{"id":4271,"date":"2021-03-10T10:32:31","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T10:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/?p=4271"},"modified":"2021-03-10T10:32:31","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T10:32:31","slug":"expected-points-march-10-roger-federer-is-back-and-hes-older-than-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/2021\/03\/10\/expected-points-march-10-roger-federer-is-back-and-hes-older-than-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"Expected Points, March 10: Roger Federer is Back, and He&#8217;s Older Than Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Expected Points<\/strong>, my new short, daily podcast, highlights three numbers to illustrate stats, trends, and interesting trivia around the sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Up today: We\u2019ll soon get a look at how 39-year-old Federer stacks up against veterans of the past, Coco Gauff is learning to love third sets, and Aryna Sabalenka joins an extremely crowded list of active doubles number ones.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scroll down for a transcript.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"castos-iframe-player\" src=\"https:\/\/601b036c283f30-50244448.castos.com\/player\/379932\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can subscribe on <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/expected-points\/id1552064903\">iTunes<\/a>, Spotify, Stitcher, and elsewhere in the podcast universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Music: <a href=\"http:\/\/dig.ccmixter.org\/files\/admiralbob77\/63197\">Love is the Chase<\/a> by Admiral Bob (c) copyright 2021. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. Ft: Apoxode<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Expected Points podcast is still a work in progress, so please let me know what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> <iframe allow=\"autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"450\" style=\"width:100%;max-width:660px;overflow:hidden;background:transparent;\" sandbox=\"allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.podcasts.apple.com\/gb\/podcast\/expected-points\/id1552064903\"> <\/p><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rough transcript of today&#8217;s episode:<\/p>\n\n\n<p>The first number is 405, the number of days since <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=RogerFederer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Roger Federer<\/a> last played a competitive match. Expected Points tries to go beyond the headline stories, but I could hardly skip mentioning Fed\u2019s return to action 14 months after the 2020 Australian Open semifinal. In his first match back in Doha, he\u2019ll play sometime practice partner Dan Evans, a fellow one-handed backhander who beat <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=JeremyChardy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jeremy Chardy<\/a> yesterday. The Swiss #6 is 3-0 in his career against the Brit, including a meeting a previous comeback tournament at the 2019 Australian Open, but there\u2019s no guarantee this will be an easy ticket for Roger to punch. The 20-time slam winner is 39 years old, almost uncharted territory for elite singles players. Only 50 men in the entire Open Era have won a singles match after their 39th birthdays, and a mere handful of those, including <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=TommyHaas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tommy Haas<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=FelicianoLopez\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Feliciano Lopez<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=IvoKarlovic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ivo Karlovic<\/a>, have done so since the mid 90s retirement of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=JimmyConnors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jimmy Connors<\/a>. If Federer is looking for inspiration\u2014or, perhaps, a new record to target\u2014he can consider <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=KenRosewall\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ken Rosewall<\/a>, who kept rolling after his 39th birthday, winning another 170-plus matches before finally calling it quits seven years later.<\/p>\n<p>Our second number is 7, the number of consecutive three-set matches played by 16-year-old American Coco Gauff. Gauff\u2019s streak began in Adelaide qualifying a couple of weeks ago, when she beat <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=KajaJuvan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kaja Juvan<\/a> from one set down. It took another three-set effort from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=BelindaBencic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Belinda Bencic<\/a> to finally eliminate her from that tournament in the semifinals. Now in Dubai, Gauff has continued her warrior ways, with deciding-set upset wins over <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=EkaterinaAlexandrova\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ekaterina Alexandrova<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=MarketaVondrousova\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marketa Vondrousova<\/a>. She saved match points in the Alexandrova match, and she withstood a Vondrousova serving tic she found annoying to improve her career three-set record to 20-12. Winning so many deciding sets is a bit of a mixed signal: clearly it\u2019s better than losing them, but better still would be to win in straights. If she\u2019s going to record a win more efficiently, she couldn\u2019t ask for a better third-round opponent than her next assignment <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=TerezaMartincova\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tereza Martincova<\/a>, a 26-year-old Czech qualifier ranked outside the top 100. If she goes three today, we\u2019ll have wonder whether the teenager just prefers it that way.<\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s third and final number is 19, the number of active women who have held the #1 WTA ranking in doubles. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=ArynaSabalenka\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> became the 19th a few weeks ago after she and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=EliseMertens\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Elise Mertens<\/a> won the Australian Open. Only 44 women have held the top spot in the history of the rankings, in large part because <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=MartinaNavratilova\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Martina Navratilova<\/a> monopolized the top of the list for more than four years, and the duo of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=LiezelHuber\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Liezel Huber<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=CaraBlack\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cara Black<\/a> accounted for another seven years between them. Recent generations have seen plenty of standout doubles stars, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=SaniaMirza\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sania Mirza<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/cgi-bin\/player.cgi?p=SaraErrani\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sara Errani<\/a>, each of whom held onto the #1 ranking for 87 weeks or more, but it\u2019s crowded at the top these days. Seven of the current top eight have been #1 at some point, leaving the door open for Mertens\u2014currently ranked second\u2014to add herself to the list. She can\u2019t do it this week, as she\u2019s pairing Sabalenka in Dubai, but with Sabalenka\u2019s stated desire to focus on singles, the Belgian could soon have her chance.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-thumbnail\"><a href=\"https:\/\/159.203.141.169\/tennisabstract\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/epts_logo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/159.203.141.169\/tennisabstract\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/epts_logo-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4258\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/epts_logo-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/epts_logo-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/epts_logo-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/epts_logo-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/epts_logo-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/epts_logo.jpg 1662w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Expected Points, my new short, daily podcast, highlights three numbers to illustrate stats, trends, and interesting trivia around the sport. Up today: We\u2019ll soon get a look at how 39-year-old Federer stacks up against veterans of the past, Coco Gauff is learning to love third sets, and Aryna Sabalenka joins an extremely crowded list of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/2021\/03\/10\/expected-points-march-10-roger-federer-is-back-and-hes-older-than-ever\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Expected Points, March 10: Roger Federer is Back, and He&#8217;s Older Than Ever<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expected-points-podcast"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}