Men’s tennis may be predictable these days, but it’s not that predictable. Andy Roddick beat Roger Federer last night, handing Federer his first loss in a best-of-three since August, sending home the hottest player in the game. (It’s also Fed’s first lost to anyone outside of the top 20 in almost two years. The last one was his 2010 loss to Lleyton Hewitt in Halle.) Federer’s exit makes life easier for Novak Djokovic, who would’ve faced Fed in the semis, and does an even bigger favor for Mardy Fish, who would’ve played Roger in the quarters.
11 of the top 16 seeds are still alive, but things have definitely gotten more interesting.
Player QF SF F W (1)Novak Djokovic 80.5% 56.5% 45.4% 30.0% (17)Richard Gasquet 19.5% 7.2% 3.6% 1.2% (11)Juan Martin Del Potro 62.6% 25.2% 17.1% 8.7% (5)David Ferrer 37.4% 11.1% 6.2% 2.4% (31)Andy Roddick 55.6% 25.6% 6.8% 2.2% (21)Juan Monaco 44.4% 18.0% 4.0% 1.1% (12)Nicolas Almagro 41.0% 21.0% 5.4% 1.6% (8)Mardy Fish 59.0% 35.5% 11.5% 4.5% Player QF SF F W Grigor Dimitrov 35.3% 7.7% 1.8% 0.4% (9)Janko Tipsarevic 64.7% 21.5% 7.4% 2.5% (13)Gilles Simon 27.0% 14.9% 5.2% 1.7% (4)Andy Murray 73.0% 55.9% 32.5% 17.9% (6)Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 65.4% 29.2% 14.9% 6.7% (19)Florian Mayer 34.6% 10.5% 3.8% 1.2% (16)Kei Nishikori 31.4% 14.9% 6.5% 2.5% (2)Rafael Nadal 68.6% 45.4% 27.9% 15.5%
“It’s also Fed’s first lost to anyone outside of the top 20 in almost two years. The last one was his 2010 loss to Lleyton Hewitt in Halle”.
To paraphrase what Roger said in his press conference, he didn’t so much think of it as losing to the #31 seed as to a former world #1. The same applies to his loss to Hewitt. Those guys may have aged, accumulated injuries, lost their old desire, etc. – but, at a given moment, it can sometimes all come together again. Then watch out!
Absolutely. It’s on my list of things to research — whether ‘peak ranking’ has predictive value. It may just be that as top players age and decline, they get less consistent — #31 means they can occasionally beat #1 but sometimes lose to #150.
And it’s reasonable to suppose that playing the very best opposition is the trigger needed to take them back to their glory days.