As far as I can see, since April 2002 Federer has won fewer than 5 games in just one match, the Roland Garros final of May 2008 when he lost  6 - 1  6 - 3  6 - 0  to Nadal.

Otherwise the last time he won fewer games ( and the last time he won fewer games in a best of 3 match ) was his loss to Nalbandian at Monte Carlo in April 2002,  6 - 2  6 - 1.

There have been two occasions  since that loss to Nalbandian when he has won just 5 games as here :
January 2003 :  Sydney, loss to Franco Squillari ( ARG )   6 - 2  6 - 3
March 2008 :  Indian Wells, loss to Mardy Fish   6 - 3  6 - 2

kundalini wrote:

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Looking at the wikipedia entry for Masters Series (since 1990), Andy is now in 7th place behind Nadal (18), Fed (17), Agassi (17), Sampras (11), Muster (8) and Chang (7)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATP_World_Tour_Masters_1000

I suppose it shouldn't really be surprising that some players that have done well at Slams have modest records in winning Masters, and vice versa. Hewitt just 2 masters series titles, Pat Rafter 2.



-- Edited by kundalini on Sunday 17th of October 2010 12:34:07 PM

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Murray  6.  Henman  1,  Rusedski  1

The fact that Andy is such a winner in these events ( only lost one Masters final ) is something that generally makes me retain the belief ( that does waver at times ) that one day his Grand Slam title will come.  Yes, they are a bit different, but he is not too afraid to win on big occasions.

The Nadal and Federer Masters record, as in their Grand Slam record, does though show that he has been rather unlucky to be playing in their era. They don't let that much be shared by others !

-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 17th of October 2010 01:34:42 PM

kundalini wrote:

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Looking at the wikipedia entry for Masters Series (since 1990), Andy is now in 7th place behind Nadal (18), Fed (17), Agassi (17), Sampras (11), Muster (8) and Chang (7)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATP_World_Tour_Masters_1000

I suppose it shouldn't really be surprising that some players that have done well at Slams have modest records in winning Masters, and vice versa. Hewitt just 2 masters series titles, Pat Rafter 2.

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It is hard to see him not surpassing Chang and Muster over the next couple of years.

Impressive, Andy confirmed this week what he is, a great retriever with unbelievable movement, and a brilliant shotmaker. His first serve was also the best I've ever seen it, but as Andy said in his post match Sky interview he really needs to work on his endurance, something which has taken a knock this year due to a lesser training load. A great best of three set matchplayer but not yet best of five set matchplayer compared to the very best.

It's been a strange year, arguably his peaks have shown him in the best form of his career, but his troughs have shown him will well below peak form. He needs to somehow alleviate the pressure he feels when playing Grand Slams and therefore peak for these, but given some very hard endurance training over the Winter, next year should be his best opportunity yet to win a Grand Slam. The Djoker and Rafa have raised their levels so it won't be easy.