Hell freezes over

[niremetal]

Before the tournament, I said Tsonga was my dark horse pick at Wimbledon. Never have I been so sad to be right:

http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scores/stats/day17/1503ms.html

[lethalweapon3]

That should clear a path for No-Djok. We'll see if he takes advantage of it.

~lw3

[DrReality]

Has to be one of the biggest choke jobs in history. Will be intering to see if he can shake it off.

[niremetal]

Has to be one of the biggest choke jobs in history. Will be intering to see if he can shake it off.

I actually watched a replay of the match last night. Federer didn't choke. Tsonga's serve was just absurd during the last three sets, and he made some incredible shots to secure the necessary service breaks against Federer in each set.

I've seen Federer choke before - last year's US Open semifinal against Djokovic immediately comes to mind. Matches where Federer was just spraying groundstrokes all over the place and missing 50+% of his first serves, or where (like against Del Potro in 2009) he refused to make obvious adjustments to his gameplan when things weren't working. This wasn't a match like that. This was more like, ironically, Tsonga's dismantling of Nadal at the '08 Australian Open. It wasn't that Federer played bad. It was that Tsonga played incredibly well. I honestly think that Murray, Djokovic, and Nadal would all have lost to Tsonga yesterday as well, and that Federer would have beaten Lopez, Tomic, or Fish.

That being said, the 2004-2007 model of Federer (you know, the one that won 11 of 16 majors) doesn't lose this match. The current, older model of Federer (29 is like 70 in tennis years), however, is just a bit too slow to deal with the ridiculous shots that Tsonga was making. I was spoiled by seeing Federer at his peak in action. It's hard to get used to the idea that he's just not as good as he was in his prime.

Edited June 30, 2011 by niremetal

[DJlaysitup]

I actually watched a replay of the match last night. Federer didn't choke. Tsonga's serve was just absurd during the last three sets, and he made some incredible shots to secure the necessary service breaks against Federer in each set....

....That being said, the 2004-2007 model of Federer (you know, the one that won 11 of 16 majors) doesn't lose this match. The current, older model of Federer (29 is like 70 in tennis years), however, is just a bit too slow to deal with the ridiculous shots that Tsonga was making. I was spoiled by seeing Federer at his peak in action. It's hard to get used to the idea that he's just not as good as he was in his prime.

Agree nir, 100%. I don't think Federer choked either. That said, the final should be an awesome shootout. I would still bet on Nadal.

[niremetal]

Agree nir, 100%. I don't think Federer choked either. That said, the final should be an awesome shootout. I would still bet on Nadal.

I bet on Nadal too. My boss said Djokovic. I'm not looking forward to the abuse I'll be experiencing at work tomorrow morning...

Djokobitch won Wimbledon. Ugh.

Edited July 5, 2011 by niremetal