Albert Ramos-Vinolas’ 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-3 shocking defeat of defending champion Roger Federer in the second round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters will go down as one of the, if not the, biggest upsets of 2015. The Tennis Review looks at three aspects of Ramos’ huge win.
- Ramos had the right strategy and executed it.
We knew it would take a great performance to defeat the defending champ, and Ramos gave one. The 70th ranked left-handed Ramos hit heavily and aggressively from the baseline and took the ball on the rise which allowed him to really take control of the rhythm of the match.
Ramos also played with a lot of variety from the back of the court, mixing up the depth of the ball, switching between down the line and cross court plays, and keeping Federer guessing.
Federer kept the points short when he could with his aggression, but Ramos was aggressive in his own way, too. Ramos attacked the Federer backhand, with height and spin, opened up the court and then hit flat to the forehand, leaving Federer flailing on his strongest side.
The qualifier frequently used depth, spin and angles to move the ball away from Federer, and stepped inside the court when he got short balls. That aggressive mind-set allowed him to stand up to the Swiss all the way to the first set tiebreak which he edged 7-4.
Federer came back strong to take the second set 6-2, but Ramos did not go away. The world no.70 stayed with the second seed until he led 4-3 in the third set. In that eighth game, with Ramos holding break point, perhaps the second most crucial point of the entire match, Ramos hit a deep, high return which kept Federer back and got him both off balance and on the defence, which is as good as it gets versus Federer after the Swiss has struck a serve break point down. On his next stroke, Ramos hit a mid-length inside out down the line to the Federer backhand, and then, with plenty of time, courtesy of the Federer slice cross-court, set up his forehand and struck a winner down the line. Winning that huge point, in a match in which Federer won 52% of the points, was a sign of Ramos’ clear thinking and confidence on the verge of the biggest win of his career.
That confidence carried Ramos across the finish line as Ramos also won the biggest point of the match- match point. Once again he won the crucial points with his most effective tennis. Ramos served with heavy spin into the body forcing an error, a typically smart play that was characteristic of the win.
- Ramos played three matches going into the match while Federer had not played since the US Open final
Qualifying meant Ramos had to play two matches to get into the main draw, and beating Zhizhen Zhang and Michael Berrer in straight sets set Ramos up nicely to defeat Sam Querrey in the opening round.
Taking on Querrey’s serve and big game certainly got Ramos in the rhythm to go up against the aggressive Federer and the Spaniard did well to keep Federer back as much as he did and challenge him to produce his best net play when he made it that far.
Federer meanwhile had not played since the US Open and arrived in Shanghai to defend his title to the kind of fanfare you would expect. Pre-event conferences, promotional duties, and very much the center of attention, the pressure was on Federer to deliver, and an under the radar and well prepared Ramos was waiting to catch him unawares.
- Ramos had nothing to lose.
Ramos came out with nothing to lose and played with an intensity and enthusiasm Federer has not seen much of in the early rounds of 2015 events. As soon as Ramos found his deep, heavy and aggressive hitting to Federer’s backhand was working, he seemed to sense an upset, and with nothing to lose, he went for it.
Federer meanwhile had everything to lose – 1000 points as defending champ, and his trophy. The Swiss had also said in his pre-tournament conference he wanted to be no. 1 again, but with this early defeat on one of the surfaces most suited to him, the chances of regaining that status have diminished greatly.
Talk of no. 1, huge expectations, and an in-form and confident opponent with the perfect strategy, in hindsight Federer’s defeat seems written in the stars. It was Ramos though who made it happen, and while Federer fans will be bitterly disappointed, Ramos supporters and neutrals will be pleased he had it in him to inject an exciting twist so early on into this season’s Shanghai script.
Watch highlights of Ramos-Vinolas’ shocking defeat of Roger Federer in Shanghai below
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