Canas Beats Fed AGAIN !

Drew · Mar 27, 2007

Canas Beats Fed AGAIN !

Count Zero · Tennis legend

what will this do for the pick em contest?

steven · Tennis legend

What a nightmare

Andy's in the other half btw - the top half looks like Estoril on clay or something ...

Canas v Robredo
Chela v Ljubo/Nieminen

steven · Tennis legend

Count Zero wrote:

what will this do for the pick em contest?

We're doomed ...

Well, possibly not - but we're doomed unless Duckboy beats Andy tomorrow, and even then we could be in trouble.

We could do with Ljubo beating Nieminen tonight, but he's a mini-break down in the 1st set TB.

Ghosting · Lower Club Player

Henman was very unlucky to play Canas. It was the worst draw.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

True! THat defo puts a different tint on Henman's result!

Sheddie · administrator

Canas' serving was awesome yesterday, it's an area of his game which has improved a lot since I last saw him. When I've watched some of his duels with Henman in the past, he hasn't served nearly as well as that. It was the placement which was impressive against Federer.

Fed was dreadful, made so many ues but still should have won having been 2-0 up in the decider and had several pts for 3-0 and a double break. Managed to miss all of them, mainly through sloppy play (perhaps he relaxed a bit having outplayed Canas for a set and a half) and let Canas back in it.

Fed did raise his game at the end of the set but Canas raised his too and was just too good in the tiebreak while Fed seemed a little more edgy and nervous than usual

The tactic Fed used a lot with great success in set 2 was hitting deep shots then ghosting in every so often, catching Canas off guard while his eye was on the ball....did it very effectively. However, he didn't do it maybe enough in the final set, was trying to rely on his groundstrokes which were totally off.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

I watched the third set and the end of the second. Federer went from playing majestic tennis, everything flowing, movement looking good, forehand out of this world, backhand solid with the odd superb top spin winner, simply destroying Canas, who had very little with which to hurt Roger, to the sort of tennis you might associate with Malisse on a bad day or Andy for that matter, when he loses the plot - end of the second set against Roddick in Memphis being a prime example (which fortunately is happening less often nowadays).

Gave away his serve with four needless errors under no pressure when a break up in the final set then played a very ordinary tiebreak with a horror drive volley into the net that ultimately cost him the match.

Very surprised he failed to read that Canas was serving big down the middle time after time. If he had covered that serve he could have got the double break and won without much trouble.

This defeat should send a very different signal to the others players, to the previous defeat to Canas or indeed to Murray last summer. In those matches Federer completely lost his feel for the ball. He was terrible. But that's not going to happen too often in a season. In Miami Federer was playing great, then gave away his serve and lost the match with a patchy tiebreak. So even down a break in the final set, decent players should feel they have a chance if they keep competing against Federer. Last year he won 11/11 tight final set matches (single break or tiebreak) against players other than Nadal.

Respect to Canas but he did little more than come up with a few big serves on key points and then kept getting the ball back to a decent length. While I was watching there were very few winners from Canas, he was almost irrelevant as Federer won or lost each point.

Having said all that, beating Roger over 5 sets still seems highly unlikely unless you happen to be Nadal on the clay of Roland Garros.

-- Edited by kundalini at 12:28, 2007-03-29

johnnylad · Tennis legend

So is the reign of Federer beginning to creak??????

RJA · Hall of fame

johnnylad wrote:

So is the reign of Federer beginning to creak??????

Perhaps, but wouldn't bet on it.