Dootsiez Post-Bloodbaths

At about 5:30 pm Australian Eastern Standard Time last night, my hunch came knocking on the door with this tweetdiction:

 

Oh dear. I smell the stench of tennis upsets. If Fed loses to Stan, I will personally fly to Monte Carlo to shove my $12.50 ring up his…about 14 hours ago from TweetDeck

 

But who am I kidding? Me, the ultimate credit card slave, on a flight to Monte Carlo? HAHA. But I do hate it when I’m this right. 

 

Mind you, it wasn’t a groundless prediction. Stan had lost two very close tiebreak sets to Djokovic and Nadal respectively at Indian Wells and Miami. In each one of those matches, he had plenty of chances to cause an upset, but always seemed to choke up mentally at critical moments. Against Federer, it ain’t gonna happen. They know each other too well, so there’s less of the ‘Federer-awe’ from Stan’s perspective. Add on top of that the knowledge that 1) Federer’s forehand has been MIA,  2) Stan was always going think he plays a little better on clay, and 3) perhaps Roger plays a little worse than his usual standard on this surface … you probably made the same educated guess. 

 

But still? I didn’t even watch the match. I crawled into bed with my Macbook in my lap just as it was starting, and somehow managed to doze off in less than 5 minutes. I woke up about 2 hours later from a bizarre dream involving giant rats running around my room, took one look at the score-line, and immediately wished I was back among the giant rats again. No such luck getting admission back into a dream though, I spent the rest of the night dreaming up bizarre sports headlines instead: “SWISS NO. 1 NO MORE”, “THE MIGHT FED: SWISS-ROLLED”, “BAD TIMING: SWATCH UPSETS ROLEX”, “GOAT CHEESE LOSES TO BRIE IN A STINKER“. Don’t shake your head at me, I have no control over what I dream right? Heavy-hearted though I was, at least I was subconsciously trying to make light of the situation, or so I tell myself. 

 

And to top off my freaktastic night, Venus lost to Lisicki. Would it be pushing it if I told you I saw this one coming too? Okay maybe not. But it didn’t surprise me that Lisicki could pull it off. I first saw her at the Hopman Cup this year, and was more than impressed by that fearless forehand, shiploads of attitude, and a bizarre mix of Sharapova-like feistiness and Ivanovic-styled positivity. Gotta rewatch the match since I half-slept through it, but looked like an exciting one from my drowsy memory.

 

 

And what of Federer now? At the start of the week, I ‘tut tut-ed’ at his comments about not needing a shrink or a coach, about just trying to ‘get back in the groove’ of things. “The Groove” obviously ain’t coming your way on its own, Roger. Are you seriously going to just sit back and wait for  the rest of your game to turn up? Particularly given all that Andy Roddick has done to rejuvenate his game in the last couple of months. Even Lleyton Hewitt has made a more concerted effort in coming back from a long injury layoff. What have you, a person of infinitely more talent and jazz, done to improve your game, RFed? 

 

Maybe I’m being too harsh on Roger. Afterall, Nadal was upset by Monfils this year, Murray by Verdasco, and don’t even get me started on Djokovic. But the only difference is that other than those losses, Rafa and Muz are repeatedly kicking Top 10 asses this year. Meanwhile Roger is repeatedly kicking his own. 

 

I suppose one positive thing to take away from all this is that Roger seems to have realised he needs more work, particularly on that serve of his. Is this really the same guy who came third to Karlovic and Roddick last year in ace counts?

 

Q. Do you think playing two matches here in Monte Carlo will help for the next tournaments?

ROGER FEDERER: Well, this I don’t know. I hope it will. I think what it helps is knowing what I need to work on, you know, next week. That’s always been one of the reasons why I came here to Monaco without preparation. I’ve tried it differently, not playing Monaco I think maybe for two years, and using that as a serious buildup. Now I’ve always sort of decided to come here, see what happens. Actually I’ve done really well.
That’s why I came again this year, because it just gives you information going into your practice sessions, you know, what you need to work on. Today definitely my serve wasn’t working. I haven’t served my best throughout the season, so I have to make sure I get my serve back in, you know, going well for me because I just don’t hit the spots when I really want to. 

Not that I expect, you know, 10 aces a set here on this type of heavy clay, but I just think it’s something I need to work on, you know, make sure my timing gets right, my footwork gets right, and my forehand, that I use it the right way.

 

It just showed me again this week what I need to work on for next week. That’s why I think it was good to come here. Look, I didn’t expect myself to dominate everybody this week. I knew it was going to be difficult. Playing Stan in the second round I thought was always going to be difficult for me because this is his place here. I got close, you know, but not good enough to beat him today.

 

By the way, if I hear one more mention of marriage and kids affecting Federer’s game, I am going to personally take down that person in an ‘intellectual tennis debate’, should such things exist in the world of sport. And don’t anyone dare use Lleyton Hewitt as ‘Exhibit A’ either, he was a lost cause before Bec,Mia and the inappropriately named Cruz came onto the scene. Unless everyone is prepared to credit Mirka for the 13 slams she sat through, don’t dump every Federer defeat on her. The woman doesn’t need it.

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