Ann
Hall of Fame
Calm down.Angry at Federer?? LOL... Wow, now that some spin.
I was just making an argument against excuses.
Calm down.Angry at Federer?? LOL... Wow, now that some spin.
I was just making an argument against excuses.
Live look at Rafa passing the yearly batonIt is grass season baaaabbaaaaaaaayyyy. Time for the good stuff. let's go get another.
Calm down.
Live look at Rafa passing the yearly baton
so they don't switch sides during changeover ?? and this isn't a fair match. Rafa constantly gets nice high bouncing balls to crush while Federer gets fast bouncing low skidding balls all the time on his side....lol
Was 'just' about to say something similar. Rafa gets more time to set for shots (+1 Rafa), Rafa's shots move faster on Roger's side (+1 Rafa), Roger's shots are slowed on Rafa's side (+1 Rafa), Roger's serve is neutralized (+1 Rafa), Rafa's serve is sped up on Roger's side (+1 Rafa), Roger's slices are useless on Rafa's side (+1 Rafa).
Some battle of the surfaces .
Do you guys seriously not know about the 'Battle of the Surfaces' exo?
Of course they switched sides. Here's Roger standing on the clay side:
Well, there goes #2 seed, Nadal is entered in Queens apparently. I guess he could still drop it, but I have a feeling he will go hard for this grass season.
I'm really hopeful Fed will meet Rafa again at Wimbledon.
So Federer can secure #2 seed by winning Halle?
Unless Rafa does indeed play queens.
This news is too good that it makes me think he won't win Halle.
It's like last year when he only needed to win 1 more point and would've been #1 for like an extra 3 months.
And that's assuming he still would've lost 1st round at Miami, which by his own admission likely wouldn't have happened if he'd won the IW title.Confirmed in his press that he's not playing.
That IW final right?
1 more point and he'd be at 322 weeks now.
And that's assuming he still would've lost 1st round at Miami, which by his own admission likely wouldn't have happened if he'd won the IW title.
If he got by Kokkinakis, that title was on the table as well with Nadal/Djokovic/Murray all still MIA. A bunch more points, at least.
I'm really hopeful Fed will meet Rafa again at Wimbledon.
So many lost opportunities that year for more points.Yeah the draw was Kokkinakis-Verdasco-Carreno Busta-Zverev-Isner
Could've made YE #1 a three-way race because iirc despite his poor 2nd half of 2018 he had a mathematical shot till like WTF or Bercy
Come on, Roger is playing great tennis this year and is physically in excellent shape. He can beat anyone at Wimbledon and Rafa himself is aware of it.You're braver than me. They each get older, but the lefty-advantage will always be a disadvantage for Fedr, even though Fedr's chances to beat Nadl are best at faster courts like WB. Fedr needs some breaks to fall his way bc he's almost 38. I no longer need him to beat the best for his titles. It's a weak era now, but I'll take the titles howerver they come .
Come on, Roger is playing great tennis this year and is physically in excellent shape. He can beat anyone at Wimbledon and Rafa himself is aware of it.
I actually want Fed to face Rafa in the semis and Novak in the finals. I'm not afraid of anyone.Probably anyone except Djokovic (who will be like a wounded lion ready to pounce on everyone at SW19 CC)
I actually want Fed to face Rafa in the semis and Novak in the finals. I'm not afraid of anyone.
Come on, Roger is playing great tennis this year and is physically in excellent shape. He can beat anyone at Wimbledon and Rafa himself is aware of it.
You and me both....You are just hung up on the "chances will be better" and totally disregarding the way Fed played which had nothing to do with the conditions. Again, you just say your memory is fine but dont want to discuss how Fed lost in QF last year.
I dont see the point of this discussion.
On ignore.Less spin please.
No, I wasn't trying to say that, I wasn't even thinking it. It just seems odd that all of a sudden it's so "easy" for the top guys to reel off ridiculous numbers of slams. I'm just wondering what the explanation is. For a long time, I thought it was that all the surfaces played similarly because they've slowed them down, but I don't think that quite makes sense. Maybe it's a weak era, like Ann says above. Maybe the modern equipment promotes more consistency so the best guys almost always win.Hmmm, I could be wrong, but that sounds like a suggestion of something. Words like "somethings going on" and "seems weird" is usually a suggestion that someone is doping. Am I detecting this correctly or am I just off?
On ignore.
No, I wasn't trying to say that, I wasn't even thinking it. It just seems odd that all of a sudden it's so "easy" for the top guys to reel off ridiculous numbers of slams. I'm just wondering what the explanation is. For a long time, I thought it was that all the surfaces played similarly because they've slowed them down, but I don't think that quite makes sense. Maybe it's a weak era, like Ann says above. Maybe the modern equipment promotes more consistency so the best guys almost always win.
Oh, I agree that Fedr is in great form, no doubt! I just don't want his path to be hard, just for the sake of being hard. I think I will only rate Djokr as a 'slight' favorite (bc of age), and maybe Nadl too (lefty-advantage. Nadl served almost exclusively to Fedr's BH in their RG SF match as further proof.). But Fedr will be about 50-50 ish against them. I'm quite hopeful for WB #9 in a few weeks.
No, I wasn't trying to say that, I wasn't even thinking it. It just seems odd that all of a sudden it's so "easy" for the top guys to reel off ridiculous numbers of slams. I'm just wondering what the explanation is. For a long time, I thought it was that all the surfaces played similarly because they've slowed them down, but I don't think that quite makes sense. Maybe it's a weak era...
Hey, did everyone hear? Fed has not really won 20 slams, about 8 of them belong to injury prone Rafa according to him. This is a real bummer...
I actually want Fed to face Rafa in the semis and Novak in the finals. I'm not afraid of anyone.
Hey, did everyone hear? Fed has not really won 20 slams, about 8 of them belong to injury prone Rafa according to him. This is a real bummer...
So Federer can secure #2 seed by winning Halle?
the lefty-advantage will always be a disadvantage for Fedr,
I'm sorry, I just don't buy this. After 2000, Fed never had issues with any other left-handed player in the game. It's just Nadal-specific. And if indeed he has an issue with solely Nadal's left-handedness, he needed to have solved that puzzle 12 years ago. Lendl had issues with McEnroe and Connors being lefties and he worked his tail off to fix the issue. Consider that Mac had an unbelievable lefty serve which eclipses Nadal's serve by a huge margin, yet his rivals found a way to eventually beat him.
IOW, I don't think Fed has a problem with Rafa's left handedness, he has a problem with Nadal's game in general.
Federer can secure #2 by reaching Halle SF
The seeding order is determined using the formula: ATP Entry System Position points + 100% points earned for all grass court tournaments in the past 12 months + 75% points earned for the best grass court tournament in the 12 months before that.
For Nadal its fixed now
Nadal = 7945(entry ranking points)+720(grass points of last 12 months)+135(75% of 2017s best grass points)=8800
Federer has 6670 points now but will drop 550 from Stuttgart+Halle last year =6120
So, Federer = 6120(entry ranking points)+910(grass points of last 12 months)+1500(75% of 2017s best grass points) =8530
Since his Halle points will be added in both entry ranking points and grass points of last 12 months his Halle points will be doubled.
Win-500
Final-300
SF-180
QF-90
R16-45
So Federer needs to reach Halle SF( 3 match wins ) he will get 360 points, 8530+360=8980
I’m trying to think of an active lefty besides Nadal with a match win vs fedr. I come up with Delbonis but is there anyone else? Melzer is basically retired. fedr is undefeated vs López, Verdasco and Mannarino, the trio he has played most often.I see your point, but you're missing much of my point. Yes, Nadal's game is the most difficult lefty game for Roger, but just look at lefty shots in general. A few days ago, Roger specifically said that playing lefties changes everything, from prep work, to tactics. One has to adjust their game/tactics completely (the righty), while one doens't have to change anything at all (the lefty). That ALONE gives lefties a huge advantage over righties as an opponent. Add to that, playing one of the most difficult lefties out there in Rafa? Yeah, you get the idea. It gets amplified.
Look at it another way.
Playing against lefties, as a righty:
good-to-great IO FH's get neutralized, and are easily returned even from a defensive position from a lefty (Rafa makes a living off of being able to defend/return these difficult shots simply bc he's a lefty, when normally it would be a winner/forced-error or easy putaways for the righty).
decent-to-good CC BH shots will be crushed, when normally it would be in neutral or better.
CC FH from lefty would be much more effective bc it lands into most righties' weaker BH side, but had it been CC FHs from righties instead, it would be neutral for Roger or slight advantage at best bc Roger/righties could easily neutralize it.
Yes, lefties can be beaten. They're simply 'easier' to beat had they been righties is all I'm saying. Against a righty, no patterns need to change, and it's harder to find the righties' BH wing, and even if they 'can' find it, it's not as easy/effective as from a lefty's.
I've always thought lefties has a natural advantage bc there simply are less of them to get used to on tour. You can go weeks without playing one (Shapovalov at one time last year couldn't beat a lefty to save his career, and it lasted for a looong stretch last year. He too couldn't adjust to lefty opponents. And he's a lefty himself! Am I right @stringertom ?). It's VERY rare to play lefties back-to-back, while playing righties back-to-back is almost an every day occurrence.
But don't take my words for it, take Roger's:
Point#1, 2:49 :
Point#2, 2:01 :
I’m trying to think of an active lefty besides Nadal with a match win vs fedr. I come up with Delbonis but is there anyone else? Melzer is basically retired. fedr is undefeated vs López, Verdasco and Mannarino, the trio he has played most often.
Yes, Shapovalov went 0-7 in 2018 vs fellow lefties, all except the Nadal loss in Rome being to underdogs. He has bounced back with a 2-0 record in 2019 vs Klizan in DC and Humbert in Lyon, both on clay BTW (Klizan indoors clay).I conjured upon your greatness to confirm Shapo's quest to beat lefties last year .
But you're right about Roger beating most lefties. Outside Rafa, he beats them almost everytime. But that is due to his ridic greatness in tennis-ing, as @Tennis_Hands said above. Rafa is just on another level, but a level that I think would be MUCH easier for Roger to deal with had Rafa been a righty .