A pair of Swiss and a pair of Rogers will be in finals action on Sunday. In Brisbane, fellow veterans Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt will battle for the title. Meanwhile, Stanislas Wawrinka and Edouard Roger-Vasselin are vying for the winner’s trophy in Chennai.
Brisbane International: (1) Roger Federer vs. Lleyton Hewitt
Hewitt and Federer will be squaring off for the 27th time in their careers when they collide in the Brisbane final on Sunday afternoon. Federer leads the head-to-head series 18-8, including 3-1 in finals. They have not faced each other since a 2011 Davis Cup playoff on grass in Australia, where Federer prevailed 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-3. Hewitt’s last win over the 17-time Grand Slam champion came on the grass courts of Halle in 2010, when the Australian took the title via a 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 decision.
Picking up where he left off at the end of a much-improved fall swing in 2013, Federer has been in fine form this week. In addition to a semifinal finish in doubles, the Swiss booked his spot in the singles final with wins over Jarkko Nieminen, Marinko Matosevic, and Jeremy Chardy–the latter in three sets. Hewitt advanced with scalps of Thanasi Kokkinakis, Feliciano Lopez, Marius Copil, and Kei Nishikori. The world No. 60 is looking for his third title at this event, which would come a whopping 16 years after his first triumph. Hewitt–as always–will make his opponent work hard for it, but Federer is looking too good this week to pick against the top seed.
Pick: Federer in 3
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Aircel Chennai Open: (1) Stanislas Wawrinka vs. (7) Edouard Roger-Vasselin
There’s a reason why Wawrinka loves kicking off his seasons in Chennai. This is his third trip to the singles final following appearances in 2010 (lost to Marin Cilic) and 2011 (beat Xavier Malisse). He also captured last year’s doubles crown with Benoit Paire. Wawrinka is back in the championship after getting past Benjamin Becker, Aljaz Bedene, and Vasek Pospisil (via retirement at 5-5 in the second) without dropping a single set.
Up next for the No. 1 seed is Roger-Vasselin, against whom Wawrinka is 1-1 lifetime at the ATP level. They just faced each other a few months ago on the indoor hard courts of Basel, where Roger-Vasselin disappointed the home crowd with a 6-4, 6-3 upset. Wawrinka beat the Frenchman 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the second round of this same Chennai event in 2012. Roger-Vasselin has earned wins this week over Albert Ramos, Jiri Vesely, Dudi Sela, and Marcel Granollers–surrendering sets to Sela and Granollers in the process. Wawrinka is well-rested and has to feel right at home in Chennai, so he should get the job done behind his superior firepower and experience in ATP finals.
Pick: Wawrinka in 2
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Wow. 16 years between appearances in the Final…that’s fantastic durability on Rusty’s part, and Fed isn’t far behind him. Two great warriors, but I like Fed in straight.
breadstick
Nice win by Hewitt. 6/1 4/6 6/3. After what I watched in the semis, I thought this might happen. Great that he was able to do it in front of a home crowd.
amazing warrior this Hewitt
Federer’s break-point conversion rate evoked memories of Nadal vs. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez
Were the cameras ever able to show an actual foot fault? I think Hewitt was called 3 times for that. The stream I was watching kept pixelating, so I missed some things.
i don’t know but Hewitt wasn’t happy about it
No foot was in the air.. It was okay to be called once but 3 times was stupid. All those were winning points. The commentators and replay clearly said it was more a guess work about foot fault than actual foot fault.
Sanju: That’s what I thought. They showed a couple of slo-mo’s of Hewitt’s feet and he clearly did not touch.
Matt Cronin ‏@TennisReporters 21m
Even if Federer comes back & wins, his backhands been weak much of match. In that form, he’d be lucky to get 3 games a set vs Rafa at AO
Lol
Feds post match presentation speech was cute and nice. He does not seem much affected by the loss which actually is not a good thing, some of his FHs were way off the mark. As Ricky said in his tweet , they landed in New South Wales and Fiji 🙂
major bromance at the net, too
Nice speeches by both guys.
class acts.
who would have thought 12 years ago that in 2014 we would be seeing these guys in an ATP final and referring to them as classy.
Perfectly agree. Both speak very eloquently.
Why do I feel this will be Feds last year on tour? Imagine going all around the world with 3 kids and 1 infant at that? Fed being a family man I doubt will opt to travel to most tournaments without family accompanying him.
Huge result for Hewitt – his last title went back to Halle 2010, 3 1/2 years ago! Congrats.
Very classy trophy ceremony.
This remains to be verified against ATP official figures on Monday, but I think that Nadal as champion in Doha and Federer as runner-up in Brisbane this weekend will result in the top 4 players for career performance on hardcourts (active ATP players, career W-L on hardcourts) now being as follows: 1. Djokovic 2. Federer 3. Nadal 4. Murray
in terms of winning percentage?
Yes.
For Nadal, Djokovic and Murray, all 3 have have played in the vicinity of 400 matches on hadcourts, career to date. So, rankings in terms of career winning percentage (% career wins/matches played) most relevant. Federer is moving towards 600 matches played on hardcourts, career to date.
At the end of 2013, in terms of career winning % on harcourts (active ATP players), I think Federer and Djokovic were tied in 1st place at approximately 82.5%, with Murray 3rd at just below 80%, followed very closely by Nadal. Then, around 8 to 9% lower, del Potro at #5, followed by #6 Raonic.
Those are the only 6 ATP active players with an over 70% winning percentage on hardcourts, career to date. We’ll see Monday what the new rankings are in 2014.
^^^So much for the Rafa is just a clay-courter moniker…………
RT @SharkoTennis: “Active @ATPWorldTour title leaders: @rogerfederer 77, @RafaelNadal 61, @DjokerNole 41, #LleytonHewitt 29, @andy_murray 28.
Fed reminds me of Angelina Jolie. What with having twins and travelling with kids everywhere. Hope he doesn’t inspire an octa-Dad somewhere.
So far, there is no Edberg effect on Fed’s game so Edberg has work to do,but as Rafa says, you cannot change your style after all these years. I’m sure he can tweak things here and there abut to become an S&V player all of a sudden at the age of 32 is a lot to ask.
Edberg will join only start of AO..Wasn’t with him in Brisbane
vamosrafa..I saw from mid 2nd onwards..Rusty was solid..Fed had like 10 BP chances and converted just 1..His FH let him down majorly today..was wayward. Hewitt served very well too.
but they’ve already been working together. Just cause Edberg wasn’t in Brisbane does not mean Federer would not be trying to implement what they have been working on.
I’d actually voted hewitt in 3…not so surprised… Will catch the highlights soon ! Just read that federer played a poor match and hewitt was very solid….anyway,if federer at 32 is looking for inspiration,he just had to look at his opponent today. Another 32 year old ,who has undergone five different surgeries ,beat him today. Lleyton hewitt is one of the best competitors ever..nothing,not even five surgeries has shaken his will power!
#Respect
#Australia’sBest
They are showing Brisbane on a one day tape delay, same for Chennai. They didn’t start televising until the quarterfinals. So I will see the Brisbane final this afternoon. I was happy to see Hewitt get the win. I heard that Fed didn’t play well. It didn’t surprise me.
I don’t think Edberg is going to have any real answers. Fed can’t become a serve and volleyer at this stage of his career. Fed’s problem is that he is 32 years old and there is no way to fix that. Every great champion has to get old.
It’s really nice to see Hewitt get this win. But I don’t think that Fed wants to look to him for inspiration, because Hewitt has been willing to stay in the game even as his ranking dropped quite a bit. He can’t go deep in slams anymore and hasn’t won titles on a regular basis. I can’t seen Fed being willing to let his ranking tumble and just hang in the game.