Fed Fade

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!

I hope those of you reading this have either seen the match, or read the results so that I am not spoiling anything for you.

And just like that, Roger Federer is out of the French Open. His run was stopped courtesy of good old home town favorite Jo Willy Tsonga. Overall it was a pretty straightforward 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 win for  Muhammad Ali Tsonga. Seeing the match left me with some takeaways:

1. Roger Federer needs to play from the front: Yes he did just come back from 2 sets to 1 down in the previous round. However, that was against Gilles Simon. You could have seen that coming a mile away. I'm talking about Roger needing to get a quick jump on the top guys in order to win these matches. It's not like he's the crypt keeper out there, but let's face facts. His stamina and ability to come back from a deficit against players who are younger and just as fit if not fitter, are not what they used to be. He was up 4-2 on break in the first and when he let that slip, the rest of the match got away from him. Roger is at a point now where he really needs to play clean, strike first tennis early in matches in order to have the best chance at winning against other top players.

2. Tsonga is progressing: Seeing his play today makes me think that his decision to start working with Roger Rasheed was a very smart decision. He has slimmed down a bit and it is showing on court. There is no question that Tsonga has always been athletic, but trimming down has clearly added to his ability to stay in points and track down balls (a must when playing on the dirt). Addtionally, I thought his decision making today was a great step forward for him. He has a well known pattern of making very stupid interesting decisions when it comes to point and shot construction. Today, I felt he stayed much more within himself and looked determined to not beat himself out there. Even when he was up, he stayed in the driver's seat emotionally and played the match on his terms from start to finish.

3. The door is open: Federer being out creates a fantastic opportunity for either Tsonga or his opponent in the semis, David Ferrer. Either Tsonga gets back to his first Grand Slam final since 2008 or Ferrer reaches his first. One of these two is at least going to get a shot at taking some hardware out of the hands of the members of the big 4. Unless Haas and Wawrinka pull upsets of the century, the road to GS glory will still have to go through Nadal or Djokovic. Regardless, this is still the best look either of these guys (or anybody else for that matter) has had in a long time.

I am so excited for the final this weekend. The potential story lines could be:

• Nadal wins record setting 8th title at a single Grand Slam event
• Djokovic wins career Grand Slam and keeps bid alive for Calendar Year Slam
• 1st time Slam Winner (Haas, Wawrinka, Tsonga or Ferrer)

Buckle up folks because this is when it starts getting good!