Fed's Flaw

I noticed a defnite tactical weakness in Federers current game during his match against Henman yesterday. OK, he waxed Tim in straight sets, but Henman still managed to win a decent number of point by constantly attacking Federer. Henman is a nice combo of serve-and-volley attack and transition-from-the-baseline attack, but he's never had the power to be dominant. He hits a ball that's kind of light and spinny, which is OK on grass an strangely useful on clay, but not so great on hard courts. Anyway, a player utilizing the same style--neither a monotonous S&V, nor a total transitional game--could make Federer feel some heat. Nadal wears him out, but thus far he is the only guy who has been able to get at Fed through fitness and sheer competitive fire. Safin hammers Fed back off the baseline, but Safin's game is unique and inconsistent. If a guy ever comes along who's a sort of neo-Sampras, I think the matchup with Fed would be incredible. In fact, I think that if Fed had to play a Sampras- or a Pancho-Gonzales type in his prime, he would be in real trouble. It's worth noting that when Fed dropped the first set to Andy Roddick at Wimbledon three years ago, Roddick was playing a totally attacking, power game. Unfortunately, I don't see a single male pro on the way up who plays in this style. Maybe Sampras should stage a comeback, just we can test my theory!

I've begun to see Fed as a kind of modern Jack Kramer. Kramer was utterly dominant for quite a while, with a devastating all-court game, but he eventually became vulnerable to the "big" all-out attacking game that began to emerge in the 1950s.