ajzepp Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 Congrats to Rafa Nadal on his sixth French Open championship in seven years. The only other to win this many French Opens by age 25 was the great Bjorn Borg, BUT, Rafa would have most certainly had seven had he not gone down to injury in 2009. Federer can thank his lucky stars for that injury too, cause otherwise Federer would not have been able to add the career grand slam to his resume. Anyway, I have played tennis since age 4, and it's a sport I have loved all my life. Clay is the ultimate surface for baseliners, and this match today was an amazing display by the most dominant clay player of all time. It's not common at all to see players dominate on BOTH grass and clay, but Rafa already has two Wimbledon titles to go with his six French Open trophies. It's really very impressive, and in my opinion he's easily the greatest player alive right now. I know there are at least a few tennis fans on here...Ramius, Lana, etc...hope you guys at least catch the highlights, cause some of these points were AMAZING. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 Congrats to Rafa Nadal on his sixth French Open championship in seven years. The only other to win this many French Opens by age 25 was the great Bjorn Borg, BUT, Rafa would have most certainly had seven had he not gone down to injury in 2009. Federer can thank his lucky stars for that injury too, cause otherwise Federer would not have been able to add the career grand slam to his resume. Anyway, I have played tennis since age 4, and it's a sport I have loved all my life. Clay is the ultimate surface for baseliners, and this match today was an amazing display by the most dominant clay player of all time. It's not common at all to see players dominate on BOTH grass and clay, but Rafa already has two Wimbledon titles to go with his six French Open trophies. It's really very impressive, and in my opinion he's easily the greatest player alive right now. I know there are at least a few tennis fans on here...Ramius, Lana, etc...hope you guys at least catch the highlights, cause some of these points were AMAZING. Federer's also lucky to have played/dominated during arguably the worst era of tennis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajzepp Posted June 5, 2011 Author Share Posted June 5, 2011 Federer's also lucky to have played/dominated during arguably the worst era of tennis. True, especially in terms of American challengers. Andre and Pete were in the twilight of their careers, and Roddick never amounted to anything more than a big serve. You have Djokovich on the horizon, from Serbia, but after watching him in the semifinals on Friday, he's not ready for prime time...the guy had several advantages over Federer, but kept hitting unforced errors toward the end of the match. I think he may one day earn the nickname "choke-ovich" if he's not careful. But yeah, no Boris...no Edberg...no Johnny Mac or Jimmy Connors...no Lendl...no Agassi....no Pete...etc, etc, etc. Federer has had a pretty smooth road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UConn James Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 Nadal, at the end of his run, is probably going to be the best ever. Agreed on the Federer points. For those of us who are antenna-only, ESPN3.com is awesome. This year, I only caught one match in the two weeks online, but it's awesome that it's there. Same deal as the NHL, tennis is SO much better in HDTV. You know, besides Nadal picking at the rear end of his shorts.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miyagi-Do Karate Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 Federer's also lucky to have played/dominated during arguably the worst era of tennis. Agreed. I've never been enamored with Federer's game. Plus, I don't know how he can be the greatest of his time when his biggest rival has pretty much smoked him on every surface in numerous big matches. As for Nadal, what's really impressive about him to me is he isn't a one-trick pony-- very rare to see a clay specialist also excel on the other surfaces... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajzepp Posted June 5, 2011 Author Share Posted June 5, 2011 Agreed. I've never been enamored with Federer's game. Plus, I don't know how he can be the greatest of his time when his biggest rival has pretty much smoked him on every surface in numerous big matches. As for Nadal, what's really impressive about him to me is he isn't a one-trick pony-- very rare to see a clay specialist also excel on the other surfaces... Yep, I have no doubt that Nadal is, and always will be, the better all around player than Federer. Federer is a class act, so I don't mean to take anything away from his accomplishments, but they are only 4 years apart in age and I don't know how anyone can say Federer is the stronger player. Also, Nadal has beaten Federer on Federer's best surface, yet you can't say the same in reverse. Federer has never beaten Nadal at the French on clay. Nadal>Picard>Federer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrFishfinder Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 Federer's also lucky to have played/dominated during arguably the worst era of tennis. Inarguably. I can't stand watching tennis anymore. Men are baseline automatons and women shriek like it's a slasher film. Roddick is cooked and the Williams sisters are heading off into the sunset or fashion world or whatever. American tennis is all but dead. Meh de meh, meh, meh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajzepp Posted June 5, 2011 Author Share Posted June 5, 2011 Inarguably. I can't stand watching tennis anymore. Men are baseline automatons and women shriek like it's a slasher film. Roddick is cooked and the Williams sisters are heading off into the sunset or fashion world or whatever. American tennis is all but dead. Meh de meh, meh, meh. It really is too bad for American tennis. Those of us who were born in the 70s really have had a great run up until recently. We got to see Connors and Johnny Mac in their prime, and then on the heels of that we had two greats to replace them in Sampras and Agassi. Even our less stellar talent made some waves at times such as Michael Chang and James Blake. We're pretty much got nobody on the scene right now who can threaten. Roddick has been able to serve his way into the quarters and semis at Wimbledon and the US Open, but that's about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrFishfinder Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 It really is too bad for American tennis. Those of us who were born in the 70s really have had a great run up until recently. We got to see Connors and Johnny Mac in their prime, and then on the heels of that we had two greats to replace them in Sampras and Agassi. Even our less stellar talent made some waves at times such as Michael Chang and James Blake. We're pretty much got nobody on the scene right now who can threaten. Roddick has been able to serve his way into the quarters and semis at Wimbledon and the US Open, but that's about it. Yep. I grew up watching Connors, Mac & Borg duke it out. Throw in Nastase and Billie Jean, Chrissie, Martina (among others) and you had some great offensive tennis in there. Gone are the days of a player driving forward to get to the net &set up some world class counter punching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajzepp Posted June 5, 2011 Author Share Posted June 5, 2011 Yep. I grew up watching Connors, Mac & Borg duke it out. Throw in Nastase and Billie Jean, Chrissie, Martina (among others) and you had some great offensive tennis in there. Gone are the days of a player driving forward to get to the net &set up some world class counter punching. That's sort of why Wimbledon has lost a bit of it's luster for me with the advent of these oversized, super duper power racquets. Grass is the fastest surface to play on, and whereas back in the day you had a very balanced serve and volley type of match, nowadays you can take a guy with a huge serve and he can make it all the way to the finals. The points are much faster and rallies are a rarity. That's sort of why I really enjoy watching them play on clay. I'm a natural baseliner myself, but on clay you can still have a serve and volley game, but it's much more difficult to win if you don't have mad skill with the ground strokes from behind the baseline. But back before technology helped these guys get their serves into the 135+ mph range, you had some epic matches on grass. I still remember watching some of those Becker/Edberg matches in the 80s at Wimbledon...WOW, that was really something. Thankfully Nadal has brought some of that back because the guy can get to nearly ANY ball. He's quick with amazing vision and he's one of the best returners in tennis. He's less prone to being crushed by someone with a huge serve and nothing more. Federer has a solid game from behind the baseline, but he's more of a serve and volley guy. A guy like Nadal can do literally EVERYTHING well, and that's another reason why I feel he's the best player today. He's like Agassi was, except Agassi had more of a learning curve in terms of getting his serve and volley game up to speed. Once he did that, he became one of the few who have won a career grand slam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrFishfinder Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 That's sort of why Wimbledon has lost a bit of it's luster for me with the advent of these oversized, super duper power racquets. Grass is the fastest surface to play on, and whereas back in the day you had a very balanced serve and volley type of match, nowadays you can take a guy with a huge serve and he can make it all the way to the finals. The points are much faster and rallies are a rarity. That's sort of why I really enjoy watching them play on clay. I'm a natural baseliner myself, but on clay you can still have a serve and volley game, but it's much more difficult to win if you don't have mad skill with the ground strokes from behind the baseline. But back before technology helped these guys get their serves into the 135+ mph range, you had some epic matches on grass. I still remember watching some of those Becker/Edberg matches in the 80s at Wimbledon...WOW, that was really something. Thankfully Nadal has brought some of that back because the guy can get to nearly ANY ball. He's quick with amazing vision and he's one of the best returners in tennis. He's less prone to being crushed by someone with a huge serve and nothing more. Federer has a solid game from behind the baseline, but he's more of a serve and volley guy. A guy like Nadal can do literally EVERYTHING well, and that's another reason why I feel he's the best player today. He's like Agassi was, except Agassi had more of a learning curve in terms of getting his serve and volley game up to speed. Once he did that, he became one of the few who have won a career grand slam. Agreed that Nadal is the best player today. Federer is getting farther and farther away from beating him. Novak is the only one who could possibly give him a run but he doesn't have the chops on all of the surfaces to do that at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miyagi-Do Karate Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 That's sort of why Wimbledon has lost a bit of it's luster for me with the advent of these oversized, super duper power racquets. Grass is the fastest surface to play on, and whereas back in the day you had a very balanced serve and volley type of match, nowadays you can take a guy with a huge serve and he can make it all the way to the finals. The points are much faster and rallies are a rarity. That's sort of why I really enjoy watching them play on clay. I'm a natural baseliner myself, but on clay you can still have a serve and volley game, but it's much more difficult to win if you don't have mad skill with the ground strokes from behind the baseline. But back before technology helped these guys get their serves into the 135+ mph range, you had some epic matches on grass. I still remember watching some of those Becker/Edberg matches in the 80s at Wimbledon...WOW, that was really something. Thankfully Nadal has brought some of that back because the guy can get to nearly ANY ball. He's quick with amazing vision and he's one of the best returners in tennis. He's less prone to being crushed by someone with a huge serve and nothing more. Federer has a solid game from behind the baseline, but he's more of a serve and volley guy. A guy like Nadal can do literally EVERYTHING well, and that's another reason why I feel he's the best player today. He's like Agassi was, except Agassi had more of a learning curve in terms of getting his serve and volley game up to speed. Once he did that, he became one of the few who have won a career grand slam. Wimbledon has been unwatchable for a while now. When Sampras used to play, it was the biggest snooze fest. Ace... error on the return....clean winner return...that's it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajzepp Posted June 6, 2011 Author Share Posted June 6, 2011 Wimbledon has been unwatchable for a while now. When Sampras used to play, it was the biggest snooze fest. Ace... error on the return....clean winner return...that's it. I agree, but the Rafa v Nadal final from a couple years ago was one of the most epic matches I've ever seen. Rafa makes tennis watchable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miyagi-Do Karate Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 I agree, but the Rafa v Nadal final from a couple years ago was one of the most epic matches I've ever seen. Rafa makes tennis watchable Completely agree. That was one of the few recent Wimbledon matches where I thought it was truly riveting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajzepp Posted June 6, 2011 Author Share Posted June 6, 2011 Completely agree. That was one of the few recent Wimbledon matches where I thought it was truly riveting. Riveting is a perfect word for it...there were a few points during the match on Sunday that reminded me of that Wimbledon match...I don't know if they'll be in the same half of the draw, but I'd love to see a Rafa v. Djokovich final this year, either at Wimbledon or the US Open. I'm kind of tired of Federer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UConn James Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 Riveting is a perfect word for it...there were a few points during the match on Sunday that reminded me of that Wimbledon match...I don't know if they'll be in the same half of the draw, but I'd love to see a Rafa v. Djokovich final this year, either at Wimbledon or the US Open. I'm kind of tired of Federer. And as a corollary, I think Federer is kind of tired. As they put up the graphic after his wife Mirka gave birth last year, the last father to win any major, iirc was Rod Laver. Granted that tennis is a younger man's game and that by default any man old enough to be having kids has lost a step... but it also plays into new responsibilities, new priorities and such. I have to chime in that I am a huge Wimbledon fan, to go on top of being a majors fan. Those are special fortnights. I haven't been disappointed by a Wimbledon final in a while. That one with Roddick a couple of years ago (the year after the epic Nadal-Federer one) went five sets, he wasn't broken until the final game/set/match, and he gave his all. I don't know what match anybody else was watching. That was a great one, maybe only to the one the year before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajzepp Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 And as a corollary, I think Federer is kind of tired. As they put up the graphic after his wife Mirka gave birth last year, the last father to win any major, iirc was Rod Laver. Granted that tennis is a younger man's game and that by default any man old enough to be having kids has lost a step... but it also plays into new responsibilities, new priorities and such. I have to chime in that I am a huge Wimbledon fan, to go on top of being a majors fan. Those are special fortnights. I haven't been disappointed by a Wimbledon final in a while. That one with Roddick a couple of years ago (the year after the epic Nadal-Federer one) went five sets, he wasn't broken until the final game/set/match, and he gave his all. I don't know what match anybody else was watching. That was a great one, maybe only to the one the year before. I agree...Wimbledon has been special to me since I was a kid. I used to love going back to Erie, PA to visit my extended family and watching the matches together. My aunt and uncle really liked Ivan Lendl, and it was so frustrating watching him fail year after year. It just started to get frustraing, cause whereas you have great matches with guys like Agassi and Nadal, it seems like it's always Wimbledon when these Lurch-like service boomers come out and contend for the title. Guys like Goran Ivanicevic (sp?), Mark Phillipousis, Leyton Hewitt, and Andy Roddick. Federer has a very strong serve, but his overall game is also very refined. The same can't really be said about some of these other guys. They just ace you into oblivion. I think Roddick is hugely overrated, but you're right about that last final between he and Federer. I don't remember how many times they played, but I know the one you're talking about (2009?) was pretty good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoodBye Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Did Nadal get any marriage proposals during the French Open? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan in Chicago Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Congrats to Rafa Nadal on his sixth French Open championship in seven years. The only other to win this many French Opens by age 25 was the great Bjorn Borg, BUT, Rafa would have most certainly had seven had he not gone down to injury in 2009. Federer can thank his lucky stars for that injury too, cause otherwise Federer would not have been able to add the career grand slam to his resume. Anyway, I have played tennis since age 4, and it's a sport I have loved all my life. Clay is the ultimate surface for baseliners, and this match today was an amazing display by the most dominant clay player of all time. It's not common at all to see players dominate on BOTH grass and clay, but Rafa already has two Wimbledon titles to go with his six French Open trophies. It's really very impressive, and in my opinion he's easily the greatest player alive right now. I know there are at least a few tennis fans on here...Ramius, Lana, etc...hope you guys at least catch the highlights, cause some of these points were AMAZING. I am also a big tennis fan and grew up with Johnny Mc being my hero. I used to play tennis and started wearing head bands and custom made (by a tailor in India) ST shirts that resembled the ones he wore. Anyway, while I lament the fall of American tennis, I love the way Rafa plays and carries himself. Federer kind of raised the level of mens tennis overall but I think he is very arrogant and I cannot stand his attitude. Rafa on the other hand is a better overall player and is very modest. He is the working class player and I am not surprised that many Bills fans here also prefer him to Fed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajzepp Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 I am also a big tennis fan and grew up with Johnny Mc being my hero. I used to play tennis and started wearing head bands and custom made (by a tailor in India) ST shirts that resembled the ones he wore. Anyway, while I lament the fall of American tennis, I love the way Rafa plays and carries himself. Federer kind of raised the level of mens tennis overall but I think he is very arrogant and I cannot stand his attitude. Rafa on the other hand is a better overall player and is very modest. He is the working class player and I am not surprised that many Bills fans here also prefer him to Fed. It's funny, cause at first I didn't see Federer as an arrogant player...until something didn't go his way. When he's winning, he's all humble and cordial, but when he loses he starts to whine a bit. I dunno, something about him just rubs me the wrong way. I totally agere about Rafa...the guy leaves it all on the court every time he plays and he seems very down to earth. He was on the court after the French open final signing autographs for kids for like an hour, even taking pictures with whoever asked. He seems like a really good kid. Very easy to root for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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