1 of 1- Forehand_lob
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Indian Wells and Miami
Federer thumped Nadal, which was a surprise, given the conditions. I expect that Nadal will turn it around if the two meet on clay this year, but this year has been strange, so something else could easily happen.
I'm happy to see Kuznetsova playing well. I've always liked her game.
Should Federer and Kuzentsova both win today, it would be a callback to the 2009 French Open where both of them won. Just throwing that out there!
EDIT: "Indiana Wells"? Clearly I should have looked at that before I hit "Submit".
Last edited by Forehand_lob (4/03/2017 5:10 am)
- Forehand_lob
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Re: Indian Wells and Miami
Oh, Kuzy. That's really all I have to say about the women's final.
I did some checking, and Federer has won both the Australian Open and Indian Wells two times before: in 2004 and 2006. It would be ridiculous to think that his year could resemble those years, but it's also ridiculous to think that a 35 year old Federer could be over 2500 points ahead of Djokovic in ranking points earned in 2017. Yet, here we are.
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Thread Starter- Forehand_lob
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Re: Indian Wells and Miami
During the second set of the final, I noted that Nadal was standing way behind the baseline. If he's doing that, then he has no chance against Federer.
If you had told me that one player would win the Australian Open, Indian Wells, and Miami this year, I would have guessed Djokovic. It's astonishing that Federer is pulling this off at 35. He's managed to turn around the matchup against Nadal (possibly more impressive than the titles) and taken advantage of Djokovic and Murray's absence/poor play.
I'm not entirely sure, but I think that 11 years between titles at the same tournament must be some sort of record. Almost certainly at the Master's level.
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Thread Starter- funches
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Re: Indian Wells and Miami
No one saw this coming, but I will say that two years ago, I thought Federer played better than he ever had in reaching the finals of Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, and by that, I mean he would have beaten himself from any other year. He was awesome, dismantling Andy Murray in the Wimbledon semis like no one ever has on grass and making Gasquet look like he was not a top 1,000 player at the U.S. Open.
But then in the finals of both tournaments, he looked nothing like that against Djokovic, whose game clearly intimidated him.
I give Ljubicic all the credit in the world for finally being the guy to convince Federer he had to play with more confidence in the big moments against big players because I don't think he ever had in his career. He won because he was better than the player in front of him, but when he wasn't sure he was the better player, he almost always lost.
Not now. He is hitting through his backhand like never before and keeping faith when the matches are tight. He still won't be able to beat Nadal on clay, but until Djokovic regains his form, Federer will go in as the favorite against everyone else on any surface. And I'd love to see a match against Djokovic in a slam final if they both play at the top of their games, which has never happened in any of their previous finals.