AO2012 SF1 - Federer Rafa-ed up
It was yet another display of melting down at the face of Rafael Nadal in a Grand Slam for Roger Federer. It was very indicative from the first set, when playing Del Potro, he was in the same state, 3-0 up, cruising in 4th gear, appearing invincible, but soon after, Rafa broke him. If it had been DelPo, or anybody else, Federer would have just blown it off and got away, but he knew he was playing Rafa, let the set get to tie-breaker, and managed to get one set under his belt. But then, things started getting more apparent.
Overall in that match, Federer had 63 unforced errors and 5 double faults! To win 3 sets, assuming no game goes to deuce, anybody needs 72 points. Considering this match went 4, Rafa needed 96 points. Federer served him 68 of those on a platter. So Rafa knew he just had to win much fewer than if he was playing anybody else, and the match was so heart breaking, I feel like all of my 2012 is ruined now :(
I do understand that there were many games in deuce, 2 tie breakers, and so the 68 cannot be taken at the value as I have noted, still, when you dish out 68 points in a match, you leave very little room to draw a W against your name. Apart from this, Federer helped Nadal convert atleast 20 of his defensive shots into winners, play a real hard shot to Nadal's FOREHAND and start slowly running up to the net, get caught up in the middle of the court, neither at net nor baseline. Rafa should have been surprised himself that he was winning those points, and felt there is no way he is going to lose this match. Well, we all know the genius in Federer, how can he not know that you can't play a ball to Nadal's forehand and stay in the middle of the court to see the ball land safely on one side? But only on Jan 26 2012, the genius was absent, and Rafael Nadal took over the genius' place, commanding RoFe to play his game one way, and only one way.
I am not sure if 2012 is going to be any different than 2011 for RoFe, he should be seething deep inside if he ever got to look at this match again (yes, I've seen it twice already :(). May be if Rafa played him with a hockey stick, I would still win the match over him :(
Come on Roger, you are way better than anybody else in Tennis today, how do you lose these matches?????? How can you break our hearts so easily!! :(
