Federer Anderson

Kevin Anderson was at his best against Kei Nishikori. The year-old won the first 11 games against Nishikori before his relieved opponent finally got on the scoreboard with an angled winner.

Federer will likely have to avenge his Wimbledon loss this year to Anderson to reach the semi-finals, although all four players in the group could still mathematically progress.

After forcing Anderson to hit from beyond the baseline on his backhand wing, Federer charged towards the net and left the crowd gasping as he somehow returned an outstretched forehand volley.

He followed it up with a reflex volley — again on the forehand side — after Anderson blasted a ground stroke at him. It dropped before the service line and forced Anderson to come and join him at the net.

That prompted a crazy exchange of four rapid-fire volleys before Federer finished off the point with a deft passing shot.

Even for Federer, this has been a very Federer stretch of tennis. They are not just young, but they are very good, as well.

The Swiss raced through the first set against Anderson, the man who came from two sets down to beat him in a quarter-final marathon at Wimbledon last year.

Hopp Schwiiz! I was thinking about getting mess after giving break back on second set but Roger played good 9th game even after some gutsy saves by Kevin.

Yeah lies, damned lies and statistics. They cannot. Disagreement happens when you try to elaborate a judgment based on them.

And even this is incomplete. And so on. So, folks, please stop blaming the numbers and instead analyze the use we humans make of them and the fallibility of our judgement,.

But when you look past the numbers, I played every test match against Zimbabwe, then the numbers mean nothing. Same for breakpoints, if won a match , and the stats says I am 1 out of 30 on break points.

Then wow, what a joke. Except watch the match and all thirty breaking points came at and my opponent hit 29 aces on every break point before I converted to take it So much fun and yes worth the late night.

It was all on show and so enjoyable watching the confidence soar from 1st game. Denis will be full of vim and vigour but yes I expect that low slice to play havoc again and the sheer variety.

Tiafoe played such a classic corner to corner baseline slugger game. My user rating shld be 4. Hard to hit it right!! I docked him. Completely off-topic: why was Tiafoe given a female name?

Frances is female, Francis is male. Completely on-topic: wow! Huh, less true where? If you picked out a people named Frances I bet 0 of them are male.

Or 1 if Tiafoe was in the lineup. Hope he can pull it off. Matches have worked out quite well, test early to get used to conditions and from there he has played efficient as poss.

That was a glorious match to watch. It was on in the morning here for me but I still was too nervous to watch it live. When I get really nervous I only watch matches later after I confirm Roger has already won!

The Bagel in the first set also made me nervous because if Roger let down and had lost in 3 it would be somewhat worse to win the first set to easily only to lose the match… convoluted thinking I know.

Haha I could never watch a match in full when I know the result. Jon, you were spot on as always! Kevin played poorly in the first, with a terrible first serve percentage and many unforced errors.

Roger played great, but only 38 percent first served. As you noted, in the second set Kevin served much better, hit his ground strokes quite well and did not give up easy points.

Plus he stopped slicing his backhand returns and helped Kevin get into a baseline groove. And Anderson is a lean and sinewy ball punisher, a year-old who has worked tirelessly and more or less anonymously to become a Top 10 staple.

No shame in losing to a player in that group by any score or number of sets on Wimbledon grass. I have no idea.

Of course the goal is to come back here next year. I'm all right. I'm just disappointed now. It's probably a good sign for those hoping to see Federer gambol across these lawns again that he admits that the infrequent losses hurt more as time goes on, "It motivates me to do extremely well because I don't want to sit here and explain my loss.

That's the worst feeling you can have as a tennis player. It sounds like there will be more opportunities for Federer fans to pop the cork on the champagne at Wimbledon.

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