U.S. Loses, Federer Wins in Davis Cup; Weekend Dish

http://eurosport.yahoo.com/news/wounded-federer-wants-break-tennis-091918062.html.

Interesting comment (also) on Fed’sview of Davis Cup:
“Not really a whole lot to be quite honest,” Federer said when asked how much he valued the tournament [Davis Cup]
“For me it’s more about taking part with my team-mates, I enjoy being with them, and that’s about it really.

“I have a good time and my team-mates are all my best friends – I don’t see them regular basis on tour and we have a great friendship and it’s always a lot of fun.”

Of course, one’s views are not set in stone, but are tempered by circumstance. You can be sure Federer’s position would be rather different if, for example, Switzerland was in the semis. Still, good to see the old fella being candid as usual.

Laura Robson is in the 2nd round, so she will face Zheng Jie if she comes through. That’s is a very interesting prospect. Robson is unusual – almost uniquely so for a British tennis player, Murray excepted – in loving the big stage. Of course, the China Open is not exactly your local village tourney, but it is definitely a few notches down from the US Open, where Laura experienced all that excitement. But before Laura can really do herself justice in the huge events, she is going to have knuckle down and face gritty and talented players like Zheng in the smaller events. I am deeply interested to see how she performs.

September 17th, 2012 at 7:25 am

grendel,

Remember the name of Donna Vekic, she is sixteen years old just turned professional and already played WTA final this week. She is Croatian based in London. Her tennis future looks very very promising.

September 17th, 2012 at 8:20 am

headline should be “Fed feigns disinterest in something he can’t achieve”

September 17th, 2012 at 9:55 am

I disagree. Degrees of interest vary in proportion to attainability. Happens all the time. The more you understand something, for instance, the more your level of interest naturally rises. It’s not a static thing, and feigning doesn’t come into it. And b.t.w., something like davis cup success is about collaboration – it’s not about one person achieving something.

Wog boy, this Donna Vekic, have you seen her play, or are you going on results? When I saw Laura Robson at the age of 14, I knew she’d be a winner, it was just a matter of time.

September 17th, 2012 at 10:10 am

Tough situation for Laura to be playing a home crowd favorite in China. Zheng is a tough player too.

September 17th, 2012 at 10:33 am

Absolutely to both propositions. Which is why we should learn something about Laura from this match.

September 17th, 2012 at 10:47 am

In response to comment above on Federer’s comment re:Davis Cup.

Interesting comment (also) on Fed’sview of Davis Cup:
“Not really a whole lot to be quite honest,” Federer said when asked how much he valued the tournament [Davis Cup]

The words from Federer are correctly quoted but the question is not. I listened to the interview (everyone can, it’s on Davis Cup site – go to audio and keep scrolling down to you see Fed’s Sun interview).

The question was (words not exact) – “on Friday, you spoke of your appreciation of the history of tennis, is that the basis of your making Davis Cup a priority?”

His comment was direct response to this – the ‘not really a whole lot’ has to do with why he plays not whether he considers it important. It was misquoted in a news article – I assume responder and many others are just taking it from there.

The question makes a difference – unfortunately articles just print the comment and mislead others.

September 17th, 2012 at 11:31 am

Ilene – as the “responder” you refer to, I have now listened to the audio, and you are quite correct. It’s actually quite a subtle distinction you have spotted in a very short interview. You are right, journalistic reports can be endlessly misleading, often more through carelessness than deliberate intent. I guess one should scrutinise them more carefully.

September 17th, 2012 at 12:29 pm

grendel,

*walking on eggshells* ……….Which leads me to bring up the News reporting overall in this world;

http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Jackson-Conspiracy-Aphrodite-Jones/dp/0979549809

September 17th, 2012 at 12:45 pm

Ilene, I can’t thank you enough. If I had a dollar for every time this is done with a Federer quote, I would probably be sitting in his box someday.

Besides, why should he try to attain Davis Cup? Look at the teams that will play the finals. Not a Slam winner among them: one player who has been to one Slam final and a few semis and on the other side, a player who has made a couple of Slam semis. What each team has is a group of solid midlevel players and a deep enough bench. Right now, the level below Roger and Stan in Swiss players is way below and not realistic contenders up against the likes of teams from Spain, France, or even the US with the #1 doubles team.

September 17th, 2012 at 2:04 pm

Basically every time Federer has to play and win two singles matches to ensure victory for Switzerland in Davis Cup. And often he’s forced to play doubles as well. When was the last time Switzerland won a tie without him?

He had to play this fall to keep Switzerland in the World Group. And I think that’s one of the problems–they can’t reserve Federer for the later rounds and rely on second-stringers for the early rounds, but have to call on him regularly just to stay in contention.

As Deborah says it’s much better to have a deep bench of solid players than to have one superstar and no bench behind him. One superstar can only do so much; you can’t always have him play two singles matches and do doubles as well. Basically if Federer loses one match, Switzerland is screwed, and that’s a very thin margin for error.

Few Davis Cup teams have top players; you don’t need a Federer to beat the vast majority of them. If Switzerland had more depth they could save Federer for ties with the toughest teams instead of calling on him to beat the likes of journeymen such as De Bakker and Haase.

September 17th, 2012 at 2:32 pm

grendel,

I just saw bits and pieces of her match so I cannot say I saw her play, but ftom what I saw and read abiut her and the way she handles herself at the age of sixteen she looks very promising. I am looking forward to seeing her match and then I will get back to you with full report:)

September 17th, 2012 at 4:18 pm

Ilene – another thing comes to mind as a result of listening to the audio interview. Together with the original Eurosport article, there is an inset picture of a tired looking Federer (not, I think, an absolutely recent photo, I seem to recognize it – therefore it is deliberately misleading) with the caption:”‘wounded’ Federer wants break from tennis”.

However, on the audio, there is a little break in Federer’s voice as he says “wounded”; it’s a kind of incipient laugh, he is quite obviously smiling, since the notion of being ‘wounded’ might be taken as being rather grand or pretentious even. Of course, there is no way you can possibly tell that by simply reading the transcript.

And actually, Eurosport, who seem to think they’re onto a good thing with this tiny interview have also, on another “page” a much bigger photo (also not new I think?)with the caption “The beginning of the end for the artful Roger”. Let us draw a quiet veil over this rather pathetic attempt at a literary pun (the reference, for non-Dickens readers or film goers is to the Artful Dodger), and merely note that it is an absurd conclusion to draw from such a thin source. Absolutely my bad to have posted this link without having done a bit of checking.

However, I don’t think the intention was malign (as, Skeezer, it appears to have been in the Michael Jackson case which you adduced via your link – very dubious fellow indeed that Bashir character). Journalists can be careless due to pressure of time, more likely they are tempted to massage or even concoct a story simply because it suits their dramatic instincts, not to mention career prospects.

It was ever thus. Someone I knew well once told me that whenever the media got involved in his own line of work, they invariably got it badly wrong. And this didn’t give him much faith in the authenticity of their other operations. It’s a lesson one tends to forget.

September 17th, 2012 at 6:30 pm

If Stan & Fed were to commit to an entire DC season & build their respective tour schedules around that commitment, a DC Finals appearance would not be outside the realm of possibility.

Not realistic though & both would probably pay a heavy price in tour/slam results.

September 17th, 2012 at 10:55 pm

@ grendel
Golding loves the “big stage” too. Child actor, apparently he’s been in West End Musicals?
Have u seen him play? He’s got a BIG game. Needs to tame his shots a bit.
Of course being good at tennis is greatly helped if you’ve got a tennis court in your back garden..;)
Don’t know if its grass.

September 18th, 2012 at 2:41 am

Margot

I’ve heard of Ollie Golding, not least from you. Didn’t he win The US Junior Open last year? But I haven’t seen him play. I saw Liam Brody about a year ago – and he didn’t have a big game then. He nearly won the Junior US this year, didn’t he – so maybe he’ll top 50 it or something like that. But you think Golding can go further – hope you’re right.

September 18th, 2012 at 9:52 am

Grendel, Laura Robson did it – knocked off Zheng Jie in straight sets!

September 19th, 2012 at 1:42 pm

I am delighted for Laura Robson,what an incredible few weeks its been for this talented young player,such a convincing win against a player like Zheng,i like Zheng and always thought she would go on to do great things but never quite lived upto that potential.

September 19th, 2012 at 2:08 pm

She did it again! Laura Robson knocked off Peng Shuai in 3 sets to reach the semis. She plays Sorana Cirstea (another tough opponent) in the semis. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/19663078

September 20th, 2012 at 11:21 am

Take that Muller. You waste of a U.S. Open QF! Bow done to Your Great Davy!

September 20th, 2012 at 8:48 pm

Look like I have doctor’s appointment tomorrow, I bet he’ll perscribe somethings to about my ‘serve yips’. In soviet Russi… I mean, Metz, Dr. Davydenko sees YOU!

September 20th, 2012 at 11:22 pm

Laura Robson just beat Cirstea 6-4 6-2 and becomes the first Brit in a WTA final for 22 years. After the drought comes……

September 21st, 2012 at 8:52 am

Good for Laura; I am not following – what’s the tournament?

September 21st, 2012 at 8:59 am

It’s Guangzhou. She will face world no. 53 Hsieh Su-Wei in the final. Great opportunity here to crack the top 50.

September 21st, 2012 at 9:05 am

^ Thanks, and yes, hope she wins the title.

September 21st, 2012 at 9:28 am

DA – I heard if Laura won the final, she’d be #54. Dunno if that’s true, but anyway, it’s a hell of a jump from #75 I think it is.
RZ, I agree Cirstea was another tough opponent, and considering Robson was on the court for over 3 hours yesterday, the scoreline is surprisingly convincing. Her coach has remarked that Laura herself doesn’t know how good she is, and I would guess that is probably true of the tennis watching public at large. At this rate, not for much longer.

alison, I agree, the win against Zheng Jie was stunning. I too like Zheng. She does concentrate a lot on doubles, but I think she is ultimately hamstrung by her size. Just isn’t big enough. Which once more tells you just how very, very, very great indeed was Justine Henin.

September 21st, 2012 at 9:42 am

oh, and alison: d’you have Eurosport? They’re televising Tokyo next week, and Laura Robson is playing. I don’t think we should expect too much from her, especially if she wins tomorrow. Still, it’ll be good to see her.

September 21st, 2012 at 9:50 am

Grendel, another great win for Laura! Not sure the Chinese home crowd will root for her considering at this tournament she knocked off Zheng and Shuai, and took out Li at the US Open. But regardless, a great run and I hope she wins tomorrow to end yet another British tennis drought.

I just hope that despite tomorrow’s outcome, she wins a few rounds at Tokyo. I hate when players win one tournament and then lose the first round of the next tourney.

September 21st, 2012 at 2:48 pm

Why people only talk about a boring British players, when they could be talking about ME. The Great Davy! ..? I save match point today and all I here is Robsen Robsen Robeson. Britain its more boring than me!

September 21st, 2012 at 8:49 pm