Roger Federer retires

The other two remaining active members on this forum either follow or have followed tennis, so this thread will at least get some activity.

It's semi finals time at the French Open. The men's comp features the top 4 seeds;
Federer (3) v Nadal (2)
Djokovic (1) v Thiem (4)

But the women's side is extremely open, and features:
Barty (8) v Anisimova
Konta (26) v Vondrousova

You'd back Nadal to win his 12th title here, but it will be interesting how he goes if he plays Djokovic (has won the last 3 grand slams). At the Aus Open Nadal got destroyed by Djokovic in straight sets. And everyone seems to be writing off Federer, but he has only lost 1 set (as has Nadal). And Dominic Thiem has made the semis for the past 4 consecutive years.

The women's draw may be a battle of our respective countries. Barty is Australian, Anisimova American, and Konta British. Amazingly, Anisimova is 17 years old, Vondrousova 19, Barty was playing cricket 3 years ago, and Konta had never won a match at the French Open before this year.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Sep 16th 2022 »

I find it difficult to back against Nadal on clay, I live in Spain and have never seen a grass court here, they are all clay which means Nadal knows the surface better than anyone. As far as the women goes I have no idea, I can't even name five of the top 10 womens players at the moment because their rankings are always changing.


How is Sharapova getting on these days? Is she still as dominant as she was before the ban or are the younger generation of women's players catching her and Serena Williams up?

Sharapova was injured, and didn't play in the French Open, meaning her ranking dropped significantly (she made the QFs last year). She is no where near the player she used to be, and even with the top players being inconsistent, I can't see her, Serena, or Azarenka winning another Slam.

Speaking of Serena, she got thrashed in the 3rd round by an unseeded player 2-6 5-7. And before her press conference, she was getting impatient and wanted to do it "now", so the tournament organisers kicked Thiem out of his own press conference... It's all pretty funny really.

Nadal is unstoppable, and beat Federer 6-3 6-4 6-2 despite Roger playing well. And he has had an uninterrupted schedule, whereas the other side of the draw had to play 4 days in a row. Thiem did very well and beat Djokovic 6-2 3-6 7-5 5-7 7-5 after blowing 2 match points at 5-3 up, despite Novak's antics and constant whinging.

I have Nadal winning in straight sets, something like 6-4 6-2 6-3. Thiem will play well, but Nadal has only lost 2 sets at his last 2 French Opens. You ask though, who are the up-and-coming players. Thiem is definitely one you should pay attention to. He's been labelled the Prince of Clay, and his last French Opens have lead to the semis, semis, final, and final.




Barty and Vondrousova made the final in seesawing matches. But gee, Konta choked twice. In both sets she lead 5-3 and had set points, but lost in straight sets. Barty did well to recover in her semi. She lead 5-0 and had 2 set points, but lost that set and was 0-3 down in the second, but came back to win.

Ash Barty went on to win the final 6-1 6-3 in a pretty dominant display, making her the first Australian win at the French Open since Margaret Court. She's one of the more popular and likeable players in the WTA, is now ranked #2 in the world now Her story is worth a read.




EDIT - And Nadal beat Thiem 6-3 5-7 6-1 6-1 in 4 sets, which was surprising (I thought it would be 3).

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jun 9th 2019 »

At Wimbledon, Simona Halep destroyed Serena Williams 6-2 6-2 in 55 minutes in the final! She made 3 unforced errors the the entire match!

And for the men's...I still can't get over it. Novak won 7-6 1-6 7-6 4-6 13-12 against Roger in close to 5 hours. He survived a set point when 4-5 30-40 down in the 3rd set, then in the 5th set he broke for a 4-2 30-0 lead. Then Roger broke back, and broke for an 8-7 40-15 lead (2 championship points). Then Novak won 7 points in a row, and survived another break point at 11-11 30-40 down. He won all 3 tiebreaks.

And on the same night, in the same country, at the same time, New Zealand fell 1 run short in a super over to give England the win in the ODI world cup...

Wanted Rafa. Wanted Federer after Rafa lost to him. Don't mind that the Joker won, but I like him the least of the Big 3.

Glad Serena lost. Anyone but her is fine by me. ;)

This was Federer's last chance to win a grand slam. He's 38, and is on borrowed time. He played amazing on Sunday but even playing like that on his favourite surface wasn't enough to win.

Rafa will be fine. As long as he plays and isn't injured he will win the French Open every year, meaning in 2 years he will tie Federer at 20 slams. And that's if Rafa doesn't win either the AO, Wimbledon, or US in any of those years. Djokovic will also beat Federer's record easily, and probably Rafa's when Rafa eventually retires.

Serena is also never going to win a grand slam again. I don't particularly like her, but I'd like her to win 2 more at some stage to pass Margaret Court's record, but that is looking extremely unlikely now. That was the worst performance I've ever seen from her. She isn't feared anymore. She has lost 5 of her last 7 grand slam finals, losing in straight sets in 4 of those.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jul 15th 2019 »

I agree. Joker will finish with the most, unless he gets in his own head again. If he does, Rafa will finish with the most. No way both of them don't at least tie Federer.

The only chance is for some younger players to finally contend for grand slams. Thiem is the 2nd best clay court player, but put him anywhere else and he flops. Zverev is the most overrated player on tour, and Tsitsipas needs to tone down his cockiness.

The damning stat is that these are the last 5 times where a non-big 3 player made a GS final:
2019 French Open (Thiem lost)
2018 US Open (Del Potro lost)
2018 Wimbledon (Anderson lost)
2018 French Open (Thiem lost)
2018 Aus Open (Cilic lost)
So it seems players are actually making the GS finals, but when they come up against a big-3 player they have next to no hope. And of those 4 above that qualified, Cilic is in a form slump, Anderson lost in an early round, Del Potro is out with another serious injury, and Thiem isn't good enough away from clay.

I see injury being the only thing that stops Novak from winning all slams excluding the French for the next 2 years.

I have a feeling the Joker will dominate like Federer did once Federer does hang it up.

I have a feeling that the race for the most GS titles turned on its head thanks to a 8-7 40-15 collapse. Instead of leading it 21-18-15, Federer is only leading 20-18-16.

Had Novak not made the comeback, I think 7 more GS titles may've been a step too far, but now it's just 5.

That said, winning a GS title is extremely difficult. Who knows, a player may have a breakout year soon and win one and knock out some of the big 3 too.

The question remains if nadal can win again outside of the French. Even if he doesn?t, he?ll still pass Federer, I think.

Yep. I see him winning 3 more GSs. The 2020 and 2021 French Opens, and a US Open at some stage. That's assuming he retires at the end of 2021. He may go on longer.

Rafa's big threat is Dominic Thiem. He beat Novak in 5 sets at this year's French, and was competitive in a 4-set loss to Rafa in the final. His last 4 years there have been semis, semis, final, and final. Last year he also lost to Rafa in a 5th set tiebreak at the US Open (including winning the first set 6-0).

The question also is, can Roger win outside of Wimbledon? Personally I think he can't, but his form in the semi final and the final was incredible. If he can take that to some other slams, he'll still be in contention.

Thiem is on the rise, but I don't think he'll beat any of the big three in a final moving forward. If Rafa can stay healthy, he could win the next 3-5 Frenches alone. If he could steal a US, Australian, or Wimbleton here and there, he'll definitely finish with the most. If not, it's looking like the Joker's to lose at this point.

Watching Rafa play against Kyrgios & Federer, it's clear that grass is Rafa's weakness. I can't see him winning at Wimbledon. As for the Aus Open, Novak loves it here (has won 7) for some reason. The way he dismantled Rafa in the final this year was stunning. He won the US Open in 2017 so I feel that he can only win the French and US.

I agree with your Thiem comment when it comes to GS finals, but he's also a threat in earlier rounds. He tends to be boom or bust (QF loss to Rafa at the US Open 2018, R2 loss to a wildcard at the Aus Open, Final loss at the French, R1 loss at Wimbledon), but when he has a good tournament he is very good. He's also beaten Novak in their last 2 GS meetings. He can beat the big 3 in earlier rounds and open up the draw.

One thing I'll say with Novak, is that I'm not convinced his form is worthy of winning all these GSs that he recently has. There have been moments in all his recent GS appearances where he's looked really ordinary, but has got out of trouble a hell of a lot. Mentally he can blow up for no apparent reason and lose the 2nd or 3rd set in matches. And to be fair, Roger should've found a way to hold serve at 8-7 40-15, and the media would've caned Novak for choking a 4-2 final set lead. He's unbelievably good when facing break points, but if he wasn't he would've lost the 2018 Wimbldeon semis to Rafa and this year's final to Roger.

Obviously, Hardcourt and Grass are Rafa's weaknesses. He can win them, but they simply aren't an almost guarantee like clay is for him. It's to be expected for a player that grew up on clay and not the others, like Federer and Novak.

Thinking realistically I feel it will end Novak, Rafa, Roger, but there's a part of me that wonders whether Roger will hang onto the record. Rafa only needs 3 French Opens, but Serena has only needed 2 GS titles to pass Margaret Court for years now. Rafa has a habit of getting injured on hard courts and especially at the Aus Open. If he misses a French through injury he's in trouble.

Roger's only hope is for Del Potro to get over his injury, and Thiem and Zverev to show more consistency. The only was I see him holding on is if the GSs become more competitive.

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I played tennis for the first time yesterday (excluding at high school cause no-one took it seriously) and it's fair to say I won't be winning any GSs anytime soon :( I'll be having quite a few bagels for lunch too...

What happened to Nadal's bad knees? There was a lot of speculation about five years ago that Rafa would be forced into retirement because of bad knees. From what I see of him now on TV his knees look fine?

Just as well Novak, Roger and Rafa had each other to play during their careers otherwise each one of them would have totally dominated the sport of mens tennis.

It will definitely end Novak, Rafa and then Roger. Unless, of course, injury gets in either Novak's or Rafa's way.

Dennis, Rafa still has those bad knees. but he manages them well. Several players go their entire careers with a particular injury that can occur at any time. That's why Rafa doesn't like hard courts and the fact that the hard court season goes for a very long time, because it means he's more likely to hurt his knees.

A lot of people say that Roger is the GOAT, and I do like him, but realistically Rafa is by far the more accomplished player. He's had an extreme amount of injuries, whereas Roger's only significant injury was the knee injury he had for 6 months after the 2016 Wimbledon (and the injury didn't even happen on-court). If Rafa had the same amount of injuries as Roger, he would have more than 20 slams right now.

Does anyone think Andy Murray or Stan Wawrinka can get back to their best? Murray is still slightly injured and won't play singles this year, but Wawrinka doesn't look like a top 5 player anymore. In theory, when fit, there are several players than can stay competitive against the big 3:

Murray (2 GS titles)
Wawrinka (3 GS titles)
Cilic (1 GS title & 2 losses)
Anderson (2 GS losses)
Del Potro (1 GS title & 1 loss)
Nishikori (1 GS loss)
Thiem (2 GS losses)

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jul 30th 2019 »

Murray is done.