They just pointed out that the last player to lose the final in straight sets was the long since retired David Nalbandian in 2002. Nalbandian is actually younger than Federer.
Two disappointing finals really, poor value for those who had to pay for their tickets! Well done the Fed though.
I think it's been an extremely disappointing tournament. Half the players playing injured and retirements I bet Federer can't believe his luck.
Yes. They were talking about players turning up knowing they weren't fit, just to get the appearance money. £35k for losing/retiring in the first round.
Ever gone to work with a hangover knowing your contribution would be minimal, yet you'd still get paid ?
Sure, but by turning up I wasn't keeping somebody else out of a job and I wasn't short-changing spectators. They were talking about ways of having unfit players withdraw, taking a %age of appearance money and letting a fit lucky loser play instead for the remaining appearance money. Sounds like a plan worth pursuing to me, the spectators pay a lot for their tickets, it's right for the organisers to do whatever they can to try and maximise the amount of tennis they get to see.
On the surface it's sounds like a reasonable plan, but extremely difficult to implement/monitor ahead of time. Does every participant have to have a rigorous medical before the event starts ? Each participant gets there through merit, either through their rankings or by some qualification tournament process. I'm thinking particularly about Murray this tournament. He was clearly favoring some hip problem before the first round even started, but declared himself fit to compete. Should someone else have replaced him prior to the start, or should Djokovic lose a %ge of the money he earned as a result of his withdrawl ? It would surprise me if any player would consciously try to "beat the system". Every one of the players are likely to have healing injuries or niggles that may develop before they start. A tricky one this. Not every game goes to 3 or 5 sets, which is what I'm sure all spectators would prefer.
It's an odd definition, but straight sets means 3 sets with no more than 6 games won by the winner in any set ( no 7-5's or sets won by tie-breakers).