2017 BNP Paribas Open...ATP 1000...Indian Wells, California USA (Trump Land)

[klacr]

Federer takes first set 6-4. Serve games are sharp. Return games are competitive. Movement is smooth. His game is ubiquitous and omnipotent.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[don_budge]

Roger Federer Best Points...Indian Wells 2017

Something to watch while waiting for the finals...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeGFLurUack

[don_budge]

2017 Paribas Open...ATP 1000...Indian Wells, California USA (Trump Land) The Finals Roger Federer vs. Stan Wawrinka


Stan Wawrinka sort of walked into the finals of the 2017 Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Roger Federer's path was rather obstruction free as well. It looked like the toughest of draws but Rafael Nadal went down like a little pussy cat and Nick Kyrgios just out and cleared out of the way...period. Removing Novak Djokovic in the process. A bit fortuitous for the player that I refer to as "The Living Proof" in my teaching paradigm of the game of tennis.

I wonder how the relationship between the two Swiss comrades has faired in the development of their rivalry. Not that I care...except it adds to the psychological aspect of the game. The head to head of the two is 19-3 in favor of you know who...but that aside every time they take to the court now they are essentially 0-0. Dead even. None of it courts except the point in front of their noses now. The final at the Tour Championships in 2014 was certainly one of the best two out of three modern matches that I have seen. The match at the Australian Open in the semifinals was pretty interesting as well. Interestingly enough...I think Roger has discovered yet another gear to kick it into as Stotty suggests in his last post. He is bringing on some really aggressive tennis. Every aspect of his game seems to all of a sudden kicked up a notch and the cumulative effect is stunning.

It just may be that he has one more level to explore now. Now that he is in the finals there is nothing to hold back and if he gets it into his head that he is as good as he has been playing...he may just have some afterburner fire in the tank. Afterall...it is the finals and this is the name of the game in the professional world. You keep raising the level of your game until you finally get to the finals and then there is nothing holding you back...except the psychological aspect. At that point...you either make it work for you or it works against you. The winner takes it all.

Wawrinka sometimes has this bit of indifference about him. He seems to lose it when Roger is on the other side of the court but there are times when he looks intimidated by him. Roger will be turning up the heat. He says the comeback extends into April so he has nothing to lose. My dear old tennis coach used to tell me to play five tournaments to get ready for the tournament you want to peak for. Federer came out and won the Australian Open on his first try back. He may have tanked Dubai to go back to work...get some more practice, more rest and more rehabilitation. It's fun to try and get into his head. Johnny Tennis Player. But here it is...the finals of an ATP 1000 and he is alive. It is almost more unlikely than seeing him in the finals of a Slam. It's only two out of three so maybe the old guy has a chance. Do you think?

[don_budge]

Another interesting aspect regards the equipment aspect. Certainly the larger head size will help any tennis player. But with Roger...he knows how to squeeze everything and I mean everything out of every conceivable advantage. He will find a way to use it to every possible advantage in every possible way. It has a multiplier effect. It's great to see. He gets a new lease on tennis life. We get him for an extended period of time. I'd be happy just to see him perform like this through the end of the year to the tour championships in London. He would be a real threat there with the format.

[don_budge]

I have been watching a few replays of Roger's recent matches. Something he is doing more of is playing with complete abandon, and in doing so is seriously using his talent. He has never been more fearless in his shotmaking. His improvisational play is the best it's ever been, by a long way. He is playing shots off the cuff and catching opponents off guard so often, and often when it counts most. He has never been better to watch than he is right now.

He has retooled alright. You know how Roger's mantra is "preparation, preparation, preparation"...well he used the time off to prepare. In meticulous detail for one last campaign...on the tennis circuit. Who knows how long the campaign will last? Only he could say...but what he did say is that the "comeback" lasts through April. He clearly said that.

The shotmaking is more decisive for sure. Any opening is immediately exploited without hesitation and he is having so much fun playing that backhand. He cannot wait to hit that shot. But the forehand is the bread and butter and I have never seen him play that shot as well. Particularly the reverse cross court (inside out to most). Of course the improved reverse cross court makes his cross court and his reverse down the line so much more effective. The opponents are getting caught off guard for sure...plus they are under all kinds of pressure. Power? The elixir mix of speed, spin and placement. Any questions?

He's borrowed a page from Bill Tilden in "Match Play and the Spin of the Ball" regarding the "Value of Intensive Practice". At the same time his physical conditioning and his rehabilitation and prehabilitation (preventive measures for injury) were taken care of in the same kind of meticulous planning. He has the best that money can buy.

One thing that came to mind is one of PED's or other substances that can be taken to improve a players performance. With an eye on the future we might have to examine players for chip or implant devices. The guy is playing so unbelievably good while the rest of the field looks to be spinning their wheels. Jack Sock was cat food. Federer had the quick drop on his so quickly on every exchange in that first set. Boom, boom, boom...good night Irene. He never lost his serve and Peter Fleming commented that his serve might just be the "best of all time"....which I certainly second. At least in the modern age of modern equipment. It's a shame that we won't be able to more surely have an idea about all of the players of the past.

Fleming also marveled at the strong grip on the Federer backhand which I suspect as well was beefed up with the larger racquet. He's taking a real whack at the high balls...an indication of a stronger grip. But he is probably adjusting it at times for the height of the shot and also the spin he intends to impart on the ball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n9nMKZSN2c

[stotty]

I have been watching a few replays of Roger's recent matches. Something he is doing more of is playing with complete abandon, and in doing so is seriously using his talent. He has never been more fearless in his shotmaking. His improvisational play is the best it's ever been, by a long way. He is playing shots off the cuff and catching opponents off guard so often, and often when it counts most. He has never been better to watch than he is right now.

[don_budge]

2017 BNP Paribas Open...Indian Wells, California...The Finals


All Swiss...all one hand backhands. Should be a good one. Federer has not lost serve all week. The backhand has improved...no doubt. But it is the serve that is buttering his bread.

[don_budge]

Room for Improvement...Potential

The thing is for me is it was easy, incredibly so when you think about it. How many players can you name, past or present, that have had the capacity to improve their game in a meaningful way that resulted in such a turnaround at the age of 35? I cannot think of one player other than perhaps Gonzales. Sure you hear of tiny tweaks players make and stuff like that, but to go from prisoner to jail keeper as in the case with the Nadal rivalry is remarkable.

Or perhaps more coaches and players should subscribe to the don_budge paradigm of tennis teaching. Every tennis player has room for improvement. Why not take some time out and go back to the drawing board and bone up? The thing is...it was a combination of an "injury" and the new (bigger) equipment that was the catalyst for this retooling of Federer...and it wasn't solely the backhand. The whole enchilada has been retooled...literally. The larger equipment improves everything by maybe a factor of the different in the area of the old racquet compared to the new. Let's say 10%. At thirty-five Roger may have been in a period of decline for some years and maybe he had lost 10%. He bought himself some time.

Chapter VII...Match Play and the Spin of the Ball (1925)

Gradually the turn came and I began to gain control of the new shot. It seemed to me that in a period of about ten days the work of the whole winter crystalized and my game jumped ahead a full class. I played better tennis, in certain ways,, than I had ever played before in all my life.

It is true that certain other shots suffered by this concentration on the backhand drive, but they came back quickly because I had the foundation for them. I had held myself steadily to hitting my backhand hard and I found that this steady punch had a tendency to speed up my entire game. I was gaining in aggressive tactics.

One cannot work consistently on anything without obtaining definite and interesting results. The only drawback is the length time it takes to show these results. Most players are not willing to devote more than a week or two at the most to the mastery of a stroke. If they have not the desired result then they usually let it go with a shrug. What is the use?" they say. Well possibly they are right, yet it seems a shame to me to pass up the ability to do anything well, simply because the effort seems tedious. Strokes cannot be learned in weeks, they must be reckoned in months and actual progress in years.

I do not mean that 1920 saw my backhand drive complete. Far from it. I worked and am still working on it, as on all my strokes, for they all can stand development.

Accidents sometimes prove a blessing in disguise. One could hardly recommend the loss of a finger as a definite asset to a tennis player, nor yet as the most ideal method of training. Yet, strange as it sounds, I owe a marked improvement in my net game, volley and smash to the accident of the loss of my middle finger of my right hand. I had been too soft in my volley game and overhead. I always knew that, yet somehow or other, in the days when I had all my fingers, I never could drive myself to kill.

[stotty]

It is no easy job to learn a new stroke in three or four months, particularly when it is a new trick for an old dog, yet it had to be done. My first step was to work out a sound grip, swing and footwork, not a very difficult thing to do in theory and once worked out to put it in practice.

The thing is for me is it was easy, incredibly so when you think about it. How many players can you name, past or present, that have had the capacity to improve their game in a meaningful way that resulted in such a turnaround at the age of 35? I cannot think of one player other than perhaps Gonzales. Sure you hear of tiny tweaks players make and stuff like that, but to go from prisoner to jail keeper as in the case with the Nadal rivalry is remarkable.

Federer was so far above Nadal in their most recent encounter that he was almost having a jolly. Roger was almost slapping some of those high backhands as flat as a pancake with a freedom you can only do when a match is not close. It looked like he could beat Nadal more easily than any other player on the tour.

It was a great ploy to take time out of the game to retool. I am a big advocate of doing this with my better junior players...take time out...retool...start again. Nishikori needs six months out on that serve in my view. His situation is equal to Nadal's but without the asset of being left handed.

Don't misunderstand that I think Nadal will be back, but whether he has an answer or not or the juice in his legs is open to question. For Nadal's part he has to get a lot more work on that serve of his, not just to combat Roger, but every other player on the tour also. He has a having titanic struggle just holding onto his serve in just about every match he plays. His second serve is just sitting up like something in a fairground most of the time. When I look at Nadal and consider what he might improve the serve is the first thing I'd reach for.

But it is the capacity Roger has to improve that is one of the most impressive things I have seen in tennis. Only sheer, unadulterated talent can do that. At 35, most players are the finished article and their games are so cemented that altering strokes is virtually impossible or out of the question altogether.

It's going to be interesting where Roger goes from here. I want Murray v Roger next, then Djokovic v Roger...although not necessarily in that order. Let's have some tennis showdowns, please. I'd say Murray and Djokovic might be quaking in their boots. I wonder if Roger's new backhand will be as effective against them?

[don_budge]

The Value of intensive Practice...Bill Tilden (Match Play and the Spin of the Ball)

Roger Federer may just have taken a page out of Bill Tilden's book..."Match Play and the Spin of the Ball".

Federer defeats Nadal...
Full marks to Roger for one thing: There is zero doubt in my mind that Roger grossly overstated his injury to take time out and retool his game. I am supremely confident this is the case. Do it secretly if you are going to do it...don't give the game away. It worked. Roger is certainly a better player now than he has ever been in terms of repertoire.

I think we are in for a great year of tennis.

The book is William Tilden III. The model is Richard Gonzales with the Don Budge backhand. Harry Hopman is the coach. Roger Federer is the Living Proof. The teaching paradigm of the fictitious character...don_budge.

Chapter VII from Match Play and the Spin of the Ball...The Value of Intensive Practice

One becomes very weary of copy book epigrams in the days of one's youth because they drive down one's throat many true but uninteresting (at the moment) facts. We have all written many hundred copies of the good old standby, "Practice makes perfect." One does not need to become actually antique to discover that nothing, not even practice, makes anything, or anyone, perfect.

Yet hidden in the dear old fossil of a copybook bromide is a bit of sound tennis advice. Practice may not make perfect, but believe me it has made many a good tennis player. I am a great believer in practice, but above all in intensive practice. My idea of intensive practice is to pick out one stroke and hammer away at that shot until it is completely mastered. This is the system I have used with marked success in working with my proteges.

My greatest success with the system was the development of my own backhand from a feeble defense chop to an offensive attacking drive, through the intensive practice of one winter and at the cost of many lickings. any player who seriously dislikes to accept defeat should never try intensive practice on one stroke.

It is no easy job to learn a new stroke in three or four months, particularly when it is a new trick for an old dog, yet it had to be done. My first step was to work out a sound grip, swing and footwork, not a very difficult thing to do in theory and once worked out to put it in practice.

[don_budge]

P. S. I do believe that the new equipment has enabled Federer to strengthen his backhand grip somewhat to attack the high balls more efficiently. I would dearly like to ask him that question in an interview.

[don_budge]

I have strong reasons to believe Kyrgios was legitimately ill. He sent out a sincere message on social media and he pulled out in a match where he would face Federer. Kyrgios even said he loves and prefers to play the big matches against the top players. This is a huge match and he would thrive on the attention. If this was a 1st round match against a lower ranked opponent I may be suspicious but this was the perfect environment for him to shine. Too bad for viewers and too bad for the fans at Indian Wells who bought tickets for the match.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

Nick Kyrgios conducted himself pretty darned well for the set that I watched him play Djokovic. If anything...it was Djokovic that was visibly disturbed for the first set. He didn't look none too happy in the post match interview either. Kyrgios is gone and I can well leave it at that for now. Hopefully he has some kind of epiphany regards his image and continues to mature. Roger Federer being the "gold standard" in terms of image as well. Murray, Djokovic and Nadal cannot hold a candle to Roger in this regard either.

But on we go...Roger Federer versus Jack Sock. Once again...fundamentals versus the unorthodox. Sock barely eeked by Dimitrov, the Federer clone, so now we will be able to evaluate against "The Real Thing". There are forum contributors here that are pretty darned high and Jack Sock. They smell a possible future Grand Slam winner perhaps. Well we'll see about that very soon here. Roger needs to be serving well to pick apart the weaknesses in the Jack Sock "Sock it to 'em" brand of tennis. We'll just see about that...won't we?

[don_budge]

So Fed confirms that the new racket has a lot more power and that he has had to learn to hit his backhand with it. I think that he has shortened his stroke to compensate and also has more square inches. This basically reduces his shanks by making the stroke more compact and increasing the sweet spot.

http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2017/...n-wells/64840/

Will the large head size save the one handed backhand?...Arturo

Fascinating interview with Roger Federer that gives us a further glimpse into the head of "The Swiss Maestro". He talks a bit of his match with Nadal. He spoke of the courts, he said that he didn't think that it would be possible to play the kind of tennis that he did in Australia as the courts in Indian Wells were more jumpy...or rather more rough so it is harder to put the ball away. But he said that in his match against Steve Johnson he felt that if you served well and stayed on the attack aggressive tennis was possible. He mentioned that it was also easier to dig your way out on defense as the ball does not skid as much. It was important to get in a position of "control" and to "maintain pressure on his opponent". He states that he was having his way with Nadal on his service game and it wasn't possible for Nadal to make inroads on his serve. Another question has him explaining how he kept the points short and how important that is in terms of the tournament...and the season.

Discussing how it feels to have beaten Nadal three times in a row...Basel in 2015, Australian Open 2017 and here and now in Indian Wells.

When asked about his "improved" backhand he immediately starts to talk about the bigger racquet and how it helps him to "come over" the return and staying aggressive throughout the point. He points out that the racquet has more power and he has to manage that. Beyond that he mentions that he has been able to put in a lot of work with the racquet and how it enables him to take the ball early. He talks about the footwork and how important it is when taking the ball on the rise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HgrooI9ocE

So based on the comments from the man himself we are informed that it is a combination of things that he is adjusting to...preparing for. With regards to the racquet and the backhand. Of course the racquet enables him to do something that he was unable to do with his old equipment. It enables him to play aggressively off of the backhand side. This is of paramount importance. But equally important is that the racquet enables him to be that much better on his forehand which is perhaps less noticeable...because his forehand has always had the reputation for being particularly lethal. But if you watch him closely now...when he get the ball on his forehand he really assumes control. Noticeable improvement in down the line and particularly noticeable in the reverse cross-court (inside out to most) exchange. To me the reverse cross-court is every bit as important of an improvement as the backhand and let's just suffice it to say that the combination effect is what we are seeing. He has been pretty nearly invincible when he is feeling it. Like he said in the interview when warming up with Nadal he felt quite comfortable. Notable though...in his post match interview he said that he thought something was "wrong" with Nadal and that he wasn't 100 percent.

The One-Handed Backhand...

Four out of the eight remaining quarterfinalists use the one handed backhand. Pablo Cuevas, Stan Wawrinka, Dominic Thiem and you know who...The Living Proof. Roger Federer.

As far as oversized racquets "saving" the one hand backhand...what are we to make of this question? Actually at this point the one hand backhand still lives...four of the eight quarterfinalists at Indian Wells use the one hand backhand. A bit surprising perhaps considering that the bounce is a bit "rough" in the words of Federer. In other words the ball is getting up higher. But the stroke is still in play. Perhaps more important than the size of the racquet is the composition of the surface of the court now. If they start to speed up than this encourages more all court play and as a consequence one hand backhand play is perhaps more conducive to all court tennis than is the two hand backhand.

There needs to be more discussion regards to racquet size and court composition. The game has gotten to a point where the engineering is the determining factor and has gone beyond mere evolution. You can throw balls and strings into the discussion as well.

[klacr]

Kyrgios withdraws....what a pain. I was looking forward to that showdown. Tennis is all about showdowns. All the rest is just dull....foreplay as another forum member often puts it. I hope Kyrgios's withdrawal is genuine and not one of his stupid, attention-seeking stunts.

I have strong reasons to believe Kyrgios was legitimately ill. He sent out a sincere message on social media and he pulled out in a match where he would face Federer. Kyrgios even said he loves and prefers to play the big matches against the top players. This is a huge match and he would thrive on the attention. If this was a 1st round match against a lower ranked opponent I may be suspicious but this was the perfect environment for him to shine. Too bad for viewers and too bad for the fans at Indian Wells who bought tickets for the match.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[stotty]

Kyrgios withdraws....what a pain. I was looking forward to that showdown. Tennis is all about showdowns. All the rest is just dull....foreplay as another forum member often puts it. I hope Kyrgios's withdrawal is genuine and not one of his stupid, attention-seeking stunts.