My two favourite tennis players face each other, on the best tennis surface, in the greatest city in the world right now.
This match is a joke, nearly as bad as Federer’s last night.
Nadal in a real dogfight here against Gublis, being outplayed much like he was against Rosol last year. Gublis has been unstoppable apparently.
Nadal goes through.
Only his champion mentality got him through that, Gulbis is one to watch out for in Paris.
Controversy tonight as Jerzy Janowicz very unsportingly claimed a challenge Richard Gasquet where the ball was in and would have given Gasquet a break up in the second set after taking the first. Janowicz called over the umpire and pointed to a different mark which the umpire fell for and awarded the point ot Janowicz who went on to win that game and the match.
It reminds me of the stunt that graceless cunt Federer tried to pull against Nadal a couple of years ago.
Berdych defeats Djokovic after being a set and 5-2 up in the second. Berdych on some good form on clay at the minute, took Murray out last week in Madrid and Djokovic this week. Nadal against Ferrer up next. Federer seems to have an easy route to the final, if gets past Janowicz tonight then he will face Paire in the semi-final.
Nadal takes the first set against Berdych in Rome, this is the best I’ve seen him play since his return.
Nadal through to the final in straight sets - his eight successive final since making his return.
Fed beat Paire to set up the final with Nadal. Lucky enough to win the first set. Paire went up a break, but then gave it straight back overdoing the drop shot. He had been serving really well throughout the set, but it fell apart in the tiebreak. It was a strange breaker, hardly any points went with serve but Fed squeaked it. Got a break early in the second. Only had one scare from then when he went 15-40 in one of the games, but saved the break points handily and didn’t look back. Paire played well, but Fed wasn’t at his best and Nadal will beat him comfortably tomorrow if he plays like that.
Rafa has taken the first set against Federer, 6-1.
Why is this not being covered live on Sky?
Got the break at the start of the second.
6-1, 2-0.
Nadal serving.
Coverage started on Sky now, Nadal is beating Federer up.
What a shot by Nadal! Genius!
Rafa serves for the tournament.
[quote=“Il Bomber Destro, post: 774419, member: 1052”]Rafa has taken the first set against Federer, 6-1.
Why is this not being covered live on Sky?[/quote]
Public interest invariably dictates scheduling patterns. Bar a few strange cases like yourself, there’s little or no public appeal in that questionable pseudo body builder.
20-10.
Nadal is the greatest tennis player of all time.
An absolute decimation.
[quote=“Il Bomber Destro, post: 774445, member: 1052”]Nadal is the greatest tennis player of all time.
[/quote]
At this stage he’s overtaken Borg as the best clay court player. Clay is more attritional and just doesn’t carry the same weight as grass or the hardcourts. Nadal has won on those surfaces but nowhere near at the same level as Laver, Borg, Sampras or Federer.
You would hope for a competitive French Open that Djokovic is not sloppy in the early rounds like he was in Madrid & Rome. He’s the only player who has the game and belief to beat Nadal on clay and he beat him well in Monte Carlo.
A more general comment about the state of the men’s game. Outside of the Top 4, there really is a lack of depth. No top class 20/21 year old’s have come through in 6-7 years since Djokovic & Murray emerged. The likes of Berdych, Gasquet, Tsonga who’ve been in Top 10 for a good few years are just not capable of making the breakthrough to the really top level.
[quote=“Wrigley Field, post: 774641, member: 1735”]At this stage he’s overtaken Borg as the best clay court player. Clay is more attritional and just doesn’t carry the same weight as grass or the hardcourts. Nadal has won on those surfaces but nowhere near at the same level as Laver, Borg, Sampras or Federer.
You would hope for a competitive French Open that Djokovic is not sloppy in the early rounds like he was in Madrid & Rome. He’s the only player who has the game and belief to beat Nadal on clay and he beat him well in Monte Carlo.
A more general comment about the state of the men’s game. Outside of the Top 4, there really is a lack of depth. No top class 20/21 year old’s have come through in 6-7 years since Djokovic & Murray emerged. The likes of Berdych, Gasquet, Tsonga who’ve been in Top 10 for a good few years are just not capable of making the breakthrough to the really top level.[/quote]
To win on clay you have to be a more complete player, it’s the toughest court to win on and one of my biggest gripes with tennis is that the clay court season is not long enough. It used to be a lot longer and that should return.
Nadal is the greatest player of all time.
I think that’s slightly missing the point. The top 4 are unbelievably good. If Berdych, Tsonga and Ferrer were around 15 years ago they would have been winning grand slams. This is a golden age for tennis.
[quote=“Il Bomber Destro, post: 774643, member: 1052”]To win on clay you have to be a more complete player, it’s the toughest court to win on and one of my biggest gripes with tennis is that the clay court season is not long enough. It used to be a lot longer and that should return.
Nadal is the greatest player of all time.[/quote]
You’re assertion that to ‘win on clay you have to be a more complete player’ has to be the front runner for idiotic post of the year. If you’ve ever even played a set of tennis on a clay court, you should known this is clearly not the case. Here’s a few simple pointers to clay court tennis which seem to have escaped you. Because clay courts are so much slower, the ball bounces much higher, the clay takes the pace out of the ball and keeps it in play much longer. Its much more difficult to hit a winner than on regular or faster courts. There’s less emphasis on volleying, quick reflexes or intuitive natural tennis ability because the ball sits up for so long and you have practically all day to hit it.
Its universally accepted that the clay is a real leveller. Average players who wouldn’t come with in an asses roar of winning a tournament on any other surface, can do so on clay. You only have to look at the recent lists of winners in the respective Grand Slams. In the last quarter century, the following ten players - Michael Chang, Anders Gomes, Sergi Brugera, Thomas Muster, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Gustavo Kuerten, Carlos Moya, Alberto Costa, Juan Carlos Ferrero & Gaston Gaudia have all won the French Open. The one thing all ten had in common, it was their only Grand Slam win. Similarly in the same time span the French Open has thrown up finalists in Alberto Berasategui, Andrei Medvedev, Alex Corretja, Magnus Norman, Martin Verkerk, Guillermo Coria, Mariano Puerta & Robin Soderling - again, all of whom have never featured in a Grand Slam final outside of Paris.
Any list of the greatest 10 players of all time would surely include Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg & Pete Sampras. None of them every won on the dirt at the French Open. Connors & McEnroe operated at a time when the top players either didn’t compete or take the Australian Open seriously. Other than that all 5 are multiple winners at Wimbledon, US Open and at the Australian Open. I take it applying your logic all of the Roland Garros finalists I’ve mentioned are more complete players than Connors, McEnroe, Becker, Edberg & Sampras?
Your dismissive attitude towards tennis other than on clay, shows you have no feel or understanding for the game of tennis. Your interest in tennis seems to exclusively revolve around your obsession with Nadal.
Nadal is at this stage the greatest ever clay court player, that is beyond doubt. He’s more than a clay court specialist in that he has had success and won Slams on the other surfaces. He has undoubtedly been helped in that all surfaces are now very same, same - in that the grass courts and hardcourts have been slowed down considerably.
To base an argument that a tennis player is the greatest ever because of their record on clay is akin to arguing that a cross country specialist is the greatest ever distance runner regardless of what they may or may not have achieved on the track. You’re like a teenybopper at a boy band concert when it comes to proclaiming the greatness of your precious Rafa. Frankly, your teenage like infatuation with him is downright creepy.