more machine than man; more woman than machine

It's wild that both Serena Williams and Roger Federer had crazy next-to-last shots in their semi-final matches.

Federer hit this crazy shot to get to match point (and then win).

Williams went crazy to give away match point.


The title of this post paraphrases from the title of Matthew Futterman's WSJ article...

...there appears to be little variation in how Mr. Federer wins.

Since 2005, Mr. Federer's yearly first-serve percentage has not been lower than 62% or higher than 64%, and it was 62% heading into the U.S. Open. He has won either 76% or 77% of his first-serve points the past four years, and has nudged up to 79% this year. He won either 58% or 59% of second-serve points from 2005-2008 and is at 57% this year. He also won 89% or 90% of his service games, and is at 90% this year. Mr. Federer has even shown consistency returning his opponents' serves. Since 2004, his success rate on first-serve returns has been between 31% and 35%, and between 51% and 54% on second-serve returns.

Previous greats have shown similar steadiness....