Roger Federer struck early and struck often to win an unprecedented 20th Grand Slam tournament title at Melbourne Park on Sunday night. Federer defeated Marin Cilic 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in a captivating final that was completely dominated by short rallies. The serve and return took centre stage over bruising baseline exchanges to deliver the Swiss maestro his sixth Australian Open crown. The line in the sand in the final was clearly the fourth shot landing in the court. Two shots for the server, two for the returner, and then daylight. Rally Length • 0-4 Shots = 76% (212) • 5-8 Shots = 19% (52) • 9+ Shots = 5% (16) More than three out of every four points...
His backhand kept him in the match, but it was his forehand that wrapped both hands around the trophy. Grigor Dimitrov defeated David Goffin 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 to win the Nitto ATP Finals at The O2 on Sunday, with his forehand hugely responsible for the only break of serve in the third and deciding set. With Goffin serving at 2-3 in the third, Dimitrov hit 12 rally backhands in the game, committing two errors. Importantly, no Dimitrov rally backhand extracted an error from Goffin on the other side of the court. His forehand, on the other hand, did all the heavy lifting. Dimitrov hit 11 rally forehands in the game, five of which forced an error from the Belgian -...
An unexpected loss is easier to understand once you connect the statistical dots. David Goffin stunned Roger Federer 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 to move through to the final of the Nitto ATP Finals at The O2 after starting slow, but running all over the six-time champion at the finish line. The opening set was all Federer, and then the pendulum swung towards the Belgian as he broke for a 2-0 lead in the second set, and then again for a 2-1 lead at the beginning of the third. Set one looked nothing like sets two and three as Federer went from dictating points with authority to spraying loose balls with dismay. In the first set, Federer laid down the law. He...
Off pace worked off the charts for David Goffin at The O2 on Friday afternoon. Goffin defeated Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-1 at the Nitto ATP Finals to advance to the semi-final stage of the season finale against Roger Federer on Saturday. Read & Watch Match Report It actually started badly for Goffin, who found himself struggling at 0-3, 0/15 in the early stages of the match. The Belgian then went on a tear, winning 15 straight points to shock Thiem and light up the packed house in London. How did Goffin do it? By delivering a steady of diet of exactly what Thiem didn’t like to devour - slower balls that completely disrupted Thiem’s rhythm and timing. Quite simply, Thiem...
Your number one job in a match is not to play great. It’s to make the opponent play bad. Jack Sock defeated Alexander Zverev 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 on Thursday evening at the Nitto ATP Finals by doing exactly that. Sock didn’t play amazing tennis, but that’s not really the point. Sock didn’t beat himself, which has much more to do with why he has successfully navigated his way through to the semi-finals this weekend. At 4-4 in the third set, Zverev was surging hard after winning 11 of the previous 15 points to erase a 1-4 deficit. Sock had won 17 of the first 22 points of the third set, so nobody really knew how this was going to finish....
