Best Active Lefty?

[VamosRafa]

I agree, Nadal2. Although I think his greatest strength is his mental attitude. He's like Hewitt in that respect. Lots of similarities between him and Hewitt, except he's a bit bigger and has a monster forehand. And he can play on clay.

He did get up to No. 34 this year and made the semis in Estoril, when he pulled out with an injury. He's just rejoining the Tour now.

[Aonex]

Susan, the more you talk about Rafa the more I'm becoming a fan. Now you're saying he's just as intense as one of my faves, Hewitt? Is that a "C'mon" I see from him on your sig?

[Nadal2]

Yeah, I was just talking about his game. Just watching the tail end of the El Aynaoui match at last year's Open and seeing some highlights from the Federer match you could see how hard he worked to track down everything. In respect to his mentality, Nadal is much different than his idol for the better.

[VamosRafa]

Is that a "C'mon" I see from him on your sig?

No -- his English is pretty bad.

It's a `Vamos!'

It's the Spanish version of "Come on!" And it's definitely his favorite word.

If you like Hewitt, you are going to love Nadal. Believe me.

You may be interested to know that when Rafa lost to Hewitt at the Australian Open, Lleyton told him at the net that he (Rafa) would win a slam one day.

Bamse Bula just sent some clips of him from Bastad. You can see the fist pump-thingy going on in the one titled 'Vamos.'

http://hem.bredband.net/maghae2/NadalBastad04.html

And if you want to see just how excited this kid gets (granted, it is Davis Cup), go to:

http://multimedia.terra.es/listado.c...;c=137&r=c

And then go to 09/02/2004 and click on "Rafa Nadal gana el punto definitivo y da la victoria a España en la Copa Davis". It's in Spanish, but you'll get the drift. And the kid can volley. He beat Ancic at Wimbledon last year.

[zesty-man]

Originally Posted by Liam Curran

Yeah Verdasco is a very good player, but not quite as good as Nadal. It always seems to me that Lefties have "ugly" strokes, different strokes, for different folks I suppose.

hmmm, i know what you mean. however, try doing this. you know posters show professional's forehands and backhands step by step? try looking at them in a mirror. its odd, because seeing nice strokes reversed looks really weird and ugly. thats something you should try to do. maybe its an optical illusion or something...

[VamosRafa]

I agree, zesty-man. It's just so odd watching left-handed players, and I've heard that from a number of folks. It's something we aren't used to, but just because it's different, doesn't mean it isn't good.

[zesty-man]

hehe, im a lefty . i was complaining to one of my coaches how everytime theres a step by step picture in a magazine showing groundstrokes, its always a right handed player. my coach told me to look at it in a mirror, and i was like, WOW thats GENIUS!