Federer Brushes Aside Agut to Make Coupe Rogers Semi Finals
A third Masters 1000 semi final of 2017 awaits the GOAT as he put in an aggressive performance to outclass Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 6-4 in 68 minutes at the Coupe Rogers in Montreal.
It was his seventh straight win over the road running Spaniard and a much-improved level from yesterday saw him hit 24 winners and win 20 of 26 points at the net to prevent Agut from finding the rhythm he requires from the baseline. The wins sees him set up a tie with surprise semi finalist Robin Haase, who’s making an appearance at this stage of a Masters 1000 for the first time.
Quick Match Recap
Federer won the toss and elected to receive. Agut then held to 30 for a 1-0 lead. Roger matched that to level at 1-1. Agut just dropped the one point in his next two service games but in game seven Roger started to make some inroads on the return and although the Spaniard held he couldn’t do so again at 4-4, double faulting on break point to give Roger a 5-4 lead which he consolidated to love to take the first set.
Into set 2 and with Agut looking to shrug off the disappointment of losing the first things got a whole lot worse for him as he was broken to 30. At 30-15 it looked like Roger might coast but he lost three points in a row to give the break back. A bit of a life line for Agut but he couldn’t get himself in front on the scoreboard, sending a lob long to fall 1-2 behind. This time the Swiss consolidated for 3-1 and the one break proved decisive as he sealed it 6-4 to move into the semi finals.
Match Stats
| Roberto Bautista-Agut | Roger Federer | |
| Aces | 2 | 5 |
| Double Faults | 3 | 2 |
| First Serve Percent | 64% (37/58) | 51% (26/51) |
| 1st Serve Points Won | 65% (24/37) | 81% (21/26) |
| 2nd Serve Points Won | 57% (12/21) | 72% (18/25) |
| Break Points Saved | 50% (3/6) | 67% (2/3) |
| Service Games Played | 10 | 10 |
| 1st Serve Return Points Won | 19% (5/26) | 35% (13/37) |
| 2nd Serve Return Points Won | 28% (7/25) | 43% (9/21) |
| Break Points Converted | 33% (1/3) | 50% (3/6) |
| Return Games Played | 10 | 10 |
| Winners | 8 | 24 |
| Unforced Errors | 15 | 25 |
| Net Points Won | 50% (2/4) | 77% (20/26) |
| Total Service Points Won | 62% (36/58) | 76% (39/51) |
| Total Return Points Won | 24% (12/51) | 38% (22/58) |
| Total Points Won | 44% (48/109) | 56% (61/109) |
| SABR | 0 | 0 |
Shot of the Match
Thoughts on the Match
It pays off playing aggressively here in Montreal, plus I feel comfortable at net, so why not spend some time there instead of slugging it out from the baseline. I think I did a good job again, even though it was tough to control the ball. I got some decent rhythm going. Yesterday, I struggled against [David] Ferrer early on, so today was better. I was more committed and a step further in, adjusting my position slightly realising the ball does fly a lot.
Good win here from Fed who played a much more attractive brand of tennis than we saw vs. Ferrer. Lots of net forays, heavy groundstrokes and he was able to suffocate Agut with constant pressure to come through unscathed. Nice use of the body serve to set up some half court balls as well and he was looking to get on offence at every opportunity. No rallying which Agut thrives from so just a solid game plan to get it done in what Roger has described as fast and tricky conditions.
As for Agut, he did pretty well in the opening games on serve, dropping just a handful of points but once it got to the business end Roger upped his aggression and asked Agut to come up with shots under pressure. The Spaniard is at his best when he’s hitting ball after ball from the baseline but when asked to come up with a pass or do something extra with the ball he was found wanting.
Predictions vs. Haase
Next up is the Flying Dutchman Robin Haase who defeated Diego Schwartzman in three sets. Haase took out Dimitrov in the earlier round too and he looks to be playing some decent stuff. I don’t see many of his matches but I do remember when he should have taken out Murray at the US Open when up two sets to love 🙂 so I know he’s a bit of a shotmaker but can blow very hot and cold. Based on that I don’t think he’s really got the mettle to trouble Federer. He’ll no doubt play some nice points but I think Roger comes through in 2 sets.
What did you guys think of today’s match? Let me know in the comments.
Go roger
Much better performance from Roger this time… making the finals seems like the minimum acceptable result for the GOAT. Hopefully winning the tournament gets hom closer to the No. spot, that would be amazing given the few tournaments he has played.
#GOAT
No 1 spot ?
First!
That’s a better match than yesterday’s horror:)
1st ?
Lol all three comments on same time? Damn…
Very compeitive this one
Lol back for the first time in a while and on top! ?
Bit of an odd draw left for Fed but the priority should be to make the matches short and sweet. He can lose in Montreal for all I care – US Open is the one we’ll been waiting for 10 years!
Yeah Haase surprise semi finalist for sure. Now Zverev and Shapo, will be interesting to see if Denis is tired, has some tough matches.
Haha just realised Emerson beat you 😆 it was in the approve queue.
@Emerson – I always have to approve your comments, are you browsing via VPN? I’m guessing the IP range is flagged to not auto approve by akismet or something.
@Jon, thanks for the approval hahaha. I have never used a VPN for browsing the blog. Its weird because it started to happen a few months ago ??♂️
Yeah not sure what causes it. Will see if I can fix it.
Thanks Jon!!!
What’s the smart move for USO prep?
Win Canada if possible and skip Cindy? Or play “I don’t care too much tennis” from here on out?
Or are two tourney wins (if possible) not prohibitive of an enough rested Fed?
He’s had massively good results, historically, in Cincy. The family usually joins him there, & I wouldn’t be surprised if there are family traditions around the week between Cincy and USO. Plus there’s a possibility- especially if he were to win Montreal – to get the number 1 ranking again. If he wins Montreal, he’s only 45 points behind Nadal going into Cincy. Even if he doesn’t win, it’s only a couple hundred points’ difference. The only way I see him skipping Cincy is if his sluggish play is really injury related – back, maybe? Haven’t really seen anything to make me think so though, except maybe the low 1st serve %.
I would play Winston Salem to get Number 1.
Better…. Not good enough for the final, I think, but he’s not there yet. Interesting to hear him acknowledge that the ball is flying a lot. It seems there are a lot of factors going into how a court plays, which may be part of the reason we hear contradictory reports about whether it’s “fast” or “slow” – the court itself, both composition & grit; The balls the tournament uses, which can apparently vary widely (& will in fact differ in performance from when they are new to when they are replaced, as a match progresses…) & will therefore interact with the court in different ways, esp. as relates to how they bounce; weather/air density conditions, which will also affect ball behaviour especially ball flight, & of course make a difference to the players’ endurance too. Maybe a one of your technical posts for another time, Jonathan.
Don’t think I’ve seen much of Haase, but will hope to see Fed continue to improve – better 1st serve % would help.
I’m about a 6 hour drive from Montreal, but the humidity here has dropped 10 % points here ( it was even more, but is back up a bit) – if that weather pattern holds northward, which it usually does, that may make it easier on the players tomorrow; although of course it will change ball flight characteristics again too.
Oops, I see you already did one a while ba ck.
I did a court speed one a while ago. Most of it still applies maybe a few things need updating as its from 2014.
There’s a very technical post if you google court speed science or something that I read a while ago. That looks into all the factors, and conclusion is that humidity doesn’t play a huge part on ball speed supposedly. But who knows, I dunno how accurate the science is in the post or if the conclusions are accurate. Most players say humidity makes things slower, but the post I read says humid air is less dense so it should in theory be quicker.
Heat & humidity can make a difference to how planes fly, so I’d expect there’d be enough difference in performance to affect narrow margins. They actually grounded flights in Arizona a few weeks back because of heat/humidity conditions.
Humidity makes air rarer, which mean less resistance to the ball. The speed of sound is more in humid air, and so is the speed of the Roger Federer backhand shots. 😉
Thanks Jonathan much appreciated. A bit disappointed to see Rafa, go out last night, but Roger played much better today. So every cloud has a silver lining.
Vamos Shapovalov is all I can say!
Better performance today, still high number of UEs and low 1st server % but he is slowly getting into groove. Heard commies mentioned that he attended Coldplay concert 2 days in a row. This explains hangover performance against Ferrer. Well things you can do when family is away. He has slight advantage playing first semi.
Coldplay for two consecutive days?Goodness.
Its really nice to see the quote unquote next gen superstars slugging it out for the finals but yes as you rightly mentioned. Roger has an advantage playing the first semi !
Having said that Sascha seems to be clearly making his move on the tour and with Novak and Stan out plus Andy doubtful, I can see him rising to Top 4 by the end of the year easily.
No wonder he looks in a bad mood after Coldplay 2 days in a row 😆
Jonathan as the match was going, I was thinking about what you will write in your post match review. Solid was the term I was expecting and you rated the performance as solid ? Ofcourse it is solid display if not peRFect? we see most of the times
Yeah I’ve run out of adjectives tbh 🙂
Might go for Italian sounding stuff next. Robusta.
Roger clearly isnt at his best and honestly I dont care a lot about his results here in montreal. Tricky conditions for sure. To me it feels like his 50% level has got him to the semis here, so just hoping he keeps improving in the latter stages to win the whole thing.
Like evrybody else , I all care about is Roger stayinh fresh for the US open with some decent matches under his belt, rankings can wait till US open wraps up.
I dont think he s playing for rankings just yet , looks like he wants to not only win matches but get off court quickly and step it up as soon as he gets a chance to end the point at the net? or is it just me.
If I am not wrong – he did mention that he prefered matches over practice (he s been a practice king) and hence decided to come to montreal!
Montreal for practice? ?
He definitely wanted to end points quickly vs. Agut, but that has to be how Fed plays him, rallying from the back of the court would be a long slog as Agut got that do not miss mindset.
Is it only me that Fed gained weight? he looks big.. 🙂
A good practice to learn more how to adjust in different type of court.. And I thought nadal can go to finals because the ball bounce a little high which I think he preferred. but well I was wrong..
A little bit sluggish but still winning… how about that??? Its funny to see that everyone was not so enthusiasts here in montreal…
Yeah maybe, camera always adds a few pounds though.
I knew the camera adds a few lbs, but was surprised at what a big difference that makes. I saw several players for the first time this week. Vekic is downright scrawny and Aga is so thin she is hardly there!
Fed actually looks bigger in the flesh than on TV, not in terms of weight but stature.
Hoboerer
Good energy today! Interesting that he’s only played Haase once ( in DC). But they are v good friends and practise a lot together, so Rog will not be unfamiliar with his play.
Still confused with this court speed. Been told it’s faster than I think it looks but high bounce is deceptive. Lack of aces and long rallies tell me that. Not sure I like the surface much but good to see Rog net rushing so much.
If he wins here Cincy will be a tough challenge, especially with the draw he has there. Let’s see how it pans out. USO has to be the priority with no 1 occurring alongside.
36.3 on CPI as per TennisTV so it’s now slow, quicker than IW and Cincy last year.
Since I don’t believe grandpa Fed will sweep Montreal, Cincy and USO, where do you think he will lose? Sascha in the final? I can accept that. He has a pretty easy draw in Cincy, safe to say he should make it to semis at least. Montreal Final, Cincy Semi and USO win, would be great result for me!
Nobody predicted the Sunshine Double either.
It seems to me that he gets better the more matches he plays. So playing Cincinatti would help him in the US open, and after all, he is a tennis player (!) that’s what he does. He admiited earlier that he hadn’t done much practice prior to this tournament.
He also seems to have this tendency to let things slip and then suddenly think, oops I’d better get on with winning this match. Not good for spectator’s nerves.
Are you pro Winston Salem like me? 😀
I think he and his team must be super excited at the thought of our hero being number 1 player again so yes, whatever it takes as long as it doesn’t hurt him.
Although actually what I meant at first was that he probably needs match practice and that is what he can get at these “littler” tournaments.
Remember the Hopman Cup at the beginning of the year?
Haha I was just clowning there’s no way he should play Winston Salem.
I was dreaming Denis would take out Nadal and there we go! Assuming Fed gets to the final, if facing Alex, Roger needs to up his game esp the backhand. Or it will be the runner up trophy. Thinking, Shapo’s get up and go got up and went.
Jonathan, marathon posts!
Yeah I had a nice break pencilled in until Cincy, then he shows up in Montreal!