*Official* Tennis Thread

[grecian]

Cool, I can use my crap Twitter joke now, Murray really is equivalent to Ringo, the other three are all so much better than him.

 

[Johnners]

Out of interest, how big of an advantage do you think it is for the winner of semi-final 1, over the winner of semi-final 2 given they get an extra days rest before the final?

 

[Jono]

Ruckus you gotta stop talking about Nole being mentally weak. He shows the same weaknesses Rafa and Roger shows when they are being beaten.

Nole was absolutely clutch at 5 games all.

Legend.

 

[Johnners]

Ruckus you gotta stop talking about Nole being mentally weak. He shows the same weaknesses Rafa and Roger shows when they are being beaten.

Nole was absolutely clutch at 5 games all.

Legend.

Agree with this, 2 years ago I think it was certainly a bit of a problem, but not anymore.

 

[benchmark00]

I'm a big Novak fan, but I can't see him beating Nadal on Sunday with this breathing issue he has. I think the better players will just put you to the sword when he sees a weakness like that.

 

[grecian]

Tennis equivalent of "Is this Liverpool's year?"

I also enjoy the "He's up against three World greats" excuse, after every loss.The anger of Muzza fans when Henman trends after he loses is also always funny. Rather forgetting the first rule of the playground, the more you whinge about it the more people are going to do it, and of course their tweets help it rise.

Hilarious, after all anyone with half a brain know's he's better. Still doesn't make it less hilarious.

 

[Johnners]

I'm a big Novak fan, but I can't see him beating Nadal on Sunday with this breathing issue he has. I think the better players will just put you to the sword when he sees a weakness like that.

I tend to agree, as much as I'd like to see Novak triple bagel ratface. But then, I honestly thought he had no chance of beating Murray tonight if it wasn't in straight sets after seeing how much he struggled against Ferrer, and then again in the first 2 sets here. Nadal should definitely be considered the favourite though.

 

[Ruckus]

Ruckus you gotta stop talking about Nole being mentally weak. He shows the same weaknesses Rafa and Roger shows when they are being beaten.

Nole was absolutely clutch at 5 games all.

Legend.

Yeah it was a very good fight from Novak, but it could be argued he shouldn't have let Murray get into the contest so much to begin with. He has definately improved the mental aspect of his game, but I don't agree he is up there in that respect with Federer (or what he used to be at least) and Nadal (especially).

Damn though, I seriously feel for Murray. Really was hoping for a final with him. Hard to predict who will win now. Would usually say Novak, but he is going to be pretty knackered after this.

 

[Johnners]

Yeah it was a very good fight from Novak, but it could be argued he shouldn't have let Murray get into the contest so much to begin with. He has definately improved the mental aspect of his game, but I don't agree he is up there in that respect with Federer (or what he used to be at least) and Nadal (especially).

Damn though, I seriously feel for Murray. Really was hoping for a final with him. Hard to predict who will win now. Would usually say Novak, but he is going to be pretty knackered after this.

Doesn't the fact that he's beaten Nadal in 6 straight finals somewhat counter that argument?

 

[Ruckus]

Na his game just matches up very well against Nadal, especially on hard courts.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

I also enjoy the "He's up against three World greats" excuse, after every loss.The anger of Muzza fans when Henman trends after he loses is also always funny. Rather forgetting the first rule of the playground, the more you whinge about it the more people are going to do it, and of course their tweets help it rise.

Hilarious, after all anyone with half a brain know's he's better. Still doesn't make it less hilarious.

True.

Still a better player than Thomas Johansson though.

 

[Jono]

Na his game just matches up very well against Nadal, especially on hard courts.

Beat him twice on clay, including the slow clay of Rome, and beat him at Wimbledon.

He's not more mentally weak than Roger and Rafa. It's a myth because he shows more emotion and because he was fragile back in 2008.

You don't do what he did against the best in the world if you are more mentally fragile than the other top players.

 

[Johnners]

Na his game just matches up very well against Nadal, especially on hard courts.

So what about the wins on Clay & Grass then? One would have thought that if Nadal had the mental edge he would've at least won 1 of the 6 finals, especially given 2 of them were on his favourite surface.

Edit: Also, what Jono said.

 

[Ruckus]

Been him twice on clay, including the slow clay of Rome, and beat him at Wimbledon.

He's not more mentally weak than Roger and Rafa. It's a myth because he shows more emotion and because he was fragile back in 2008.

You don't do what he did against the best in the world if you are more mentally fragile than the other top players.

Yeah I said especially on hard courts, where he has had most of his success. Djokovic has an awesome defensive game which allows him to parry Nadal's own style of chasing every ball down etc., but he also has enough penetration from the baseline to trouble him. Nadal's defensive game is slightly better and more consistent than Djokovic's though, which means on the slower clay courts the contest is going to be more even (add to the that the extra bounce on clay which Nadal exploits with the ridiculous amount of top spin he generates). On the faster hard courts though, Nadal doesn't flatten his groundstrokes enough to generate the same pace with his shots as Novak, so the contest is almost always going to be skewed towards the latter imo.

I've always thought of Novak as someone with an absurd amount of natural talent, so I'm not suprised at all with his recent flourish. And of course you don't achieve that without being mentally strong, but I think his success can be more attributed to his prodigious natural ability than anything else. Nadal is probably the opposite way around...slightly less natural talent imo, but he makes up for it with his immense tenacity and athleticism.

 

[Johnners]

Anyone else find it a bit awkward that where the 2 finalists were conceived was actually being discussed? How does she know this!?

 

[grecian]

True.

Still a better player than Thomas Johansson though.

Yeah, but so was Henman, and he was probably better than Kraijek. Murray is better than Del Potro, so far, always gonna have a few undeserving slam winners.

 

[Anil]

squeal wins, crushes screech...

 

[Jono]

Yeah, but so was Henman, and he was probably better than Kraijek. Murray is better than Del Potro, so far, always gonna have a few undeserving slam winners.

Delpo wasn't undeserving. Beat Rafa and Roger in the same Slam. Murray can't do that yet.

 

[Anil]

Delpo wasn't undeserving. Beat Rafa and Roger in the same Slam. Murray can't do that yet.

right and neither was krajicek...he beat sampras and stich on his way to the title and had a 6-4 career record against pistol pete...

 

[Jono]

Richard Krajicek was an awesome name ftr.

Anyway I'm going to be at Rod Laver tonight to see Rafa and Novak go head-to-head in the final. Hoping for 5 sets and won't mind who wins.

Can't wait