Federer got pissed that Del Potro took more than the alotted 2 seconds to challenge a point. Like most players, he looked at the mark and got confirmation from the chair as well as his coach before officially challenging. Then Federer got pissed, the chair told him to stop talking, Fed said he didn't give a s-word, said he can talk if he wants to, etc. It got caught on the microphone during the change over.
Funny thing is, during the 5th set, Federer took his time on challenging a point. The commentators were like "wtf you just complained about it" and Del Potro argued with the chair, too.
Federer beat himself with an awful, awful serving performance. Del Potro looks excellent, don't get me wrong, but even an above average outing from Federer would have won this match. Eh, hopefully he bounces back at the Australian in the new season. I'm a HUGE Federer fan, this one hurt more than the Texans' loss. tough weekend.
I didn't watch it or check the stats but that sounds an awful lot like the Australian Open final against Nadal.
OK, just checked the serve stats. That is horrendous. 50% 1st serve percentage and 11 double faults. He also had 62 unforced errors, 2 more than Del Potro, and a negative winners to unforced errors differential.
That 50% is an increase over what he was doing for most of the match. I can remember twice as many balls hitting the net than I can getting in play on Federer's first serve and that's just not going to get it done in a major final. He's just usually so automatic on his service games which makes this mind-boggling. I have nothing against Del Potro, but Federer wins that match 99 times out of 100. Just too bad really.
I can't deny that Fed's serving was terrible, but the errors off his ground strokes weren't all unforced. The power Del Potro was hitting with along with the depth pressured Fed like no one else had in the tournament. I think Del Potro deserves a lot of credit for taking the match to Fed, it was an impressive forehand display by Del Potro. Also, Fed has won other matches while not playing his best, yesterday he was unable to b/c of the quality of play by his opponent. Next time Del Potro ends up in a final, he will also play better, he wasn't serving nearly as well as he had throughout the tournament either.
Tennis is peaking. The men's tour has Fed who still dominates but you have people who can beat him now. Nadal, Murray, Djokovic, and add Del Potro. Del Potro has been close before but nerves always got in the way. Looks like he's over that now. Murray has been a big disappointment in the slams though. He plays the smaller tourneys really well but comes into the grand slams with high expectations and doesn't deliver. With the return of Clijsters women's tennis just got way more competitive. Finally a quality player. Oudin is a solid player as well. Hopefully she can improve her serve.
Maybe in competitiveness(Though it has been at this level in the past). Tennis could really use a great American player again. Terrible time for US Men.
