2018 Aussie Open

[nuraman00]

A weird set of games there. Fed gets broken at love. He comes right back and earns break point, but Cilic survives for the hold. Then Cilic has it 15-40 and has the edge in that point, but Fed comes back to have the advantage, only to see Cilic play the best point of the match and eventually break.

Cilic is serving to go 5. The Federer serve is misfiring everywhere, which is not a good sign.

Yeah, FED's first serve in the 4th set was at 38%.

This match reminded me of the FED vs. Wawrinka from last year's 2017 AO. It seemed that FED was playing well, then would have a random bad game.

Like how FED got broken at love in this 4th set.

I think Cilic has also played better matches against FED. When he lost points today, he lost a lot badly.

 

[nuraman00]

Fed's pressure to the Cilic serve pays off. After Fed starts the game with a huge winner that gets negated due to a poor out call, Cilic doubles twice in the game and Federer breaks at deuce.

2-0 Federer

FED said "nice call, buddy" to the linesperson after he won the challenge.

 

[nuraman00]

Cilic makes a great get off a near-perfect Federer drop shot at 30-15. Cilic then misses an easy return of a floater second serve. Federer's first serve just misses, and Cilic wins a short forehand rally off the Fed error. Then when he needs it most, the serve comes up huge for Federer. Cilic can't return the deuce point, and Fed's serve allows him to dictate the ad point before the Cilic forced error.

3-0 Federer. These games are tense. Outside of Cilic's hold to end the fourth set, each of the last six games have been gone to deuce, I believe.

It still seemed like Cilic couldn't string together consecutive good points in the 5th. They were alternating good points more, I think.

 

[nuraman00]

And there it ends. Federer pulls it out with a routine game.

It's tough to assess this match too much. Cilic played a very poor first set and a weak fifth set. Roger's serve abandoned him for a long time in the fourth set. A key part of his good runs in 2012, 2015, and last year was that he did not these runs and always found a way to hit the big serves. The good tennis in this match was played in the second and third sets. Cilic controlled the long rallies for the most part, but in order to do so, his margin of error was so small that he missed a lot of balls. I was disappointed that Fed moved as poorly as he did, and his form is not as good as it was a year ago. The big thing helping him is that no one else seems to be in great form either.

But after this, everything is gravy. 20 majors is an incredible achievement. To do so in the same era as Nadal and Djokovic is absurd. To keep winning them at age 36 is really unprecedented. If he can just win Dubai, he'll be the oldest #1 ever. Yet another huge accomplishment for the greatest player of all-time.

Agree for the most part. That it's tough to assess this match, and that Cilic controlled the long rallies.

I do think though that for the tourney, FED moved well and his form has been great. That's how he was able to beat different opponents with a variety of styles.

 

[nuraman00]

The one thing I'll say about this match, that keeps it from being great, is that Cilic never had a lead in a set (up a break).

When he got his first break in the 4th, he was already down a break.

 

[nuraman00]

FED cried a lot during the post-match tourney.

 

[desert heat]

the true goat, and he didn't need any referee's flags to help him out. his wins are 100% legit.

 

[Hs0022]

The number one thing I admire about Fed is that he has a crazy stat of not quitting even once during his matches. The second is his love and passion for the game, and thirdly his uncanny ability to stay relatively injury free over such a one span in his career. The rest are all details.

 

[desert heat]

The number one thing I admire about Fed is that he has a crazy stat of not quitting even once during his matches. The second is his love and passion for the game, and thirdly his uncanny ability to stay relatively injury free over such a one span in his career. The rest are all details.

his playing style is just super smooth and superior.

 

[bksballer89]

We get roughly a month off with lots of smaller tournaments then the season really gets going at the end of February with tournaments in Dubai and Mexico followed by Indian Wells and Miami to end the first half of hard court season.

 

[nuraman00]

The number one thing I admire about Fed is that he has a crazy stat of not quitting even once during his matches. The second is his love and passion for the game, and thirdly his uncanny ability to stay relatively injury free over such a one span in his career. The rest are all details.

You are right, he's never retired:

Tennis Abstract: Roger Federer ATP Match Results, Splits, and Analysis

I then searched for Djokovic, just to make sure the retirement query was working.

Tennis Abstract: Novak Djokovic ATP Match Results, Splits, and Analysis

 

[nuraman00]

Are the champions (Fed, Wozniacki) going to have an interview with the Tennis Channel and ESPN crews?

The champs at the other majors do that after they win.

 

[nuraman00]

John McEnroe says he doesn't think FED will play Roland Garros.

I hope he does.

If he doesn't play any of the events before, that's ok. Rankings don't matter. I just want to see him healthy and competing.

It's nice to be able to see all of Federer's versatility, and sometimes he can show even more on clay.

 

[nuraman00]

It's funny to think that FED has beaten Del Potro 2x at the FO, but lost to him 2x at the USO.

I would have thought it was the other way around.

 

[desert heat]

It's funny to think that FED has beaten Del Potro 2x at the FO, but lost to him 2x at the USO.

I would have thought it was the other way around.

del potro is not a clay courter.

 

[Old Lion]

Yep just watched the first 4 sets on my DVR. Refused to watch the 5th as I'm assuming it was a lot like the 1st set after seeing the scoreline.

How did he fall off so much after playing amazing in the 4th set? Don't get it

He just lost it mentally.

 

[nuraman00]

del potro is not a clay courter.

But he's still to 1 SF and 1 QF of Roland Garros.

 

[nuraman00]

@cezero, earlier in this thread, you talked about players style of play you liked.

What did you think of Jim Courier as a player?

 

[desert heat]

But he's still to 1 SF and 1 QF of Roland Garros.

if not for nadal, federer probably has a boatload of FO's too.

 

[bksballer89]

Looking at the projected new rankings, not a lot of huge movers/fallers in the top 25 but Edmund jumps 23 spots to 26, Chung jumps 29 spots to 29, and Sandgren jumps 42 spots to 55.