Spot the man who's never watched a French Open.
Sadly, this is true. Think I've only ever seen about 3 matches of the French in the past 3 years, none of which have involved Roger.
I don't really see it happening. He's world number 1 because of his consistency and fitness (which won him this match in the end) but there are players who can more than match him when they perform at their peak, bar on clay. Over the course of four grand slams surely someone has to put in a top-class performance and knock him out.
Pretty much, yeah. Rafa's game is well suited to beating Federer's, just like Federer is tailor-made to own Roddick.
It's the fact that he grunts with every shot, makes it all look such a struggle (in contrast to Fed, who when he was at the zenith won with the apparent effortlessness of a Corinthian god), those ****ing annoying bicep pulls to celebrate &, crucially, those upturned nostrils that give him an unfortunate rodentine look.
As much as I like Federer, I find it hard to hate or dislike Nadal. In fact, I kinda thought Federer crying took the sheen off Nadal's win.
I don't understand how people don't like Rafa. Unlike almost every other men's player, he's barely ever uttered an arrogant word in his life, and he's so gracious when he wins, and gracious in defeat as well.
Do find that creepy. That left arm is massive for anyone other than a prowrestler however.
Liked last year when Courier got Federer to admit that when he plays tennis on Xbox, he plays as Nadal, because he "wants the muscle"
That's brilliant.
As much as you can guess at these things from an armchair in front of the telly, I think Rog probably feels that his legacy is on the line in the next twelve months - foolish as that idea is. After last year, he's been almost written off in a lot of corners, but from what you read, feels that people didn't appreciate how much his health issues impacted him. After winning the US he would have felt an enormous vindication that he wasn't finished, but would go into this year thinking that if he doesn't win a major and/or beat Nadal in a big match, he won't have silenced the doubters.
Yep, I was telling my mates that tonight.
) considering Roger will have had a substantial losing record against the best player of his generation. Sampras didn't have that with Agassi.
Not making excuses for him & especially not for him crying (FFS, Rodge, stiff upper lip and all that), but it must be hard for anyone when you've owned the world for ages and then you fall ill to discover on your recovery that this upstart has your number and just won't lie down.