Unfortunately, I won’t be playing @rolandgarros this year. I’ll miss my fans in France, but appreciate your support https://t.co/vRcb4SvQga
— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) May 15, 2017
Some people were predicting this would happen and I wasn’t one of them. Given Federer’s form so far this year and how he fared against Nadal, and also how much he values grand slam events made me believe he would play the French Open.
I mean if he could come from a six-month break to win the Australian Open then surely he could win the French Open but in the end, I think he did the right thing. There was no way he was going to beat Nadal on clay in his current form without playing any warm-up events on clay.
Maybe he saw how dominant Nadal is on clay again and thought it would be better to rest some more and not risk any injury. Federer is easily the favorite to win Wimbledon this year and there is no reason to risk that.
It does mean that beating Nadal at the French Open or winning the double career slam is less likely now but it is astonishing enough what happened in Australia this year.
Rome Draw
Rome started today and I am currently watching Del Potro vs Dimitrov which is a terrific first round encounter. This is now the third clay Masters where Nadal and Djokovic are in one half and Murray and Wawrinka in the other.
Again, it seems like something is working against Djokovic. It’s a similar draw for him than Madrid because he has Nishikori in the quarters. But he also gets Kyrgios who has a tough draw himself with Agut and Busta.
Djokovic will play Bedene tomorrow in his first match which should provide a good match for him to acclimatize. I’d really like to see Djokovic get through his quarter again.
I’d rather Nadal lose before the semis but if he doesn’t Djokovic should be better prepared this time if he comes through his quarter(given Nishikori does not withdraw again).
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Hello Ru-an.
1) Like you, I was surprised that Roger withdrew from the French Open. In hindsight, I should have guessed the outcome. Roger has entered in three grass court tournaments (Stuttgart, Halle, and Wimbledon). Going deep in the French would have hurt his grass court tune ups because Stuttgart starts days after the French.
2) The Rome draw is awful. All of the decent players are on Nadal and Novak’s side. Excluding Stan Wawrinka and David Goffin (Goffin is my favorite on that side of the draw, I can’t trust Stan or Andy).
3) I saw that Kyrgios withdrew as well. That’s a pity, because I believe Novak beats him on clay all day.
4) Here are the match ups I want to see. Novak-Del Potro, Thiem-Nadal, Wawrinka-Goffin and Zverev-Murray (hopefully Murray makes it that far).
Take Care.
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Ru-an Reply:
May 16th, 2017 at 11:17 pm
Hey, Styrre. Goffin has impressed me of late. Again in Rome, he lost the opening sets against Belucci and Verdasco but keeps winning. The top half is tough to predict but he is probably the favorite to come through. Maybe Stan is due for a good performance. Murray is gone now so maybe Fognini can make a deep run given that is is Rome and all. Or Zverev.
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Not really a shock, but still I’m a little surprised. The idea of him winning FO never seemed very realistic to me when you consider his poor results on clay for many years now. But I still thought he would put up an appearance at FO just to see how he does. If not anything else, I’d be curious to see if his improved backhand would make a difference on clay. I still don’t think it would magically turn him into a player that would wipe the floor with Nadal on clay, but it would be interesting to see nonetheless. Oh well, I trust he knows his own best and wouldn’t skip FO withouth a good reason. Hopefully he’s just being cautious.
Anyway it looks like the table is set for Nadal now. I agree with you from previous posts that the clay season has been pretty disappointing so far. I actually don’t mind Nadal having some success again, but I don’t want to see FO handed to him without a fight. Looks like Djokovic still has not found his spark yet, and it’s hard to see anyone else stopping Nadal at the moment. It’s hard what to make of Djoker’s decision to part ways with his team. Seems like a rather drastic decision, and being on the outside we can only speculate what is the reason behind it. Only time will tell wether it’s a good move. In any case, things are bound to turn around sooner or later.
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Ru-an Reply:
May 16th, 2017 at 11:27 pm
Hi BE. Yeah, I think Federer’s fans were getting a little overly optimistic about his chances vs Nadal on clay. Then again he may have had a shot given his record against Nadal of late. But he wasn’t gonna get it done with no warmup events on clay. That is just silly so he did the right thing.
As for Djokovic, these players don’t need a coach as much as people think. What is surprising is that he let his whole team go including his physio. Who works on his body now? Anyway, I don’t want to see Djokovic just give Nadal stiff opposition. I want to see him playing Nadal in top form and beat him again at the FO like in 2015. But he is in a serious race against time. For that, he needs to make semis in Rome and if he plays Nadal he must beat him or at the very least go to three sets. Then he may be able to gain some more confidence in Paris with plenty of court time and be close to his best if he plays Nadal again. It’s not quite all over just yet.
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