Update on the tennis - Rome 09
May. 3rd, 2009 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
louiseluxRafa won in Rome today, making it his 15th Masters 1000 series win, which is the biggest title to win outside a slam. Roger has won 14, Agassi holds the record at 17. I think beating Roger in this meant an awful lot to him. It's been some while since he celebrated the winning moment with such abandon, maybe not since getting that giant erection after winning the Australian Open.
Clicky for hi-res on some of these:
As I said, I think this really meant a lot to him.
Further proof that tennis players are all descended from puppies:
There was an evil genius woman in a pink jacket who forced Novak to do his infamous impersonation of Rafa right there in front of him! It could have been horribly awkward but actually it was sweet.
I love how Rafa is holding his tea tray for him.
These pictures can even make me not be pissed with Novak for the time being.
Rafa's classic post match interview expression. The fact that Rafa (or more likely his girlfriend? sister?) plucks his unibrow always amazes me, because he seems like exactly the sort of person who wouldn't care.
Roger lost in the semis, but at least he got to them, which is what he said his goal was. He pretty much blew it during the match with Novak though, so it was not a great performance at all. Roger's post match interview, from the Rome Masters website:
“Things were going well for me. I was playing him well and serving well when I had to and putting him under pressure. So the rain delay came at a perfect moment for him, because he came through a tough service game at 2-0 down,” said Federer after the match which he lost 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. “Instead of going 3-0, he goes 2-1 and then the rain comes, so he's got something positive to look at. Then when he comes back conditions changed, so sure, it helped him. But then again, who knows? He might have come back anyway and beat me in the end. He did well today to use the rain delay in his favour, that's for sure.”
“I was in good shape. Maybe also a little pity that I didn't get the break to go 3-0 before the rain delay, but after that, actually I started okay. I thought he came through with a bit more energy after the rain delay - before that he was pretty flat,” the former world No1 continued. “All of a sudden it became a different match and he played better. Should have held once, to not give away one of the breaks at least. Then I would have had a better opportunity. I thought he was playing better. Definitely had the win on my racquet today, so it's pretty disappointing. Miami (where Federer also lost to Djokovic) was a difficult one just because I played pretty good in the first set then I completely lost control. This time around it was different. I was in the match obviously all the way through. I feel like this is not a match I should have given away because (I was a) break up in the second, break up in the third and I usually don't give away opportunities like this. It's bad but I still have some work to do on the clay. I think I'm playing better obviously than Monaco. The hard work has been paying off, but I’ve just got to fix my serve a little bit. I have the feeling that maybe since I had the back problem, my serve is just not working there where I want it to be. It maybe could have saved me a few times and it didn't, so that's something I have to make sure I can fix for Paris. Other than that, there was some good moments which is a good thing. Also some bad ones - I have to make sure they don't happen as frequently, obviously.”
“I think the last few years it's helped Rafa playing me before Paris,” said the 13-time Grand Slam champion when the subject of the French Open came up. “Just that he knew maybe a bit more what to expect from me, whereas you know exactly what you're going to get with Rafa. So I think it maybe worked more in his favour the last few years. We'll see how Madrid turns out. If we have to play each other, I still think it's a great match and I would look forward to that. But the focus is elsewhere right now.”
“At the end, it's always disappointing for me when I exit a tournament losing a match,” concluded Federer, who has not lifted a trophy since his “home” tournament in Basle last November. “I've gotten used to winning tournaments and then leaving a tournament having lost just leaves a bitter taste, obviously. It doesn't take me long to get over it, but in the moment itself it's just not really fun, because it's just these kind of matches I feel like I should have won here and I end up losing them, so it's just not a good feeling. It's just a matter of getting back in shape and playing good hopefully in Madrid again.”
No one enjoys losing like a mook, especially not someone like Roger.
There's good and bad in what he says, but mostly to me it seems a positive thing that he knows what's wrong and he wants to fix it. I don't hold out much hope for him doing that in the next sixth months though, because, well, there'll be a baby in the mix.
Clicky for hi-res on some of these:
As I said, I think this really meant a lot to him.
Further proof that tennis players are all descended from puppies:
There was an evil genius woman in a pink jacket who forced Novak to do his infamous impersonation of Rafa right there in front of him! It could have been horribly awkward but actually it was sweet.
I love how Rafa is holding his tea tray for him.
These pictures can even make me not be pissed with Novak for the time being.
Rafa's classic post match interview expression. The fact that Rafa (or more likely his girlfriend? sister?) plucks his unibrow always amazes me, because he seems like exactly the sort of person who wouldn't care.
Roger lost in the semis, but at least he got to them, which is what he said his goal was. He pretty much blew it during the match with Novak though, so it was not a great performance at all. Roger's post match interview, from the Rome Masters website:
“Things were going well for me. I was playing him well and serving well when I had to and putting him under pressure. So the rain delay came at a perfect moment for him, because he came through a tough service game at 2-0 down,” said Federer after the match which he lost 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. “Instead of going 3-0, he goes 2-1 and then the rain comes, so he's got something positive to look at. Then when he comes back conditions changed, so sure, it helped him. But then again, who knows? He might have come back anyway and beat me in the end. He did well today to use the rain delay in his favour, that's for sure.”
“I was in good shape. Maybe also a little pity that I didn't get the break to go 3-0 before the rain delay, but after that, actually I started okay. I thought he came through with a bit more energy after the rain delay - before that he was pretty flat,” the former world No1 continued. “All of a sudden it became a different match and he played better. Should have held once, to not give away one of the breaks at least. Then I would have had a better opportunity. I thought he was playing better. Definitely had the win on my racquet today, so it's pretty disappointing. Miami (where Federer also lost to Djokovic) was a difficult one just because I played pretty good in the first set then I completely lost control. This time around it was different. I was in the match obviously all the way through. I feel like this is not a match I should have given away because (I was a) break up in the second, break up in the third and I usually don't give away opportunities like this. It's bad but I still have some work to do on the clay. I think I'm playing better obviously than Monaco. The hard work has been paying off, but I’ve just got to fix my serve a little bit. I have the feeling that maybe since I had the back problem, my serve is just not working there where I want it to be. It maybe could have saved me a few times and it didn't, so that's something I have to make sure I can fix for Paris. Other than that, there was some good moments which is a good thing. Also some bad ones - I have to make sure they don't happen as frequently, obviously.”
“I think the last few years it's helped Rafa playing me before Paris,” said the 13-time Grand Slam champion when the subject of the French Open came up. “Just that he knew maybe a bit more what to expect from me, whereas you know exactly what you're going to get with Rafa. So I think it maybe worked more in his favour the last few years. We'll see how Madrid turns out. If we have to play each other, I still think it's a great match and I would look forward to that. But the focus is elsewhere right now.”
“At the end, it's always disappointing for me when I exit a tournament losing a match,” concluded Federer, who has not lifted a trophy since his “home” tournament in Basle last November. “I've gotten used to winning tournaments and then leaving a tournament having lost just leaves a bitter taste, obviously. It doesn't take me long to get over it, but in the moment itself it's just not really fun, because it's just these kind of matches I feel like I should have won here and I end up losing them, so it's just not a good feeling. It's just a matter of getting back in shape and playing good hopefully in Madrid again.”
No one enjoys losing like a mook, especially not someone like Roger.
There's good and bad in what he says, but mostly to me it seems a positive thing that he knows what's wrong and he wants to fix it. I don't hold out much hope for him doing that in the next sixth months though, because, well, there'll be a baby in the mix.
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Date: 2009-05-04 10:54 am (UTC)Yeah, I thought that too about Roger's interview. That argument doesn't make a lot of sense, but at the same time I'm glad to see he is talking a lot more about what his game is actually lacking and what the flaws are, where before he has hardly said anything about it.