TennisGrandstand

It’s 10.30 pm in Toronto and I just got back to my hotel room after calling the Roger Federer – Gilles Simon match. If anyone was listening to the start of my commentating, I highlighted the fact that this could be a “tricky” match for Roger, and so it proved. Simon has just won Indy last week and playing with confidence, and he’s a good player. He, together with Stan Wawrinka, Marin Cilic, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga were my choices in November LAST year, to be my “outside picks” to crack the top 20…. Just waiting on Marin now to do me proud.

But getting back to this evening’s match –  I’ve never seen Roger miss so many forehands, like he did in those last three games. I think, he’s just a little too impatient with it and trying to hit a big shot when perhaps it wasn’t the right moment. But when you’ve been top of the pile for so long, your self belief is immense and I’m sure he backs himself to make that shot. Unfortunately, lately, it’s letting him down.

I really enjoyed two things about him tonight – he came to the net a lot (almost 50 times), and was looking to attack the second serve – two things that everyone in the locker room believes he needs to do in order to beat Nadal….

But – and its a big BUT – he needs to approach with the backhand SLICE 95% of the time, because again tonight his topspin approach off that side cost him big time and has been doing so for a while now, and that is something that his coach, Jose Higueras, has to address more than anything else! He’s got the best slice in the game. I would love to know what he’s thinking, because I’ve commentated on so many of his matches and its glaringly obvious to me. The pictures show it too. I just can’t understand why Roger doesn’t see it…

PS: Once again, how classy is he in defeat? There’s plenty of athlete’s out there who need to take notice