DC 2014 Final - 21-23 Nov 2014

First topic message reminder :

SUI and FRA contest the final in a few days.

http://www.daviscup.com/en/draws-results/tie/details.aspx?tieId=100021090

SUI has two players coming out of WTF, while FRA has depth in numbers.

SUI may never be at this point in the near future and can make the best of the presented opportunity. Federer and Wawrinka would like to add this to their CV, if they can. They will rue the opportunity that Lady Luck has thrown their way.

FRA is the last hurdle, and have some good players, a home court advantage and a surface that may favor them more the the SUI. H2Hs may be meaningless in such a contest given that any of the players on one side can beat players on the other side of the net.

ARG v ESP turned out to be an excellent DC final, with DelPotro, Monaco, Nalbandian trying their best to get the better of the other side.

Will this final live up to its billing?

Swiss take ittttt

Well done, amazing play from Fed.

Jahu wrote:Someone pinch me or kiss me

I must be dreaming, go swiss gooo

He has done it!!

What a man. What a career!

Dominant display from Federer, Gasquet really not good enough and I think Simon would have done a better job

Will this spark more retirement talk / threads?

laverfan wrote:

Jahu wrote:Someone pinch me or kiss me

I must be dreaming, go swiss gooo

It Must Be Love wrote:Dominant display from Federer, Gasquet really not good enough and I think Simon would have done a better job

But wasn't eligable to play.

Take a bow, Fedrinka.

bogbrush wrote:Will this spark more retirement talk / threads?

It shouldn't. The man still has game and he must feel there is another Slam in the locker.

Should Mirka be saying 'cry baby, cry' to Roger

Fed to be a feature in DC and Atp 500/250 for another 5 years

Congrats Switzerland,

Well deserved.

Kiss for Luthi too, well done for his nerves and dedication.

Stan gets a hug, for being a top man.

I will ignore the wifes

What a year for Stan though.

First Slam, first Masters title and first Davis Cup.

I remember laughing at the idea of a Swiss tennis player in the days of Heinz Gunthardt. Who'd have thought they'd have two players good enough to win this?

Looking back, did they ever need a contribution from another player in this tournament?

A commentator said: "3 match points for the greatest of all times"! Yes, he did it   

Federer downplaying the importance of the title to his career. It's for the boys he says.

Completely buys into the team ethic. Good to hear.

Fed in patriotic mood, saying this is not for him but for the team, country, chocolate and watch makers too, oh and Moët.

legendkillarV2 wrote:What a year for Stan though.

First Slam, first Masters title and first Davis Cup.

True say.. Stan has had a head spinningly good year. Even if he does nothing else in his career he'll be remembered for his achievements this year.

Yeah, plus Olympic medal aswell with Fed, ain't a bad thing.

Matts makes a good point about Stan. This could give him the confidence to have another big season next year. He's really found the groove again.

Wilander bigging up the DC when Fed's already said its a footnote.

Yeah, it's good and all that but come on, Slams and weeks at #1 are the currency of the greats in this sport.

emancipator wrote:Matts makes a good point about Stan. This could give him the confidence to have another big season next year. He's really found the groove again.

It massively helped Djokovic when he won it in 2010.

It Must Be Love wrote:

emancipator wrote:Matts makes a good point about Stan. This could give him the confidence to have another big season next year. He's really found the groove again.

It massively helped Djokovic when he won it in 2010.

Absolutely...and Stan is looking in beast mode again.

As for France?

All that time they had and the home crowd. Completely wasted. Just shambolic.

Look at what Luhti achieved in a weeks preparation. A lot for other DC captains to learn from.

It certainly was France's best opportunity.

Medal ceremony, such bull$h1t. A load of fat guys in suits, some with obligatory open neck shirts, some not. Fat cats.

Tsonga getting booed

Federer not even touching the trophy! Come on man you have earnt that right at least.

Fed just playing the It's for you guys.

He is shocked and happy.

Been a good tennis year this.

What a great performance from Federer, words like "vintage" "prime" and "2006" were going through my head during the match. The last couple of singles matches he played (v Monfils, Warwinka), he wasn't really going for the winners, as if he knew his timing wasn't spot on and didn't trust himself to make them. But today, very different. Gasquet didn't help with too much height, not enough depth and the match up suits Federer I think.

Perhaps the French team had in mind, not that Federer leads the head to head on Gaquet 12-2, but that on clay it's 2-2. However, I don't really think Tsonga or Simon would have had much chance against this Federer. Kind of agree with the strange selection, at least Simon would dump more low, deep balls to frustrate, and Tsonga has more attack, but really wouldn't have made any difference. Maybe in the start of the 3rd set when Federer had a lull.

Despite what I said about him hitting too many short or high balls (and perhaps too many to the forehand) that was just a minor point, and I actually think Gasquet played really well today. Watching him is like watching some classical depiction of tennis. He could star in a coaching video on technique for youngsters. If he had a bit more mental strength and just one huge weapon (serve or forehand) he'd be an amazing player. One backhand winner down the line he hit was off the chart, real exhibition stuff.

But Federer, so much more cutting edge. I'd like to know when he last hit so many forehand winners. When one player can hit 34 winners, to 21 unforced errors, on clay, and lose in straight sets, that should give you an idea about the quality of the match. 62-24 are Fed's numbers. Wow. 29 forehand winners for Federer, 13 backhand winners.

58% of all points in the match ended in a winner. Would like to rewatch the highlights video of the match. Unfortunately it wasn't much of a contest, the writing was on the wall within the first set. But great entertainment and quality.

Those winner / ue stats are amazing. Great to see tennis played that way.

Highlights!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq0Ba8QVj7k

Not sure about the relative physical fitness of the French players but I just wonder - might Gasquet have been selected on the basis that he would have enough consistency to despatch a tired, ideally injured or off form Federer? If so it was obviously a failed gamble.

Congratulations, Switzerland! It's wonderful to see the smaller nations (Swiss, Serbs) being able to punch above their weight in the DC. As BB says, who would've ever imagined that the Swiss could win this competition back in the day?

Brilliant tactics from the Swiss matched only by the sheer ineptitude of the French. Clay was a bad choice, the doubles pairing was a bad choice, and whatever happened to Tsonga just topped it all off.

Stan set the tone on day 1, Fedrinka turned on the style in a huge way yesterday, and Federer flicked on the old beast mode switch today to finish it off. Awesome display.

Good for Fed re: for the boys, not for him. No doubt he believes it too, both he and Stan really seem to buy into the team ethic of the DC. They'll be back next year trying their best to win it, I reckon.

Haddie-nuff wrote:

Jahu wrote:Fed will give it all to win this.

Moët waiting in locker room.

When he knew he was playing Gasquet he had one before he went on court

Wow, superb set of highlights, great quality, all the best points of the match, and the key points, all the story of the match. Brilliantly edited. No time wasted. This person should be hired to produce highlights for the BBC or Sky or something. Commercial channels haven't learnt to do it properly yet.

Would be nice to see them depend their title but at this stage in his career and given what Federer said wouldn't be surprised to see Federer skip a tie or two, or even "retire" from Davis Cup. But let's see.

We all questioned the clay choice, but, looking back on it, I think they did it to make the transition difficult for the Swiss and it may have helped with the Monfils win anyway, I don't see what else they could have done to be honest. Maybe a slower clay in retrospect - to really grind out the tired players into long matches, and stop Federer hitting 62 winners in 2 hours...

By the way, I'm not sure if they mentioned it in the commentary you were watching, but, apparently, all 4 French players live in Switzerland.

Perhaps so, HB. It'll be interesting to see the team lineups next year, that's for sure. I do get the sense that maybe it might turn out to be either both of them (Stan, Fed) or neither, though. Before the tie I was thinking slow HC might've been best to expose the (relative) Federer vulnerability to players like Simon, but as it turned out you're probably right, particularly as Simon wasn't picked. Very difficult to pick a surface to beat two all-surface players!

Agree on the highlights. Cheers LS

Well that caps a terrific season for Fed and Stan. The French seemed all over the place, though, and was there ANYBODY who really thought Gasquet would be the person to beat Rog ?
Looks like the Australians are almost certain to witness Fed's 1,000th match win (on 996 at present) as he is playing Brisbane before the AO.
Glad the season ended with a resounding DC final win rather than Mirkagate and the O2 withdrawal.

Congrats to the old man and Stan. its possible the withdrawal last week was less to do with injury and more to do with the big picture.

You don't get to be 33 and playing with barely any wear and tear, relatively speaking, unless you plan your calendar and your withdrawal strategically.

coolpixel wrote: its possible the withdrawal last week was less to do with injury and more to do with the big picture.

You don't get to be 33 and playing with barely any wear and tear, relatively speaking, unless you plan your calendar and your withdrawal strategically.

Really ?

Don't agree either.

If Fed was fully fit why on earth would he pull out of just one match - one of the biggest finals of the year to boot? And then miss two days of practice followed by two days of barely no practice and then get trounced by Monfils in straight sets. I don't care how good Monfils was playing he's not beating a fully fit Federer in straight sets.

The likelihood is that the back was so bad that he literally could not take to the court. As the week wore on it gradually got better and loosened up. We've seen this with Fed's back before. Remember W 2003 and also 2012. Required trainer on court, could barely move, then was a bit better in the next match. By the following match he was back to his normal movement.

Brilliant performance from Federer today. Beautiful tennis.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - only Usain Bolt can equal him as the best sportsman I've seen in my lifetime.

Puling out of the WTF final will without doubt draw flak no matter what. If it was a tactical withdrawal, it paid off in the end, but would cop some criticism. Imagine if someone else had pulled out of the match?

Its a historic moment for Switzerland. If I may however, raise my glass to Stanislas Warinka. Always the man in shadow, hes won a slam this year, and took the disappointment of the O2, and the scandal and threw it out the window. He took the first point, and was brutal in the doubles. It his win as much as anybody elses.

Hes gone from "that other bloke who plays tennis in Switzerland" to arguably their marquee player, thats a heck of an achievement.

To Stan

Indeed, emanci, according to Christopher Clarey (16/9 NYTimes Sports), Federer was hurting such that he couldn't walk properly. Amazing even one of the commentators kept referring to "injury", as though to suggest he never believed Roger was ever injured. Not at all!

Wonderful match by Federer- pure majesty. Gasquet didnt go away either. He played a high quality match. Federer hit patches of a level that few players could ever dream of, and it was just too good.

Feds oncourt interview was one of the most humble and self effacing I've seen from a great champion after bringing home the championship.

Great team effort. It read like a sports fairytale. Turmoil and the star player hurt. His second steps up and holds down the fort. The star hurting combines with the second to gain the advantage. Then the legendary star clinches it with a master class. What a great moment!

The looks of pure joy that stan and fed gave each other when they embraced was wonderful to see.

Henman Bill wrote:By the way, I'm not sure if they mentioned it in the commentary you were watching, but, apparently, all 4 French players live in Switzerland.

Good knowledge, did some digging and found this: Link.