Federer has yet set another record today: He has now held the number one ranking for 187 consecutive weeks. This surpasses Steffi Graf's all-time record for the longest reign at the top spot for both men and women tennis players.
Long live King Roger the Great!
Another grand slam tournament is about to start and what's new? Nothing much really. Federer is once again favored to win a grand slam title, this one to be his 12th overall. Quite honestly, Federer winning a fourth consecutive US Open title seems to be the most reasonable prediction if one is to look at his performance in grand slams in the past three years: 14 consecutive semifinals and nine consecutive final appearances.
On the other hand, his performance this season has been rather shaky--that is, at least compared to his superhuman feats in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Having lost to Canas twice in March on the hard courts of Miami and Los Angeles and struggled against lesser players in other hard court tournaments, Federer may have to really slug it out this time around to defend his title, especially against those who have long been working hard to wrestle a title away from his grasp.
Of course, there has always been Rafael Nadal who has lately proven that he can play on the fast courts of Wimbledon and has one hard court title this year. As number two in the world, he'll always be on the other half of the draw from Federer so it's natural to hope for another Federer-Nadal final. Then there's Andy Roddick who's seeded to meet Federer in the quarterfinals. But with a 1-13 record against the Swiss and a game that has evolved just marginally over the past few years (compared at least to Nadal's), who's to say that the result will be different this time around?
If there is anything new, then it would be those players whose names have been added to the list of those who have the potential to upset Federer.
And one of them is the resurgent Lleyton Hewitt who now seems to be more of a threat than Roddick given that he nearly upset Federer in the semifinals of last week's Cincinnati Masters Series. With Federer's former coach Tony Roche in his corner, he may give Federer some trouble. Even more dangerous is the promising 20-year old Novak Djokovic, who as everyone knows by now defeated Roddick, Nadal and Federer on the way to a second Masters Series shield this year in Montreal. That kid has a solid game and has shown that he has the confidence to back it up as well. But then, Djokovic and Hewitt are all in the bottom half of the draw with Nadal and can only stand in Federer's way if they make it all the way to the final. So who else is there?
Included in Federer's half of the draw are hard hitters Tomas Berdych and Ivo Karlovic and the talented but injured Andy Murray. But it is Australian Open 2006 finalist Marcos Baghdatis who I believe has the best chance of causing an upset in Federer's half of the draw. After all, he nearly did defeat Federer in the quarterfinals in Cincinnati last week. But for me, he does have the game to match Federer but simply lacks consistency and the stamina to outlast Federer in a best-of-five-set match.
Then they always say the best chance to beat Federer would come in the early rounds. Federer is drawn to meet qualifiers in his first two round matches. It does sound like an easy start for Federer but a qualifier can be dangerous too since Federer will not be familiar with his opponent's game. I expect though that while the qualifiers will feel they will have nothing to lose when they go up against the top seed, they will be too much in awe of the great man and consider it already an honor to appear on the same court as he.
Federer does seem to have a relatively easy draw as he had in Wimbledon this year. Again, this can work both ways: It may give him an easy path to the finals but may provide him little challenge and inadequate preparation for a showdown in the finals with the likes of Djokovic, Nadal and Hewitt who await him in the bottom half of the draw. That five-set thriller with Nadal in the Wimbledon finals has proven that. But then again, as proven also by that victory over Nadal, Federer is even more formidable when it comes to grand slams, something which Blake pointed out after losing to Federer in Cincinnati.
So I expect that it will be Tiger Woods who will soon have to start keeping up with his buddy. (What else can I say? I'm a Federer fan. ;) )
P.S.
Sadly, I won't be able to watch any of the US Open matches on television this year. The local cable channel that has always provided full coverage of the US Open in the past years has strangely opted not to buy the rights to air the tournament this time around. Waaaaah! :(
Photo credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images for the USTA.
It was another of those blink-and-you'll-miss-it tennis matches courtesy of the Federer Express. I for one "blinked"--having awakened at 4:35am already, 35 minutes after live coverage of the match began here--and was dismayed to find that I had completely missed the first set. Actually, the match could have been over more quickly had Federer not struggled through several deuces on his third service game of the first set. And then it would have been tempting to say Federer blitzes Blake in fifty-five for fiftieth. Haha. But never mind. That would have been overkill--both as a blog post title and for poor James Blake.
Anyway, the phenomenal Swiss quickly stamped his authority on the match when he broke Blake's serve at the very first opportunity and repeated the feat in the sixth game of the first set after fighting off three breakpoints himself in the fifth game. In the second set, the oppressive hot and humid weather conditions forced Federer to conserve energy as he kept his movement on court to a minimum. He however managed to lift his game just enough in the seventh game to break Blake's serve once again, ultimately securing the title. Overall, Federer was most impressive with his service game, just he had been throughout the tournament, having fired nine aces and lost only seven points when he got his first serve in.
With this quick 65-minute victory over the American number two at the Cincinnati ATP Masters Series tournament, Federer has achieved so much again:
Federer seemed pleased with his "nice number" of career singles titles while Blake had this to say about Federer's latest achievement:
Just about everything he does is pretty impressive. So, yeah, 50 titles at any age is impressive. 50 titles at 26 is incredible. 50 titles with 11 of them being Grand Slams, and I think now 14 being Masters Series, that's just phenomenal.Photo credit: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
The world tennis number one eked out an 11th straight victory over Lleyton Hewitt to get another chance to secure a 50th career ATP singles title and a 14th ATP Masters Series shield. Federer seemed on course to another straight-set victory after winning the first set easily 6-3 but he squandered three match points in the second set which Hewitt won in a tight tiebreak 9-7. The two then traded breaks in the third set which went on to another tiebreak. Hewitt however committed costly errors as he managed to win just one point (with his first serve) in that tiebreak to hand Federer a place in the finals against another in-form player, the American number two James Blake.
Later Federer admitted that playing against the Australian "made him nervous" and that it did take a lot (he fired 18 aces but committed 36 unforced errors) to defeat Hewitt whom he described as "like a cat with seven lives." (He later corrected himself when his mistake was greeted with laughter saying, "Nine, yeah, thought so, seven would have been easy." Wow! Imagine that. Seven is already easy for Federer.) Federer now leads their head-to-head 12-7, not having lost to Hewitt since 2003.
A victory in Sunday's finals will give Federer his second title in Cincinnati and fifth singles title this year.
Federer has struggled yet again past another opponent to advance in the Cincinnati Masters as he needed three sets (6-3 3-6 6-2) to shake off a fighting Spaniard Nicolas Almagro. The top seed had a few lapses as he was broken once in each of the first two sets. While he was able to recover in the first to get up a set, he was unable to fight back when he was broken in the eighth game of the second and Almagro hung on in the next to force a deciding third set. From then on, however, Federer took control as he broke twice in the final set to set up a second semifinal meeting with Lleyton Hewitt in two weeks.
Roger has admitted that the in-form Hewitt is one of those "who can make it hard for me to win here." While it is well known that he has defeated the former Australian world number one in their last ten matches, Roger hasn't been as dominant this year as he used to be in the last three years. Hewitt on the other hand seems to have rediscovered of late the form that made him a top ten player three years ago. But as Federer has proven that he can win matches despite playing badly--that is, compared to his usual brilliant standards--I can still see him extending his dominance over Hewitt.
In a thrilling three-set final, world number one Roger Federer was unable to defend his title at the Canada Masters Series in Montreal as he lost to Novak Djokovic 6-7(4) 6-2 6-7(2) for the first time in six meetings. Federer simply couldn't capitalize on several set point chances in the first set which he eventually lost in a tiebreak. He bounced back however in the second set as he broke Djokovic's serve twice. The brand new world number three however rediscovered his serve and brilliant groundstrokes in the third set as he fought off Federer and eventually prevailed in another tiebreak, 7-2.
Looking back, had Federer won the first set when he was up 6-5 he would have won the match and the championship outright. It's just too bad. This would have been Federer's 50th career singles title and would have been his first in the Montreal edition of the Rogers Cup. But then the 20-year old from Serbia (and not, ahem, Croatia) was a worthy champion in this tournament having claimed the scalps of the number two and three seeds Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick on his way to a second Masters Series title victory and a fourth title this year.
Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Federer moved on to the third round at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, Canada at his first tournament appearance since winning a historic fifth consecutive Wimbledon title. Federer's opponent in the second round match which didn't produce any break points at all was the Croatian giant Ivo Karlovic who predictably fired at lot of aces (16) but succumbed to Federer's brilliant shot-making in two tie-breaks. The 7-6(2) 7-6(3) victory was Federer's 13th straight match win in Canada, having won the title here in 2004 and 2006 (he skipped the tournament in 2005 due to a sprained ankle), and was an appropriate way to celebrate his 26th birthday.
Federer was apparently serenaded (I fell asleep midway through the match as it was 3:30am here) with "Happy Birthday" in French by the crowd during the match and was eventually presented a birthday cake at the end of the match.
Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
This is a bit late but I thought I'd post a video of the new Gillette commercial featuring Roger together with Tiger Woods and Henry Thierry.
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