Best 4th round match: Roger Federer vs Jo-Wilfred Tsonga

 4th round matches completed today and from now on every match both for men and women’s side will be very very exciting.

I wanna start with Federer (6) vs Tsonga (8) match. These two rivals had many matches together before. Almost every tournament drawing is just like same. Tsonga and Federer had a special match before the tournament and tennis legend Rod Laver attended that special organization for RF foundation. I watched these two players playing with each other many times. My favourite player is always RF. This is a reality but it doesn’t make me not to love the other players. I love many of them:)

Today, Federer took the match in 3 straight sets 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. For my point of view, if Roger Federer can not finish the matches in 3 sets against the players in top 10, it is very rare and hard for him to beat his opponents. He is not much as athletic as Andy, Novak or Rafa are. I can include Tsonga, Gasquet, Simon, Stan and Monfils in this category. So what he has to do is to finish his opponent’s hopes at the beginnimng of the match and stay on court as short as possible. Because when it gets longer not only his physical power lowers but also his mind confuses. Today while i was watching the match, i told to myself he has to finish it in 3 sets. He is stil better player than Tsonga . Federer is born for tennis, i really believe that. All his moves –i mean his shots in different angles, different positions always look so easy to do but in fact they are extremely hard for a player to do it properly.

Today Federer has a clear mind and he knew how to stop Tsonga. He was very good at his service game. In second set his points from the serve is %100, in the first set it was %79. One of the reasons that he beat Tsonga was his forehand side was much better than Tsonga. When he earned 13 points from forehand, Tsonga only had 3 in the 2.set.

A couple of days ago, i watched an interview with Federer. Everybodys asks the same questions. What Stefan Edberg can do his game in positive way? SE was very good at coming to net, today i see that RF is also doing so much service volley. He made a good serve and than come to net with volley. RF is so good to sense where his opponent will send the shots, he is so smart about the game, he can read the game and position himself very right places in the court. His reflexes are preety good, although he changed his racquet not so long ago, he seems to fit with it. He also declared that he is really feeling good about his shape , he feels fresh, he is motivated by having a champion coach. These are all good developments for  the next days. Today he played aggresively, he came to the net many times and he got most of the points by this. First two sets gone to Federer 6-3, 7-5.  In the third set Roger found an early break and literally Tsonga had a nervous break down. He got mad after losing another point in his service game but he used that anger in a positive way to motivate himself. In that point i thought that this can change the mood of the game. Anfter that RF had a though time to hold his own service game. I think if Tsonga could break his serve, there would be another result.

With this win, Federer will face with Andy Murray in Quarter Final. For this match, i think Andy will win it. Although today Andy put himself in a bad position. As he could not hold his serve, he lost the 3rd set while he was just about to win the match against unseeded S. Robert from France. His mood changed, he smashed his racquet and for a while i thought he was behaving just like old times that he did but anyway he could manage to focus on the game again and after spending unnecessary one more set he took the match. When i evaluate Roger and his game, he is not in the same place with Novak- Rafa-Andy stands. He is between with them and  David- Stan- Tsonga and others. I think he can beat the rest of the players but i am not sure if he can ever defeat Rafa or Novak again?  I’d love to see that but it doesn’t seem so possible for now.

For men’s side QF matches are : Federer – Murray, Ferrer- Berdych, Wawrinka- Djokovic and Nadal- Dimitrov. I think Djokovic- Berdych- Murray- Nadal will be the semifinalists, we will see soon.

For women’s side there is another huge surprise that Maria Sharapova lost against Cibulkova. In QF Radwanska- Azarenka match will be interesting. Radwanska is a great player and she has the power to beat Vika , i really wonder this match. If Ivanovic can contunie to play like she did to Serena Williams, she will be the champion this year but first she has to beat Canadian E. Bouchard. Pennetta- Li Na, Halep- Cibulkova are the other QF matches, i have two champion candidates now. I want to see Radwanska or Ivanovic as a champion this year.

*Photo taken from Australian Open facebook page.