Federer Wins, Says His Style is In at Wimbledon
Posted on June 29, 2007
Federer, Nadal Win on Same Day as Wimbledon Catches up
World No. 1 Roger Federer and No. 2 Rafael Nadal competed on the same day Thursday as Wimbledon made up for rain-delayed matches, and both easily advanced in their quest to repeat last year's final.
Federer resumed his match with Juan Martin Del Potro, defeating the lanky Argentine 6-2, 7-5, 6-1. Nadal put in a below-average performance but still had an easy time against Austrian journeyman Werner Eschauer 6-2, 6-4, 6-1.
"I would like to come to the net much more often," Federer said. "That would be my ideal style of play. Serve and volley maybe a hundred percent of the first serves and once in a while on the second serve just to keep mixing it up. Like this, you'd have so many maybe more, you know, like points sometimes you can't control but you react to them because at the net you'll always have a lot of passing shots, volley winners. Sometimes that's really exciting."
Other Top 10 seeded winners Thursday were (4) Novak Djokovic (d. Delic in four), (6) Nikolay Davydenko (d. Guccione from two sets down), (7) Tomas Berdych (d. Llodra in four), (9) James Blake (d. Pavel), and (10) Marcos Baghdatis (d. Devilder in four).
Four seeds were planted in the lawns Thursday when Aussie serving machine Wayne Arthurs topped No. 11 Tommy Robredo, Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu straight-setted No. 17 David Ferrer, Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin straight-setted No. 24 Juan Ignacio Chela, and Korea's Hyung-Taik Lee outlasted No. 29 Agustin Calleri in four.
Other seeded winners into the third round were (13) Tommy Haas (d. Zib), (14) Mikhail Youzhny (d. Simon in five), (15) Ivan Ljubicic (d. Hernych), (16) Lleyton Hewitt (d. Bolelli), (18) Jarkko Nieminen (d. Mayer in five), (19) Jonas Bjorkman (d. Wang in four), (20) Juan Carlos Ferrero (d. Muller in four), (21) Dmitry Tursunov (d. Berrer in four), (22) Guillermo Canas (d. Mirnyi in four), (23) David Nalbandian (d. Dancevic in four), (26) Marat Safin (d. Qureshi), and (28) Robin Soderling (d. Grosjean in four).
Safin will next face Federer.
"For me it's another opportunity to play a great match," Safin said. "First of all, for me it's a huge challenge. Centre Court, play against Federer. He's playing pretty well. He's playing great tennis. If I want to have a chance at least to be close to beat him, I have of course to put up my best game, go for it."
Winners in all-unseeded matches were Feliciano Lopez ending the British hopes in defeating Tim Henman 6-1 in the fifth, Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga straight-setting Nicolas Lapentti, Frenchman Gael Monfils topping Kristof Vliegen, and German Nicolas Kiefer subduing Fabrice "The Magician" Santoro in straight sets.
Highlights of Friday play are Janko Tipsarevic vs. (5) Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez, (1) Roger Federer vs. Marat Safin, (9) James Blake vs. (20) Juan Carlos Ferrero, (3) Andy Roddick vs. Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco, (21) Dmitry Tursunov vs. (13) Tommy Haas, Paul-Henri Mathieu vs. (15) Ivan Ljubicic, and in an all-French (12) Richard Gasquet vs. Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
"He's quite dangerous, very powerful," Haas said of facing Tursunov. "You never know what to expect. Unbelievable forehand winner, backhand winner, good serve or something or a couple of unforced errors. I'm going to have to try to play really steady and keep a cool head out there and try and use my chances."
Sharapova, Mauresmo Into 3rd Round at Wimbledon
The rain held off Thursday and the title contenders cruised as Maria Sharapova and Amelie Mauresmo registered easy wins to move into the third round at Wimbledon.
Sharapova crushed Severine Bremond 6-0, 6-3, while Mauresmo cruised past Yvonne Meusburger 6-1, 6-2.
"Once again, I'm just going through my matches the way I want to in a relaxed and positive way," said the defending champ Mauresmo. "I thought I started my first match well and today was not so bad. But the serve is something I definitely need to work on...Even though the serve wasn't working so well, I could really follow it to the net, as I always do on grass. It's pretty effective normally for me on grass."
Sharapova weathered a difficult second set after a 6-0 first set.
"She's a very tough grasscourt player -- she has good slices, serves, volleys, and that's clearly what she did last year to get to the quarterfinals," Sharapova said. "In the past when I'd play that kind of opponent, I probably wasn't patient enough. I used to go for too much off the slices then try to win the point as quickly as I could. That's one of the things that I've definitely improved."
Other Top 10-seeded winners Thursday were (5) Svetlana Kuznetsova (d. Mattek), (6) Ana Ivanovic (d. Tu), (8) Anna Chakvetadze (d. Poutchek), and (10) Daniela Hantuchova (d. Likhovtseva), all in straight sets.
Six seeds were uprooted on the day in winners Akiko Morigami (d. (13) Safina), Tamira Paszek (d. (17) Golovin in three), Victoria Azarenka (d. (21) Garbin), Aravane Rezai (d. (29) Schiavone in three), and Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska (d. (32) Muller who retired with injury).
"I just tried to focus on my game and was very aggressive," said Morigami after ousting Safina. "I didn't feel I was playing a No. 13 seed. I know she is a really, really good player but I have been playing Top 10 players well."
Other seeded winners on the day were (11) Nadia Petrova (d. Mirza), (12) Elena Dementieva (d. Benesova), (14) Nicole Vaidisova (d. Pratt), (15) Patty Schnyder (d. Vinci in three), (19) Katarina Srebotnik (d. Ozegovic), (23) Venus Williams (d. Sromova), (24) Alona Bondarenko (d. Szavay), (25) Lucie Safarova (d. Daniilidou in three), (26) Ai Sugiyama (d. Cornet in three), (28) Mara Santangelo (d. Wozniacki), and (31) Michaella Krajicek (d. O'Brien 0-and-1).
"I'm constantly looking to go up another level -- it's important to expect something from yourself," Venus Williams said. "I think my serve is pretty dynamic right now. It's definitely winning me lots of points. I feel like my return is nice. I feel like I am moving well. I have a good base to just keep playing aggressively on."
Friday's highlights include Milagros Sequera vs. (7) Serena Williams, (3) Jelena Jankovic vs. (25) Lucie Safarova, (1) Justine Henin vs. Elena Vesnina, (9) Martina Hingis vs. Laura Granville, (10) Daniela Hantuchova vs. (19) Katarina Srebotnik, and (31) Michaella Krajicek vs. (8) Anna Chakvetadze.
TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Roger Federer has won 50 straight matches on grass...Justine Henin has won her last 13 matches...Andy Roddick and Ivan Ljubicic have won their last 9 matches...No Top 10 seeds in either the men's or women's have been eliminated...Marat Safin beat two qualifier and must now play the world No. 1...The two oldest players in the draw, Wayne Arthurs, 36, and Jonas Bjorkman, 25, will battle for a Sweet 16 berth on Saturday...Novak Djokovic is the youngest in the men's field at 20. Djokovic joins other rising stars, Berdych, Monfils, Gasquet, Baghdatis in the final 32...Look out for Tamira Paszek, a future Top 10-er with a great backhand...Bad news, rain expected Friday at Wimbledon and then a complete washout Saturday. Good news, we heard that same forecast at the start of the week...From The Independent on Britain's tennis troubles: "While the LTA has to spend considerable sums on facilities, the French tennis federation can concentrate its resources on coaches and players. Almost every French town of any size has good facilities which are reasonably priced for the public to use. In Paris, for example, you can play on outdoor courts for as little as ?5 an hour and only slightly more to use indoor facilities. Public indoor courts in Britain are particularly hard to find and might cost ?20 an hour to hire. Meanwhile, the LTA estimates that 90 per cent of the 18,000 public courts that are available are in disrepair and under-used, largely because local authorities cannot afford to maintain them."...Wayne Arthurs on facing Jonas Bjorkman at Wimbledon: "I don't think we're allowed to play before Monday because the over 35s doesn't start until next week."...Venus Williams on playing in white spandex shorts: "I really haven't played in shorts before, but my skirt was so big. I think they just made it too big." -- Ouch Reebok!...Roger Federer on his white snowmobile suit this year at Wimbledon: "I think it's important to look good on the court. I think we could have better outfits on tour in general. I had the idea last year of the jacket. Of course, this year we followed it up with an entire outfit because the idea came kind of shortly before Wimbledon, so I didn't have much time to create something. But the jacket still created kind of a nice buzz. This year, I enjoy wearing the entire outfit again. Yeah, I see that players are more aware now of the details, that the headband matches with the shorts, so forth. I always thought that was important, you know, that the whole entire outfit matches together." -- This from the guy who used to sport a mullet and dress in nothing but t-shirts?...Lindsay Davenport will play World TeamTennis this summer...From The Age: "Veteran tennis star Jonas Bjorkman has generated headlines after saying he played with a hangover in a Davis Cup tie against Argentina last year. Argentina won at home 5-0 and Bjorkman lost the final rubber 6-0 6-1 to Jose Acasuso. Bjorkman, 35, was quoted as telling men's magazine Cafe that he had drunk some alcohol since Sweden had not planned to play the last day's singles -- since Argentina had already won the tie -- and by refusing to play the Swedish players wanted to protest against how the crowd acted. "The crowd, egged on by (football great) Maradona, was terrible. It was a scandal," Bjorkman said, according to Cafe." -- Drunk some alcohol! Scandal! Geez, how long has that been going on -- all teams get hammered after clinching the tie before dead-rubber Sunday...Headline from TR.net: "Some US Fed Cup players say Garrison isn't communicating; Tu: 'I've never even met her;' Craybas: 'The biggest thing is communication and there's not a lot of that going on' -- So in other words, there's not a lot of communication between Garrison and the scrubs that don't play? So...?...From tennis writer Richard Evans: "The coaching carousel has brought Todd Woodbridge into town all the way from his new home near Melbourne to look after his former doubles partner Jonas Bjorkman while the other "Woody", Mark Woodforde, has stayed away from his Rancho Mirage home in California since the French Open to work on Novak Djokovic's volley in tandem with the Serb's regular coach Marian Vajda. Former French Open champion Albert Costa has been in Feliciano Lopez's corner while, more surprisingly, the great Manolo Santana, who was the first Spaniard to win Wimbledon when he beat Dennis Ralston in the 1966 final, has put aside his duties as tournament director of the ATP Masters Series in Madrid to look after Fernando Verdasco who has great potential as a fast court player. The coaches must be doing something right. All four of these players have made it through to the third round."...From SI.com: "A prospective Wimbledon employee was caught with cannabis when trying to enter the All England Club for a job interview. Metropolitan Police gave a 24-year-old man a penalty notice for the incident Tuesday. The man, who was not identified, was searched as he entered the grounds on his way to an interview with the company that provides the "Hawk-Eye" replay technology." -- No wonder Hawk-Eye screws up so much...From tennis writer/commentator Sue Mott on "Tiger" Tim Henman: "This is all terribly unfair on a man going about his business as best he can. He, almost certainly, does not lose on purpose and when he has (to, among others, Pete Sampras, Goran Ivanisevic and Goran's Ivanisevic's god) he has been merely bowing to the greater cosmic force...Prime Ministers and Dr Whos come and go but Henman is always with us. He delights in his recurrence. And perhaps, one day, when we have finished raiding the chemist kiosk for Valium, so shall we delight in him, too."