Roger Cup Defeats: A boon for Federer, Nadal and Murray?

This Article was first published on 10sballs.com as : 

http://www.10sballs.com/2011/08/13/roger-cup-defeats-a-boon-for-federer-nadal-and-murray/

Written by: ApekshaHA on 13th August 2011

What an eventful week it has been so far: The top 3 out of the top 4 crumbled to their opponents in the early rounds of Rogers Cup. Pretty disheartening for their fans! Already we can see people talking about the end of era for Federer & Nadal and how Murray does not deserve to be in Top 4. So I thought that lets look at the history once again and study the trend!

And guess what? It turns out that losing in Rogers Cup might turn out to be a boon for these players.  In the past 20 years, 70 % of the time a player who has won Rogers Cup has not been able to win US Open. It’s not that surprising? Is it? Because top players take a break after Wimbledon before starting their crusade for US Open. So it’s pretty natural that they are a bit rusted and have a hangover of their past performances in French Open/Wimbledon.

Here is a table for the top 4 and their performances in Rogers Cup in past 6 years:

Rogers Cup	Djokovic	Nadal	Federer	Murray	US Open Winner
2005	NA	Winner	NA	NA	Federer
2006	NA	3rd Round	Winner	SF	Federer
2007	Winner	SF	Finalist	2nd Round	Federer
2008	QF	Winner	2nd Round	SF	Federer
2009	QF	QF	QF	Winner	Juan Martin Del Potro
2010	SF	SF	Finalist	Winner	Rafael Nadal

Federer is the only anomaly (2006) in which he won both Rogers Cup and US Open. Although Djokovic will remain to be the top favorite to win US Open irrespective of results in Rogers Cup, my point here is that all is not lost for Federer, Nadal and Murray.

Andy Murray: It might be good for Murray to lose out in first round as he said last year - by the end of US Open, he ran out of energy and had no fuel left; probably the reason why he practiced so hard In Miami in 100 F temperatures.

Rafael Nadal: Losing early and getting to know your weakness is better than losing in US Open (Grand Slam). It’s clear now to everyone and Nadal himself that he needs to win the battle of minds if he has to win US Open. And it’s better that Nadal now knows that he has a serious problem at hand and can tackle it before the Grand Slam. He still has 2 weeks; if he would have lost in US Open, he would have had to wait for another year.

Roger Federer: A lot has been already said about the champion and he himself knows that he will have to pull his socks quickly otherwise time will run out! He lost the match but let’s face it, he had his chances to win like Nadal did. We were discussing this the other day and my friend told me:

‘Life’s battle doesn’t always go to stronger or faster men; but sooner or later the man who wins is the one who thinks he can’. So for him the mantra of success would be to think he can and continue his journey. Doesn't matter what others say, it's he who has to decide what he wants to do and achieve!

If you have any questions- You can mail me at apekshaha@gmail.com

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