What a great story!

Who will have a better clay season?

  • Rafito

    Votes: 8 25.0%

  • Dragovic

    Votes: 24 75.0%
  • Total voters
    32
MichaelNadal

MichaelNadal

Bionic Poster
I'm surprisingly happy for Djokovic right now. He was a complete sportsman out there and his celebration was very composed, nothing like 2011. What an awesome final with lots of momentum shifts. Glad I woke up for this. I think this clay season is going to be very interesting now. Madrid, and especially Rome are going to be a huge deal for the FO. I can't wait for the next 2 masters and seeing how Rafa responds. He definitely could have won that second set and had a few too many unlucky errors but I was happy with his fight, and his forehand today. The FO this year is gonna be world war 3. :shock:
 
M

monfed

Guest
Rome is gonna determine who wins RG imo. Winning MC just made the clay season a little more interesting but has no bearing on RG(just as I had stated before).

Ralph will still win Madrid,Rome and RG.
 
FedererDropShot

FedererDropShot

Hall of Fame
monfed said:
Rome is gonna determine who wins RG imo. Winning MC just made the clay season a little more interesting but has no bearing on RG(just as I had stated before).

Ralph will still win Madrid,Rome and RG.
Click to expand...

Nek minnit, Federer somehow wins Madrid and Murray wins Rome.
 
S

Spider

Hall of Fame
I hope Djokovic and Nadal are in the same half and kill each other in the quarters and Murray walks all over the winner in the final. :)

Make that happen!
 
MichaelNadal

MichaelNadal

Bionic Poster
jaggy said:
What defines a better season?
Click to expand...

The FO. I hope the draw allows them to meet in the final. It has to be the final.

images
 
Relinquis

Relinquis

Hall of Fame
Didn't watch the celebrations or ceremony, changed the channel at then end of the last point because i didn't want to see another t-shirt ripping display from novak...

Played a good match, didn't push the whole time and was aggressive at times, but i don't like the antics he has done so frequently in the past. I watch his important matches, but I don't even listen to his interviews anymore. Have had enough of his 'personality' to be honest.
 
T

Tennis_Hands

Banned
Relinquis said:
Played a good match, didn't push the whole time and was aggressive at times, but i don't like the antics he has done so frequently in the past. I watch his important matches, but I don't even listen to his interviews anymore. Have had enough of his 'personality' to be honest.
Click to expand...

Are you talking about Nadal?

:lol:
 
Mike Sams

Mike Sams

G.O.A.T.
MichaelNadal said:
I'm surprisingly happy for Djokovic right now. He was a complete sportsman out there and his celebration was very composed, nothing like 2011. What an awesome final with lots of momentum shifts. Glad I woke up for this. I think this clay season is going to be very interesting now. Madrid, and especially Rome are going to be a huge deal for the FO. I can't wait for the next 2 masters and seeing how Rafa responds. He definitely could have won that second set and had a few too many unlucky errors but I was happy with his fight, and his forehand today. The FO this year is gonna be world war 3. :shock:
Click to expand...

If it's bad clay in Madrid (slippery, fast and low bouncing), neither of them will make the final.
 
TheTruth

TheTruth

G.O.A.T.
Relinquis said:
Didn't watch the celebrations or ceremony, changed the channel at then end of the last point because i didn't want to see another t-shirt ripping display from novak...

Played a good match, didn't push the whole time and was aggressive at times, but i don't like the antics he has done so frequently in the past. I watch his important matches, but I don't even listen to his interviews anymore. Have had enough of his 'personality' to be honest.
Click to expand...

I took a chance on watching the ceremony, more out of concern for Nadal, but I really didn't want to see another ripped t-shirt either. I used to like him, now I just respect his game. T-shirt ripping, screaming at the top of his lungs, and celebratory jumping on cars in the parking lot doesn't appeal to me.
 
TheTruth

TheTruth

G.O.A.T.
Relinquis said:
no. clearly about djokovic... nadal is always respectful to the crowd and opponents... he (i.e. Rafa) is the consummate tennis professional and is not one for theatrics.
Click to expand...

Agreed. It's great to be a champion, but it's better to be a respectful champion, although Djoker surprised me today.
 
kragster

kragster

Hall of Fame
OP, glad to see you take this in a positive way.

As a fan of both players, I was thrilled by Novak's first set level but sad to see Rafa still has BH issues. He needs to be way way more aggressive with that shot, especially DTL, if he wants to stop Novak.
 
zagor

zagor

Bionic Poster
kragster said:
OP, glad to see you take this in a positive way.

As a fan of both players, I was thrilled by Novak's first set level but sad to see Rafa still has BH issues. He needs to be way way more aggressive with that shot, especially DTL, if he wants to stop Novak.
Click to expand...

Nadal's BH issues will really only show up against Novak, and only that if Novak is playing at a very, very high level and is confident (normally showed by how comfortable he is going DTL off both sides, changing direction of the ball so well is crucial for him against Nadal), Nadal's BH was a predictable and safe shot last year as well and he had very little trouble with Novak on clay.

Against the field Nadal's FH and movement will be enough for him to cruise more or less, I'd say Novak is still far more vunlerable on clay against the field, no matter how well he's playing players can still play ball with him while the vast majority of the tour can't handle Nadal's spin at all (which is why so often it looks like they're making more unforced errors against him when reality is they're hardly unforced).

I think Nadal also had success against Novak today when he changed pace a bit by using his slice, Novak didn't handle it all that well and gave Nadal a few shorters balls to pounce on with his FH.
 
zagor

zagor

Bionic Poster
TheTruth said:
I took a chance on watching the ceremony, more out of concern for Nadal, but I really didn't want to see another ripped t-shirt either. I used to like him, now I just respect his game. T-shirt ripping, screaming at the top of his lungs, and celebratory jumping on cars in the parking lot doesn't appeal to me.
Click to expand...

That was Vajda, not Novak.
 
D

Deleted member 77403

Guest
zagor said:
I think Nadal also had success against Novak today when he changed pace a bit by using his slice, Novak didn't handle it all that well and gave Nadal a few shorters balls to pounce on with his FH.
Click to expand...

He was using that tactic well, but I think it didn't work 100% well. Yes, he got a few short balls, but I did notice Djokovic pick up on that play, and he was hitting higher over the net cross court with top spin, to push Nadal a little more to his left, giving himself more time to get back to the middle of the court.
 
zagor

zagor

Bionic Poster
Hitman said:
He was using that tactic well, but I think it didn't work 100% well. Yes, he got a few short balls, but I did notice Djokovic pick up on that play, and he was hitting higher over the net cross court with top spin, to push Nadal a little more to his left, giving himself more time to get back to the middle of the court.
Click to expand...

Well sure, Novak picked up on it but it's still valid as a change of pace, not to do it all the time but to keep Novak honest, when Novak is playing this well I don't think Nadal can play his regular game (with which he still routines the rest of the field on clay) and be successful (he isn't as fast as he once was), he needs to play out of his comfort zone.

The shot you described Novak did fairly often today when Nadal got him on the defensive, a high but deep ball to buy himself enough time to get back in the middle.
 
D

Deleted member 77403

Guest
zagor said:
Well sure, Novak picked up on it but it's still valid as a change of pace, not to do it all the time but to keep Novak honest, when Novak is playing this well I don't think Nadal can play his regular game (with which he still routines the rest of the field on clay) and be successful (he isn't as fast as he once was), he needs to play out of his comfort zone.

The shot you described Novak did fairly often today when Nadal got him on the defensive, a high but deep ball to buy himself enough time to get back in the middle.
Click to expand...

Djokovic, if you notice changed the pace on how he hit the ball on that shot. The more Nadal gave him the play, the more Djokovic managed to get that angle, and he did it by just killing the pace just enough so that the spin would allow it to move further towards the doubles area of the court. This allowed him to neutralise the rally and get back into better position.

I think Djokovic and his camp saw this play imployed by Nadal last year quite a bit, and Djokovic would be going more down the line, or trying to slice the ball back and getting caught out. He basically brought a counter punch to that today, and it was quite obvious, especially when Nadal was trying to get the ball down to his ankles.
 
zagor

zagor

Bionic Poster
Hitman said:
Djokovic, if you notice changed the pace on how he hit the ball on that shot. The more Nadal gave him the play, the more Djokovic managed to get that angle, and he did it by just killing the pace just enough so that the spin would allow it to move further towards the doubles area of the court. This allowed him to neutralise the rally and get back into better position.

I think Djokovic and his camp saw this play imployed by Nadal last year quite a bit, and Djokovic would be going more down the line, or trying to slice the ball back and getting caught out. He basically brought a counter punch to that today, and it was quite obvious, especially when Nadal was trying to get the ball down to his ankles.
Click to expand...

Interesting observation, I'll try to get the match to watch the 2nd set again.
 
D

Deleted member 77403

Guest
zagor said:
Interesting observation, I'll try to get the match to watch the 2nd set again.
Click to expand...

Yeah, take a look when you can. I noticed it straight away, and whether Nadal overplayed it, because I saw in some rallies, when Djokovic hit to the backhand, he would alternate between topspin or slice, he got Djokovic into the groove of it. As soon as Djokovic got a feel for that slice, you could tell he was prepared, unlike last year, where at times he looked completely out of sorts with that play. That counter strike negated the mix up Nadal wanted to get the short ball many times, sure he got a few, but not nearly as much as he would have liked.
 
TheTruth

TheTruth

G.O.A.T.
zagor said:
That was Vajda, not Novak.
Click to expand...

I know who it was, but you're known by the company that you keep. My friends would never do something publicly that would reflect on me, because they know I would be ticked off at such a show of disrespect. Birds of a feather...just like on this board sometimes. You're known by the posters you support. It's a mirror to your own true intentions.
 
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