when the tennis spotlight is on nole-rafa, annacone releases these statements. he and his camp should walk the talk if roger is to enter a tennis triumvirate for a couple more years.

What was he supposed to say? Er, my coaching isn't going to help him. I doubt he "released these statements". He was probably interviewed and said what any coach would have said. I'm sure he and Roger are doing whatever they can to try and win.

@ raghav

do you know nothing of brand management? it's part of his job to talk, and talk good things as a representative of the roger federer brand. it's not like fed is some no name tennis player ranked 500... he's roger federer- one of the most well known branded athletes right behind tiger woods, michael jordan, etc. if you're going to remember anything you just read, remember that tennis, like ALL sports in 2011 is a business.

Roger is going to slip to no. 4 or below by year-end if Muzza keeps up his good form.

Do you think Andy can defend either of the Masters titles he won last year with Nole so hot? I know Roger has a lot of points to defend but Murray has 2000 from those two right there.

raghav you have most certainly got it wrong, anacone has been doing theae interviews at any time. Truth is, these guys aren't on the court at the moment, so little check ons with coaches might be popping up at this time. He doesnt have to enter the triumvirate- he is 30 years old and has won 16 grand slams, anything can happen at this point and its just about roger giving himself chances to shine.
Don't twist this innocent little media bite!

numero, you are confused between mid-season ranking and year-end ranking. For the latter you don't have to defend anything, you just need to do better than Federer.
Their YTD points are Federer: 4120 and Muzza: 3720.
Had Muzza not gone into a slump after AO, he would already have been no. 3 in YTD. All he has to do is do better than Fed for the rest of the year.

Do you think Andy can defend either of the Masters titles he won last year with Nole so hot? 
numero, 7/20/11 2:01 AM

Of course he can dear boy!
It's only 2 masters series events were Andy can, for all intents and purposes, be LETHAL.
They're months apart as well.
Andy almost took Novak out on clay (and really should have),...
I don't know how much you know about Muzzy Bears career Numero,
But that was BIG as Andy was mediocre on the red stuff up until now, the other 3 were brought up on it.
In any instance, in hard court 3 setters he fears NO ONE!
So no WAY is Novak in his head in the American swing.
And we know how important that is don't we?
If there was a choice, I'd prefer him to win Cincinnati over Canada this time.
I'm also expecting a better serve % and more aggression courtesy of Cahill.
More necessary (and inevitable)improvements.
One thing people should remember is despite being the same age as djoko-bunny, he's definitely the junior member of the big 4 ( time on the tour and playing the other top 3) and that means hopefully more potential to realise!
He's certainly the most immature.
Also, ominously for the Fed, is that he was the one that lost to MB in the finals of both, one was in 2 close sets, the other a crushing...
BTW, Roger seems to have an awful lot a points for someone who hasn't won a slam in a while,
Does anyone know where they're from, ie which part of the season?

Ok I don't really check the YTD points since they aren't listed in the rankings. It does stand to reason that Roger and Andy are closer than they appear then. Good luck to Andy there. I just hope Roger can win some titles.:)

Hey Sosueme,

I know enough about Andy to know he moved away from home to train in Spain and hence the clay as a teenager. The only surprising thing really is why it took him so long to get up to this level on clay.

Re : Roger's points. Last year he won Cincinnati Masters, Stockholm, Basel and WTF. Plus he made the finals at Toronto and Shanghai Masters events.

If you mean YTD,
Federer : AO: 720, RG: 1200, W: 360, Miami, IW and Madrid : all 360 each, Rome: 90, Doha: 250, Dubai: 300 and Monte Carlo: 180
In other words:
Hard court: 1990, Clay: 1830 and Grass: 360
If you mean ranking points in the last 52 weeks:
This year's total viz 4180
minus: 480:Dubai 300 and monte Carlo 180 which would count on 25th July and 8th August respectively
plus: USO:720, cincinnati: 1000, Canada and Shanghai: 600 each, Basel: 500, Stockholm: 250, Paris: 360 and WTF: 1500
Total ranking points as on 18th July 2011: 9230

Clay requires patience and hardwork so chaps like Federer and Murray found it easier to focus on other surfaces. Fed started focusing on clay in 2005 and Murray who is 6 years younger has started at the same time viz 2011.

Thanx for the info guys.
I don't think they're that close btw Numero,
Roger shall probably remain at 3 for the rest of the year.
It would take a shock result at Cincy or the US for Andy to take his place.
Of course if Muzzy won the US Open and WTF....well then  (he-he-he-he)!
Similarly, if there was a shock loss by Nadal in some of the up n coming events he could swap places with Roger!
I don't see either yet but Ya Never Know!
Im a fan of Rogers btw
I'm slightly put off by his, er, sense of 'heightened confidence' shall we say ( although it's understandable) but I sure love his tennis flair.

Holdserve , I hope you are getting paid for this or are a very rich person , because you seem to have lots of time invested time into this , most of it just flaming !

sosueme, it's unlikely that Fed can overtake Rafa in the rankings, as Rafa has 7595 race points vs Fed's 4180. Unless Rafa gets injured and miss some of the tournaments, it's unlikely that he'll fall to no.3. Rafa will most likely make at least the semis in most events, so it's hard to see him being overtaken by anyone.

Murray vs Fed, the points difference is alot closer, about 460 points. There're four masters, one slam, one WTF and at least two 500 events left so plenty of chances for Murray to overtake Fed to become no.3. Delpo now has one thousand plus points, if he wins the USO plus one masters and does well in the others, he may even make it to top five or top four even. Interesting hard court season ahead.

luckystar
More details are available on
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/773064-nadal-djokovic-federer-a nd-murray-what-do-the-stats-say-about-their-game
But in a nutshell
Rafa's return game is almost as good as Djoko's. They are tied on % age points won on return of first and second serve but Djoko has a slight edge in break point conversion. This gives him a slight edge in % age of return games won as the points won when leading 30-40 on your opponent's serve are more critical than points when you are trailing 30-15 on your opponent's serve.
Rafa's service game is also almost as good but he lags behind Djoko in % age points won on first serve. Probably this accounts for his relatively inferior stats (compared to Djoko) on service games % age won and break points saved which make that critical difference between winning and losing.

holdserve, I don't think it's that simple; there's more to it than that. It has got to do with Rafa's court position, Nole's ability to take the ball early and dictate play, more than just serve and return of serves. Anyway this thread is about Fed, so I won't say much here, maybe we can discuss it at the Nadal's ESPY thread.

Ha ha, no matter whose thread it is, we start talking about Rafa or Roger!

Yes, maybe not on the court anymore, but the duopoly is certainly still alive here.
Fed is really behind on the return of serve stats. That figures.

I half expect him to come out with a double handed backhand the next tournament! :p
I've always thought of the backhand as an inefficient shot anyway.

I think it's safe to assume that the Fed will win more tournaments, maybe even GSs, it's not as if Annacone is giving shocking news, is it?

I doubt that Paul Annacone voluntered this information. He would have been asked and as a paid coach of Roger, he could hardly say he was not confident of further success for Federer.

It looks like the Rafa/Roger show is still the most popular show in town.

Will Fedal meetings in slams be restricted to the FOs in future? I was hoping that Fedal can still dominate on clay and grass but looks like it's only clay that Fedal can still dominate. Not only did one of Fedal failed to reach the Wimbledon final, the other halfIMG_0017.JPG of Fedal failed to 'protect' their turf and allowed an 'intruder' to invade and conquer their turf. It's even more difficult for Fedal to meet in hard court slams these days. Since the AO 2009, where Rafa finally 'come out of age' and reach a hard court slam, they have been missing each other on the hard court in slams. Fed had made it twice to the final and Rafa once but they couldn't meet. It seems unlikely that they'll ever meet on the hard courts in slams.

wow! it's nice to come bact to TT with lectures from aegis and jessica.. i have learned a LOT from you guys..

releasing those statements in a general sense meant uttering those words, whether in a press conference, casual meetings, or whatever. by walk the talk, i meant we fans want results of that roger confidence. we want a winner from him, from nadal, and ok, from nole!

Let's be fair, impartial and honest. Who here really thinks Roger will get another GS ?

I really think Federer can def win a GS. HE just have to improve on his return game. His serve is strongest among top 4 even at this age, if he can improve his second serve returns,he can def win. I read bodo's article but its too long and biased.Rather than that I found this: Interesting stats on top4 shared by another member:http://bit.ly/mZfnaq

It clearly shows the players need to improve in which area of the game and seeing this has strengthened my belief that he can win

fanfortennis,
What Bodo and the writer of the article you recommend did not mention, probably because they did not know, is that Fed's return stats are almost the same since 2004. He could be no. 1 earlier because of the weak era.
But now with players like Rafa and Nole, he is lagging behind.
Do you think he can improve his second serve returns?
Stats for second serve returns from 2004 to 2011 are : 52%, 52%, 54%, 52%, 53%, 51%, 51% and 51%.
Rafa and Nole were at 55% and 54% last year and are at 58% each this year. They are in their prime and still improving. Murray was at 55% last year and is at 56% this year. These guys are in the improving mode.
Do you seriously think that Fed can improve? He is no spring chicken.

sorry my above post was addressed to fantennis. All that banter with rbennett has made me pick up his habit of confusing names.

Let's be fair, impartial and honest. Who here really thinks Roger will get another GS ?

Emiliano55 , 7/20/11 8:10 PM



I wouldn't say it was impossible because he did make the final of the FO this year. If he gets a favourable draw and avoids Rafa then I think he can win another GS.

Yeah, not impossible. With Rafa not his invincible self on clay this year, I think Roger had a good chance even at this year's FO.

It would be a foolish person who writes him out of the equation. Remember three years ago he was being written off by pundits and tennis fans, after the mono period which resulted in loss of form and confidence. Then he bounced back at the USO to confound all the doom-mongerers.

The difference now is his confidence has taken a heavy battering: as has that of Rafa: Nole is positively drunk on self confidence (which might just be his undoing): Andy could yet surprise us all and finally fulfill his real potential: and we shouldn't forget Del Boy who will be a man with a mission. But they all have to negotiate their way through a field littered with players capable of upsetting the applecart.

That's what makes the Slams so riveting.

Haha Holdserve, its easy to do isn't it? :P

No, rbennett. It is catching (whatever it is).