Give me Fedal any day!!

[President]

Originally Posted by Sid_Vicious

I disagree. Djokovic has a very signature style. He has the huge windup western forehand, the massive 2 handed backhand with extreme torso rotation, and nobody else moves like him or incorporates flexibility in their game like Djokovic does.

Nadal has been out for a while and Djokovic has been number 1 for like 2 years now, so I expect people to be sympathetic towards Nadal, but I still remember in 2011 when people on this forum thought Djokovic was the breath of fresh air and Nadal was a plague upon tennis.

I would not call either Djokovic's forehand or backhand "massive" by any means, they are not particularly pacey or skinny compared to other top 10 players, actually he is probably on the less powerful side. Not that they aren't great shots.. He moves great on hard court and is very flexible but its not the same as watching Federer play a beautiful classic style (mixed modern technique) or Nadal's relentless energy and great shotmaking.

And you can't only use Nadal being out and people being tired of Djoker as an explanation, even in 2008/2009 when Nadal had a similar number of slams to Djokovic now he still had way more fans than Djoker does now. Overall to MOST tennis fans I think Nadal is a more charismatic, exciting, and likable player than Djokovic.

[OverratedIvanovic]

Yes Fedal matches are not consistent quality wise but every once in a while they will produce some fireworks which will make the crowd go crazy. Heck leave Fedal matches, I would have preferred Djokovic triple breadsticking Nadal or Federer today than this Djokoray yawnfest which I had to endure today. These 2 keep hitting straight back and forth at each other in the middle of the court

These 2 bring the worst out of each other. The only good matches I can remember between these 2 is Rome 2011, Shanghai 2012 and some parts of AO 2012 and they have played like 18 times now? Compare that to the number of classics either of Fedal, Djokodal and Federer-Djokovic have produced.

[President]

I'm not even talking about Fedal finals (which ARE often boring) but just Federer and Nadal back to the top of the game (well Federer never really left but hasn't been playing well for some time), they are such special players.

[martini1]

Originally Posted by taxon

Jezus what à boring final! Endless rally's. God what do i miss Fedal!!

I hope Federer and Nadal keep playing for ten more years, if not, tennis is dead!!

Even Djoker Rafa on hc is better than this game. Djoker was asleep until the last 2 games of the 2nd set. That was like 1.5 hrs??

And the poor bp conversion makes the match kind of dull...

[TimothyO]

Originally Posted by taxon

Jezus what à boring final! Endless rally's. God what do i miss Fedal!!

I hope Federer and Nadal keep playing for ten more years, if not, tennis is dead!!

I agree that their styles are similar and not as interesting as Fed vs Nadal but they're also both in great shape. Their speed, fitness, and reach means that shots that might have been winners against other players means the ball's coming back again.

For example, both had great DTL shots that would have been winners or extreme pressure shots against most players but in light of their fitness/speed/reach they were able to return the shots with reasonable pace, depth, and accuracy to keep the point competitive. It's that old saying, "What do you have to do to hit a winner against these guys?"

A key problem is the TV presentation. On TV it looks like boring, safe, slow paced, ping pong. In person it's extremely fast and fierce.

[matchmaker]

The Fedal rivalry has much more history and consists of two players who are more charismatic and whose opposing styles create a much more interesting matchup.

Djokovic and Murray have about the same style and they don't exhale the same passion as drips off from Nadal and Federer.

[natalia]

Originally Posted by sbengte

The only people who miss Fedal matches at slams are Nadal fans. The script never changes with how that one ends, does it ?
On the other hand, Djokodal or Fedjoker matches are more exciting because there is an element of unpredictability and anyone can win on a given day.

Perfectly true.

[justinw501]

Originally Posted by TimothyO

A key problem is the TV presentation. On TV it looks like boring, safe, slow paced, ping pong. In person it's extremely fast and fierce.

I would say this is it. When watching live its great, on the TV not so much.

[Clarky21]

Originally Posted by djokovic2008

Djoker and Murray have taken the sport the a higher level never seen before.

What a total load of crap.

[Clarky21]

Originally Posted by Sid_Vicious

I disagree. Djokovic has a very signature style. He has the huge windup western forehand, the massive 2 handed backhand with extreme torso rotation, and nobody else moves like him or incorporates flexibility in their game like Djokovic does.

Nadal has been out for a while and Djokovic has been number 1 for like 2 years now, so I expect people to be sympathetic towards Nadal, but I still remember in 2011 when people on this forum thought Djokovic was a breath of fresh air and Nadal was a plague upon tennis.

Yeah if you like watching a stick insect flail about for 5+ hours. Lance is not unique and is an academy bot.

[Sid_Vicious]

Originally Posted by Clarky21

Yeah if you like watching a stick insect flail about for 5+ hours. Lance is not unique and is an academy bot.

Djokovic does have a unique way of hitting the ball. If you want to be negative about everything, I guess Nadal is a tailor made dirt baller with his ugly topspin oriented strokes, Murray is a Scottish bot who runs on haggis, and Federer is a dandy bot made to look elegant and graceful.

[gsharma]

Tsonga needs to step up! Berd*ck is useless. I can't believe I'm saying this but it would be great to have Soderling back. At least he doesn't fold like Ferrer does.

I heard something interesting during the Aus Open. Wilander says most of the lower ranked players have no self-believe against the top 4. As a result, the top 4 exert very little energy and are quite fresh at the semi-finals stage.

[Clarky21]

Originally Posted by Sid_Vicious

Djokovic does have a unique way of hitting the ball. If you want to be negative about everything, I guess Nadal is a tailor made dirt baller with his ugly topspin oriented strokes, Murray is a Scottish bot who runs on haggis, and Federer is a dandy bot made to look elegant and graceful.

Like I already said: He's unique if you like watching a stick insect flail about for 5+ hours. If people think Nadal's style is ugly then they must think Lance's style is positively grotesque.

[*Val*]

Yeah the sport does miss Rafa, and in particular the Fed-Rafa rivalry. No other rivalry matches it, I know people say the 2012 AO final was one of the greatest matches ever, but the last truly great final of the AO was 2009. Both Djokovic and Murray grind too much, even though Rafa is something of a grinder, his style is truly unique and it's usually pretty exciting to watch him play.

Agreed about Tsonga, it's a shame he just doesn't have that extra gear/dimension to take out more than one of the top four at a grand slam.

I think part of what ruined the excitement of this year's AO was that it unfolded way too predictably, with nobody really mounting a serious challenge against Novak. A Novak-Tsonga final (repeat of 2008 ) would have been amazing, but Tsonga stuck to the script and folded in the fifth against Fed, and Fed did likewise against Murray. And then Murray was underwhelming in the final, getting distracted by small issues like feathers n shi t, and Novak ends up breezing through. Ferrer hasn't got enough weapons to defeat Novak and Berdych too inconsistent.

Ah well, Fedal days are probably over now, we're just left with Nostalgia for 2008/09 I'm afraid

[powerangle]

Actually, Djokovic is more of the aggressor when he plays Nadal (both can counter-punch and go on the offensive of course). Usually Novak attacks while Nadal chases and counterpunches until he finds an opening. This dynamic was amplified in 2011 of course. It's just the MATCH-UP.

Novak just tends to become more conservative and passive when he plays Murray (for whatever reason).

[gsharma]

Originally Posted by powerangle

Actually, Djokovic is more of the aggressor when he plays Nadal (both can counter-punch and go on the offensive of course). Usually Novak attacks while Nadal chases and counterpunches until he finds an opening. This dynamic was amplified in 2011 of course. It's just the MATCH-UP.

Novak just tends to become more conservative and passive when he plays Murray (for whatever reason).

I agree about Nadal. He won't survive until he can hit deeper forehands. Most of his forehands land around the service line and he can't rely on chasing balls all day now.

[Ico]

Amen. Murray-Djokovic is more ping pong than tennis.

[Legend of Borg]

Truth it, the Fedal rivalry is only exciting for Nadal fans as they can expect their player to win/breeze through most of the matches.

Fed is not a good matchup for Nadal and I don't know why people massively overrate this rivalry to epic proportions.

[brianb76]

I fast forwared most of the match. Every rally started to look the same.

[RF20Lennon]

OH yes baby!! i miss watching tennis