Roger Federer makes Ferrer rue his profligacy

Written by: Staff on 9th November 2012

Roger Federer makes Ferrer rue his profligacy

epa03463545 Switzerland's Roger Federer returns the ball during their group B singles match against Spain's David Ferrer in the round robin stage on the fourth day of the ATP World Tour tennis finals in London, Britain, 08 November2012. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA |

Federer’s win in one word? Scrappy. 39 unforced errors from the Swiss, which meant that over half of Ferrer’s 72 points won were a gift to him.

Going into the match with 13 straight defeats, Ferrer must’ve been wondering if he’d cracked the puzzle in the first game, he went 0-40 up on Federer’s serve, but the Swiss didn’t panic, he calmly pegged Ferrer back to deuce, and then two errors from the Spaniard meant he’d missed out on 3 break points. Not the best start for either, psychologically. To pile on the misery, Federer then broke Ferrer’s serve to go 2-0, not wasting break points as Ferrer had.

The third game was a real fight. Federer let Ferrer back in from 40-15 to deuce, two ill-advised jaunts to the net by Federer punished by his opponent. A dance around deuce, including a bad call on Ferrer’s shot at Adv Ferrer – called out when it wasn’t. The point was replayed and he hit his return straight into the net. Awful luck for Ferrer. Three times in that game he earnt break points from deuce, three times he was thwarted – including a sublime and ridiculous cross-court forehand that kissed the line on its way through. A full 20 minutes went by before the players sat for the changeover, Federer 3-0 up, and Ferrer now 0/6 on break points.

Ferrer did finally manage to break Federer’s serve, at the 8^th attempt. I can’t make up my mind whether by missing out on 7 break points means that you deserve it on the 8^th, or whether it means you don’t really deserve anything.

If you managed to ignore the multitude of errors which punctuated almost every exchange, there was an interesting match-up of styles. Sadly for Ferrer, it’s a match-up that suits one player very much more than the other. But you’d have to be a very generous spectator to even consider ignoring the errors.

So, despite the errors and despite the fact that Ferrer had wasted 7 break points against a man he’d never beaten, it was still even-Stevens. Let’s have it down in black and white. This was a poor match so far. Both players at this stage had twice the number of errors than they had winners, but it was never going to be about who made fewer errors, it was about who converted their chances when it mattered. Ferrer might rue those missed break points, but if Roger Federer wasn’t playing so poorly by his own standards, he wouldn’t have had them to lose or not.

In amongst the dross, after eight or so games there was some good tennis to be seen, but it was infrequent and short-lived when it did arrive. Federer might carefully manage a rally to work an opening then hit a glamour-volley, but then the very next point he’d fluff a routine forehand into the seating. Yes, Roger shanked a fair few today – and his serve! Atrocious, and that’s being kind – only 40% of the targets landed in the right place during the first set. It improved to 53% overall at the end of the match, but that’s still rather dreadful.

Federer agreed that he had to rely on his second serve a lot, especially in the first set “I definitely needed a good second serve… either the rhythm was off a bit or I wasn’t pushing enough with the legs, or whatever”. But that’s not a new thing for Roger, he’s always had a good second serve it’s just today he needed it more than usual! “I had to use everything I had in terms of variation, kicking it, sliding it, going all different ways. I didn’t double-fault very often today, so I’m happy with the way things went on my second serve today.” Indeed.

With all that David Ferrer had been put through in the first set, it was almost inevitable that he would lose it, and he did so in the cruellest fashion. Having forced back from a break down early on, and taken it so close so many times, he served at 4-5 and got broken to love. An awful time to concede a game like that. But at the end of the day, in terms of break points Ferrer had converted one of eight, and Federer had converted two of three.

The second set, in terms of quality of tennis on display, was a big improvement on the first. However, I once won a special ribbon at school for being the “Most improved swimmer” of the year. I was still rubbish at swimming, just not as bad as I used to be. My point being, it couldn’t have been much worse – this is top 5 tennis and it should’ve been of higher quality.

So, both players had played themselves into some kind of form, but yet again Federer looked in trouble from the start. 15-0 quickly became 15-40, but yet again he didn’t panic and pegged it back to deuce. With Federer playing a bit more like himself, Ferrer didn’t get the opportunities that he’d gotten in the first set. I think if you’ve got a 0-13 record and you’ve just lost a set like that, it must be very hard to even get up off the bench, so it was a credit to the toughness of Ferrer that he got out there and made Federer work.

Ferrer and Federer both missed break points, but it was nothing like the choke-fest that the first set had been. Games went with serve, both players trying to get the edge, but perhaps Federer the more comfortable. Federer’s first serve improved, and now it was Ferrer who couldn’t toss it up and get it over and in. 3 double faults in the second set – none of them leading to a break thankfully, but as a measure of contrast, Federer didn’t double fault once in the second set.

At 5-5 it looked as though Federer was about to complete a doubly cruel victory. In the first he’d broken just at the right moment, and it almost happened again. A strong service hold from Federer put him 6-5 up, and Ferrer then double-faulted for 0-15 and produced another unforced error to go 0-30 down. Heaven knows what must’ve been going through his head at that point, but again you have to credit his backbone, he came back from 0-30 down and won the next four points to force the second set tiebreak.

Roger Federer had the minibreak earlyi n the tiebreak and went 4-2 and turned it quickly into a 6-3 lead, 3 match points on offer. Ferrer saved two match points on his serve, but then Federer tucked away the third match point to extend his record here, qualify for the semi-finals, and leave Ferrer wondering if he’ll ever have 10 break points in a match against Federer again.

Federer defeats Ferrer 6-4,7-6(7-5).

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