Why was (is) Federer such a bad matchup for Roddick?
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For the most part he was.
But oomph, look at it this way.
During Wimbledon 09, for the first time in his career, Roddick's backhand down the line clicked. 80% of the times on hardcourt and other surfaces, he would hit the net, and would never get those easy put aways. But during Wimbledon, when he fixed that, it did some severe damage to Federer on the rallies. Not to mention, Roddick out rallied Federer in that Wimbledon 09 when he fixed his backhand consistency as well.
The major problem outside of that though, was Roddick's inability to return Federer's serve. For this reason, given that Roddick is among the worst returners, he never had hope to begin with against Federer.
But oomph, look at it this way.
During Wimbledon 09, for the first time in his career, Roddick's backhand down the line clicked. 80% of the times on hardcourt and other surfaces, he would hit the net, and would never get those easy put aways. But during Wimbledon, when he fixed that, it did some severe damage to Federer on the rallies. Not to mention, Roddick out rallied Federer in that Wimbledon 09 when he fixed his backhand consistency as well.
The major problem outside of that though, was Roddick's inability to return Federer's serve. For this reason, given that Roddick is among the worst returners, he never had hope to begin with against Federer.
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Yes normally Federers serve was (is) more effective vs Roddick than Roddicks serve is against Federer. That kinda trumphed his biggest weapon. Add to that he had better movement and was superior in pretty much every aspect of the game. He could take the ball early and put Roddick under pressure right away or just wait him out or do whatever he liked.
I think Roddick has always been better when he could play on his own terms and he used to have a pretty big forehand actually. Federer never really let him play the matchup on his own terms though and no matter what Roddick tried he had a better answer.
I think Roddick has always been better when he could play on his own terms and he used to have a pretty big forehand actually. Federer never really let him play the matchup on his own terms though and no matter what Roddick tried he had a better answer.
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Because Fedclown is superior to Duck in every respect - even serve in that particular match up:
Serve - Federer wins here because Duck sucks at returning and Fed returns Duck's serve unusually well, mainly because it's all pace and shit disguise.
Forehand - LOL
Backhand - both are backhand clowns, but the geezer has more variety+better slice
movement/defense - obvious
mental - Olderer by virtue of winning so matches, so he doesn't expect to lose to Rodmug at any time
Serve - Federer wins here because Duck sucks at returning and Fed returns Duck's serve unusually well, mainly because it's all pace and shit disguise.
Forehand - LOL
Backhand - both are backhand clowns, but the geezer has more variety+better slice
movement/defense - obvious
mental - Olderer by virtue of winning so matches, so he doesn't expect to lose to Rodmug at any time
What did I say? HE'S SIMPLY BETTER doesn't cut it as there are worse players than Roddick that didn't get Roflstomped every opportunity
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Mainly because Federer was by far the best at blocking back big serves in their primes. Roddick likes to use his big serve to stay ahead and be able to put enough balls in play on his opponent's serve to get wins. Against Federer, he can't do either. Federer takes the initiative early and wins most of the rallies and Roddick doesn't have nearly as many easy serve games as he likes to feel comfortable in this match up. And defeat and defeat starts to wear on you after a while, even for a fighter like Roddick.
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/thread
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That's because although they're worse players than Roddick, they usually have better groundstrokes. Roddick beats them because his serve dominates their serve.
If you're going to beat Federer, you have to do it with groundstrokes.
If you're going to beat Federer, you have to do it with groundstrokes.
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Well, Federer can block back huge serves. People with decent ground strokes can take advantage of blocked returns, but Roddick has pretty shitty ground strokes. Without his serve, for most of Roddick's peak he would have be a been a top 15-30 player, not top 10 or top 5 or higher. Fed effectively neutralizes the good part of his game, and each rally would start either on Federer's serve or a neutralizing return.
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Federer has a harder time returning Nadal's serve in contrast to Roddick, for the obvious reasons..........Roddick's placement is in almost the same exact spots each and every time with the occasional body serve......at least with Nadal he'll go for the line, the middle, or out wide. As simple as that.
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Olderer has huge problems with low pace serve with extreme spin to backhand.
Duck's serve hardly carry any spin and are all pace and predictable at that. Thus, he finds all his serves blocked back at him and the rally starts at neutral on almost every point. Federer vs Roddick in a rally, we all know who will win those. :wavey:
The only anomaly was Wimbledon, where Olderer was outplayed in rallies, but literally served Duck off court. Hit something like 50 aces, ridiculous stuff.
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Wait, what? Did I really read this right? From the matches I have seen Nadal serves to the Federer BH at least about 90% of the time... I am not sure about this mix up you speak of from Nadal.
And its not just Federer, Nadal serves around 80% of his serves to any players BH side... its actually quite funny to see him do that constantly to the Djoko BH and get burned... and when he tries serving to the FH side he either DFs or throws on in the middle of the box...
I am sorry but as much as I think Roddick SUCKS... Roddick still has better placement on his serves than Nadal...
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In addition to the blocked returns it seems that Federer was one of the first to be able to reliably read Roddick's serve.
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Nadal serves far, far more predictably than Roddick against Federer. Federer's troubles with Nadal's serve are mainly because Federer is/was a stubborn idiot who refused to step over to cover his backhand even though 95% of Nadal's serves to him come to that side.
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Some Roddick highlights from back in the day when Roddick still had a ground game and serve. Many have forgotten but he could actually play this game well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9qTIcn4PeE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9qTIcn4PeE
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same reason agassi owned becker
he read the serve very well
wimby 09 was a case of olderer playing shit and still managing to out get out mugged by duck
he read the serve very well
wimby 09 was a case of olderer playing shit and still managing to out get out mugged by duck
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Actually now that I think about it, yes Roger is a bad match-up for most of the players except Nadal and Murray. This is mainly attributed to Rogers variety, especially when his sliced use to have some bite. Additionally Roger always plays a fast game and he was very good at taking the ball almost on the rise, robbing opponents of time.
This is the main reason.
If Fed is pushing Nole to two 5 set matches in GSs at age 30, he's a bad matchup for anyone (sans Nadal). I suspect that part of it is that Roddick barely inched him out for the #1 ranking in 2003 - that would have been - what? - 6 years ranked #1. Fed's got a long memory against the Hewitts, Nalbandians, Roddicks.
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