Roger Dodger

They said it was an off year for Roger Federer. He has 12 losses this year, which is nearly twice what he's had in the previous four years. It's strange to say that because Federer has reached the finals of three of four Grand Slam majors, and the semifinals of the other one.

To compare, Nadal reached two semifinals and two finals. Now, Nadal did win both those finals and beat Federer in the those finals.

Still, you wouldn't think a guy that reached three finals and a semifinal of the four majors was having a bad year. Such is the life of Roger Federer who people expect to win at least 2 of every 4 majors he's in. He's remarkably consistent, except that everyone expected Rafael Nadal to take that leap into transcendency.

Only no one told Andy Murray. While Nadal is the undisputed king of clay, and has become the best or perhaps the second best grass court player in the world, there are many more people who can give Nadal a run for his money on hard courts. For one, there's number 3 Novak Djokovic, who did just that against him in Cincinnati. For another, there's now Andy Murray, who I believe is one of the smartest, if not the smartest, male tennis player out there.

Most players have a one size fits all strategy. They play the same way against most people, and it usually does the trick. Many fewer things to think about this way, don't you know? Murray, on the other hand, seems to adjust his tactics to whoever he plays. All that thought makes it tough to decide how to play someone. First on Murray's list appeared to be world's number one, Rafael Nadal.

Now Nadal has a style that's bruising, and while it hurts others, it hurts himself in the process. He came into the US Open weary, but even a weary Nadal can beat most players. Except Murray. Murray used a combination of no pace and hard pace to throw Nadal off his game until, dare we say it, Nadal was frustrated and impatient, two traits that rarely define Nadal's game.

By outthinking and outplaying Nadal, many people, including myself, thought Murray had a good shot at beating Roger Federer. However, many others thought, with his strong victory over Novak Djokovic, that the four time consecutive winner of the US Open wasn't ready to concede his crown, that the hugeness of the moment, so familiar to Federer, and so new to Murray, would be enough to rile Murray. And perhaps the Roger Federer of old, the one that was so dominant, that seemed poised to knock Pete Sampras's record 14 majors into a footnote of history, might be back.

And with a superior serve and aggressive play, Federer put a 6-2 beatdown on Murray in the first set, bewildering the poor Scot, before he started to string a few points together. And when Murray had a chance to break, and failed to challenge a call that turned out to be clearly out, and then lead to a Federer hold instead of a Murray break, Murray's chances, which seemed to be decent, began to dim.

Federer managed to break in the second set as well, and with two sets firmly in hand, Federer started to really relax. He drop-shotted, he chipped and charged, he served and volleyed. Murray, who had been content to hit off-pace shots, hoping to elicit errors from Federer, found himself retreiving hard hit shots which only weeks ago had not made it inside the lines, which had let players that hadn't had a whiff of victory against Federer, feel they had a chance.

Murray, ranked number 6, wasn't really feeling sorry for himself. With a successful summer, he was ready to move up to number 4 in the world, ahead of Ferrer, ahead of Davydenko, guys who play consistent, guys who make the semifinals, but not guys who people seriously consider as potential winners of the majors. Murray was better than these guys, and finally, he strung enough victories, played confident enough tennis, played smart against good players, and pushed himself ahead of those guys to be number 4 in the world. And he's had 2 victories over Djokovic. Though he lacks the bruising precision of the 3 players ahead of him, he plays with his brains, and perhaps soon, the power and precision will come for Murray too.

He's only 21, after all, much like the power youth movement. Nadal, 22, Djokovic, 21, trying to fend off the youth of 19 like del Potro or Querrey or Nishikori.

Meanwhile, Federer has asserted that he isn't quite ready to cede the mantle of king. Not yet, anyway. He's going to have to go back to the drawing table, figure out how to get his game to resemble years past, rather than the year that is. He's in a battle against time, to win 2 more majors before age gets to him, before the new kids start to draw even.

Federer's smiling now because he knows his time hasn't past yet, that the old man of tennis, at 27, still has some punch for the young'uns. Maybe he'll learn a lesson from Murray on how to play a Nadal, and maybe that will serve him well, lead him to a French title that is missing from his prodigious resume.

Who knows? The dream of break 14 majors that had been put on hold is now breathing life again, and that elegant player from Switzerland is all smiles. The year wasn't all bad, after all, don't you know. The golden boy of doubles took something positive and made one more golden trip to New York.

Searching for Roger

James Blake is good player. He's top ten. He plays an aggressive baseline game where he takes chances. He beats opponents because he can hit a bit harder than they can, but if his game is off, then he runs into trouble.

In eight tries against Roger Federer, Blake had only ever won one set. He couldn't figure out how to beat Roger Federer. Typically, this means one player has confidence in his play and the other feels frustration.

But even Blake knew that people were whispering about Federer. He was no longer the same player. He had uncharacteristic losses early in the year, compounded by mono, and then got decimate in the French final. Even when he appeared to have his game together, he needed rain delays, and some great shots to force a fifth set with Nadal, and even then, he lost during the waning daylight.

He then lost to Gilles Simon with errors a plenty, then to the hard serving Ivo Karlovic. Still, Federer assured us, that he was fine, that the only thing that mattered was the Olympics and the US Open.

I saw a few points of Blake playing Simon. Blake had already beaten Simon in a match last week in Cincinnati. Simon is a very steady, quick player that can fetch enough balls, and make enough shots that he can beat most average players. Blake wins because he pressures Simon, making forcing shots setting himself up. And Blake appeared to be crisp. He was making those shots.

Although Roger managed to eke out a win over Berdych, he had a tough time with Berdych's serve. He looked like he was struggling more than he had to, which made me think that Blake, despite a dismal record, would feel he had a chance. And indeed, he played aggressive off the ground, and Federer looked very shaky chasing shots down.

While Federer has a good serve, he's never been the kind of ace machine Sampras was. Indeed, that made him a more interesting player to watch. But this creates problems. More likely than not, when Federer is in trouble, he can't serve an ace to get out of it. He did it at Wimbledon (somewhat), but it's important to get a few free points.

This meant Blake had chances in many games to stay in the point. Federer also doesn't like really long points. If he feels pressure, and Blake was applying it, then he goes on the offensive. However, once he does that, he begins to miss, tick the top of the net, as if he's waiting for the stars to align and he goes into a zone.

It's a peculiar tactic to say the least. One that says that it's better to have lots of errors than play tentatively. You would think, with practice, he'd aim more safer, make sure he wasn't getting so close to the lines. In other words, either be more accurate, or take fewer chances.

Rather than let Blake beat himself, Federer would give him points. To be fair, Blake was hitting well, and Federer probably felt a conservative playing style would cause Blake to make winners even more easily.

This isn't to say that Federer might not come around and win the US Open. He now has a few days to prepare (the bad news, in that respect, is that he's still playing doubles with Wawrinka, so he can't take a flight out of China right away) for the US Open that he wouldn't otherwise. He can certainly still practice in China (I guess) and see how that works for him.

Federer's practice routine was severely impacted when he got sick at the beginning of the year, and it seems to have hurt his game ever since. Now that he makes errors with 5-6 shots off the ground, a steady player can, in principle, just wait until this happens.

I think people want him to play better, to be competitive with Djokovic and especially Nadal. Part of the problem is how stubbornly he sticks to this style of play. You would think his manager and coach would simply tell him to look at the unforced errors and ask him if that's the way he should play. I suspect Federer is a stubborn man. He has been winning for so long by himself that he may take anyone else's advice with a grain of salt.

By the way, his manager is his girlfriend.

So what happens to Roger? No one expected his game to deteriorate like this, competitive enough to make finals, but then struggling as well. It's more instructive looking at the way he loses. It would be one thing if it were someone like Michael Chang where players simply learned to outhit him. But it feels like Roger is helping players out by missing so much, more than even average players miss.

The Fed Forehand

I've been watching the slow-mo videos of Roger Federer at Hi-Tech tennis. Pretty good stuff.

I was also watching Will's lessons on the forehand at Fuzzy Yellow Balls (FYB).

Here are a few observations I've made.

Once Roger starts to make his arm come forward, his arm is fairly straight, his wrist is bent back, and the racquet and arm makes roughly a 90 degree angle. If you draw a line through Fed's shoulders and to his arm, they almost form a straight line.

The key, I suspect, to Roger's (and many other pros) power is that they use their bodies in the shot. Thus, the entire torso spins and the arm comes along for the ride.

As Roger's shoulders becomes parallel with the baseline (he starts more than perpendicular, to the side), the 90 degree angle he had been maintaining up til then becomes relaxed. He starts to basically flip his hand forward so the 90 degrees becomes more like 110-120 degrees. He does this mere moments before impact, about 1-2 feet away.

It looks like he is starting to move his palm forward to add that little bit of wrist flick to the shot. However, rather than flip through the ball, Federer does the windshield wiper move and moves the arm in a forward-ish rainbow arc until the racquet ends up on his left side.

Note that I haven't even talked about Fed's legs. He's leaned down on his right leg and straightens up on impact. He bends down more than most players I've seen when making this shot.

I would say, in order to master the Fed forehand, you want to imitate his upper body first, than work on the lower body once the upper body motion is satisfactory.

It helps, if you get the chance, to practice in front of a mirror, so you can see what you are doing. Shadow stroke a bit, and you will see if you are doing the right thing.

To me, the keys to the Fed forehand are: making sure the arm and racquet are 90 degrees with the wrist laid back, making sure the shoulder and arm are moving together, as you move forward. Once your shoulders are parallel, begin to flip the wrist forward to impact, and begin the rainbow arc, until the forearm has flipped to the left side of your body.

Again, something I need to try out on the court.