Qatar Open - Roger v Mandy
Jan. 9th, 2009 10:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
louiseluxRoger lost to the Mandbot AGAIN. This is becoming a Thing. It's a thing where he wins a set and then gets spooked and crumbles and then Mandy crushes him. Mandy played really well today, and Roger really did not. He threw a water bottle over his shoulder at one point - dramatic stuff from Roger.
"It is disappointing to lose after the first set when things were going my way," Federer said. "I just couldn't give the knockout punch. But it is not a big thing."
"Andy is a tough player against me," he added. "I hope when big matches come, I beat him."
So cool and understated, but really he looked so fucked off with himself.
I read an anecdote in one of Roger's biographies ('Fantastic Federer' for the interested or those planning to stage an intervention) about the time he lost a match and got so angry with himself he cried and hid under the umpire's chair and wouldn't come out (although he was 10, not 27). Although I didn't see the final set, I'm guessing his inner child was back under the umpire's chair today.
That is, actually, a tennis ball.
More Roger trufax:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wedjatye finally snapped and asked me why I call him Rogelio - it's not even horrible fanon, it's Rafa's canon nickname for him, as reported in this article:
Basel (Switzerland) - Two sharp but discrete knocks on the door of room 449 in a luxury hotel in Basel. Rafael Nadal, world number two, opens the door. "Hola, Rafa!" Roger Federer says to him. "Eh...! Hola, how are you?" replies Nadal, almost unable to believe that it is the world number one that is there.
Federer, recovering from an injury and on his first day without crutches, had decided to pay a surprise visit to his young rival, the man with whom he shares the domination of world tennis. Nadal had arrived in Basel an hour earlier to dine with the organisers of the local tournament, from which he had to retire because of tendinitis in his knees.
"Roger phoned me and asked me where Rafa was staying," explained Vittorio Selmi, the ATP tour manager. When I told him which hotel, he said right off: 'I'm on my way there'. "
Federer lives in Basel, which made the meeting easier, although there are not many sports where the number one has such an open frank relationship with his closest rival. The Swiss is the indisputable leader but Nadal, after a marvellous season, has equalled his eleven titles in 2005.
The Spaniard had just won the Masters Series Madrid on Sunday night, one of the most important victories in his career, when his phone vibrated signalling that he had a SMS. "Hola, hombre! Rafa, bueno tenis y Madrid! Muchos contento Rogelio por te". The message in a mixture of Spanish and Italian had been written by Federer to congratulate the Spaniard for his triumph in Madrid. Nadal is in the habit of calling Federer "número uno" or Rogelio, and the Swiss has obviously taken the nickname well.
Contact was resumed on Monday night. They were not able to talk for more than twenty minutes because Nadal had tournament obligations to complete. But Federer had time to ask him about how things had gone the previous week in Madrid. "It was very hard, I thought I was going to lose for most of the match," the Spaniard confessed to the Swiss in more than acceptable English.
Federer took off his shoe and showed Nadal the state of his ankle, still very swollen after the torn ligaments he suffered ten days ago. There was one topic that could not be forgotten - football! Federer once again lamented the fact that he had not been able to play in Madrid and had had to postpone his long awaited meeting with his childhood idol the Frenchman Zinedine Zidane.
"Are you going to go to Shanghai?" Nadal asked. Federer smiled: "I'm doing all I can. Next week I'll start to run a little, and then I'll try to play some tennis." "There is a glimmer of hope," said Selmi, thinking of the Masters Cup that begins November 13.
There was no time for any more. Nadal dashed off to the dinner - where he left a great impression speaking English much more fluently than he does in his press conferences - and Federer stayed and dined at the hotel. It was midnight when they met again, one on the way to bed and the other on the way home. They greeted one another again and once again wished each other good luck: the number one and the number two want to continue their conversation in Shanghai
"It is disappointing to lose after the first set when things were going my way," Federer said. "I just couldn't give the knockout punch. But it is not a big thing."
"Andy is a tough player against me," he added. "I hope when big matches come, I beat him."
So cool and understated, but really he looked so fucked off with himself.
I read an anecdote in one of Roger's biographies ('Fantastic Federer' for the interested or those planning to stage an intervention) about the time he lost a match and got so angry with himself he cried and hid under the umpire's chair and wouldn't come out (although he was 10, not 27). Although I didn't see the final set, I'm guessing his inner child was back under the umpire's chair today.
That is, actually, a tennis ball.
More Roger trufax:
wedjatye finally snapped and asked me why I call him Rogelio - it's not even horrible fanon, it's Rafa's canon nickname for him, as reported in this article: Basel (Switzerland) - Two sharp but discrete knocks on the door of room 449 in a luxury hotel in Basel. Rafael Nadal, world number two, opens the door. "Hola, Rafa!" Roger Federer says to him. "Eh...! Hola, how are you?" replies Nadal, almost unable to believe that it is the world number one that is there.
Federer, recovering from an injury and on his first day without crutches, had decided to pay a surprise visit to his young rival, the man with whom he shares the domination of world tennis. Nadal had arrived in Basel an hour earlier to dine with the organisers of the local tournament, from which he had to retire because of tendinitis in his knees.
"Roger phoned me and asked me where Rafa was staying," explained Vittorio Selmi, the ATP tour manager. When I told him which hotel, he said right off: 'I'm on my way there'. "
Federer lives in Basel, which made the meeting easier, although there are not many sports where the number one has such an open frank relationship with his closest rival. The Swiss is the indisputable leader but Nadal, after a marvellous season, has equalled his eleven titles in 2005.
The Spaniard had just won the Masters Series Madrid on Sunday night, one of the most important victories in his career, when his phone vibrated signalling that he had a SMS. "Hola, hombre! Rafa, bueno tenis y Madrid! Muchos contento Rogelio por te". The message in a mixture of Spanish and Italian had been written by Federer to congratulate the Spaniard for his triumph in Madrid. Nadal is in the habit of calling Federer "número uno" or Rogelio, and the Swiss has obviously taken the nickname well.
Contact was resumed on Monday night. They were not able to talk for more than twenty minutes because Nadal had tournament obligations to complete. But Federer had time to ask him about how things had gone the previous week in Madrid. "It was very hard, I thought I was going to lose for most of the match," the Spaniard confessed to the Swiss in more than acceptable English.
Federer took off his shoe and showed Nadal the state of his ankle, still very swollen after the torn ligaments he suffered ten days ago. There was one topic that could not be forgotten - football! Federer once again lamented the fact that he had not been able to play in Madrid and had had to postpone his long awaited meeting with his childhood idol the Frenchman Zinedine Zidane.
"Are you going to go to Shanghai?" Nadal asked. Federer smiled: "I'm doing all I can. Next week I'll start to run a little, and then I'll try to play some tennis." "There is a glimmer of hope," said Selmi, thinking of the Masters Cup that begins November 13.
There was no time for any more. Nadal dashed off to the dinner - where he left a great impression speaking English much more fluently than he does in his press conferences - and Federer stayed and dined at the hotel. It was midnight when they met again, one on the way to bed and the other on the way home. They greeted one another again and once again wished each other good luck: the number one and the number two want to continue their conversation in Shanghai
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 11:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 12:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 11:55 pm (UTC)bof reckons it's a concentration problem.
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Date: 2009-01-10 12:03 am (UTC)Maybe bof has a point there. All I can say is that this match has really done a number on my head.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 12:09 am (UTC)i suppose we'll have to see how it goes in melbourne. if it's really only the grand slams that count to him now, then we'll see some more concentrated play, maybe?
sorry for rambling on. i'm just a bit bruised after today :(
no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 12:33 am (UTC)On rf.com (shoot me now) there was a quite sensible theory that Roger let the match go after the second set, when he realised he wasn't going to break Mandy. Which would account for the third set I suppose? But he really did look pissed off with himself. And I imagine he hates just letting a match go like that, even if it's not an important one in the scheme of things. I would think all matches are important to Roger though, deep down. How can they not be, considering his frightening levels of competitiveness?
From the way Mandy has been playing recently, I always suspected he'd win this. I think you're right and we have to wait until Melbourne to see what's really happening with Rogelio.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 01:52 am (UTC)there was a quite sensible theory that Roger let the match go after the second set, when he realised he wasn't going to break Mandy.
but, i mean, why would he think that? he had that game early in the second where he was 0-40 up against mandy. okay, so mandy then won 5 straight points in a row to take the game, but it's not as if roger is a stranger to chucking away break points. why wouldn't he believe he could make more? and then chuck them away just as carelessly? eventually losing the match in a totally heart-breaking and unnecessary final set tie break? okay, maybe it was better this way after all.
I would think all matches are important to Roger though, deep down.
yeah, especially when he has so much to prove this year.
oh well. roll on melbourne. hopefully the mandinator might suffer some sort of malfunction at some stage and start chucking all his toys out of his pram again.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 02:27 am (UTC)for sure he has that. the patchy play is due to a number of things, i think: lapses in concentration, lack of match play, match-up issue with muzza etc.
but i think there's a bigger problem. his bh does not hold up in rallies. did you see how often he looped it back short after the 2nd or 3rd shot to his bh? it's a sucky shot in his arsenal and players like muzza and rafa and simon (shudder) only expose it more by relentlessly attacking it.
it's great to say he's gonna up his level in slams but i don't think there's a magic on/off switch. he needs a good coach, imo. and fast.
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Date: 2009-01-10 12:34 am (UTC)WHY IS THE MANDBOT SO CRAZY GOOD, AHH.
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Date: 2009-01-10 12:46 am (UTC)Could it be that Mandbot's software has got generations ahead of Rafabot's? Wouldn't it be high time for Roger to enhance his biological body against this veritable arms race?
(*hugs* I'm not insensitive, I... try to comfort through humour?)
no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 03:47 am (UTC)I miss the match so, I can't really say. But I saw the same thing yesterday like he zoned out for some reason.
Let's hope AO tells a different story.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 09:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 06:21 pm (UTC)XDDDDDD!!!!
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Date: 2009-01-11 03:16 pm (UTC)I didn't hear the final score and I just assumed that Roger would win :-(.
I didn't know about the 'Rogelio' story, thanks for sharing!