CAMELOT FANTASIES

Here you go, Lady TT.  Not bad actually, especially compared to the other matches this week.  Everything is relative. These two haven't played many matches where they have both been relatively healthy since 2012 sometime. Roger had his poor 2013, and Rafa has had problems since 2014.  They played only one match in 2014, the Australian Open, which was only really close for the first set (7-6). Rafa took it in straights with his bruised hand, and then went on to lose to Stan as he injured his back, and it started going downhill from there for him. Only RG was a brief positive.  Then it was bad after that for Rafa.

On Sunday, for a long while in the match, Rafa didn't have many winners (or errors).  Roger was much more aggressive and was going for winners, but missing quite a few cost him.  But then Rafa got more aggressive from mid to late second set and Roger showed some nervousness.



As I said previously, I believe both players had some poor patches and good patches.  I thought the 3rd set may have been the best.
But I'm generally a positive person.  As I watched the match, I thought early on that Rafa was playing better and Roger was very nervous, but as I said in the other post, Rafa didn't take advantage of that. Then when Rafa's level dropped some, Roger's went up and he went on a bit of a roll and won the set, and then continued the second in the same way. 

I thought Roger was going to win the second as Rafa looked a little demoralized. Roger had more break opportunities, but couldn't capitalize. But then Roger for some reason, (maybe nervousness?) got sloppy near the end of the set, and Rafa was quick to seize on that and elevated his play for awhile and took the set and the momentum into the 3rd.  I thought Roger looked discouraged from not taking the second set when it was in his grasp, even thought a loss was coming, but he hung in there and eventually righted the ship (his mentality), and then I thought they both fought hard to near the end, but I sensed a little tiredness or something in Nadal right at the end.   

Ideally, I would have liked Federer to have played a little more in Shanghai, and I think his form would be more steady in Basel, and for Rafa, I would have liked to see him more physically fit and confident.  But I took the positives for both of them. I think this was a difficult surface for Rafa, and it favored his opponents, he could have been out in his first match, but he somehow hung in and fought to the end, and someone has to lose the final.  Roger won in his home tournament, and it's kind of expected, so he had to overcome that pressure, the inactivity since the US Open, and the presence of Rafa.  Things might work out well for both of them.  We'll see.

Note that  I wanted to watch the match again so that I could get another read on it, but I haven't found the full match anywhere.

Respectfully,
masterclass

Great post and thanks for the match stats. I couldn’t find them anywhere. The stats don’t look too bad. I’m surprised. I thought they would be terrible, but they’re not.

Roger was very nervous at the beginning and I was surprised about that. I know he has history with Rafa, but usually when Rafa’s in a down cycle Roger is quick to capitalize, think their last WTF encounter. That threw me. And Rafa, I don’t know what was wrong with him but his body language from the beginning looked off to me. Maybe he was concerned about his previous “dominance” over Roger, but he didn’t look right to me. I can look at Rafa’s face and know if he is going to compete well. That’s been lacking this year. That’s why I haven’t been concerned about his losses because for most of the year he’s just phoned it in and didn’t seem to care about the losses. In 2015, there’s only been three times that I  saw him disappointed in his effort; the last loss to Novak, and two of the losses to Fognini.

So from the beginning I didn’t have high hopes for a good match, because it’s only a good match if both combatants want it badly.
I wanted Federer to play well to better gauge Rafa’s level. That’s the only way I’ll see where Rafa is and how close he is to getting back to the top. So, the match was a disappointment for me because I got none of that.

Reviewing these stats, I want to see the match again, because I seriously thought it was horrible. I’m most shocked at the winners stats and the net coverage. I truly didn’t see that.

Maybe The Tennis Channel will re-run it, because I was bummed out from the beginning and may not have given it a fair chance. I didn’t expect Rafa to beat Roger, but I did expect a better effort from him.

I also agree that sometimes you have to re-watch things to get all the nuances. If I find it I'll re-watch because if I'm wrong I'll readily admit to that. Guess I'm just living in the past, for the most part when these two get together I expect sparks, electricity, and a match for the ages, but I guess I shouldn't on indoor surfaces, LOL.