terracotta warriors<\/a>. These are the professional tennis player warriors, not the terracotta army that was buried with the Emperor of Qin in 210-209 B.C. Clearly the Emperor planned to rule the hereafter much as he ruled in his earthly life and for that he needed his army.<\/p>\nAt the time this photo was taken, only Roger Federer<\/b>, Novak Djokovic<\/b> and Rafael Nadal<\/b> had qualified for the year end championships in Shanghai. Now that two rounds of play are complete, Djokovic is out of contention and Federer and Nadal both have 1-1 records. The headless warriors have taken over.<\/p>\n
Pat the Coach<\/b><\/p>\n
My co-writer Pat Davis laid out Andy Roddick<\/b>\u2019s strategy for his match with Fernando Gonzalez<\/b> today. Did Andy listen to her? Let\u2019s see.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what Pat told Andy to do.<\/p>\n
Gonzo is really feeling his oats since he beat Roger Federer in his first round robin match. Therefore, it\u2019s very important to climb on him early in the point.<\/i><\/p>\n
Andy not only climbed on Gonzo early in the point, he got out to an early lead. He broke Gonzo in his first service game and his second service game to go up 5-0 in the first set. Andy also went up a break early in the second set and that break was enough to win the set. He won the match, 6-1, 6-4.<\/p>\n
Gonzo had to play brilliantly to beat Federer. Put so much pressure on him that he\u2019ll have to play brilliantly to beat you too. Attack him and beat him to the net.<\/i><\/p>\n
Andy got his first break point at the net – on Gonzo\u2019s 1st service game no less.<\/p>\n
On the next point, Andy went up 2-0 with a running forehand passing shot as Gonzo slipped to the court. A few points later, Gonzo fell down. He\u2019d guessed one way and the ball went the other but instead of planting his foot and taking off in the opposite direction, he flailed his arms in a futile attempt to keep his balance. Clearly Gonzo was feeling the pressure.<\/p>\n
As Andy’s brother John Roddick said, \u201cI just like how he\u2019s being very aggressive but he\u2019s also up on the baseline so he\u2019s really pushing Fernando around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Give Gonzo a change of pace now and then.<\/i><\/p>\n
At 1-1 in the second set, Gonzo was running Andy around so Andy threw in a few backhand slices and followed them up with a beautiful running passing shot. An error by Gonzo on the next point and Andy had 3 break points. One more Gonzo error and Andy went up a break and that was all he needed to win the second set.<\/p>\n
And of course, serve your ass off!<\/i><\/p>\n
Andy hit an ace to go up 5-0 in first set, hit an ace and two winners while serving for the match, and did not face a break point.<\/p>\n
Andy\u2019s return of serve was an added bonus. Gonzo didn\u2019t win a point on his second serve till the sixth game of the match and that was the only point he won on his second serve in the first set. As Roddick said: \u201cI returned pretty well. I only remember missing a couple of returns all night, even off first serves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pat, if Jimmy Connors gets tired of traipsing around the world trying to convince Andy to stay up on the baseline, I\u2019ll send this column in as your application for Connors\u2019 job. You have my full support for the position.<\/p>\n
Federer Muddles Through<\/b><\/p>\n
Andy plays Federer on Friday in his last round robin match. I\u2019d be shocked if Federer didn\u2019t beat Andy and here\u2019s why: it\u2019s a dead rubber. The match doesn\u2019t mean anything to Andy because he\u2019s already qualified for the semifinals.<\/p>\n
Unless you\u2019re a highly unusual individual, the fact that you\u2019ve already qualified has to seep into your brain. Let\u2019s say you\u2019re facing three break points on your serve. You can\u2019t help but say to yourself: \u201cWell, at least I\u2019m into the semifinals. If I lose this point, no biggie, I\u2019ll still play another day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Federer, on the other hand, has to win more sets than Gonzo to advance and he\u2019s currently only one set ahead of him. That makes for a huge difference in motivation.<\/p>\n
Federer beat Nikolay Davydenko<\/b> today by the score of 6-4, 6-3, but the score is a bit misleading. Federer had 38 unforced errors in the match. What is happening to him? Is he falling apart or is everyone else catching up? What do you think?<\/p>\n
Not only that but Federer has been losing his cool. After he lost the second set tiebreaker to Gonzo yesterday, he chewed out the chair umpire. I\u2019m not exactly sure what happened but Federer could have been annoyed that the chair umpire didn\u2019t see him motion for a challenge.<\/p>\n
Whatever it was, Federer accused the chair umpire of making him \u201clook like an idiot.\u201d The umpire\u2019s response was unsatisfactory because Federer followed that up with: \u201cdon\u2019t give me that shit.\u201d Hmmm, can we say misplaced anger?<\/p>\n
Davydenko is not a particularly challenging opponent this week. The ATP recently interviewed his brother and his wife as part of the investigation into a possible fixed match between Davydenko and Martin Vassallo-Arguello<\/b> in August.<\/p>\n
The investigation has uncovered a group of nine Russian gamblers who placed $1.6 million in bets on the August match. The ATP investigators have also requested phone records from all phones that Davydenko uses to see if they can connect him to any of those gamblers.<\/p>\n
Davydenko\u2019s lawyer says the poor guy \u201cis showing the classic signs of depression,\u201d and who can blame him. I\u2019d be depressed too.<\/p>\n
In light of that and Federer\u2019s loss to Gonzo, I would say that even if Federer gets to the semifinals, David Ferrer<\/b> has a very good chance of beating him should they meet. Wouldn\u2019t that be something?<\/p>\n\n
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