Final Comments On The US Open

Well, I have to admit that I've been a little remiss lately. But, I hope that you all have been busy with your lives as I have been with mine.

But, let's talk some tennis now!

Looking back on the US Open here are some of my impressions.

Watching Federer play, all dressed in black tennis clothes, in some of the mid-tournament matches was like watching a great musician practicing! Fed was flawless at times and the more you watch Fed, the more you have to be aware of his brilliant movement. He is the most musical player out there. He moves with a dancer's grace and a musician's sense of rhythm.

On the other hand, this was the first tournament where I said to myself how much better Rafael Nadal would be if he had received classical coaching growing up. His movement relies too much on bursts of speed as opposed to great footwork. As I've discussed before, his serve has flaws --mainly his lack of a good serve wide in the deuce court --, and I think he often takes the ball too late on his forehand and hooks it too much at times.

So, I wasn't surprised at the play of Novak Djokovic. His game reminds me more of Federer than Nadal. He has a very good serve which wins him a lot of free points. He moves well and is very solid off both sides.

For me the rest of the year is exhibition tennis. I focus on my own game until the Australian Open in January.

So the next few months of posts will deal with our tennis --the club and state level variety.

By the way I hope you all have seen Djokovic do his tennis impersonations. They're hilarious!

I've added a page on my web site which provides links to youtube videos if you haven't yet seen the Djokester's tennis comedy act. Just click here Tennis Humor and then click on the link for Djokovic's Impersonations

Until next time,

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Tennis Strategy Tactics And Tips To Help You Improve Your Game guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
Tennis Cartoon Screensaver. You can download a trial version for FREE.

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Roger Federer vs. Rod Laver

Laver and Federer were both born in August 43 years apart. Federer's birthday is August 08, 1981, while Laver's is August 09, 1938. It makes comparing them straightforward as the grand slams make up this way too. For example, Federer won his second Wimbledon in 2004 at the age of 22, while Laver won his first Wimbledon 1961, at the same age of 22. And so on.. get the drift?

Laver	1956	1957	1958	1959	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	Career
Australian	r32	r32	r16	r16	W	F	W							W	-	r16	-	-	-	-	-	-	3
French	r128	-a	r64	r32	r32	SF	W	F	F	F	F	W	F	W	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3
Wimbledon	r128	-a	r32	F	F	W	W	QF	W	W	W	W	W	W	r16	QF	-	-	-	-	-	r64	8
US Open	r128	-a	r16	QF	F	F	W	F	W	F	W	W	r16	W	r16	-	r16	r32	-	r16	-	-	5
RF/RL age	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38

Federer	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	Career
Australian	q1	3r	3r	4r	4r	W	SF	W	W	SF	F	W	SF		4
French	1rw	4r	QF	1r	1r	3r	SF	F	F	F	W	QF	F		1
Wimbledon	1rw	1r	QF	1r	W	W	W	W	W	F	W	QF	QF		6
US Open	q2	3r	4r	4r	4r	W	W	W	W	W	F	SF	SF		5

Green shaded boxes represent Rod Laver playing in Pre-open Era amateur division. Blue boxes represent Rod Laver playing in Pre-open Era under Pro division, whose 3 Grand slam equivalents were French Pro, Wembley and US Pro. These divisions were eliminated in 1968 French Open with the beginning of the Open Era, represented in White boxes, however "contract" professionals were banned for several grand slams (shown in light blue boxes) due to conflicts between NTL, WCT and ITLF till 'true' Open Era started in 1972 US Open with the formation of ATP.

Note: RF/RR age is the age of both Roger Federer and Rod Laver when the tennis season starts (Jan 1). By the time they play US Open, they would have had their birthday and older by one year. (Like Federer won his first US Open at age 23, though he was 22 when the tennis season started).

Note2: Laver served at Australian Army in 1957 as indicated by 'a' for the last three slams of the season.

Data by Wikipedia, ITF & ATP.

Also see, Federer at Grand slam Singles Main draw.

Roger Federer vs. Bjorn Borg vs. Rafael Nadal

Similar to Roger Federer vs. Pete Sampras summary, here's an attempt to match the Swedish ice-man, Björn Borg's achievements against Roger.

Federer's birthday is August 08, 1981, while Borg's is June 6, 1956. So, they are 25 years apart, which makes it convenient to compare them. Some similarities include Borg is 0/9 at US Open where Roger has won four straight times, like Federer is 0/9 at French Open where Borg has won six including four straight. Borg and Federer were known to be brats during junior days and then developed an ice-cool demeanor later on. Also, both Borg and Federer has won Wimbledon five straight times, an all-time record and both are junior Wimbledon champions as well.

Also, during the era when Borg played, Australian was not considered a serious slam and most of the pros never played them, at least not consistently like modern pros do.

Update: Added Nadal as well - as a sheer coincidence, Nadal was born 30 years apart on June 3, 1986. Both being at the top of their game from a very early age and the eerie similarity of their success at French Open as well.

Borg	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	Career
Australian	-	3r	-	-	-	-	-	-	-							0
French	4r	W	W	QF	-	W	W	W	W							6
Wimbledon	QF	3r	QF	W	W	W	W	W	F							5
US Open	4r	2r	SF	F	4r	F	QF	F	F							0
Nadal	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	Career
Australian	-	3r	4r	-	QF	SF	W	QF	QF							1
French	-	-	W	W	W	W	4r	W	W							6
Wimbledon	3r	-	2r	F	F	W	-	W	F							2
US Open	2r	2r	3r	QF	4r	SF	SF	W								1
Federer	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	Career
Australian	j-F	q1	3r	3r	4r	4r	W	SF	W	W	SF	F	W	SF		4
French	j-1r	1rw	4r	QF	1r	1r	3r	SF	F	F	F	W	QF	F		1
Wimbledon	j-W	1rw	1r	QF	1r	W	W	W	W	W	F	W	QF	QF		6
US Open	j-SF	q2	3r	4r	4r	4r	W	W	W	W	W	F	SF	SF		5
BB/RN /RF age	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30

Note: RF/BB age is the age of both Roger Federer and Bjorn Borg when the tennis season starts (Jan 1). By the time Borg played Wimbledon and Federer play US Open, they would have had their birthday and older by one year. (Like Federer won his first US Open at age 23, though he was 22 when the tennis season started).

Data by Wikipedia.

Also Federer at Grand slam Singles Main draw.

Some US OPEN Thoughts

Here are some of my random thoughts after having watched parts of the US Open so far.

1. Federer is playing brilliant tennis. He is serving and hitting his backhand as well as I've ever seen. His backhand passing shots were phenomenal last night against Lopez. It seems to take Fed about a set to get a read on big servers but when he zones in, it's over.

2. Nadal looked horrible in the first round and quite good in the second and third. If he is healthy, he should make it through to face Djokovic in the semis.

3. James Blake chokes a lot. He got lucky against Santoro to win his first 5 setter, but he was back to his old ways yesterday against Haas. He played an atrocious tiebreak full of really bad unforced errors. I thought I saw a smile on his face after Haas hit the topspin lob winner at 3-3 in the 5th set breaker. Real competitors would have been pained or angry beyond belief. This was not the time to think " Good Shot Mate."

4. Djokovic is so solid it's scary. It's going to be exciting to see what happens as the tournament progresses. And, if someone does beat him, I want to see what his deficiency is. The only thing I can see is that Nadal and Federer might be a touch quicker than he is. Can't wait.

5. The Williams sisters are still great. And, to their credit, they play exciting, attacking tennis. In general, women's tennis is so cookie cutter it's pathetic, but the Williams sisters and Justine Henin are the players to enjoy watching.

6. Andy Roddick has his chance tomorrow night against Federer. He's lucky to be playing at night, as Bjorn Borg used to hate playing at night saying he couldn't see as well under the lights, which could be a big advantage to Roddick if Fed has a little trouble picking up the ball.

7. Thank god -- No Rain.

Until next time,

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Tennis Strategy Tactics And Tips To Help You Improve Your Game guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
Tennis Cartoon Screensaver. You can download a trial version for FREE.

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It's US OPEN TIME

It seems like an eon ago since Wimbledon.

I personally find the hard court summer season fairly boring. I view it as exhibiton type tennis gearing up for the US open.

And, I don't put a lot of importance on the results. You've got tournaments in back to back weeks so there's no way that a Fed or a Nadal will compete hard each week.

This means that there will be breakthrough winners and unusual guys reaching semis and finals. Look at Frank Dancevic in Indianopolis. Djokovic wins in Montreal and then checks out early the following week. He's too smart to kill himself 2 weeks in a row with matches almost every day in these non-slam events.

But the Open is interesting. And here are some of my thoughts having watched one of the semis and the finals of the Masters event live in Montreal.


Fed is Fed and, unless someone really steps up, he will be there again. The guy I think who can give Fed trouble on hard courts is Djokovic not Nadal. Djokovic's game is better suited to hard courts than Nadal's. He serves better ,and his two handed backhand is so solid that he dominated crosscourt backhand rallies against Federer in the final in Montreal.

Nadal is struggling and I don't see him having a great tournament. Part of Nadal's game is to break you down physically. New York can be steaming hot during the day but can cool down at night and I don't think cool conditions are to Nadal's advantage.

Roddick has to play Fed in the quarters. Goodnight Andy. Blake is on a roll but his game style is so risky that I don't think he can pull it off for 7 matches.

So I'm picking Federer and Djokovic in the final.

Until next time,

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Tennis Strategy Tactics And Ideas To Help You Improve Your Game guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
Tennis Cartoon Screensaver. You can download a trial version for FREE.

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Wimbledon Final 2007 - Part 2 -Should Nadal Serve Wide More In The Deuce Court?

If you closely watch Rafael Nadal's serving patterns, you'll notice that he rarely goes wide in the deuce court.

I've charted Nadal's serving patterns for most of the last 2 French finals and the last 2 Wimbledon finals.

As I've noted before Nadal often basically lets you know where's he's going to serve. His reasoning must be that his slice serve is good enough to get a relatively weak return that will allow him to begin to dominate the point with his forehand.

You can't really argue with his results. You could possibly say that this serving strategy is less suited for tiebreaks where free points on the serve are much more important than in regular games. Ergo, he lost both tiebreaks to Fed and his tiebreak record is not all that hot.

Nadal is quite capable and fairly confident, in my opinion, in serving down the middle in the ad court. If you cheat too much to take away the wide serve, he can burn you with smoke down the middle. He did this repeatedly in the latter stages of last year's Wimbledon finals.

As you recall Nadal got smoked at the beginning of the first set of last year's Wimbledon and was down 5-0. I charted his serving pattern and he had served 11 out of the first 13 first serves to the backhand.

I believe that last year Federer received so much grief in the tennis world stemming from his inablity to return the Nadal serve at the French Open. People like Wilander were basically saying why not just stand further to the left to cover the slice and make him beat you by going the other way if he can. Federer may have used this strategy to return at Wimbledon and was giving Nadal trouble.

Near the end of the first set in the Wimbledon final last year, Nadal started serving down the middle in the ad court and he continued this for the rest of the match. He served almost 50 % of his ad points last year in the second set down the middle and he won 80% of the points.

So, I believe that Nadal is quite capable of mixing it up in the ad court.

Where I think Nadal has trouble is in the deuce court. He rarely serves the wide serve in the deuce court. This of course the serve that Fed, Sampras, and McEnroe all had mastered. ( I'm talking about the Fed and Sampras wide serve in the ad court and the Mac serve in the deuce court since Mac was a lefty like Nadal). These great servers serve wide and get the ball a few feet up the line making the serve almost unreturnable.

And, by being able to serve this wide, they force the opponent to alter the return position, making the serve down the middle more effective.

Look at Nadal's starting position in the deuce court and then compare it with the starting position in the deuce court of other lefties like Mac, Rusedski, Leconte, Gomez, Martina.

All these other lefties stand a few feet away from the center line. Nadal hugs the center line when he serves in the deuce court. I believe this gives him an even better angle for the serve down the middle but hurts his angle for going wide in the deuce court.

You can't argue with Nadal's results but I'd like to see what would happen if Nadal moved a few feet further away from the center line in the deuce court like the others and improved the wide serve.

If I were his coach and he struggled this year again on the hard courts, I'd experiment with this idea to see what happens.

Until next time,

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Tennis Strategy Tactics And Ideas To Help You Improve Your Game guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
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Wimbledon Final 2007 ---Part 1

What a final it was. A classic!The Wimbledon final of 2007 will go down in history as one of the all-time bests.

Compare it to the Wimbledon Final of 2006 and you can see that Nadal has closed the gap with Federer on grass. This was an even match.

Both guys have played each other enough and adjusted enough that the matches between them are no longer about patterns. No one is clamoring that Federer should slice more or hit down the line backhands.

It came down to pure tennis execution.

The one area where Federer is clearly superior to Nadal is in hitting aces and unreturnable first serves. Notice that I didn't say his serve is better.
Look at how often Nadal holds serve and you can begin to appreciate his serving strategy. He hits his lefty slice most of the time and makes righthanders block back a weak return into midcourt.

From there, Nadal dominates points with his forehand.

The problem with this strategy is that it's not that effective in tiebreaks where getting free points on your serve is key.

And, if Nadal had been able to split the 2 tiebreaks with Fed, we'd be looking at a new Wimbledon champion.

Let's hope the Wimbledon Final of 2008 is just as good.

Next time I'll talk about Nadal's serve from a technical point of view.
Until next time,

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Tennis Strategy Ideas To Help You Win More Matches guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
Tennis Cartoon Screensaver. You can download a trial version for FREE.

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