The Federer era - a tribute

It’s official now: Rafael Nadal will supplant Roger Federer as the #1 men’s tennis player in the world. In two week, the rankings will show Nadal in the #1 position, thanks to Federer’s recent failures to match last season’s performances. Nadal certainly deserves it - now we wait to see how long he can hold on.

Federer’s reign as #1 may be over for now, but his period of dominance will not be forgotten. First off, he spent 235 consecutive weeks at #1. Before that, the record was 160 by Jimmy Connors; Federer surpassed that by almost a year and a half. The great Pete Sampras’s longest reign was 102 weeks. Here’s something even more incredible: Nadal has been #2 for 158 weeks, almost as long as anyone other than Federer was #1!. That means that for three years Nadal has been there, but he couldn’t get past Federer. Translation: Federer was consistently better than Nadal over that time.

Next, let’s compare Federer’s period of dominance with Sampras’s most impressive span of dominance. I’ve looked at the best five year performances for them. I’m including 2003 for Federer rather than 2008, since his winning percentage was better that year. For Sampras, I’m looking at ten years before Federer: 1993-1997. I’m going to look at their performances each year, then the cumulative totals. Specific title wins will be listed for Grand Slams, Masters series events, and the Tennis Masters Cup.

2003 Federer: 78-17 record, 23 tournaments, 9 finals, 7 titles. Won Wimbledon and Masters Cup.

1993 Sampras: 85-16 record, 24 tournaments, 9 finals, 8 titles. Won Wimbledon, U.S. Open, and Miami Masters.

2004 Federer: 74-6 record, 17 tournaments, 11 finals, 11 titles. Won Australian Open, Wimbledon, U.S. Open, Masters Cup, Indian Wells Masters, Hamburg Masters, and Canada Masters.

1994 Sampras: 77-12 record, 22 tournaments, 12 finals, 10 titles. Won Australian Open, Wimbledon, Masters Cup, Indian Wells Masters, Miami Masters, and Rome Masters.

2005 Federer: 81-4 record, 15 tournaments, 12 finals, 11 titles. Won Wimbledon, U.S. Open, Indian Wells Masters, Miami Masters, Hamburg Masters, and Cincinnati Masters.

1995 Sampras: 72-16 record, 21 tournaments, 9 finals, 5 titles. Won Wimbledon, U.S. Open, Indian Wells Masters, and Paris Masters.

2006 Federer: 92-5 record, 17 tournaments, 16 finals, 12 titles. Won Australian Open, Wimbledon, U.S. Open, Masters Cup, Indian Wells Masters, Miami Masters, Canada Masters, and Madrid Masters.

1996 Sampras: 65-11 record, 19 tournaments, 9 finals, 8 titles. Won U.S. Open and Masters Cup.

2007 Federer: 68-9 record, 16 tournaments, 12 finals, 8 titles. Won Australian Open, Wimbledon, U.S. Open, Masters Cup, Hamburg Masters, and Cincinnati Masters.

1997 Sampras: 55-12 record, 20 tournaments, 8 finals, 8 titles. Won Australian Open, Wimbledon, Masters Cup, Cincinnati Masters, and Paris Masters.

All right, let’s tally up the totals for those five-year spans:

Sampras: 354-67 record, 106 tournaments*, 47 finals, 39 titles. Won 9 Grand Slams, 3 Masters Cups, and 8 Masters Series events. (*- I’m not entirely sure about the total tournaments played since Wikipedia doesn’t say for him. I added his titles to his losses to come up with this number, but that’s assuming he went 3-0 in round robin play at the Masters Cup. Sampras very well may have lost one match in round robin play in some years. This total, though, is no more than five off.)

Federer: 393-41 record, 88 tournaments, 60 finals, 49 titles. Won 12 Grand Slams, 4 Masters Cups, and 13 Masters Series events.

That is flat out stunning: Federer rules every category of that comparison. He won more Grand Slams, Masters Series events, Masters Cups, and overall titles than Sampras. (In case you were wondering, the five year span I selected for Sampras was his career best by far. He won 39 tournaments in that period and only 25 for the entire rest of his career.) Federer’s overall record was tremendously more dominant than Sampras’s. Consider just these two facts:

1. In his entire career, Sampras won 10 tournaments in a season only once (1994). Federer did it in three consecutive seasons (2004-2006).
2. In a full season (at least 15 tournaments played), Sampras never had fewer than 10 losses in a season. Federer accomplished that four seasons in a row (2004-2007).

Here are a few more of Federer’s amazing records:

• Grass court winning streak: 65 matches from 2003 to 2008. Second best: Bjorn Borg 41.
• Hardcourt winning streak: 56 matches from 2005 to 2006.
• Consecutive finals won: 24 from 2003 to 2005. Second best: John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg 12.
• He is the only player to win at least three times in three separate Grand Slam tournaments (3 Australian Open, 5 Wimbledon, 4 U.S. Open).
• He is the only player to win three Grand Slam tournaments in a single season three times in his career (Australian Open, Wimbledon, U.S. Open in 2004, 2006, 2007).
• He has the record for consecutive Grand Slam finals reached: 10, from the 2005 Wimbledon to the 2007 U.S. Open.
• He has a current streak of 17 consecutive semifinals reached in Grand Slam tournaments. Second best: Ivan Lendl 8. (By comparison, Rafael Nadal’s best streak, albeit current, is 3.)
• Highest rankings point total ever: 8370 at the end of the 2006 season.
• From October 2003 to January 2005, Federer won a record 26 consecutive matches against top 10 opponents.

I think this final stat tells Federer’s dominance story the best. In Borg’s streak of five straight Wimbledon titles, he lost a total of 19 sets. In Sampras’s streak of four straight, he lost 14 sets. In Federer’s five-year streak, he lost only 8!

Nadal may be #1, but he has a long way to go to ever be considered along with Federer as the greatest of all time.

Who is the best server in Tennis

As the first shot of every point, the serve has always been the key stroke in tennis. Without a good serve players will invariably struggle to make the highest level and while you do not have to be the tallest on tour to serve well the extra inches certainly help.

At 6 foot 10 inches Ivo Karlovic of Croatia (currently trading at 48 to take this week's title in Basel) is not only the tallest man ever to compete on the ATP Tour but also an outstanding server who leads most of the service category statistics recorded throughout the season.

Because Karlovic strikes the ball from a greater height than anyone else his angle of delivery over the net means he not only has a greater margin for error than anyone else but also can make the ball lift off the court service higher than anyone else and harder to return.

Not surprisingly Karlovic is the only man prior to this week who has already served more than 1,000 aces in 2007 with 1,194! His compatriot Ivan Ljubicic is second on the list with 859, while Andy Roddick of the United States third with 708.

If you then average out the number of aces served by each of them per match played this season Karlovic again tops the pile with 20.59, compared to Ljubicic's 14.08 and Roddick's 12.00. But it is no coincidence that the second tallest player on tour - the 6ft 9in American John Isner - has the second highest average of aces per match at 19.62.

Roddick's 155mph serve three years ago in the Davis Cup remains the quickest on record and he continues to fire fastest more regularly than anyone else having done so at this year's Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open (Ljubicic was quicker at the French Open).

Karlovic was never far off the pace and when it comes to the percentage of first serve points won the giant Croat is the best again with 84%, Roddick second with 81% and Ljubicic third with 79%. Karlovic and Roddick are also the top two in service games won with a staggering 95% and 92% respectively.

But it is worth noting that the world No.1 Roger Federer who is a mere 6ft1in tall, features highly in all the above categories: 4th for total number of aces with 516 (at an average per match of 8.19), 6th in first serve points won with 77% and third in service games won with 89%. He also leads the tour in second serve points won with 58% because he places it so well and does more with the ball than most.

In addition, how players deal with pressure on big points when they are serving invariably sorts out the men from the boys. So often Federer, or in the past Pete Sampras, has produced great serves when break, set or match points down - the mark of true champions.

Yet with such a phenomenal serve Karlovic clearly leads the list when it comes to break points saved this season with 75%. Interestingly world No.2 Rafael Nadal is second with 69% while world No.3 Novak Djokovic, Roddick, Federer and Ljubicic are all up there in the top 10.

But as Karlovic and his like will be well aware, there is thankfully still so much more to tennis than just holding your serve. What you lack in height and service power you can make up for with great returns and ground strokes, speed and court craft - just look at David Ferrer of Spain who although over a foot shorter than Karlovic, heads the category of return games won with 37% and is ranked 19 places higher than the Croat at No.6.

Will Federer add the missing feather in his cap?

While there is now denying that Roger Federer is one of the greatest player in the history of tennis, everybody knows that clay has been is Achilles' heel and Rafael Nadal is nemesis. Its the time of the year where everyone is waiting for the "Federer vs Nadal" in the French Open 08, kick starting next week. I also hope that Novak Djokovic doesnot spoil the much anticipated showdown in the history of tennis.

After 4 years of failing to come up with a way to beat Rafael Nadal consistently on clay (we all know about Hamburg last year), Roger Federer recently hired Jose Higueras as his new coach.

The real question is what can Higueras, or any coach really, bring to the Federer game?

I don't think that there's much technically that Higueras can change in the Federer game. Federer has a fairly conservative grip for his backhand topspin which tends to be his main liability against Nadal. Fed doesn't have the more extreme backhand grip of a Gustavo Kuerton or a Richard Gasquet -- grips that would probably make it a little easier to handle Nadal's high topspin shots.

So, we're left with tactical changes.

I the final in which Federer blew a 4-0 lead in the second set.

Here's what I saw.

I think Higueras is trying to get Federer to open up the court more against Nadal so as to create better opportunities to attack.

Higueras correctly recognizes that Federer cannot rally with Nadal and expect to win a long match.

The first thing I noticed was a greater tendency on Federer's part to run around the Nadal second serve and rip a forehand. We saw some of this at Wimbledon and I think it's a very effective technique.

The next thing I saw was that it looked like that Federer was trying to hit his crosscourt forehand shorter and wider. Instead of playing power tennis and ripping crosscourt forehands deep into the corner, it looked like Federer was taking some pace off and trying to hit a sharper angle so that the ball would land a few feet up the sideline and pull Nadal further wide.

And, one more thing I noticed, was a tactic of hitting a drop shot off of a backhand.

Let's look at this last pattern in more detail.

Over the past few years, Federer has tried various patterns to counter the Nadal forehand to the Federer backhand. He has tried ripping crosscourt topspin back -- to no avail --, he has tried slicing crosscourt --to no avail, he has tried hitting up the line --with limited success.

So, in an effort to try a new pattern, Fed looks like he's trying to hit the drop shot up the line. Since Nadal is cheating to his (Nadal's) forehand corner, Nadal has a long way to go to get the Federer drop shot. And, Federer has a chance to attack the net behind the drop shot.

So, as always, tennis remains a beautiful chess match.

Can't wait for the French Open.

Leader is the face of the team!!

There is praise for Warne from all the quarters for the way in which he has led a very young side in the Indian Premier League. Everyone now things very high of the team and more importantly everyone in the team feels the same about himself. After each and every astounding win in the series, each of the player had the same to say "I knew what was my role in the team and I just struck to that"

















This is what Peter Roebuck, one of the most respected columinst had to say about Ricky Pointing's captaincy in the famous Perth match vs India in Jan08.

If Cricket Australia (CA) cares a fig for the tattered reputation of our national team in our national sport, it will not for a moment longer tolerate the sort of arrogant and abrasive conduct seen from the captain and his senior players over the past few days