Mike Sams
G.O.A.T.
Most of Nadal's wins came pre-2011.
Djokovic wasn't surprised at how easy it was to beat Nadal.
- Thread starter Tennease
- Start date
Most of Nadal's wins came pre-2011.
D
Deleted member 762343
Guest
It’s really unfair to accuse Djokovic of cheating on his wife just because Nadal lost the match.
D
Deleted member 77403
Guest
I said that Nadal having a faster serve will mean nothing to Djokovic, if Djokovic can deal with Federer's serve, then what exactly can Nadal do?
What hurts Djokovic is big serving with trajectory, and Nadal simply doesn't have the trajectory being shorter than Djokovic. People got upset when I said that and look what happened, Nadal gets broken five times in the final despite such a nice new shiny serve.
Mustard
Bionic Poster
Okay, so I was wrong. Can't always be right.
Mike Sams
G.O.A.T.
The fact that you picked Nadal with no hesitation was odd. You of all people? You're like the smartest tennis guy in the whole world!
Mainad
Bionic Poster
That was some score and some match though. It can hardly have boosted Nadal's confidence ahead of any future encounters with Djokovic.
Mainad
Bionic Poster
IMO he should go back home and marry her straightaway. It would cheer them both up no end!
Mustard
Bionic Poster
And also 4 consecutive wins for Nadal in majors from 2012-2014. There were plenty of people in 2011 and early 2012 talking about Djokovic like they are now, some even saying that Nadal would never beat him again. Nadal responded positively then, and he needs to do the same now going forward.
Mainad
Bionic Poster
Except that he is 7 years older and slower whilst Djokovic has aged much better and is not as far off from his prime level as Nadal is now.
Mustard
Bionic Poster
Why the surprise? You should at least be able to see where I was coming from. Nadal was playing very good attacking tennis with the serve during the tournament and finishing matches quickly. I thought it would give him a new dimension in the match against Djokovic. Instead, it completely backfired on Nadal. I suppose I should have been more cautious knowing that this was the Australian Open and that something with Nadal goes wrong there virtually every year, whether it's being blown away in a match, losing a close final after being a break up in the fifth set, or getting injured during a match.
Tennis_Hands
Banned
Mustard
Bionic Poster
The same guy that was digging Nadal's grave for the whole 2015-2016 period?
Yeah
Perhaps I'm past my prime
Tennis_Hands
Banned
Sudacafan
Bionic Poster
All that mental strength talk. Mental strength normally exists until (repeated) humiliation. Examples are many.
Tennis_Hands
Banned
Perhaps I'm past my prime
I wouldn't call going after your fan preferences "prime" as far as tennis knowledge is concerned.
Mustard
Bionic Poster
I wouldn't call going after your fan preferences "prime" as far as tennis knowledge is concerned.
Yeah, you never do that
Tennis_Hands
Banned
Yeah, you never do that
Perhaps you are confsed, because you don't realise that "sometimes" and "always" indicates two completely different levels of reliance on fan bias.
sredna42
Hall of Fame
Ahh yes.
The Beard.
D
Deleted member 688153
Guest
Not trying to go low here and it's up to them but how long has she been waiting for him now? Has to be years and she's not getting any younger.
His DTL forehand isn't the only thing he probably needs to pull the trigger on before long tbqh. Just an observation. It seems to have helped Fed and Djok more than hurt them as well.
His DTL forehand isn't the only thing he probably needs to pull the trigger on before long tbqh. Just an observation. It seems to have helped Fed and Djok more than hurt them as well.
titoelcolombiano
Legend
Those two years of Buddhism may have paid off afterall
MichaelNadal
Bionic Poster
It wont be worth defending Rafa on here for a while lol. Too much relief being expressed by haters
Tennis_Hands
Banned
I see mostly light-hearted jokes, and some serious hyping of Novak (and a couple of devastated Nadal fans that are in deep thoughts about whether Djokovic will turn up in the same form at RG with a bucket of lubricant in his car).
Sudacafan
Bionic Poster
In these forums, panic is always a must.
Service Ace
Hall of Fame
Nadal hasn't beat Federer or Djokovic off clay in 5 years...
Tennease
Legend
I'm sorry but I mis-quoted Djokovic because I wrote the OP after I woke up this morning based on my rather vague memory of what I watched last night on TV.
Actually Djokovic said talking to his wife and children gave him positive energy on the court. (He didn't say he was blanketed with love). Sorry for my mistake.
TennisFan3
Talk Tennis Guru
I don't see much of a response to be honest. Novak is firmly in his head. I've never seen Nadal play such tentative tennis. He was scared to hit DTL or I/O.
It was sad to see a champion thrashed and dominated. Novak made Nadal look like a amateur. I was expecting Nadal to wake up and at least make it competitive. But it is clear that he didn't have it within him and doesn't have the mental strength anymore.
Recall UsOpen 2011, Nadal was getting outplayed in that match. But he still responded in set 3 and hit big. In AO2019 he just grew more and more defensive with time and more risk averse.
I would be really surprised if Nadal ever beats Djokovic again on ANY surface. These sort of matches are what end careers.
The only possibility for Nadal is if someone (maybe one of the young guns) takes out Djokovic. At this point it is Djokovic vs the Next Gen as far as the future slams are concerned.
To put things into perspective:
That is pretty dang great!
That's good enough to get you into the Hall of Fame.
It goes to show the level of the players we are talking about in this thread.
TennisFan3
Talk Tennis Guru
Actually Nadal's serve was the only thing that saved this from having a RG2008 Final type scoreline. Had Nadal served worse, Djokovic would have maybe lost 2-3 games in the entire match.
Nadal's groundstrokes were so poor it seemed like a #1 vs #100. Every single shot of Nadal was significantly worse than Djokovic's. He couldn't get the Serb on the run at all.
He hardly had winners off the ground. It was the serve winners etc, which won Nadal points.
Full interview by Djokovic he goes onto say Nadal was only 2 months post surgery so he knew he would not at his best if he could disrupt his rhythm. Nadal was anxious as he knew he had not yet the preparation time to face the best. Playing the no.14 in his first semi final is a million miles away from playing the 6 time champion at his best.
Well I hope Nadal posts that on his bedroom door. Whenever Rafa is insulted he tends to make players suffer. However I think Djokovic did also say Nadal is two months post surgery so he knew he would not be at his best.
Tennease
Legend
I noticed Nadal added a new routine before his serve: looking at the serve clock right before he hits the ball. I think this affects his serve a lot.
Nadal has made the final half fit with no warm up event or training at his worse event...I’d argue the shot clock has helped him..
Nadal is two months post op. Djokovic took 5 months after his op to be even competitive. Nadal is playing well to beat most but nowhere near ready to play the best, Federer at the moment would also beat him. As Nadal said he needs time. People forget he had no professional matches since September . He did great making the final although it also shows how utterly woeful the men’s tour is at the moment. Murray finished, Federer past his best, wawrinka nowhere near fit delpotro out, had Nadal faced any of them at their best he would have got the same schooling as today so I wouldn’t read too much into the score line.
Sentinel
Bionic Poster
All bull
He saw the Sureish chinksh thread and new he wood win easypeasy.
Must have scene it be4 the mash again and it gave him serenaty.
Sentinel
Bionic Poster
Acco the to commentator, he would let it time down to zero and then serve right on zero !!
I think even one more player (can't remember, Cilic ?) would keep bouncing and checking the clock).
Yes, I'm really just saying that relative to his reputation his record off clay isn't great, not that he's no good. While he's only won 2 of the last 25 slams off clay, he narrowly missed winning AO 2012, AO 2017 and Wimbledon 2018 so the actual record is probably a bit unkind to him.
RaulRamirez
Legend
Crazy, isn't it - the brilliance of the punditry on TTW!
just remember,clay points are what give him the ranking to get the soft draws in the non clay majors
Nadal lost today for the usual reason he loses.
His groundstrokes were too spinny and short. He had a lot of problems hitting the ball much beyond the service line. When he tried to hit deeper, he hit higher to do it, which gave Djokovic plenty of time to return the ball. Djokovic consistently hit the ball back deep, even if pressured by Nadal, and flatter, taking away time and pressuring Nadal.
Djokovic was playing a measure of old-time tennis where a high ball, especially if short, just gives you more margin for error to hit bigger and flatter. It takes the net out of the equation. His western grip forehand and two handed backhand are not affected very much by the bounce of Nadal's topspin shots on the AO surface.
Nadal's return of serve positioning gave Djokovic plenty of time to line up his shots and keep on the offensive in the point. Nadal rarely won points on Djokovic's serve.
Nadal won some points off weaker Djokovic returns from his serve and also from hitting short crosscourt, pulling Djokovic off the court then hitting harder and deeper to the opposite side. However, it wasn't enough for him to win his serve consistently enough.
His groundstrokes were too spinny and short. He had a lot of problems hitting the ball much beyond the service line. When he tried to hit deeper, he hit higher to do it, which gave Djokovic plenty of time to return the ball. Djokovic consistently hit the ball back deep, even if pressured by Nadal, and flatter, taking away time and pressuring Nadal.
Djokovic was playing a measure of old-time tennis where a high ball, especially if short, just gives you more margin for error to hit bigger and flatter. It takes the net out of the equation. His western grip forehand and two handed backhand are not affected very much by the bounce of Nadal's topspin shots on the AO surface.
Nadal's return of serve positioning gave Djokovic plenty of time to line up his shots and keep on the offensive in the point. Nadal rarely won points on Djokovic's serve.
Nadal won some points off weaker Djokovic returns from his serve and also from hitting short crosscourt, pulling Djokovic off the court then hitting harder and deeper to the opposite side. However, it wasn't enough for him to win his serve consistently enough.
vex
Legend
I said yesterday: As long as Novak is reasonably CLOSE to Rafa's current level of play (ie he's not injured/in a huge slump) it doesn't matter that Rafa looks unbeatable and Djoker looks not quite dialed in. Djoker shows up to Rafa matches with a completely different mindset. It is the most focused you will ever see him. He plays significantly more aggressive. He just takes his game to a whole different level.
In short: its like he finds a time machine before the Rafa matches and out walks 2011 Djokovic.
vex
Legend
Aggression + Accuracy + shots that are winners for Rafa against ANYONE else come back and drop near the baseline.
Northern
Hall of Fame
Nadal is probably more of a family man than any of the other top guys in that he has very deep bonds with his close and extended family. I'm sure when he has kids it will be the same.In short: Nadal is not a family man, and it shows.
Besides, the best way to see if someone is not a family man himself is to see if they use some other man's family to get through to them. That's so unclassy...
Bender
G.O.A.T.
Well he bounced back from Doha 2016 and the heartbreaker that was Wimbledon 2018 just fine, so I think barring injury he'll bounce back.
tennisfan2015
Hall of Fame
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