The ping-pongy tennis of Federer I previewed fully reared it’s head in his loss today v Kevin Anderson.

And I was half right that this would be a straight-set win for Roger: He had MP there in the third.

But he’s off, been off. The FH completely abandoned the 1-seed and the BH wasn’t 2017-like either. Anderson was dictating entirely from about the 2nd set on, from the BL too. Roger unable to hit through the court? Definite red-flag for his game.

Indeed, Anderson’s serve not only got better as the match wore on, but he out hit Federer most of the day.

And what happened to the S&V?

Just a bad tennis match from Federer; a great win for Anderson.

This listless, less urgent tennis of the pre-#2017Federer seems to have returned. You’ve seen it everywhere this year, even a bit in that Aussie final. He’s 37 years-old in a month.

Rafa just broke back to even the second set at 5-5 (prevent Juan Martin from evening the match one set-apiece: ouch).

Carry-on.