Possible Novak gets himself up more for Rafa than he does against anyone else?

DeShaun · Mar 19, 2012

I heard veroniquem or someone say recently that Rafa really gets pumped up when he is facing Roger and that Roger really seems to bring out Rafa's best effort always; it seems that Rafa somehow enjoys beating on Roger in particular.

Could it be that Novak similarly enjoys beating on Rafa more so than he enjoys beating anyone else?
Has this occured to anyone, that possibly Novak gets more jacked than normal when he is about to play Rafa again?

FlamEnemY · Mar 19, 2012

Yep. It's like he considers Nadal his rival or something.

Broken · Mar 19, 2012

FlamEnemY said:
Yep. It's like he considers Nadal his rival or something.

I think you may be onto something.

OddJack · Mar 19, 2012

Rafa gets himself up more for Rodge, known fact.

DeShaun · Mar 19, 2012

OddJack said:
Rafa gets himself up more for Rodge, known fact.

Does Novak seem to you to get himself up more for Rafa?

DeShaun · Mar 19, 2012

It's as though, if you want to be the best, you should start by figuring out how best to destroy the one guy who's already there ahead of you, and focus on destroying that one guy alone. Rafa was the number one undisputed king when Novak took him down.

Nathaniel_Near · Mar 19, 2012

DeShaun said:
It's as though, if you want to be the best, you should start by figuring out how best to destroy the one guy who's already there ahead of you, and focus on destroying that one guy alone. Rafa was the number one undisputed king when Novak took him down.

Yeah, I kind of agree. It's like you can't be looking everywhere at once. Nadal had eyes for Federer and Nole has eyes for Nadal. It's hard to cover all bases and now we have an absolutely raving and heated threesome going filled with various shrieks, grunts, butt pickings and last but not least, bouncing of balls.

So. Is Murray after Novak? *Federer reclines and does a hair flick*

SStrikerR · Mar 19, 2012

I think he gets himself up more for his girlfriend than Nadal. Then again, Nadal has been bending over for him the past year now, so...who knows.

cc0509 · Mar 19, 2012

OddJack said:
Rafa gets himself up more for Rodge, known fact.

I thought he did that for Feli?

cc0509 · Mar 19, 2012

DeShaun said:
I heard veroniquem or someone say recently that Rafa really gets pumped up when he is facing Roger and that Roger really seems to bring out Rafa's best effort always; it seems that Rafa somehow enjoys beating on Roger in particular.

Could it be that Novak similarly enjoys beating on Rafa more so than he enjoys beating anyone else?
Has this occured to anyone, that possibly Novak gets more jacked than normal when he is about to play Rafa again?

Well Novak better get himself up for more players than just Nadal because so far his form has not been that impressive this year.

Nathaniel_Near · Mar 19, 2012

cc0509 said:
Well Novak better get himself up for more players than just Nadal because so far his form has not been that impressive this year.

Yep. Yep yep yep. Playing with too many margins and lacking in confidence to pull the trigger. His form is uninspired and underwhelming. It's going to be interesting to see how he progresses (regresses?) as the year goes on.

cc0509 · Mar 19, 2012

Nathaniel_Near said:
Yep. Yep yep yep. Playing with too many margins and lacking in confidence to pull the trigger. His form is uninspired and underwhelming. It's going to be interesting to see how he progresses (regresses?) as the year goes on.

Not so easy to stay at number one for a number of years. Not sure if Djokovic has what it takes or not and by that I mean the drive and mentality like a Sampras or a Federer.
Is he just trying to conserve energy for the slams or is he feeling the pressure and is uninspired?

Nathaniel_Near · Mar 19, 2012

cc0509 said:
Not so easy to stay at number one for a number of years. Not sure if Djokovic has what it takes or not and by that I mean the drive and mentality like a Sampras or a Federer.
Is he just trying to conserve energy for the slams or is he feeling the pressure and is uninspired?

Good question. Statistically he is still excellent this year, winning 87% of service games, 39% of return games (Federer is at 92% and 27%). This gives the impression that he's still doing the right things and perhaps indeed he is, but he certainly looks less fired up and focused than usual, at least to me. Perhaps he just struggles a lot against big servers, because he cannot negate the imposing dynamic by being as prolific off his own serve in the manner that say a Roger Federer can. Maybe he's feeling some pressure - he's failed to defend two titles on the trot now and there are a BUNCH more to come, starting with Miami, of course! Interesting times are afoot.

Source for statistics: http://www.atpworldtour.com/Matchfacts/Matchfacts-List.aspx?c=9&s=0&y=2012

ThoughtCrime · Mar 19, 2012

Nathaniel_Near said:
Good question. Statistically he is still excellent this year, winning 87% of service games, 39% of return games (Federer is at 92% and 27%). This gives the impression that he's still doing the right things and perhaps indeed he is, but he certainly looks less fired up and focused than usual, at least to me. Perhaps he just struggles a lot against big servers, because he cannot negate the imposing dynamic by being as prolific off his own serve in the manner that say a Roger Federer can. Maybe he's feeling some pressure - he's failed to defend two titles on the trot now and there are a BUNCH more to come, starting with Miami, of course! Interesting times are afoot.

Source for statistics: http://www.atpworldtour.com/Matchfacts/Matchfacts-List.aspx?c=9&s=0&y=2012

I just think that he's trying to conserve himself for the the Grand Slams and is probably trying to cut down on some pressure. I think it's a good idea to cut the level down a bit in lesser tournaments, he can keep his form up for longer, and not burn himself out at the end of the year.

cc0509 · Mar 19, 2012

Nathaniel_Near;6408754]Good question. Statistically he is still excellent this year, winning 87% of service games, 39% of return games (Federer is at 92% and 27%). This gives the impression that he's still doing the right things and perhaps indeed he is, but he certainly looks less fired up and focused than usual, at least to me. Perhaps he just struggles a lot against big servers, because he cannot negate the imposing dynamic by being as prolific off his own serve in the manner that say a Roger Federer can. Maybe he's feeling some pressure - he's failed to defend two titles on the trot now and there are a BUNCH more to come, starting with Miami, of course! Interesting times are afoot.

Me as well. Time will tell.

Nathaniel_Near · Mar 19, 2012

ThoughtCrime said:
I just think that he's trying to conserve himself for the the Grand Slams and is probably trying to cut down on some pressure. I think it's a good idea to cut the level down a bit in lesser tournaments, he can keep his form up for longer, and not burn himself out at the end of the year.

You could be right. However, unless your self confidence is at virtually unheard of levels, you can't keep incurring losses and then expect to bring your best most crushing game to the most prestigious parties. Just a thought. Still early days, anyway.

cc0509 · Mar 19, 2012

Nathaniel_Near said:
You could be right. However, unless your self confidence is at virtually unheard of levels, you can't keep incurring losses and then expect to bring your best most crushing game to the most prestigious parties. Just a thought. Still early days, anyway.

That is what I tend to think but maybe Djokovic has a different plan. He sure looked like he was trying in IW against Isner though but just failed.

Nathaniel_Near · Mar 19, 2012

4 winners for Nole at some point in set 2 vs 18 for Isner was a pretty woeful effort.

ThoughtCrime · Mar 19, 2012

Nathaniel_Near said:
4 winners for Nole at some point in set 2 vs 18 for Isner was a pretty woeful effort.

Yeah, his tactics during that Isner match were awful. You have to credit Isner though, he played a fantastic match.

As you said though, it's still early in the year and anything could happened. I don't think we should expect Novak to dominate like in 2011. I mean, not every #1 can have repeatedly amazing years.

Nathaniel_Near · Mar 19, 2012

ThoughtCrime said:
Yeah, his tactics during that Isner match were awful. You have to credit Isner though, he played a fantastic match.

As you said though, it's still early in the year and anything could happened. I don't think we should expect Novak to dominate like in 2011. I mean, not every #1 can have repeatedly amazing years.

I was impressed with Isner. He served great, returned aggressively, especially on Nole's second deliveries, and spanked his forehand all over the court. He went for big and suffocating tactics and they certainly worked a treat! He traded woeful errors for blistering winners and persisted in his high risk game and it paid off. He also got the balance absolutely right, for sometimes he would indeed be patient in rallies, lulling Nole into some sense of security, but then proceed in future rallies to horrifically destroy the tennis ball.

ZeroSkid · Mar 19, 2012

What are you talking about, Novak's great rival is Isner.

dudeski · Mar 19, 2012

Nathaniel_Near said:
Yeah, I kind of agree. It's like you can't be looking everywhere at once. Nadal had eyes for Federer and Nole has eyes for Nadal. It's hard to cover all bases and now we have an absolutely raving and heated threesome going filled with various shrieks, grunts, butt pickings and last but not least, bouncing of balls.

So. Is Murray after Novak? *Federer reclines and does a hair flick*

Oh that made me laugh really hard.

papertank · Mar 19, 2012

I think this is definitely true. Novak returns better against Nadal than against anyone I've ever seen return against anyone.

DeShaun · Mar 19, 2012

Nathaniel_Near said:
Yep. Yep yep yep. Playing with too many margins and lacking in confidence to pull the trigger. His form is uninspired and underwhelming. It's going to be interesting to see how he progresses (regresses?) as the year goes on.

I agree with this. Nole did not show Isner much aggression and, when he finally did, it was too little too late IMO.

FlashFlare11 · Mar 19, 2012

papertank said:
I think this is definitely true. Novak returns better against Nadal than against anyone I've ever seen return against anyone.

Well, Nadal's not a huge server. Until now, Nadal hasn't used his serve as much of a weapon (barring, of course, USO 2010). He's been content to just get the serve in because he was so confident his ground game was too good for anyone to handle. Novak takes the advantage away, returning the serve near Rafa's feet and pushing him back, giving up valuable court positioning, which is something that shouldn't be done playing against Novak.

So, yeah, not really surprising Novak returns better against Nadal. Rafa's serve isn't big and it is Novak's key to beating Nadal.

Jack Romeo · Mar 19, 2012

i think he pumps himself up equally against both roger and rafa, but it's a little deceiving because obviously, as a player, you pump yourself up more for the championship match. novak only plays nadal in finals because of their rankings, but even before, when they would play in the semis, i always thought he tried hard against him because he was the challenger and nadal was the one to be dethroned. similarly, psychologically, i felt that it has always been the same for him against roger. in the last two us opens, plus the 08 australian, i thought novak was just as psyched up as he has been against nadal recently. but roger and novak haven't met in too many finals and only played one grand slam final. a lot of the matches they played were semis. and when they were drawn on opposite halves, nadal or murray or some other player always gets in the way of a possible novak-roger final. this time, it was isner. i think another factor is that he knows his game, at present, matches up better against nadal than against roger, so he goes into matches with nadal being a little more positive.

Tony48 · Mar 20, 2012

I would hope that Djoker would rise to the occasion against Fed. Quite frankly, I think Novak could beat Nadal with his eyes closed

It's almost like his instincts take over.

World Beater · Mar 20, 2012

lol.

novak has to play close to his best tennis to defeat federer. he gets himself jacked to beat roger.

beating ****** is routine for him. even with a wta serve and dead legs, a break down in the 5th set of 5 hour match... he still beats ******.

celoft · Mar 20, 2012

SStrikerR said:
I think he gets himself up more for his girlfriend than Nadal. Then again, Nadal has been bending over for him the past year now, so...who knows.

:lol:.......................................

Deleted member 21996 · Mar 20, 2012

^^ it raises a good question : who does he get himself up more for ?

Jelena Ristic or the First lady of Serbia,

Possible Novak gets himself up more for Rafa than he does against anyone else?

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