The unofficial Roland Garros thread

[bksballer89]

5-5 in the 3rd.

 

[Hs0022]

Feds wins the third set Tb by 7-5!! On to the fourth.

 

[Hs0022]

Nice and easy win 6-4 in the fourth set on second match point!! Fed needed to win in four. Conserving every bit of energy vs Nadal will guarantee him a set against the Spanish Bull in the Semis.

The only consolation is that Rafa is not the younger crazy invincible version of himself and that Fed is a better version of himself on clay and especially vs Rafa. Fed, Please bring all hell and vengeance from all those five or six losses against your opponent at the French.

 

[bksballer89]

Nice and easy win 6-4 in the fourth set on second match point!! Fed needed to win in four. Conserving every bit of energy vs Nadal will guarantee him a set against the Spanish Bull in the Semis.

The only consolation is that Rafa is not the younger crazy invincible version of himself and that Fed is a better version of himself on clay and especially vs Rafa. Fed, Please bring all hell and vengeance from all those five or six losses against your opponent at the French.

A 4 set battle where literally every set was tight is a easy win?

Are you fucking dumb

 

[tducey]

Feds/Nadal in the semis again. Always good to see those 2 all time greats going at it.

 

[Hs0022]

I think I am gonna skip watching Fedal #39! Statistically speaking most of the tough matches of Fed I have seen in the past has tended to “jinx” his result. I am gonna play it safe. Helps to be at work while the play goes on. May the best player win, without the aid of any gamesmanship from either. Just a request to Nadal, if you go down a set or lose momentum, please do not call for trainer unnecessarily, or “use the toilet break” to break momentum. Just play it out. You are gonna earn lots of respect from Federer supporters.

 

[bksballer89]

A match that took 3:35, went 4 sets, and included 2 tiebreakers is now considered an easy match

lmao

 

[Hank Kingsley]

I was actually watching Rog and Stan at work this AM on TSN Live. Until I went to the pool at 8 AM for my swim. Just as I left Rog had won 3rd set TB.

But I missed the end because I think TSN dropped it when it rained.

At least he won. We'll see how it goes since he now plays Nadal.

 

[nuraman00]

Fedal sounds much better! I don’t like either term btw.

I agree, I don't like either term. It's a made-up term.

 

[nuraman00]

A 4 set battle where literally every set was tight is a easy win?

Are you fucking dumb

I agree, it was not easy at all.

For most of the 4th set, Wawrinka had a lot of break chances.

FED's serving was terrible in the last service game, and tiebreak. He made 2 first serves in the last regular game before the tiebreak.

Great match, happy to see both in championship form.

Some people wondered why he decided to play clay this year, but matches like these are why. It's good for him to keep playing these top players. He's going to keep facing them, and the more times he plays them, the more data he will have on what worked and what didn't work. It would not have been good to take a 2 - 3 month break, and forget what it's like facing these top players in a real match.

Matches like this also give him confidence, that's he has beaten them recently too.

Also, again, FED showed he's one of the best clay players. Outside of guys like Nadal, Thiem, Djokovic, Wawrinka, Tsitsipas, Nishikori, Del Potro, maybe Cilic, he can beat the other players easily on clay too. He only spent 7 hours in his previous 4 rounds.

He said in his press conference that he wants to face Nadal, because he knows to achieve a good result, he has to beat him. He said if his mentality had been to avoid Nadal, then he wouldn't have bothered even playing clay.

Both players were throwing everything they had at each other, in the 4th set, to try and get the win. Every tactic they had.

Wawrinka's streak of saving 16 straight break points, going back to the end of the Tsitsipas match, was impressive. One of the most mentally tough things I've seen.

 

[Hs0022]

I agree, it was not easy at all.

For most of the 4th set, Wawrinka had a lot of break chances.

FED's serving was terrible in the last service game, and tiebreak. He made 2 first serves in the last regular game before the tiebreak.

Great match, happy to see both in championship form.

Some people wondered why he decided to play clay this year, but matches like these are why. It's good for him to keep playing these top players. He's going to keep facing them, and the more times he plays them, the more data he will have on what worked and what didn't work. It would not have been good to take a 2 - 3 month break, and forget what it's like facing these top players in a real match.

Matches like this also give him confidence, that's he has beaten them recently too.

Also, again, FED showed he's one of the best clay players. Outside of guys like Nadal, Thiem, Djokovic, Wawrinka, Tsitsipas, Nishikori, Del Potro, maybe Cilic, he can beat the other players easily on clay too. He only spent 7 hours in his previous 4 rounds.

He said in his press conference that he wants to face Nadal, because he knows to achieve a good result, he has to beat him. He said if his mentality had been to avoid Nadal, then he wouldn't have bothered even playing clay.

Both players were throwing everything they had at each other, in the 4th set, to try and get the win. Every tactic they had.

Wawrinka's streak of saving 16 straight break points, going back to the end of the Tsitsipas match, was impressive. One of the most mentally tough things I've seen.

I watched about half of the match and thought Roger didn’t look very troubled. Almost as if he knew he was going to win despite any hitches. Relaxed more like.

Against Nadal he has played more matches 38 and trails 13-3 on clay I think but it’s a different story.

Nadal has always found ways in most of their h2h matches that Fed has lost to disrupt Fed’s physical and mental game. Either by taunting or luring Fed to play his own style of slugger/pusher game from the baseline ( which Nadal does one of the best in the world unless he runs into a Soderling type player ) or with gamesmanship to take trainer/bathroom breaks to break Fed’s momentum.

Fed was only recently been able to turn that around and it was both mentally and game wise. Game wise it was the confidence that his skills are no less than Nadal’s and that if he was able to execute his natural game he could win the match ( mentally) and the fact that he uses a bigger headsize racquet now and game wise he is more aggressive and that is the best way to beat a slugger or pusher like Nadal.

Hope he can translate his non clay court game to clay and win tomorrow.

 

[Hs0022]

One interesting thing is that Fed has not played Nadal on clay since 2013 and he used to play with the smaller 90 sqin headsize frame back then and would shank and mis-hit backhands when Nadal would pummel that Wing with his high rise topspin forehand shot.

This time round it will be a more confident Fed facing that shot with a whopping headsize increase of 8 sqin.

I think executing the down the line Backhand deep into the court from Fed will be one of the major keys if he is to beat Nadal. My theory is that he can stretch or displace Nadal to one side with that shot more because of his two handed backhand ( Nadal will have to cover more ground to set up the shot due to a shorter reach on that wing) and then he can pummel the inside out Forehand to Nadal’s forehand wing.

Also taking the backhand on the rise and early is to be expected as well as net rushes after a deep shot.

 

[Hs0022]

All matches cancelled for today!! Wow. Meaning whoever plays their QF matches next will get less rest for the semis and finals. Fed probably will play Nadal on Friday then?

 

[bksballer89]

All matches cancelled for today!! Wow. Meaning whoever plays their QF matches next will get less rest for the semis and finals. Fed probably will play Nadal on Friday then?

Yes so the rest would be equal until the finals at least.

Both guys who play tomorrow will not a day off for their semi finals but the rest until the finals will be either. Both will get a day off

 

[cezero]

federer will get destroyed by nadal

 

[Hs0022]

federer will get destroyed by nadal

Let’s see dude! It’s not over till it’s played

 

[nuraman00]

All matches cancelled for today!! Wow. Meaning whoever plays their QF matches next will get less rest for the semis and finals. Fed probably will play Nadal on Friday then?

They were always scheduled to play on Friday. Both semis are supposed to be scheduled for Friday.

 

[nuraman00]

federer will get destroyed by nadal

Nice to see you back. What happened to the Mariners logo in your profile?

 

[bksballer89]

federer will get destroyed by nadal

6-4 6-3 7-6

 

[cezero]

Let’s see dude! It’s not over till it’s played

the one-hander is just such a huge liability against nadal's lefty forehand.

any surface but clay it's not an issue anymore, but on clay, the ball is just always up around fed's ears on his BH side. rough.