My 5 Favourite Federer Matches of 2018

Stop to accuse me of trolling, OK? Or everything but praising Federer trolling for you?
Yes, it seems we are watching different players. It’s obvious, I’m not only watching Thiem but also deeply analyzing his game. He’s not my idol. I don’t compare his career with Roger’s career. But if we look among younger players for a kind of followers, for me the closest one is just Thiem. Who is it for you? Nobody?
Thiem is not a power player. Or you don’t understand, what power game is. There are two ways to make a serve or any other shpt fast: using muscles or using skills. Or specific features, like being 250cm+. but then the deciding factor is not a speed but trajectory and angles. As of late there was an outstanding dropshot with side spin from Federer (incidentally against Thiem or I’m wrong?) Thiem can hit dropshots with even more side spin, but they are not called hot shots. Look Thiem vs. Nadal at USO – only one thing. Nadal’s face trying to read Thiem’s serve. How many times he was not able to read. Is this not Federer’s very special feature? I don’t pretend to see a copy of Federer in Thiem. I would not want to see in him a copy of anyone. He isn’t. I have told, it’s not about comparing winning achievements. I don’t expect him close to that. This has many reasons, among them Thiem’s humbleness and humility.
If you need such comparisons, look, how many titles had Nadal and Federer at the same early age. So what? Everyone has his own calendar.
Don’t be scared. Nobody can compare to Fed in so many aspects. Must not. Fed is unique. Nadal is unique. Fognini is unique. Who is the greatest? Sure, it’s Federer. In every thinkable aspect. So take it easy and if you don’t like such comparisons here, it’s OK. And think about this – there are different methods of banning. You say, you are a place of freedom. Not so much. If you call names instead of blocking the account, it’s quite the same. In this aspect you all will never change. Calling names does not bother me. So long we can have some interesting discussions. You say, Thiem’s game is one-dimensional. I say – this blog is one-dimensional. I know blogs, where you can discuss about anyone. And with some good dose of humor. Humor does does not exist here (now I’m trolling again, right?)

@Jonathan
Once more. We seem to understand very differently the term “power player”.
Let it be.
I differentiate between power coming from big muscles. Both Nadal and Federer have big muscles, but different body builds. Now look on Thiem’s body. In terms of tennis Thiem has no muscles. He is rather slim, closer to Djokovic than to Nadal. They all are about the same body height, but different weight. You cannot have big muscles and be lightweight. Both Fed and Nadal are 185 cm/85 kg. Thiem is 185 kg/78 kg. Djokovic is 188 cm/77 kg. You can see this , when watching them all shirtless, you can see and compare calf muscles all the time.
Now here is the point, when we see things different (why not?). You probably think on power in terms of how fast are shots. IMO shots have never power – only speed and spin. Now the point is, you need something to generate this speed and spin. Some do this with muscles (raw power) – of course not possible in tennis, to have only power but no skills – other with technique (skills). That’s where I see some similarity between Fed and Thiem. When a bit younger, Fed hit regularly topspin around 400 rpm, Thiem hits now (with different racket and strings) 3000-3500. Was Federer power player in his prime time? We cannot really compare speed from 2005 and 2018. Between these two time points there was a big revolution in stringing. You speak about Thiem’s full swing. Thiem’s swing is (especially on clay, where the player has more time) deeper than on hard, but in last 2 years Thiem developed shorter backswing and is constantly improving it. .It cannot of course be compared with Federer’s half-volleying. This is completely different technique, allowing to use the energy (not power) of the coming ball so the player can avoid to use a lot of own energy.
But hitting hard like Thiem does means just some perfect technique, not raw muscle strength.
If you watch his groundstrokes in slow motion, you will see, how much all the body is involved. He jumps and makes some special body movements in the air, all this making his whole body a powerful spring, generating speed and spin. Again – not a raw power like for Nadal, Delpo, Raonic (2 years ago, now no more).
You say, Thiem cannot slice well. His volley is poor. If you would follow him, you would see big progress in both shots in last 2 years. Depending on the style of the opponent, Thiem can make and win lots of net approaches. IMO his smash is a weakness (often 2-3 smashes needed to finish, often smash landing out). Not volley or dropshot or slice. The difference is, how often he uses these shots. Not very often. Why? The same kind of reason, why he is not giving interviews in French. Not feeling perfect and fluent enough, but some say, he is fluent enough (you will know his special motivation to learn French and you now his work ethic, the same in tennis and in learning languages. Some year, maybe 2019, you will see Thiem playing more volley and slice. Both are decent right now, but he is not convinced they are, so he plays more frequently shots, where he feels “perfect”. His serve was still a weakness until 2017. Now his serve is a weapon and he knows, how to use it. 2017 he was focused on hitting fast serves – 130-140 mph. Too many errors. Now he serves 110-120, but more variety, more aces, less readable.
I understand, you don’t focus (and will maybe never do this) on Thiem’s game development.
If you want and I have necessary time, I can do for you a video compilation showing and proving this. I have all his matches since September 2017 recorded. I will find without a problem dropshots with better sidespin than Federer’s hot shots. I will find slices very similar to Federer’s. The only difference (to advantage of Thiem) is, his topspin backhand was always fast like Stan’s, while Federer started to hit topspin backhands very late in his career. So Thiem is here more versatile, because he can rely on switch almost every time from slice to topspin down the line and his strength here is not so much the speed, but acceleration. And when switching from slice to topspin Thiem has almost no backswing. I could tell you (and show on videos) more, but I doubt you are really interested in.
Comparing someone to Federer is stupid. I’m not comparing them. You think, there is more similarity between Fed and Dimitrov. Of course it is. Because Dimitrov was all his tennis life trying to copy-paste Federer – on and off court. Both with mean effects. He’s still Baby-Federer, unfortunately the “baby” is now quite old and not so high in the ranking. Thiem relies on own style but he’s learning with great intensity and is not a party boy like Grigor. When Thiem reaches some point (in game’s quality), it stays forever (or he has some bad luck with injuries or illnesses. He is better every year, especially in slams. There is no guarantee, he will only go high over all career. But so far he does. No bang, like Kyrgios, Shapoivalov, Zverev. But he is coming. I fear Fed is rather going than coming, so not many chances for them to play an epic together.

You speak (and think) English, I speak (and think) Chinese. We have no common language. I give up. Thank you.

You did like it? OK. Let’s continue.
I think, there are some misunderstandings (maybe because of the level of my English, I’m not much better in Chines, but for sure in German and Polish – I guess, we cannot discuss in any of these languages.
First misunderstanding – my goal is not to prove, Thiem is going to be next Federer. And there is no direct similarity in their game. First thing, we were not talking about so far is Federer’s full bag of trick shots. Then there are many others. Federer is slicing since ever and has developed big slice variety. Not comparable to anyone. Federer was hitting backhand only 2017 and this was the year, when he won all matches against Nadal. This does not work anymore. Age. Not a shame.
Also the comparison of achievements is obvious and I’m not blind. But I know more than your(again not a shame) about background of early years of Thiem, since 8-10 years old. Thiem is LATE MATURER – in terms of physiology he is 3-4 years “younger” than his age-mates. Not much sense in such comparisons. Nadal was for once very early maturer and had 46 titles at 25. More than Fed. So what?
Give Thiem 3 years more. And think about difference between competition intensity in Federers prime time and in Thiem’s prime time, which is still to come (these 3 years of late maturing are not going compensated, he belongs in this sense to Zverev generation). But5 again, I don’t expect Thiem to come close to Federer’s records – if someone comes, it will be Nadal or Djokovic – no one from the younger generations).
After we have explained our understanding of “power play”, I can only say – yes, according to your understanding Thiem is power player. But another sort of power player than those, who hit the ball from the height or those who create speed and spin with raw power/brute force/muscles/whatever.
Thiem is 1-dimensional and can only hit huge from both wings. This is no more true. Don’t compare him with prime Federer. Compare him with the rest of the field and with his game 1 or 2 years ago. Thiem is offensive player, defense is his weakness, where he needs to improve to have mor wins, not necessarily to make his game more-dimensional.
So where I see, not direct similarity (have never seen such similarity). I see rather, Thiem is the closest to Federer’s game from the rest of the field. Dimitrov? Federer’s bad copy. 8 titles at 27. Only 1 at 25. Humility and humbleness? Forget it.
Dimitrov”s similarity to Federer is superficial. He copies Federer’s serving routine. He hits some fakeshots, not many and also bad copies of Federer’s biggest weapon.
Probably I have wrote it before, but it’s another factor in the comparison . I’m often watching Thiem’s practices. He has skills for more – dropshots, volleys. Now this is just his humbleness and humility (maybe to his disadvantage). He plays iin matches only this, which he believes he can do it well. This makes somehow his overall game 1-dimensional (maybe 2?). 2 years ago his serve was a big weakness. Now it’s his big weapon. Since 1-2 years he plays more and more (lot of this to see in the Nadal match at USO) very aggressive return, stepping inside the baseline – and these returns are more effective than Roger’s SABR, but similar.
If he decides to play it or is required to, he can hit perfect dropshots and volley (again lot of this in Nadal match).
To get to some final conclusion (so ling Thiem does not develop further and he will) – no much sense in comparing him to Fed, in any aspect. Just the only one. He’s the most successful of all one-handers (after Federer of course and Stan). He is one of not many one-handers on tour. Next comes Tsitsipas. Will he come closer to Fed? I don’t think. Rather to Thiem. Tennis these days is not a thing for another Federer. The same Federer, starting his career now, would never win a title.
You asked, what were changes in strings between 2005 and today. I’m not an expert here, but I read experts telling, they are tremendous. They are highly customized these days. New materials, new features, whatever. I have not especially studied this subject, so it’s only my superficial opinion, but I found it on experts’ and players’ know-how.

@Jon @Vik
On a side note. I must apologize daily for using long sentences when speaking or writing.
You must not remember, but it’s a kind of my professional “disorder”.
I’m translator. I have translated patents over long years. From Polish to German (where the predicate stays always on the end of the sentence).
A single patent claim must be (for whatever the reason) one sentence. So you find in patents sentences with very complex structures and sometimes 3-4 pages long.
This way I learned to write and speak and read and easily understand long sentences.
But I know, most people have problems with such length.
Apologies again. I will try harder to be short 🙂

@Jonathan. long sentences would be a problem, if they are 3 pages long, no? I have agreed and apologized so many times.
I’m trying Should you implement the Edit function for comments (simple WordPress plugin), allowing delete or edit own comment during 5 minutes after the message was sent, I would have time to look on the comment and introduce paragraphs.
If you post on FB for instance (I post a lot because Thiem’s official page is on FB, there are no paragraphs allowed. Each time you click Enter/Return, the post is finished and sent.
Posting only occasionally on WordPress sites I’m automatically avoiding paragraphs.
I will take care in the future to be shorter and use more paragraphs. Not sure, if I should follow Federer. Each time he clicks Enter, the comment is finished 😉 But he uses paragraphs in longer rallies 😉

Ok, so I just had to watch the speech again. Wet eyes before he opened his mouth. We are hopeless.