally, if Ferrer reaches SF or better in Rome, Roger's seeding will be #5 at RG
which will further complicate his situation at RG.

I don't think it's possible to downgrade his RG chances enough. He has no chance even if Rafa is eaten by a marlin on one of those fishing outings. When was the last time Roger played high quality tennis for more than 90 mins? Look at his losses this year, there's a pattern. He pretty much has one TMF set in him a match, then the decline is palpable if the match goes on past an hour and a half. It's time to accept the New Reality. "90 Minute Fed" isn't going to cut it at the slams!

Cheers
TM