Roger Federer and me

Yesterday I witnessed another interesting parallel between the fortunes of Roger Federer and myself. Playing in the quarter finals of the Montreal Masters event against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Roger lost the first set in a tie break, but then comfortably won the second 6-1. He continued that momentum and had the opportunity to serve it out at 5-2 in the third. But then the wheels came off! Tsonga won the next four games in a row, and had Roger 0-40 down on his serve at 5-6, until Roger managed to claw his way out of the hole and level it at 6-6. But try as he might, he just couldn't finish it off and Tsonga won the tie-break to complete an amazing comeback.

The interesting parallel is that I had a similar lead in my last match against Tom a couple of days ago, and also couldn't close it out. We eventually had to abandon the match at 6-6 due to time constraints after I'd also had a 5-2 lead which I couldn't hold onto. I won't pretend the comparison goes much further than that (Roger just can't compare to me on the court!), but it's gratifying in a perverse sort of way that the best player in the world faces the same challenges that a tennis chump like me does!

I know it's easy to criticise from the comfort of my armchair, but perhaps there's also something for me to learn from Roger about how not to play (that'll be a change)! A couple of things caught my attention about Roger's performance in those last few games:

• loss of focus
  In the changeover at 5-2, Roger appeared to be gazing around the arena and up at the big screen in a distracted sort of way rather than staying focussed on what he had to do to win the match. Of course he can be forgiven for assuming he would win, but it just goes to show you cannot afford to underestimate your opponent.



• loss of confidence and appetite
  When things started going against him, Roger seemed unable to respond mentally. He seemed more concerned about not losing than trying to win. He almost had an air of resignation about him, and although he continued to play, it seemed like he lost the match a lot earlier than the final ball.



• loss of aggression
  Serving at 5-2, Roger played a bit tentatively, which allowed Tsonga back in. Heck, I'm not one to criticise as I also struggle with the balance between consistency and all-out attack. But I was surprised Roger didn't go for it a bit more - after all he had a comfortable lead to fall back on if it didn't work out.



• Impatience
  Once Tsonga had dug in his heels, Roger appeared to lose patience in some of the rallies, going for the winner when it wasn't really on. Again, I think it shows that mentally he didn't have confidence in his ability to close out the match at that point.



• first serve percentage
  It was also pretty evident that Federer couldn't get his first serve in in those final few games. Tsonga hadn't had a break point the whole match until the final set, when he broke Roger twice in a row (and had Federer at 0-40 in the third).

Even though it was surprising to see how Roger Federer capitulated as he served a double fault to lose the match, I guess it's not so surprising that he was emotionally and mentally flat and tired - he's had a lot going on emotionally over the last few weeks with the birth of his daughters. And hey, when you've achieved what he has in the game, we can cut him a bit of slack, can't we?

I'm sure Fed will still be a force to be reckoned with at the US Open later this month. Just make sure you get some rest, Roger, OK?