I'm sure most of you have seen the news but Roger Federer is into the third round at the Paris Masters without striking a ball in anger after Milos Raonic withdrew with an elbow injury.
He'll now meet Fabio Fognini who also benefitted from a walkover as Marton Fuscovics withdrew. To top off the day Nadal has also withdrawn with an abdominal injury so the tournament's falling to bits and looks wide open with Djokovic also seemingly under the weather with a cold.
Is the withdrawal a good thing? Probably as it's an extra day off and means just 4 wins are needed for the title. Although having watched Raonic vs. Tsonga I wasn't too worried about the Canadian should they have met. He looked like he was scratching around for form and missed a ton of balls in a win that took just under 3 hours.
Of course, his serve can catapult him to a win on any given day but compared to the Raonic of 2016 this one looks well off the pace from the baseline and he's now once again injured.
The Swiss will now start his campaign on Thursday at 7.30 pm local time. Live chat will be on but I will likely miss the start of the match due to travelling but hope to be on by the middle of the first set.
First
Well done!
Thanks Wanda. Might be a pending one waiting approval though ??
Not this time 🙂
All these withdrawals!
Maybe they need to reschedule their tournament
Go Fed
Downgrade. Make a grass 1000 instead.
Yes – then maybe comparing masters 1000 titles between players wouldn’t be so badly biased
Paris withdrawing syndrome…crazy. Must be the Halloween black magic. Might as well cancel the whole thing or downgrade.
Yes indeed,this shouldn’t really be a masters 1000 so late in the season.
Does this mean Joker is now Number One?
How was Basel?Or are you saving that up for a special post at some time?
Hi Annie,
It’s done! The fan story has already sent to Jonathan 😀 I’m still on cloud 999. Thanks for the advice to wear layers! Was spot-on!
Yes, I believe Novak will be No. 1.
Great news thanks Wanda
https://mobile.twitter.com/AustralianOpen/status/1057500289698353152
:-))))
??
Paris withdrawing syndrome 😆
#GoRoger
Not playing Robotnic seems like a good thing, it should be a fun match with Fogna
No “thoughts on the match”??
Slacker.
Coming soon 3,000 words.
Always glad to skip a bomber. – Long time no meet between Fab and Fed. Agree it could be fun. Prediction? Well hard enough, not seeing so much of both since Basel.
I used to really like Fabio-the name alone,no doubt he is a great shot maker and that whole swaggering round the court thing.But then something rather unpleasant seemed to surface,there is a fine line between cheekiness and arrogance,and his on court behaviour has become uncouth.
I don’t like him but think it will be an interesting match up which I expect Fed to win.
Haven’t myself seen the unpleasant yet, but imagine he can be arrogant, as most people sometimes. Andy was terrible sometimes. But in a way I still like him too. What I don’t like are the hypocrites. And bores. And of course the full-time-trolls.
Anyway I like his being alive and possible entertaining genius. And his distasteful outfits.
Just watching the Coric/Medvedev match.The Coric/Nadal match won’t now happen,so Coric is my choice for coming through on that side of the draw.
@Wanda,
Really looking forward to reading it.Must have been incredible.
I’m looking forward to it too, Wanda.
A selfie with Fed! – swoon.
Jonathan is keeping it all himself 😉
Did we ever figure out what was going on with Fucsovics?
Judging from the pic on his Insta, quad injury.
It seems that just anticipating another Djokovic beat-down was enough to bring on yet another Nadal injury. Good excuse to go back to the doctor for a TUE.
Abdominal injury.Thats a new one.?
If I remember right, that was the reason he retired in the fifth set vs Cilic AO18.
Was AO leg, hip or abs? I remember the trainer working on the top of his leg.
Rafa went down in AO with hip injury. 100%.
Later he pulled out of Acapulco, IW and Miami because of that injury.
Some players spend half their tennis careers injured. Raonic and Nishikori come to mind. It must be very frustrating to live in that reality.
Yes, Fabio is a jerk. Entertaining game at times, but…
Where you off to this time, Jonathan. Quick jaunt across the channel?
Fabio a jerk? What, how, when? Sorry for my ignorance….
https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/41586968
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/10/11/player-who-called-female-umpire-a-whore-at-u-s-open-given-suspended-grand-slam-ban/?utm_term=.4ed9b4e73ab6
It’s too bad because I loved his wife Flavia…
Fabio is a disgusting piece of shit. Don’t know how Flavia puts up with him.
Thanks Donna. Could only read the first of texts from links, and then of course the words on the link of the next. Jerk-ish, yes. It seems he accepted fine and remorsed and so on. Some have (very) bad habits coming through when pressed. To change such is possible. Hopefully he does. (Andy made terrible remarks sometimes about his opponents – do we forgive this?)
He’s just your standard Italian hot head. Decent to watch when he playing well though.
Marc Rosset -> talking about Roger herebelow on Tuesday (on Eurosport France)
Duration 4 min 42 s – in French.
Eurosport : Rosset : “Roger est tellement passionné qu’il faut le freiner pour ne pas qu’il se blesse”
https://video.eurosport.fr/tennis/rolex-paris-masters/2018/video-rosset-federer-est-tellement-passionne-qu-il-faut-le-freiner-pour-ne-pas-qu-il-se-blesse_vid1134306/video.shtml
Interessant.
Need to update to Paris weather…
?
Apart from Rogers there are some interesting match ups today.TheimvCoric,SaschavSchwartsman,KhachanovvIsner.
I find Isner the most boring of players,closely followed by Mr Anderson,but interested to see how Karen(what was his mother thinking of) deals with that serve,or not.
Also I wonder if it is very hot in that arena.Players sweating buckets and several members of the audience asleep!
I read on Twitter it’s pretty warm in the arena.
Cilic vs. Dimitrov now also live! Two top players – Dimitrov has had a bit of a knock down the rankings though.
Decent win for Cilic. Both players have been in shocking form of late. Dimitrov now down to 19 in the world.
Having lost all those ATP Finals points.
Looking forward to Fabio and Roger, truth be told looking forward
to anyone and Roger. I know Fognini can have his moments, but
I can’t help laughing he’s like a little General strutting about and he
is a fabulous shotmaker(and he makes Nadal nervous), however
C’mon Roger strut your stuff x
Thanks, Elizabeth – encouraging and mental temperature rising ?
Fognini is a big talent, very quick. Not focused enough to beat Fed though usually.
He walks as though he is 6 inches taller. And plays the same way.
Sound all very entertaining – looking forward! ?
I think the head to head is 3-0 in Rogers favour.
Well done Khachanov albeit a scenic route. I’d rather Nishikori’s playing style in London than Isners.
With Khachanov beating Isner the line up for London is pretty much set.
A scenerio in which Kei loses to Mr. Anderson and Coric wins Percy can change that, or some injuries…
Good chances that Isner will be at London if healthy because Rafa has a high chance to withdraw at some stage.
Next in line is Coric.
Lol. I’m only following the scoreline but Jack Sock just bageled Jaziri for set 1.
Well if Fed can’t win it, I’d be amused if Sock defended his title.
Agree once again. Sock is very good and entertaining esp in doubles. He has a sense of a bit tasteless humor which I like – doesn’t take himself too seriously. So – If not Rog then Sock – or Kei..or…
Well Rog HAD to win Basel, but never mind very much Bercy – yet – – that means I think I can enjoy tonight without hiding myself until he makes it?
But then – of course if he makes it to the final, THEN! (Oooauoooau etc)
Go, Roger!
Anyone but Jack Sock,even strutting,swearing Fabio!
Great win by Karen K.
@Agree with your marks regarding Murray,probably the most foul mouthed of all tennis players.However he doesn’t
Have Fabios elan.I wanted to say eclat but can’t et my I pad to do it.The accent that is.
Hm. If you touch the e key but touch and hold instead of touch and release – does a little box pop up showing various e forms with various accents? As long as that happens, you’re good – just SLIDE your finger, without lifting, to the ‘e’ that has the accent you want. When your finger is over the correct e, it should highlight blue; NOW release, and the accented e appears in the text you’re typing : é ê ë éclat.
Sorry that last post was to Muser.
Annie, I agree completely about Murray, as a Scot who loves tennis I
was so excited when I read of this super tennis player in the making,
but when I heard him I was disgusted. Even more so when he was
questioned on the subject he said he never thought about it because
his Mother used it when she lost at scrabble!!!! Now I’m sorry for
Murray because he is a good player, but his brains must be in his
shall I say his backside.
Yes,Murray not exactly lovable.I remember being a hotel bar in Italy watching Fed playing Djokovic (he won).We were joined by a charming American couple who said’Of course you must be great Murray fans?’
We said ‘why’ and they obviously thought we were unpatriotic,unsporting or just plain horrible.
So whatever they never spoke to us again.Their loss?
Where is everyone?Anyway great straightforward win for Fed.
Lurking for Jon’s post, obviously. ?
Yep!
Hoping he gets nishikori
Well yes he has got Nishikori,who played really well.He really read Mr Andersons serve.Love that Ninja warrior return of serve stance.
Good competition for Federer too. To win, Federer will really have to outplay him. Nice practice for the ATP finals where competition will be stiff.
Go Fed
Yes I agree,Nishikori a far better player than Mr Serve bot Anderson.Should be a great match.
Needed some sleep, obvious not too nervous. Nice to wake up for a good result. Nice at least to have a good fight with great fighter Kei next. Even if hopefully Rog winning it, I hope for Kei to get to London too. Still a chance even so?