Down 15-40 to Berdych...

[kaennorsing]

This was a brilliant sequence on the BBC, with commentary from Andrew Castle, Tim Henman and Boris Becker. During the match there was talk about Federer's serve being deceptively hard to read. Still though, there were still some patterns that Berdych could anticipate on and potentially benefit from. So as Berdych had the 2 breakpoints at 15-40...

Tim asks Boris; 'so Boris, which side is Federer going with this? Wide or down the middle?'.
Boris; '... Wide'.
Federer aces down the T.
The next point Tim asks Andrew; 'which side now, Andrew?'.
Andrew responded: 'down the middle'.
Federer aces out wide.
Then Boris wants to hear it from Tim: 'So Tim... which side is Federer serving this time?'
Tim: 'This is definitely going out wide'
Federer serves winner down the T.
Tim: 'That should tell you how much we know'.

[PeteWasLucky]

Fed will need to remember how he read Cilic serve in the last two sets last year.

[kaennorsing]

Op zaterdag 15 juli 2017 14:06:24 UTC+2 schreef PeteWasLucky:

> Fed will need to remember how he read Cilic serve in the last two sets last year.

What's impressive is how Federer seems to have improved almost all parts of his game in every match this tournament. At the start of the tournament he returned very poorly on the backhand (by 2017 standards), showed no signs of possessing a good slice or passing shot nor a good inside out forehand. Slowly but surely all parts of his game have come into play though in both the quarter and the semi. Where he can still improve (or eliminate altogether) is in both the frequency and length of the dips in intensity/form... If he does that for the final, Cilic is toast.

[undecided]

Cilic has no chance. Too one dimensional for current-form Fed. Cilic needs Fed to come in with some ailment to even have a chance.