Office Relationships

I'm a pretty avid Federer fan, and I consider myself pretty attuned to the way he plays his matches. So is it just me, or did he seem a bit... angry tonight?

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Maybe angry isn't the right word. Frustrated? Maybe just pissed off. He certainly seemed more annoyed than usual. I mean, it's not like he suddenly metamorphosed into Safin or anything like that. He just seemed a bit more... vocal than usual. He doesn't give a lot away, normally, but he was yelling and berating himself like no one's business. He does this in his matches anyway, but usually only once or twice a match. He was over-yelling. And he's normally so polite to officials. He was a bit snippy with one when HawkEye was taking its sweet time. 'How long is it gonna take?' he snapped. Not un-Roger, but not exactly Roger.

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Jim Courier raised a good point in the commentating, and I think it was corroborated by the post-match interview. Federer came into this tournament with his #1 ranking under threat. If he crashed out before the semis and Rafa won the Open, then he would lose the top spot. Now that he's through and beaten Blake, he's secure, but if he had lost against Tipsarevic... I don't even want to think about it.

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But there's so much added pressure on Federer. No wonder he's been playing a bit patchy. Last year, he won three Slams and the Masters Cup, got to the final in the fourth slam and won two Masters Series trophies, and still his #1 spot in under threat? Rafa had a great season, but he won one Slam and three Masters Series trophies, and was beaten in the semis at the Masters Cup. How does than even compare?

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Like Courier said, how does that seem fair? Roger apparently wasn't aware of it, and I can see how that would piss you off big time and put so much added pressure on you, especially as a surprise. In the interview, he asked Courier how much longer he'd secured the top spot for, and Courier said a few weeks, and Roger said he thought it'd be way longer than that. The #1 spot means so much to him especially with his record - I would love to see him take out Sampras's record of 286 weeks, particularly if he could do it consecutively!

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But I seriously don't get how that ranking system works. I mean, I get how it works, but how does that happen? One guy has this amazing year, and another has a pretty good year, but nowhere near as good, and yet the ranking is so close? I mean, it's not close... there's still a good thousand points between them, but because Roger can't gain any points because he's defending the title, and Rafa can because he lost in the quarters last year... It's Federer 7180 to Nadal 5780 at the moment. Federer's untouchable now he's in the semis... but how can one tournament close a gap that big?

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Because the gap is that big. That's one thing I hope Novak Djokovic realises. I really hope Federer issues a beatdown on him. Djokovic has been playing well - I can't deny it - but he really needs a thrashing!

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Speaking of Djokovic... what was with the sudden fatigue at the end of his match today? Because getting tired at the end of what was a pretty comprehensive straight sets victory... what is that? Djokovic is the only man to ever retire from a Wimbledon semi-final. His reason? Fatigue. Sure, on that occasion he'd had two long grinding five setters against Hewitt and Baghdatis, which he'd backed up on because of the rain. But since when is this an acceptable excuse for a tennis player? I'd hardly like to accuse the #3 player in the world of being unfit, but that is just not good enough. Wimbledon, sure. But today? Three sets. Three easy sets. And Ferrer was really not playing so well. If Djokovic pulls that against Federer, he'd get pounded into the ground.

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Djokovic has faced Nadal in two semis in Slams in his career, one of which was that Wimbledon semi where Djokovic retired. The other was at the French, and as if Nadal is going to lose there. I hope that, this year, they play in the semis of the US Open. Because I would love to see a balls to the wall five setter between those two. Not at the Australian Open, because that would mean it was the final and Federer MUST beat Djokovic - I won't have that upstart winning! - but at the US, or on some hardcourt. Anywhere. Because before Djokovic talks about tumbling Federer, I'd worry about Nadal. Just because he's a claycourt specialist doesn't mean you can leave him out of the equation.

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I'd be interested to know what Nadal and Djokovic think of each other as people. Federer is lovely, but I get the feeling he doesn't really like Novak, while he and Rafa get along fine. But Djokovic and Nadal are closer in age, and in points... if I were Rafa, I would get really annoyed at Djokovic basically overlooking me. I don't know how much Rafa lets this affect him - he and Novak don't have a common language, I think, so I don't know how well they understand each other. But surely he must know. I'm curious. Do they eyeball each other with loathing? Do they blank each other? Or do they say hi in the corridor and then do their own things?

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Or, hell, do they go out for dinner together and paint each others' toenails?

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I'd love to know what goes on behind the scenes with tennis players. Federer seems to be pretty well liked - he refers to some of his close friends on the tour being Tim Henman and Stefan Koubek in his blog from Tokyo 2006 - and Dmitry and Marat seem to have some friendship going on, and Carlos Moya and Rafa have their whole mentor thing, and then there's the matey deal with Rafa and Feliciano Lopez... but then you get the Sharapovas of this world. Does anyone else get the feeling that she hates everyone and everyone hates her? Like, she refuses to associate with them so she can hate them with impunity on court?

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It could be really unhealthy. This people basically travel together 11 months of the year, year in, year out. Surely they must have friends?

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I know they all have their girlfriends and teams or whatever - Roger travels with Mirka Vavrinec, his girlfriend, wherever he goes, for example - but surely they must make friends? I hope they do. It would be sad to think of their locker room, 128 players at the beginning of the tour, none of them speaking to each other.

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From what I've read, that's not the case. They're playing jokes and throwing tennis balls at each other and hiding each others' bags... well, Dmitry Tursunov does! But I hope they have recreation together as well. Jim Courier has asked both Roger and Rafa about playing videogames... they like playing tennis games and occasionally playing as each other (as in, Roger likes playing with the Rafa avatar and vice versa.) I'd like to think that, every once in a while, Roger and Rafa sit down to their video games together.

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Australian Open Results - Day 10

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Men's Draw

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Roger Federer def. James Blake, 7-5 7-6 (7-5) 6-4

Novak Djokovic def. David Ferrer, 6-0 6-3 7-5

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Women's Draw

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Ana Ivanovic def. Venus Williams, 7-6 (7-3) 6-4

Daniela Hantuchova def. Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-2 6-2