1) Rest is best for Roger They don’t call Roger Federer the ‘Swiss Maestro’ for nothing. The 36 year old has played a masterful schedule in 2017, helping him rise back to the No. 2 spot in the Emirates ATP Rankings with an outside chance at challenging Rafael Nadal for the year-end top spot. While many may point out his on-court play, some of that success boils down to something simpler: rest. After losing in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals, Federer took the rest of the year off to return to health, and that he did this season. The Swiss won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and this week captured his tour-leading third ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophy in Shanghai. The...
10 THINGS TO WATCH IN MOSCOW 1. 250 Finales: The last of 40 ATP World Tour 250 events take place this week in Moscow, Antwerp and Stockholm. Seven Russians are in the VTB Kremlin Cup field, including Next Gen ATP Finals contenders Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev. A Russian man hasn’t won Moscow since 2009. 2. Birthday Boy: Rublev, who turns 20 on Friday, is playing in his hometown for the fifth straight year (0-2 main draw, 0-2 qualifying). He teamed with Dmitry Tursunov for the 2015 Moscow doubles title. The No. 5 seed was outside the Top 100 as recently as 25 June. After winning his first singles title at Umag and reaching his first Grand Slam quarter-final at...
When it comes to playing Rafael Nadal, things haven’t always been easy for Roger Federer. Although their 38th meeting ended in a 6-4, 6-3 win, his fifth in a row against his Spanish southpaw rival, Federer still trails Nadal 15 to 23 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head. The Nadal playbook has always been simple, but historically effective against Federer: use heavy topspin forehands to pound away at the weaker Federer one-handed backhand and attack the open court at the first opportunity. But in 2017, the Swiss has managed to flip the script. “I think I'm maybe serving consistently better. I get easier power ever since I switched to the bigger racquet, the RF97. I feel I'm connecting better on the...
Rafael Nadal lost an opportunity to earn his first Shanghai Rolex Masters title on Sunday against Roger Federer and a chance to extend his 16-match winning streak. But after capturing titles at the US Open and last week's China Open, the Spaniard was not devastated. “I played a fantastic tournament, having very good wins. Very pleased the way I played the whole Asian tour for me, whole China tour. Beijing, Shanghai have been a very positive two weeks for me,” Nadal said. “A lot of points, a lot of victories against great opponents. I come back with very good personal satisfaction the way that I played.” Nadal earned his 11th and 12th victories of the season against the Top 10...
Watch highlights from the singles final at the Shanghai Rolex Masters, as Roger Federer took down Rafael Nadal in straight-sets to take home the title. Watch live tennis at tennistv.com. Photo Courtesy of Getty Images.