
As Federer rolled through, over, and around both sides of David Goffin in the first set of their Nitto ATP World Tour semi-final today, and the commentators were (not unreasonably) gushing about how out-of-this-world Federer’s play was, and how Goffin had no strategic or tactical riposte in the face of the Swiss onslaught, it occurred to me to tweet:
Admiration & amazement over how Federer’s playing belies how difficult it is for a peer to toy with another pro of similar level, to hit shots otherwise deemed ridiculously low %. Yes, it’s Fed vs Goffin, 6-0 h2h, both top 10 yet not the same league, but still. #hardertodothanitlooks
Clearly I should have posted that one, because it turned out that Goffin won, 2/6 6/3 6/4, proving that, yeah, it is difficult to clean another pro’s clock straight through the match, all the way to the W. Certainly Federer has done it (see: Basel 2017, just weeks ago), but that says more about Federer’s flights into the nether regions of tennis possibilities than it does about how the game really plays out 99% of the time.
Federer came down off his cloud, Goffin raised his game and, more to his credit, refused to lay down and accept an inevitability that was not, really, inevitable.
(see Adam Adicott’s match report here)