2018 Rogers Cup QF: Rafael Nadal vs Marin Cilic

Nadal or Cilic

  • Raf Nad in 2

    Votes: 9 22.5%
  • Raf Nad in 3

    Votes: 17 42.5%
  • Mar Cil in 2

    Votes: 6 15.0%
  • Mar Cil in 3

    Votes: 8 20.0%

  • Total voters
    40

Steve0904

Talk Tennis Guru
Oh yea true. I just searched up the list of Rogers Cup winners and Fedr seems to be only one among the big four who is more successful in Toronto than MTL, as both of his wins in this beautiful country have came in the t-dot. Nadal, Djokovic and Murray all have a better track record in Montreal

You're Canadian? Don't have a clue why, but I assumed you were American for some reason.
 

Steve0904

Talk Tennis Guru
This cilic looks like the cilic that destroyed fed in 2014 US Open

Might catch some heat for this, but anyway.....


He did for a while, but if I'm honest I always thought Cilic was pretty lucky to win the 2014 USO (unlike say, all 3 of Wawrinka's slams). He's played like that a few times since then, and ran across opponents that weren't gassed from previous matches, like Federer and Nishikori were at that tournament. At that point, Djoker was pretty dominant as well and Cilic had never beaten him, so he was fortunate that Nishi pulled the upset IMO.

I know I know, a slam win is a slam win, blah blah blah, but I don't agree when people say he never found that form again or act like he could beat anyone in that form.
 

MichaelNadal

Bionic Poster
Might catch some heat for this, but anyway.....


He did for a while, but if I'm honest I always thought Cilic was pretty lucky to win the 2014 USO (unlike say, all 3 of Wawrinka's slams). He's played like that a few times since then, and ran across opponents that weren't gassed from previous matches, like Federer and Nishikori were at that tournament. At that point, Djoker was pretty dominant as well and Cilic had never beaten him, so he was fortunate that Nishi pulled the upset IMO.

I know I know, a slam win is a slam win, blah blah blah, but I don't agree when people say he never found that form again or act like he could beat anyone in that form.

Exactly, everyone was saying that when he won and I was like plz
 
Might catch some heat for this, but anyway.....


He did for a while, but if I'm honest I always thought Cilic was pretty lucky to win the 2014 USO (unlike say, all 3 of Wawrinka's slams). He's played like that a few times since then, and ran across opponents that weren't gassed from previous matches, like Federer and Nishikori were at that tournament. At that point, Djoker was pretty dominant as well and Cilic had never beaten him, so he was fortunate that Nishi pulled the upset IMO.

I know I know, a slam win is a slam win, blah blah blah, but I don't agree when people say he never found that form again or act like he could beat anyone in that form.

I agree, but I do think Wawrinka got a bit lucky for two of his slams, facing crippled Nadal in the AO final and an unimpressive Djokovic at the USO who coasted to the final playing against opponents who he’d either never lost to before (like Monfils) or who retired before or during their match (3 walkovers/retirements...). He had other impressive wins on the way to those titles too, but when you compare it to Murray, who for all but one of his finals played against a well playing Djokovic/Federer, it’s kind of annoying.

But hey, don’t we all need a little bit of luck sometimes? :D
 

Steve0904

Talk Tennis Guru
I agree, but I do think Wawrinka got a bit lucky for two of his slams, facing crippled Nadal in the AO final and an unimpressive Djokovic at the USO who coasted to the final playing against opponents who he’d either never lost to before (like Monfils) or who retired before or during their match (3 walkovers/retirements...). He had other impressive wins on the way to those titles too, but when you compare it to Murray, who for all but one of his finals played against a well playing Djokovic/Federer, it’s kind of annoying.

But hey, don’t we all need a little bit of luck sometimes? :D

I see your points. I rate Wawrinka's slams a little differently though. He beat Djokovic in a classic before he beat Nadal, and he was beating Nadal before he called a MTO. RG 2015 doesn't really need special justification even if Djokovic played the 2 days before. He didn't really look tired, just passive which had a lot to do with Wawrinka IMO. And Djokovic definitely wasn't tired at USO 2016 :D. A strange route to a final, but not Wawrinka's problem (same could be said for Cilic in fairness).

As far as Murray goes, I've always thought he was better than Wawrinka anyway on the balance of their careers. It's one of those special comparisons where I wouldn't rate Stan ahead of Murray career wise even if Stan won a 4th slam. It's not worth totally ignoring Murray's other accomplishments for a 1 slam difference, IMO.
 
I see your points. I rate Wawrinka's slams a little differently though. He beat Djokovic in a classic before he beat Nadal, and he was beating Nadal before he called a MTO. RG 2015 doesn't really need special justification even if Djokovic played the 2 days before. He didn't really look tired, just passive which had a lot to do with Wawrinka IMO. And Djokovic definitely wasn't tired at USO 2016 :D. A strange route to a final, but not Wawrinka's problem (same could be said for Cilic in fairness).

As far as Murray goes, I've always thought he was better than Wawrinka anyway on the balance of their careers. It's one of those special comparisons where I wouldn't rate Stan ahead of Murray career wise even if Stan won a 4th slam. It's not worth totally ignoring Murray's other accomplishments for a 1 slam difference, IMO.

Oh don't get me wrong, Wawrinka's 2015 RG win was very well deserved. And for the 2016 USO far from being tired, I rather think Djokovic was supremely lucky to make it that far, and indeed I think he wouldn't have if not for all the retirements and withdrawals he was gifted. I meant more that he was facing the post-2016 RG unmotivated Djokvic rather than the beast who we all grew to know and love who was at the top of the game for the previous 6 years.

Regarding the 2014 AO, I credit him hugely for beating Djokovic, I really do. I actually just watched the first couple of sets of the AO 2014 final because hey, it's a Saturday so why not, and between being 0-40 on Wawrinka's serve at 5-3 in the first set and Nadal's second serve game of the second set (where he started with the 90mph/145kmh first serves), Nadal made an unbelievably high number of unforced errors, including 4 very poor return errors off quite easy second serves in a row (maybe one of them was a first serve actually, I'm not sure) in that game where he was close to getting the break back in the first set. I don't know when he first felt signs of injury, but I think it most likely that the pain started early and got worse over time until he felt he needed an MTO. After his MTO, he stopped running for balls, made lots of errors and was serving 80-90mph slices for his first serves. Wawrinka's level dropped significantly, and the third set of this final was surely one of the lowest quality sets of tennis in a major final we've seen in a long time. I think it is likely (but not certain, for nothing is) that the Nadal who beat Federer in the semis would have been able to ride out periods of Wawrinka GOATing and would have come out on top in the match. But who knows!

I agree about Murray. Honestly even if Wawrinka won 2-3, I'd still put Murray ahead for his consistent dominance of the field for years, major semis and masters wins. But then again I don't like Wawrinka and I like Murray a lot, so there's a lot of bias here which I freely admit to.
 
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clout

Hall of Fame
You're Canadian? Don't have a clue why, but I assumed you were American for some reason.
You bet. Proud Canadian born and raised.

Gotta say, I'm very excited about the young talent coming out of this country with Shapo and FAA leading the charge. In 2-3 years, I like our chances at the Davis Cup as Milos will probably still be around and Pospisil is a fine doubles player
 

Steve0904

Talk Tennis Guru
You bet. Proud Canadian born and raised.

Gotta say, I'm very excited about the young talent coming out of this country with Shapo and FAA leading the charge. In 2-3 years, I like our chances at the Davis Cup as Milos will probably still be around and Pospisil is a fine doubles player

Where from? I'm guessing Toronto because you said "T dot." I'm all the way East. From NL.
 

Apun94

Hall of Fame
Cilic not getting free points on his serve is a recipe for disaster
I just didnt understand why Cilic utterly refused to serve to Nadal's FH. Nadal has a poor FH return on first serves and I was so surprised Cilic not exploiting that especially on the deuce side
 

clout

Hall of Fame
Where from? I'm guessing Toronto because you said "T dot." I'm all the way East. From NL.
I'm actually from Mississauga so yeah technically you can say I'm from Toronto. Pretty much, whenever a non-Canadian asks where I'm from, I usually say Toronto, or sometimes even simpler, I say I'm from Canada. But whenever a Canadian asks where I'm from I say Mississauga cuz I feel like Mississauga is a place that only Canadians know of LOL

I've always wanted to travel out east to the maritimes. Seems like a great relaxing place, especially during the summer time. I know the seafood/lobster there is amazing
 

underground

G.O.A.T.
We literally saw the best and worst of Cilic within this match. Yes the first set was USO 14 level, but he dropped serve twice in the second set by committing 4 UEs in a row each time. You can't just dump consecutive points like this at the big tournaments.
 
D

Deleted member 756486

Guest
He's good, real good, but Vive is the GOAT, there is reason why he was voted the most funniest poster on TTW last year. Even some Nadal fans have called him their fav Nadal hater, now that is something.
Yeah I’d have to say Vive is king.

I’m sick of the Nadal hate because of how boring it is but Vive isn’t boring. Not one bit.
 
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