*Official* Tennis Thread

[Zinzan]

Superb viewing.

 

[Jono]

This thread was great to read after the fact.

Never had much personal love for the two over the years as I was such a huge Roddick fan, but hard to have bitterness in your heart when you watch the two greatest ever battle it out in 5.

Haha, always appreciated your love for A-Rod.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Haha, always appreciated your love for A-Rod.

The 2009 Wimbledon final will always be the most heartbreaking moment in sports. Roddick had him. The rain, Jono. The ****ing rain.

 

[vcs]

I love that man.

 

[OverratedSanity]

How good is this image with Fed and his trophy reflected in Nadal's plate?

 

[Jono]

The 2009 Wimbledon final will always be the most heartbreaking moment in sports. Roddick had him. The rain, Jono. The ****ing rain.

That was rough as. Not broken until the final set ffs.

I still remember you cheering hard for Roddick to beat Fed in a Masters 1000, maybe Cinci. For some reason I have this random recollection of you saying "BREAKKKKKKKKKKKKK HIM ANDY" or something, which he went on to do and then won, haha.

 

[Anil]

yes! yes! yes! i recorded the final now i can watch it in peace!

 

[vcs]

Let me leave you with some Fedal porn.

Oh boy, I get the feeling I'll be watching the highlights of this one a lot in the next few days.

 

[Burgey]

Hadn't seen this til this morning. Gold.

https://twitter.com/rogerfederer/status/822632054940635136

 

[Anil]

the backhand that rafa used to feast on, that was a bonafide weapon for roger this time, in fact that's probably that won him the match...

 

[vcs]

It was an odd match in the sense that there were dramatic momentum swings, but very few stretches where both were playing well at the same time (except for the latter half of the 5th set). There were periods where Fed would look Godly and untouchable, and then suddenly he turned into a complete scrub at the start of set 2 and 4. Mostly it coincided with the periods where his serve and forehand were finding their mark. Fortunately for him, it came back in the nick of time.

But that was probably the only way he could have hoped to win this match, by not giving Rafa any rhythm and staying away from long rallies and slugfest games. There was talk that the court was quicker than usual and this undoubtedly would have helped Federer.

 

[Anil]

yes the court quickness was definitely a factor in roger's favor, also rafa's 5 hour marathon semifinal probably caught up to him by the fifth set...but the backhand still amazed me, it's been a while since i saw a full federer match and he was really making nadal pay whenever he attacked his backhand...deep, incisive shots played with authority both cross-court and down the line...even when he was up a break in the fifth, you could see rafa was not really comfortable...federer had break points in every single service game...

 

[indiaholic]

Amazing that his game is still getting better 14 years after winning his first grand slam.

 

[vcs]

Yeah his backhand and volleying has improved in the last couple of years. Missed some really stupid volleys yesterday though but that's the pressure Nadal puts you under.

 

[honestbharani]

The faster court is what really helps him. You just see how used to baseline rallying so many of the players are today. I just wish they can bring back the variety which is when Fed became that good. Its not fair on Djokovic or Murray or Wawirinka or even Nadal, to an extent, that they are not given those challenges to see if they can adapt as well as the past greats or not. They deserve the opportunity to try and we deserve the opportunity to see that kind of variance int he game itself.

 

[vcs]

Beating Nadal on a faster court is still ****ing hard for Federer, much harder than it is for Rafa to beat him on slower, bouncy ones. He needs a bit of luck to go his way. That's just the nature of the matchup. But quicker courts make Rafa more vulnerable to early upsets against big hitters, servebots etc.

 

[Jono]

Beating Nadal on a faster court is still ****ing hard for Federer, much harder than it is for Rafa to beat him on slower, bouncy ones. He needs a bit of luck to go his way. That's just the nature of the matchup. But quicker courts make Rafa more vulnerable to early upsets against big hitters, servebots etc.

Not according to Fed. He explained the older players making it deep, including Nadal, thanks to them being used to playing on these courts, as opposed to the younger players.

Let's not forget he bopped Milos in 3 sets on what was a faster court, whereas he's done bubkis at a hard court Grand Slam for years on what were apparently slower courts than this.

 

[vcs]

Yeah I'm generalizing a bit here. Obviously this tournament he was playing well enough to navigate the obstacles. I'm thinking more of his Wimbledon losses to Dustin Brown, Kyrgios, Rosol etc.

 

[Anil]

wimbledon grass is not actually the fastest playing surface anymore, the summer and fall hard courts are much faster...rafa's biggest issue on grass is the uneven bounce compared to other surfaces...

 

[indiaholic]

Ummm prefers slow flat tracks.. Can't handle pace or uneven bounce. Sounds like the stereotypical Indian home track bully.