Boris Becker has his say on SABR

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'It's almost disrespecting the other guy's serve. Everybody talks about that's his new strategy - he comes in. It's within the rules,' Becker told Sky. 'If he would have played a [John] McEnroe, [Jimmy] Connors, [Ivan] Lendl or even me, we would have said 'Roger, in all honesty I like you very much [but] I'll go straight at you. In my generation guys would not have accepted as it is now.'

Needless to say the Daily Mail headline builds this up as Boris saying that Federer is direspectful and that they would not have accepted it in his day....

All he's saying is that anyone who sees Fed do it should smack the ball at him - which is fair enough, although whether that would work is another story.

Is this just Boris being Boris, now he's a bit long in the tooth his indiscretions are are more verbal than of the broom cupboard type, or is he trying to fire a shot across the Federer bows on behalf of his charge?

Win or lose, hard to see Fed getting back to #1. Even if Fed were to win today, Nole would still have more points from the Wimbledon through the USO stretch. And whereas for Nole that kind of haul is more-or-less repeatable in other parts of the season, it is definitely not for Roger.

Is it disrespectful to attack Federers backhand? It's effectively saying the same thing. It's going a bit crazy saying a guy who's hitting a shot that is high risk and takes a lot of skill isn't acceptable

Well comparing this to nadals topspin forehand is littered with danger given whats been said about both

It sees that this tactic is so good for Roger because for some reason he seems to hit better returns with it than his conventional return. Not sure this would do as well for a different returner

Well to summarise, the Sabre hes using in this final doesnt have the huge stride in. It does have merit but I think only for him.

Its odd that he gets better length off that return than any conventional one, liek say a run around fh that he just doesnt like doing.


Something I didnt notice before, Roger seems to get a kick out of doing it, gives him a sort of shot of adrenaline. That might be a big reason it works, it elevates HIS play just as much as any off putting nature.

For that, I dont think this is gonna be the new switch hit, this works because of the oddities of Roger and what he gets from it.
I dont think this has much merit to other players, who probably get better length off normal aggresive returns.

Well, it worked better than I thought against Djokovic, he even tried one from the other side.

I made it won 4 lost 5 but I think it probably bought at least one extra double fault as well.

Sadly he didnt actually use it on ANY of his second serve bp's... If he wasnt gonna hit a hard return he should have tried it there at least once

Calder106 wrote:

laverfan wrote:

temporary21 wrote:From what I saw. It worked once. Wawrinka then had 0-40. Fed won that maych based on the rest of his good play. He'll need better tomorroe

Yes, Federer will need much more tomorrow, and he has clearly indicated it in his post-match on-court interview. It promises to be a good match. It is history in the making, I hope it is a good contest.

BTW, Federer is the oldest #2, and can be the oldest #1, if he wins tomorrow - https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/sport/tennis/federer-poised-to-become-world-s-oldest-number-one-6119613.

We can leave the GOAT part to the sticky.

Think you are wrong there.

Yep, did not cross check on the ATP site for ranking numbers.