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TENNIS ARTICLES Tennis Articles Australian Open - Roger Federer Prevailed! | Australian Open - Roger Federer Prevailed! |
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| Mar 05, 2010 at 09:33 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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As expected there was no surprise... Roger Federer dutifully and masterfully won the Australian Open.: Sure as we all know Roger is the most talented player on the tour and once again proved it! To keep in line with what I always do, I am not going to bore you with the 'how wonderful Federer is' and 'how easy he plays' or yet 'what a fantastic player Roger is'! No! I will not do that. Instead I will teach you how Andy Murray should have played to beat Federer. From your side keep in mind that Federer and Murray are just symbols, what matters is that you see yourself in their places and learn. The first part of the lesson is about, how do you handle pressure? The best way is to eat 'humble pie' plenty of it! Arrogance leads no where but self defeat. If you have someone on the sidelines watching you or coaching you, respect them all the time! Do not deride them, insult them or make them be an escape goat for your short comings! Expect and demand the same kind of respect from them. Get in charge of the match and take full responsibility for everything be it a winner or a missed shot, a win or a loss. Respect your opponent. You do not need to hate him/her like many people wrongfully try to teach. Hating your opponent will only make you a bad person inside and it will tighten you up, stop you from thinking clearly and to do the most important thing, which is to figure out how to beat your opponent and execute well. Learn to flow with the match and its natural ups and downs, focus on the point you are playing, the present and the very immediate future, which could be for example: I am going to take the return early and go deep with it to the corner and follow it to the net. Or...I will get the first serve into the body and serve and volley. And so on. But remember these are not words that you are saying to yourself, it all happens like a dream state, you feel what you have to do, you see it in your mind and you execute. Whenever you feel tight or nervous, just take a few deep breaths, activate your feet, shake your arms and legs and take a little more time to either serve or take the return position. Follow this simple advise and you will master pressure just fine...and oh... you are not alone in the tennis court your opponent is just going through the same trial and tribulations as you. So if you control yourself you have won half the battle! Andy Murray still has to work on himself, once he gets it right he could be awesome! Next, depending on your level, whatever a big title is, a local club tournament, the qualifier for the sectionals, the Nationals, a professional tournament a Grand Slam, you have to understand the following thing: That moment will never repeat itself ever again! Which means once you there, do everything you can to focus on the moment only and take the cup home. In Andy Murray's case it was the Australian open and now I am going to tell you how he would have beaten Federer. When you enter a tennis court in a moment like that there is plenty of adrenaline running through your veins but, there is also plenty of nervousness that will block you! Against what some experts say on TV I advise you to early on in the match preferably in the first points of the match, to let go of a few HUGE ROARS....COMEON! pump your fists at points you just won and if your opponent is looking at you stare at him/her right in the eye! This has a triple effect, first it frees you from the shackles of nervousness, second it gets the crowd riled, excited and perhaps on your side and sends a clear message to your opponent, I am here, ready to do battle and if you want that trophy over there, you will have to more than just beat me! Andy only did that late in the third set. Far to late! Whatever the result continue to use the comeon! or COMEON! mentally or verbally. It is like a pat on the back, you are alone out there with your mind. Control your mind by giving it reasons to be proud and happy with yourself and your performance, no matter how bad it may look. Believe, believe, believe, until the match ball has bounced twice, preferably inside your opponents court side. At times Andy did not look like a believer to me. Murray was too worried to show that he had some nagging pain in his back and leg, but COMEON! isn't it winning about overcoming pain and win?! So if you have pain and it is not threatening to your well being or a serious injury, don't show it to anyone, bite your teeth and fight even harder it might even go away! If you want to win BIG you have to play Big and take risks! What is the point of making all of that effort to get to the final and come out second because you did not take risks?! Andy played most of the match in his comfort zone, but he had to do the following: We all know Roger Federer has an awesome first serve. But we also know that Andy has one of the finest returns in the game. How can Andy or you neutralize a big server? - Take him on! - Get on the baseline or inside of the baseline and take all of his first serves with short back swings or no back swings and guide or bunt them to the corners! Does this sound crazy or suicidal? Far from it! Look at the other alternatives, back up 6 to 12 feet and lose point after point on angled serves or with returns that can not hurt an opponent such has Federer and many others. What are the messages to Federer? First - You are going to have to do better than that to beat me! Second - You no longer have the angle serve on either side, now I am controlling where you will serve! Third - If you miss your first serve, I am going to step into the court even further and blast your second serve to the corners! Believe me you can take away the first serve from any opponent this way! Some opponents will even change their serves or start serving slower and there you have your opportunity! And so would Andy have had his! Keep in mind I am talking about BIG moments and taking risks to get the prize! Once the issue of the first serve is settled, you start working on the second serve. Yes! You are right! Get another 2 or 3 feet inside the baseline and take on those second serves from there! Yes! Take them early go up the lines, cross court deep to the center of the court (to the feet)and follow those babies like a homing laser to the net! Or vary by smacking those returns the same way, wait for the weak shot (oh yeha! Many times it will be weak!) and pound the next ball for a winner to the open court! Or...use the drop shot or whatever variation you may! Andy Murray did this brilliantly with Nadal's and Cilic's second serves, against Federer he never dared. Too bad, he will never know the throve of goodies he missed!
As you can see in the statistic above the return of service is crucial, had Andy Murray applied a smidgen of what I said above, he would have been hands down ahead of Federer. To win Big! On your serve you need to get a high percentage of first serves in! Andy Murray first serve percentage was around 57 percent versus 66 percent from Federer.
If the first serve is not working well, do not be stubborn and keep on nailing it a zillion miles an hour, take off a little and use various spins to keep your opponent guessing and of rhythm on the return. As you use spin, speed and placement variation you keep your opponent from finding a comfortable strike zone, which if well done will rake havoc with your opponents return. Andy Murray gave far too many second serves to Federer and his second serve needs plenty of work to say the least. Serve and volley as a surprise, as a system, as a way out of trouble, for whatever reason make serve and volley part of your wining BIG equation. Andy Murray did it beautifully against Rafael Nadal and Marin Cilic in very tight situations and succeeded, I do not have a singe of a doubt, he would have been successful against Roger Federer as well! Unfortunately for Andy in the final of the Australian Open he did not serve and volley. Remember I am talking here about giving it all when you put yourself into the position to take the trophy! That malarkey of Federer telling Murray that he is young played great and 'don't worry you will win a grand slam', while he Roger Federer is holding the winners trophy, sounds to me as just play rubbish! Who knows what will happen tomorrow? Once an opportunity is gone it is gone and you may never have another go at a grand slam ever! So you want to win right now, not next time! So play BIG take risks! When you have your opponent on the run and stretched out of the court, go in and punch the volleys away! I mean systematically! Once you get a ball anywhere short and in the middle of the court, be bald, aggressive, courageous, take it early, go mostly down the line with it and follow its trajectory all the way to the net to either put it away with a volley or be passed. Whatever happens, do it over and over until you break your opponents passing shot down! The statistic below shows who was in charge of the net! Federer. Federer went to the net 20 more times than Murray and won 17 more points there than Andy! Now reverse this statistic only and who would you think would have won the match? Murray!
Andy has a lot to learn on that department, to my count he had six crucial floating ball opportunities, two of them that cost him the third set. Murray also had a myriad of short balls throughout the match, in some cases 8 or 12 feet inside the court where to my disbelieve he went back to the baseline instead of attacking! To win the Big Cup you have to merit it, Andy Murray just did not do enough to deserve it!
It was a great Australian Open! Roger Federer was the winner!
Sergio Cruz
World No.1 Rafael Nadal has confirmed his place at the pinnacle of men's tennis following a classic five-set victory over world No. 2 Roger Federer in the Australian Open 2009 final. It was a battle worthy of a major final, and the world's top two players put on a memorable performance before Nadal triumphed 7-5 3-6 7-6(3) 3-6 6-2. It is the third time in the last four Grand Slam events that Nadal and Federer have played the championship match, and again it was Nadal who emerged superior, winning his first Australian Open title.
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