Wimbledon 2014 Mens Finals - Where it end all - Roger Federer vs Novak Djokovic

Awesome match and a fitting climax for a tournament full of upsets, its Wimbledon Final come Sunday and it will be contested by 7 time Champion Roger Federer and the No.1 Seed Novak Djokovic.


Federer

Key Strengths - Experience , Grass court movements, Serve and finally anticipation.

A-Game - Serve, volley, aggression, grass court movements, big forehands [all], backhand slices, topspins and flatout shots DTL and experience in handling points and holding nerves.

Weakness - Lack of Stamina to play a longer 5 set game [compared to his prime], Mid match focus lapse, Loops balls on backhands, slow 2nd servers [off late a big problem].

Crowd Support - Big time on, will be undoubtedly the crowd favorite , 80-20 should be expected.

Historical Achievement - First ever Men's Champion of all time [Yes all time] to win 8 Wimbledon titles. 18 Grand Slams.


Djokovic

Key Strengths - Return, movement, stamina, Backhand [all], Big points play.

A-Game - Backhand [all], Forehand [all], Super Serbian Serves, Rebound Aces [Returns], Pace Variance [Slow and Fast Mix], passing shots, lobs, slices, top spins, volleys, drop shots.

Weakness - Grass court movements, lack of confidence, mid match focus lapse pressure to perform and Lack of Crowd Support

Crowd Support - Generally loves to play against the crowd, it won't be different tomorrow, 20% plus support should be expected.

Historical Achievement - Multiple Wimbledon Winner, World No. Status

H2H

In General - Federer 16-14
@Wimbledon - Federer 1-0
@GS Finals - Federer 1-0
@GS - Federer 6-5
@All Finals Djoko 5-4

Wimbledon 2014 Stats

Djoko vs Fed

Aces - 73 vs 69
DF - 9 vs 5
1st Serve in 68 vs 66
Server Broken 8 vs 1
Service Held - 93% vs 98%
Forehand Winners 53 vs 56
Backhand Winner 55 vs 31
Time on Court 15:09 vs 10:16

Prediction: Djoko is more or less determined and I guess destined to win his 2nd Wimbledon given his age , stamina and experienced coach Becker.

Federer confirms Monte Carlo 2014, enters as Wild Card

Not sure whats the reason behind Federer sudden acceptance as wild card in Monte Carlo, a tournament he traditionally skipped after being a losing finalist on 3 attempts to GOD of clay on his prime years.

Like I suspected that Nadal is not in the right frame of mind and looks mentally tired to defend all his clay points once again, Roger's team might have sensed it too and trying to make

There is also a word of mouth that Mirka is expecting another kid around July and hence he might skip some tournament like Rogers masters in Toronto [what a shame I get not to see him again ] so decided to play more right now.

Another common sentiment among RF fans is that he is in a good nick and wants to capitalize on it so that he is a top 4 for FO and Wimbledon.

Whatever be the reason, RF in Monte Carlo is an awesome news, and I want him to be drawn on Rafa's half to see the most famous greatest yet one sided rivalry.

Last but not least I am predicting him to win the tournament

ATP Players April Fool Tweets

Andy Murray fooled his Twitter followers once again, as he got in the spirit of April Fools’ Day.

“2 bits of good news today..” he tweeted. “@CromlixHotel opening today.. thanks to everyone who has been involved in the process.. hope it's a great day.

“And 2 avoid confusion like last time i will be announcing my new coach tomorrow #pumped”.

With the first item being true - the Cromlix Luxury Hotel opened its doors Tuesday in Scotland - many media outlets took the second tweet at face value, not taking into account that Murray pulled the same prank three years ago.

“Ross Hutchins will be my new coach alongside Dani starting in Barcelona,” he tweeted in 2011, before his management confirmed it to be a joke.

Murray also caused confusion this past January during a fan Q&A on Twitter when he wrote that he would be marrying long-time girlfriend Kim Sears following Wimbledon. Murray and Sears’ dog, Maggie May, wrote in response, “FYI, NOBODY IS GETTING MARRIED. His tweets need a sarcasm disclaimer.”

Croatian Ivo Karlovic posted his own April Fools’ Day tweet, announcing that he would be bringing Murray’s old coach onto his team. “My new coach is Ivan Lendl!” he posted. “Ivan told me he dont do it for the money, he just wants to see some winners finally.”

Tomas Berdych also took part in the fun, tweeting, “Due to czech political crisis I decided to run for president #election #campaign #support”.

From N0.10 to No.1 in a months time - Djokovic at Race to London 2014

I have always loved the concept "Race to London", for the first time I see too much anomaly at the start of the year, yes its just 2 month but lot of interesting things already, who expected Wawrinka to top the Race by the end of 2nd month and who expected Djoko to lie on 10th place. Even if Djoko wins the upcoming masters IW he might still find himself at 5th place in the race. Is the consistency of other players slowly catching up with him?

Great to see Grigor Dimitrov and Cilic in the list.

Had Federer won the last set tie breaker against Djoko he would have been the No.1 in race to London and Djoko would have been in No.6.

Updated List after Miami Masters [Federer and Djoko are the prime gainers]
------------------------------
Rank Name (Nation) Points Week Change Tournaments PLayed
1 Djokovic, Novak (SRB) 2,690 3 5
2 Nadal, Rafael (ESP) 2,595 1 6
3 Wawrinka, Stanislas (SUI) 2,470 -2 5
4 Federer, Roger (SUI) 2,190 -2 6
5 Berdych, Tomas (CZE) 2,045 0 7
6 Dolgopolov, Alexandr (UKR) 1,130 3 10
7 Ferrer, David (ESP) 1,080 0 8
8 Nishikori, Kei (JPN) 1,025 7 7
9 Dimitrov, Grigor (BUL) 1,015 -1 6
10 Cilic, Marin (CRO) 1,010 -4 8
11 Murray, Andy (GBR) 1,000 0 7
12 Fognini, Fabio (ITA) 930 -2 8
13 Anderson, Kevin (RSA) 855 -1 6
14 Gulbis, Ernests (LAT) 800 -1 7
14 Isner, John (USA) 800 0 7
16 Tsonga, Jo-Wilfried (FRA) 605 1 7
17 Gasquet, Richard (FRA) 570 1 8

Back to Back Masters win has propelled Djoko from No.10 in the race to No.1 in the race, for the first time in this year the race and the ranking has coincided with the Top 5 with Dolgopolov breaking the ice with No.6 spot in the Race ahead of Ferrer.

Miami Masters 2014 Draw and Difficulty rating of Big 4 and Wawrinka

Nole Likely route  [Difficulty Rating = 10]
-----------------

2nd]Jeremy Chardy /Monaco [+2]
3rd]Florian Mayer /Dodig  [+1]
4rth]Gulbis/Robredo       [+2]
QF]Murray/Tsonga          [+3]
SF]Federer/Ferrer         [+2]
F]Nadal/Del Potro/Wawrinka/Berdych

Federer likely route [Difficulty Rating = 10]
---------------------

2nd]Karlovic              [+2]
3rd]Verdasco              [+2]
4rth]Anderson/Gasquet     [+2]
QF]Dimitrov/Ferrer        [+1]
SF]Murray/Djokovic        [+3]
F]Nadal/Del Potro/Wawrinka/Berdych

Nadal's Likely route [Difficulty Rating = 6]
--------------------

2nd]Robin Haase           [+1]
3rd]Istomin               [+1]
4rth]Janowicz             [+2]
QF]Raonic/Monfils/Del Potro [+1]
SF]Wawrinka/Berdych/Cilic   [+1]
F]Federer/Nole/Murray  

Murray's Likely Route [Difficulty Rating = 12]
-----------------------
2nd]Ebden                  [+1]
3rd]Lopez                  [+2]
4rth]Tsonga                [+3]
QF]Djokovic                [+3]
SF]Federer/Ferrer          [+3]
F]Nadal/Del Potro/Wawrinka/Berdych

Wawrinka's likely route [Difficulty Rating = 16]
-----------------------
2nd]Gimeno Traver          [+1]
3rd]Cilic                  [+4]
4rth]Dolgopolov/Haas       [+3]
QF]Isner/Berdych           [+3]
SF]Nadal/Del Potro         [+4]
F]Federer/Djokovic/Murray

Nadal has the easiest route of all finally, Nole and Fed seems to have a moderate difficult route while Murray got a horror route to the finals among the big 4, outside the Big 4 the next major name is Wawrinka and he got a very horror of a draw.   

Note : 

.The Difficult rating is adjusted based on the player's rank, form, injury and the round at which they are facing.
.For instance Wawrinka facing Cilic in round 3 will get a difficult rating of +4 given how dangerous floater Cilic [form included], comparitvely Cilic will get a difficult rating of just +3 in facing Wawrink in round 3 [coz Cilic is lower ranked player and he deserves to face some top dogs at the round, facing Fed there would give him +4, Nole/Nadal would give the rating +5].

2 months on the year and Djoko finds himself on the 10th place in the Race

I have always loved the concept "Race to London", for the first time I see too much anomaly at the start of the year, yes its just 2 month but lot of interesting things already, who expected Wawrinka to top the Race by the end of 2nd month and who expected Djoko to lie on 10th place. Even if Djoko wins the upcoming masters IW he might still find himself at 5th place in the race. Is the consistency of other players slowly catching up with him?

Great to see Grigor Dimitrov and Cilic in the list.

1 Wawrinka, Stan (SUI) 2,290 0 3
2 Nadal, Rafael (ESP) 1,950 0 4
3 Berdych, Tomas (CZE) 1,675 0 5
4 Federer, Roger (SUI) 1,410 0 4
5 Ferrer, David (ESP) 990 1 6
6 Dimitrov, Grigor (BUL) 925 8 4
7 Cilic, Marin (CRO) 910 -3 6
8 Fognini, Fabio (ITA) 750 -1 6
9 Murray, Andy (GBR) 730 0 5
10 Djokovic, N (SRB) 690 1 3

Other Notable names

11 Anderson, Kevin (RSA) 630 10 4
13 Gulbis, Ernests (LAT) 610 -3 5
14 Dolgopolov, Alexandr (UKR) 590 2 8
15 Tsonga, Jo-Wilfried (FRA) 505 0 5
19 Del Potro, Juan Martin (ARG) 385 -2 4
25 Delbonis, Federico (ARG) 325 112 6 [Rising Fast this year, somebody to keep eye on]
97 Goffin, David (BEL) 125 69 5
98 Rosol, Lukas (CZE) 120 171 7