Tennis - ATP/WTA

Six-time former champion Roger Federer opened his title defence at The O2 with a 63 61 win over Janko Tipsarevic. It’s his record 40th match win at the season finale. Will Fed make it title No. 7 this week? Photo: Getty Images

AF - unga Tennis thread pArththu dhAn Tennis news therinjukkkaRadhu. sila mAsamA oru vishayamum theriyala. enna nadandhuikittirukku? aNNan innum #1-A? US open yAru jeyichA? :ashamed:

He lost the #1 ranking this week. If he had clung just this week he could have finished as Year no 1 and another 10-12 weeks until AO2013. But sadly, it eluded him. Bonus is he completed 300 weeks(302).

USO - Andipatti Maari. I am also not seeing the matches and I read updates from Omega/Vinod there. Edho konjam sumara velayadrapdi. In this year's WTF Grouping he has a relatively easier group. He is paired with Ferrer, the above guy and Del potro. Djoke, Maari, Birdy and Tsonga (all the enemy 4 families) are in the other group.

Murray pwning Djoker, Federer last year in USO and Olympics is the best thing to happen to the Sport.

Rafa's dream to overtake Sampras hogaya..

Copy/pasting Vinod's post here.

Congrats Novak.

Novak Djokovic has been presented the 2012 ATP World Tour No. 1 and Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year Awards in London.

[/QUOTE]

Michael AF wrote:

தக்காளி என்ன forehand! Grip, technique, style....

Roger with Fan's fav award (record 10th straight year) and Sportmanship award (7th time) ...

To connoisseurs here, Andha champagne bottle evvalo roobees/dollars irukkum?

Fed qualifies for semi's/

For kg

I saw it live. It went exactly like Shangai..

Omega(hub) wrote thus over there..

Fed played worst in the 1st set (his FS % around 30 may be). Never seen him have to save that many BPs against Ferrer.
This was the best oppurtunity for Ferrer to win against Federer.

Federer's FH has lost its sting almost completely. His BH anyway is toothless mostly.
The end may be coming quicker than many thought (retirement).

ATP.2012.WTF.London.SF.FEDERER.vs.MURRAY.Highlights.HQ

Pretty Good match. Fed does really well to come back after a deficit to Murray in the 1st set. 2nd set is Total Domination.

Pitchai kekkara nelamaikku vandhachu

Federer wants faster courts to encourage attack

LONDON — With the top defensive players increasingly getting the better of him often in recent years, Roger Federer would like to speed up the game of tennis.

Or at least the courts the matches are played on.

Federer lost to Novak Djokovic in the final of the season-ending ATP finals on Monday, and then praised the top-ranked Serb's ability to retrieve so many shots and keep the ball in play. That's a trait Djokovic shares with Federer's other two biggest rivals – Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray – and the Swiss star said attacking play doesn't always reap the benefits it deserves even on hard courts because they're often slower than they used to be.

"It's an easy fix. Just make quicker courts, then it's hard to defend," Federer said. "Attacking style is more important. It's only on this type of slow courts that you can defend the way we are all doing right now."

Monday's final at the O2 Arena had a familiar feel to it. Federer did most of the attacking, trying to dictate play with his forehand and aggressive shot making. But Djokovic, as he often does, kept finding ways to get the ball back over the net and was sharper on the key points.

Federer won the first nine points of the match and was up an early break in both sets, but Djokovic recovered to win 7-6 (6), 7-5.

Federer was the two-time defending champion in London and emphasized that he was happy with this court, calling it one of the faster indoor surfaces on the circuit. He said slower courts are also good for long rallies – which are a big crowd pleaser – but that having more variety in the surfaces would force players to learn to be more aggressive.

"What you don't want is that you hit 15 great shots and at the end, it ends up in an error," he said. "So I think sometimes quicker courts do help the cause. I think it would help from time to time to move to something a bit faster. That would help to learn, as well, for many different players, different playing styles, to realize that coming to the net is a good thing, it's not a bad thing."

Federer has won a record-equaling seven Wimbledon titles on grass, the quickest surface, but has only one French Open title on the slower clay, where Nadal has repeatedly thwarted him.

Djokovic and Murray also rely heavily on their great defensive abilities, which have helped set them apart from the rest of the pack.

Having more tournaments played on faster surfaces could make it easier for other players to challenge the sport's "Big Four," Federer said, adding that he wasn't sure tournament directors would necessarily buy into that.

"I think some variety would be nice, some really slow stuff and then some really fast stuff, instead of trying to make everything sort of the same," he said. "You sort of protect the top guys really by doing that because you have the best possible chance to have them in the semis at this point, I think. But should that be the goal? I'm not sure."

Djokovic said his strategy against Federer is usually to try and extend the rallies and hope for an opportunity.

"He's somebody that is very aggressive, that likes to finish points very quickly," Djokovic said. "But I managed to get a lot of shots back into the court, being passive, a couple meters behind the baseline. ... That was one of the goals tonight, to always try to get him into the longer rallies where I think I had the better chance."

Shanghai Courts were much faster than London O2., imo.

Guys, Drag this thread to Sports sec also. Thanks.

Sorry missed it, done now.

It's a fair ask from Federer. Robots and golden retrievers are mucking it up. When will the drudgery stop? Neva

Federer releases 2013 schedule.

http://www.rogerfederer.com/en/tenni...year/2013.html



Not playing in any tournaments before AO.
Not playing Miami where he has to defend 45 points and skipping Monte Carlo as usual which gives him 2 month break before Clay season.
Madrid until USO is intact. Playing Shanghai and Paris. Surprisingly missing Basel and WTF London.

Looks like he doesn't care about No.1 anymore and can still remain in Top 4 next year with this schedule.



"Basically I've given myself enough space," Federer said recently. "It's about just making sure you manage your schedule correctly.
"I have to make sure I create my schedule so it makes sense for my practice schedule. I need to practise a whole lot more next year, because this year, I hardly did have an opportunity to do that. I have some catching up to do in that standpoint."

http://www.thetennisspace.com/analys...dule-for-2013/

The reason he can do it is that he has accrued a number of exemptions
over time, to the point where he is no longer required to commit to
playing eight Masters 1000s, as the rest of the top players do. The ATP
rules allow players to drop one Masters 1000 commitment according to the
following criteria; when they have played more than 600 matches, spent
12 full years on Tour and are 31 or older on January 1 of the relevant
year. When they fulfil all three, as Federer does, they have complete
exemption.

Azarenkkaaaaaa

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2012/12/Features/Federer-Launches-YouTube-Channel.aspx

https://www.youtube.com/RogerFederer

I am very disappointed that I will not be able to compete this year in Abu Dhabi. I was really excited about returning to play and I always have a wonderful experience at the event and this is the first time I will miss the tournament.

My rehab has gone well, my knee feels good and I was looking forward to competing. Unfortunately doctors have informed me that my body needs to rest in order to fight this stomach virus. I would like to say sorry to all my fans in the United Arab Emirates and around the world, but I hope to play and win in Abu Dhabi again next year.
I regret much not to compete this year in Abu Dhabi. Everything was prepared and I am eager to return to competition but doctors have forbidden me to compete in Abu Dhabi for a stomach infection that has produced me fever.

In Abu Dhabi always have treated me very well and this is the first time that I can not compete in that tournament. My recovery has gone well, my knees are better, and as I was eager to return to competition. I'm sorry for my fans in the Emirates and throughout the world. I hope to be there the coming year.

https://www.facebook.com/Nadal?ref=stream

My knee is much better and the rehabilitation process has gone well as predicted by the doctors, but this virus didn’t allow me to practice this past week and therefore I am sorry to announce that I will not play in Doha and the Australian Open, as we had initially scheduled.
My knee is much better, and the recovery process has gone as expected by doctors, but this viral process has made that he could not train this past week and in the coming days and therefore, much to my regret not will reappear as soon as we had anticipated.

I think that as they say my team and doctors, the wisest thing is to do things well and this virus has made delay my plans return these days. My reappearance will have to wait until the tournament in Acapulco while he would not rule the possibility to reappear in any tournament before.

As my team and doctors say, the safest thing to do is to do things well and this virus has delayed my plans of playing these weeks. I will have to wait until the Acapulco tournament to compete again although I could consider to play before at any other ATP event My knee is much better and the rehabilitation process has gone well as predicted by the doctors, but this virus did not allow me to practice this past week and therefore I am sorry to announce that I will not play in Doha and the Australian Open, as we had initially scheduled.

Same source as above.