Laver is the one that’s closest to Federer but still falls short
Nadal has done it on all courts. Having won the biggest tournament and most prestigious tournament of them all at Wimbledon twice and won on the harcourts at the US Ooen and Australia his record breaking exploits at Roland Garros has raised the profile and prestige of the French Open.
Before Nadal came along, the French Open and clay tennis in general would very much have been seen as the poor relation of the Grand Slams, frequently won by journeymen and sloggers who couldn’t win anywhere else.
Only by anglophiles.
Now hard and grass courts are rightly seen as the preserve of giraffe servebots.
Clay has always been the game of the crafty, inventive players.
Laver is an interesting one. Laver is the one player over the years that has always got mentioned along with Federer as the most naturally gifted and the greatest to have played the game.
The likes of Sampras and Federer cite Laver as their boyhood idol even though he was retired long before he was born in Federer’s case and a toddler in Sampras case.
Laver is the only player to win all four Grand Slams twice. He also did twice what Federer, Nadal and Djokovic have failed to do, win a Grand Slam (twice for that matter in 1962 and 1969). Laver won 11 Grand Slams but he missed 21 consecutive Grand Slams between 1963-68 at the ages of 24 to 29 in the row over professionalism. Either side of his ban, he won 5 of the 6 immediate preceding Grand Slams and when the ban ended, he won 5 of the next 7. At the rate he was winning you’d imagine if he’d played close to all of those 21 missing Slams, he’d have ended up with 25 or 26.
Bare stats don’t always tell the full tale.
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Boris knows
Yep. Just got the email
Really strict rules but brilliant nonetheless
Good to know.
You don’t strike me as the lawn tennis type if you get me drift
Does much outdoor tennis go on in Ireland in November?
i can only speak for lawn tennis, not sure about clay tennis or hardcourt, we switch to synthetic grass
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closed now
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
What’s the logic of that?
The demographic who play being high risk ?
It was only open for kids as of last night but they have rolled back on it now. Further discussions today.
No logic
Kids are allowed train outdoors if non contact so tennis should be fine.
Tennis Ireland have been told to close all clubs so no kids training
Fedheads are vile.
Gilles Simon believes doping rumours were spread about Rafael Nadal as many were uncomfortable with the idea he could simply be better than Roger Federer.
There were allegations of a connection between Nadal and Eufemiano Fuentes, the doctor who was ultimately jailed for his part in a Spanish cycle doping scandal.
No evidence has ever been produced linking Fuentes to Nadal, though, who has always very successfully denied any rumours to the contrary.
However, Simon believes the rumours only existed to discredit opinions that Nadal could actually be a better tennis players than Federer rather than just a better athlete.
“It is difficult to conceive [for some] that, in terms of game, Rafael Nadal could be better than Roger Federer,” Gilles Simon wrote in his new autobiography This Sport That Makes You Crazy
“We even spread rumours of doping on his account.
“Nadal does not fit into the framework. Moreover, I emphasize here that we never talk about the physique of Federer, who has little to envy that of Nadal.
“That he went five sets at 35 like what he did in Australia in 2017, it’s extraordinary. But no one noted this point.”
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scumbags
Closed now.
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You’ll have enjoyed this @Fulvio_From_Aughnacloy
Djokovic suffers heaviest defeat to lucky loser ranked 42nd in the world https://the42.ie/5250284