2017 Australian Open

[bksballer89]

The match is replaying now on ESPN2. I'm going to DVR it. Too great of a match

 

[Hs0022]

Just woke up and dreaded looking at my phone. What a win for Fed and brings some sense in the baffling equation in their amazing rivalry. Rafa looked devastated because he had the lead and he got Rafael by Fed.

 

[Smart]

I DVRed it last night and just finished watching. That was an epic match. Fed deserved to win. The match was on his racquet from start to finish.

He had one major lull at the start of the second set, but other than that, he was smacking winners. Nadal's serve picked up in the fourth and Fed's return struggled. Besides that, Fed smacked the forehand winners. He actually was returning better than Nadal. He did not give Rafa hardly any short balls. And most importantly, he had a ton of pace on the backhand, which was spot on for the 1st, 3rd, and second half of the fifth set.

As for legacies, this leaves me more convinced than ever that the biggest reason Nadal has the H2H over Fed that he does is where they played. Nadal has the epic 2008 Wimbledon win, but Fed was slumping at the time and maybe not even past his Mono. Other than that, Fed won all their meetings at Wimbledon and they never met at the US Open. On slow courts, Nadal is able to get to a couple more balls and target the Federer backhand until he misses. On fast courts, he doesn't have the time to hit the ball as deep and it sets up the Federer forehand on short balls. Fed missed quite a few in the second set, but made most of them the other four. And in Fed's prime, he had more pop on the forehand and was more consistent. In my mind, at least, the GOAT debate is over. Rafa will always be the king of clay, but Federer is the best player any of us have seen and probably will ever see.

I think the fact that the court was a bit faster made the difference in what was essentially a draw. I thought Nadal played really, really well. Fed struggled more on the short ball and net than I expected, but he made up for it with his best returning in years. With Nole clearly having lost a step over the past few months and Murray looking like crap here in Melbourne, both should go forward with an understanding that they can win more majors.

 

[Hs0022]

Four of Nadal's GS finals win against Fed came at his strongest surface the high bouncing clay (kind of like the advantage that home playing cricket teams get from building a favorable surface they practice on to thrash visitor teams on their soil). That was half of their total GS final meetings. That stat says a lot especially with the Nadal FH to Fed BH combo which gives Nadal a huge technical edge over Fed.

The mileage that Nadal put on his body due to his "exertion style long rally"play has caught up mileage wise Fed's numbers even though Fed is five years senior. They are equal in terms of body mileage. I had some doubts about Nadal's recovery getting the one day less time for recovery to be mentally and physically ready for such a huge final that had a lot on the line and was very significant for both players. Had Nadal gotten another day I think he could have pulled it off. But Fed played solid throughout the tournament and maybe he could have also risen higher to counter that.

 

[Hs0022]

I DVRed it last night and just finished watching. That was an epic match. Fed deserved to win. The match was on his racquet from start to finish.

He had one major lull at the start of the second set, but other than that, he was smacking winners. Nadal's serve picked up in the fourth and Fed's return struggled. Besides that, Fed smacked the forehand winners. He actually was returning better than Nadal. He did not give Rafa hardly any short balls. And most importantly, he had a ton of pace on the backhand, which was spot on for the 1st, 3rd, and second half of the fifth set.

As for legacies, this leaves me more convinced than ever that the biggest reason Nadal has the H2H over Fed that he does is where they played. Nadal has the epic 2008 Wimbledon win, but Fed was slumping at the time and maybe not even past his Mono. Other than that, Fed won all their meetings at Wimbledon and they never met at the US Open. On slow courts, Nadal is able to get to a couple more balls and target the Federer backhand until he misses. On fast courts, he doesn't have the time to hit the ball as deep and it sets up the Federer forehand on short balls. Fed missed quite a few in the second set, but made most of them the other four. And in Fed's prime, he had more pop on the forehand and was more consistent. In my mind, at least, the GOAT debate is over. Rafa will always be the king of clay, but Federer is the best player any of us have seen and probably will ever see.

I think the fact that the court was a bit faster made the difference in what was essentially a draw. I thought Nadal played really, really well. Fed struggled more on the short ball and net than I expected, but he made up for it with his best returning in years. With Nole clearly having lost a step over the past few months and Murray looking like crap here in Melbourne, both should go forward with an understanding that they can win more majors.

Fed did not win all of their meets at Wimby. He lost the excruciatingly close 2008 final. The h2h would have been even had Nadal made a few US open GS finals with Fed there. I think Fed is still capable of beating a 100% Nadal if Fed plays on a faster low bounce surface and he proved it at this year's Aus open. Nadal built his h2h legacy over Fed largely due to the nature of the surface they played their matches in. Nadal is also one of the strongest in mental toughness that Fed has played. They slowed down the Wimby grass to allow more rallies after the Pete era ended. Nadal was at the right place at the right time.

 

[ElTexan]

Federer was on. He played a high risk game and executed beautifully. No one was going to beat him today. Nadal didn't make mistakes, or get tired, or employ bad strategy. Federer just went for it and won.

 

[Hs0022]

I think Fed's style of play is much more aggressive and looking to dictate points and take initiative style than Nadal. Nadal's sole game plan is based on the formula of "put everything with high bounce and as much topspin as possible" to the Fed BH and wait till he makes errors and starts getting demoralized and that takes a negative overall effect on his game. That in my book has always been a "pusher strategy" the one I never liked as a tennis player. I always believed that one should be a sportsman on court with no mind games and try to play a "take initiative to win a point" game to win. Fed embodies everything I like about a player's play style.

 

[Hs0022]

I think no one believed in Federer 100% except for Fed himself. I have been hearing people say he should retire for the last four years. Andy and Nole have some major regrouping to do now. I would like to hear their thoughts on these two guys right about now.

 

[Smart]

Fed did not win all of their meets at Wimby. He lost the excruciatingly close 2008 final. The h2h would have been even had Nadal made a few US open GS finals with Fed there. I think Fed is still capable of beating a 100% Nadal if Fed plays on a faster low bounce surface and he proved it at this year's Aus open. Nadal built his h2h legacy over Fed largely due to the nature of the surface they played their matches in. Nadal is also one of the strongest in mental toughness that Fed has played. They slowed down the Wimby grass to allow more rallies after the Pete era ended. Nadal was at the right place at the right time.

Like I said above, Fed had been coming back from Mono prior to the 2008 Wimbledon and had been slumping previously. Remember, that was the year he only got four games against Nadal at Roland Garros. Fed had owned the 2008 tournament with incredible serving and net play, but he didn't have the endurance to win long points like he normally did at his peak. And towards the end of the match, Fed couldn't hit a serve in. He was gassed.

I think the best grass-court match Rafa ever played was Wimbledon in 2007. Fed didn't volley particularly well that day, but he still won, primarily because his serve came up huge, especially in the breakers.

If prime Federer and prime Nadal could be put on a court and play 10 matches on each Grand Slam, I think it would look something like:

AO: 5-5 (and more like 8-2 Federer if it played as fast as it did this year)
FO: 8-2 Nadal
Wimbledon: 9-1 Federer
US Open: 8-2 Federer

 

[Hs0022]

The fact that he beat his "bogeyman" Nadal to win this GS final, his 18th slam and also coming from a break down in the fifth gives all the necessary ammo to diffuse all the Fed critics. I am sure some of them will come up with "he didn't beat Nole or Murray, the 1 and 2 of tennis". But those guys were simply not good enough to be there to beat.

 

[cezero]

I was not prepared to be this emotional if Fed won. Wow.

So gratifying to see Fed FINALLY come up with a reply to Nadal always going to his backhand. Took more than 10 years.

When Fed was standing in the doubles alley to return on the ad side AND running around his backhand to return on the deuce side at the beginning of the 3rd set is where I started thinking Fed had a chance to win it.

Wonderful to see Nadal panic when his old tactic wasn’t working. Until the bitter end Nadal tried it, but Fed just said no, that’s enough.

Also, the commentators are fucking morons with the “when will they both play their best?” stuff. Rafa was playing as well as he could for the first 3 sets. Fed was on fire, that’s all. Baseline perfection, and easily as great as he’s ever been, even back when he was dominating.

 

[Hs0022]

I was not prepared to be this emotional if Fed won. Wow.

So gratifying to see Fed FINALLY come up with a reply to Nadal always going to his backhand. Took more than 10 years.

When Fed was standing in the doubles alley to return on the ad side AND running around his backhand to return on the deuce side at the beginning of the 3rd set is where I started thinking Fed had a chance to win it.

Wonderful to see Nadal panic when his old tactic wasn’t working. Until the bitter end Nadal tried it, but Fed just said no, that’s enough.

Also, the commentators are fucking morons with the “when will they both play their best?” stuff. Rafa was playing as well as he could for the first 3 sets. Fed was on fire, that’s all. Baseline perfection, and easily as great as he’s ever been, even back when he was dominating.

Nadal relies on the same approach to beat top right handed players, if things are not going his way he doesn't have a plan B, hence his losses to Big tall guys like Soderling at the FO and other dudes at USO and Wimbledon. I am interested to see how he bounces back at the clay swing.

 

[nuraman00]

Well sounds like this was Fed last Aussie Open.

He clarified in the studio segment with the ESPN crew.

He plans to be back next year, but said he's accounting for the possibility of injury. So he said he's not assuming he'll be healthy, as he's getting older.

 

[bksballer89]

Fed back in the top 10. If he plays in some ATP 1000 events, I'm pretty sure he will be top 8 by Wimbledon. Another notable moves in the rankings is the following:

Sam Querrey up 5 to 27th.
Mischa Zverev up 15 spots to 35.
Istomin up 37 spots to #80.
Tiafoe up 11 spots and now in the top 100 at #97.

On the Women's side, only huge move worth mentioning is Coco up 15 spots to #20.

 

[bksballer89]

We get a month off from Tennis until the tennis season really pick up again starting with the Dubai tourney at the end of February then the 2 big hard court tournaments at Indian Wells and Miami.

 

[nuraman00]

We get a month off from Tennis until the tennis season really pick up again starting with the Dubai tourney at the end of February then the 2 big hard court tournaments at Indian Wells and Miami.

Sometimes I watch a little bit of the Dubai Finals because some good players are in it.

 

[bksballer89]

Sometimes I watch a little bit of the Dubai Finals because some good players are in it.

Same here.

 

[nuraman00]

Same here.

The Dubai Finals trophy ceremony also has a ton of fireworks. I can't think of many other finals ceremonies with fireworks. It's kind of funny/cool just to watch that.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

Coco got rid of the 2 I dislike the most, Genie and Kerber. So she gets thanks from me. Other than that, how could somedbody let themselves be called Coco?

The tennis world has right sized itself again (my opinion). King Roger and Queen Serena.....

 

[nuraman00]

Coco got rid of the 2 I dislike the most, Genie and Kerber. So she gets thanks from me. Other than that, how could somedbody let themselves be called Coco?

The tennis world has right sized itself again (my opinion). King Roger and Queen Serena.....

Why do you dislike Kerber?