AO 2011 R32: Rafael Nadal (1) vs Bernard Tomic

Who wins?

  • Total voters
    55
  • Poll closed .
Needs to serve better and keep his fh down a bit more against cilic. The serve % was down today but another solid performance this time against a tricky player.
 
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namelessone said:
Look the kid is talented but the only reason it's been close is because Nadal is very sluggish, whatever the reason.

If Rafa played like crap against a top player and was double break down he would have let it go.

This is almost a carbon copy of the lacko match only difference being that lacko has a bit more experience at the top level and bageled sick Nadal.
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I disagree. Tomic will be top 20 by the end of 2011... that's my prediction.

How many ATP tour matches has he played up to this point? ... and he's nearly in the top 100 already. He's currently #178
 
Bud said:
I disagree. Tomic will be top 20 by the end of 2011... that's my prediction.

How many ATP tour matches has he played up to this point? ... and he's nearly in the top 100 already.
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Tomic in the top 20 at the end of 2011? More like top 200, he doesn't play outside the Australian Open AT ALL!
 
Bud said:
I disagree. Tomic will be top 20 by the end of 2011... that's my prediction.

How many ATP tour matches has he played up to this point? ... and he's nearly in the top 100 already. He's currently #178
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Don't get me wrong, dude can play ball for his age and it's great that he has stones to come out and play but Nadal would have lost sets to any solid baseliner today, especially those in the top 30 range.

His inexperience showed at 4-0.
 
dandelion_smiley said:
Tomic in the top 20 at the end of 2011? More like top 200, he doesn't play outside the Australian Open AT ALL!
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Yeah and you can quote me on that too ;)

At 18 years old, he's currently #178 and has only played 16 tour level matches in his entire career.

In 2011 he'll be playing 22-24 tournaments.
 
I was not impressed by Tomic at all, very awkvard looking.. and the so called variety he was supposed to have was plain stupid sometimes... not top 20 material imo
 
namelessone said:
Don't get me wrong, dude can play ball for his age and it's great that he has stones to come out and play but Nadal would have lost sets to any solid baseliner today, especially those in the top 30 range.

His inexperience showed at 4-0.
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why do you assume other top 30 guys would be up 4-0 against nadal in the 2nd? I don't think other guys would be up two breaks, maybe only 1. Tomic was playing really well in that period.
 
dlk said:
I'll be impressed if Tomic can take 3-4 games per set, something like 6-4 6-2 6-3 would impress me. If he somehow managed to take a set, I would say his progression has significantly improved.
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Forget the scoreline. I can see what everyone is talking about. But we'll see how he does the next few tourneys.
 
Bud said:
Yeah and you can quote me on that too ;)

At 18 years old, he's currently #178 and has only played 16 tour level matches in his entire career.

In 2011 he'll be playing 22-24 tournaments.
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I could but Im not that vicious. Not in this world is Tomic finishing the world in the top 50 this year, top 100 would be big
 
Bud said:
What did he say ?
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Jim asked him like about what kind of trouble he was having. So he was like Tomic was making him play bad, and he was just thinking he's going to have to come to the net more if he's going to destroy him. LOL

I think he was going for "defeat".
 
dandelion_smiley said:
I could but Im not that vicious. Not in this world is Tomic finishing the world in the top 50 this year, top 100 would be big
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As much as I dislike his on court demeanor, the kid's got game. He's improved a ton since last years AO.

We'll see at the end of 2011 where he lies in the rankings.
 
bolo said:
why do you assume other top 30 guys would be up 4-0 against nadal in the 2nd? I don't think other guys would be up two breaks, maybe only 1. Tomic was playing really well in that period.
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It's pretty touch to play bad when your opponent can't get his fh or bh past the service line and has like 50% first serve in.

Rafa still played like crap for his level and came back from 4-0.

Any experienced player would have punished Rafa today.

People are missing the fact that Nadal couldn't buy a serve and couldn't hit through a kid who, while having a good serve and solid backhand for his age, played junk ball most of the time and wasn't exactly a mental giant(it's hard to be at his age).

Seriously, put Tomic against a guy with a decent serve and deep strokes and his age will show.
 
Bud said:
As much as I dislike his on court demeanor, the kid's got game. He's improved a ton since last years AO.

We'll see at the end of 2011 where he lies in the rankings.
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Bud is officially a tomictard. I might join ya soon! ;)
 
The ATP Top 20 isn't easy to crack. Should focus on top 100/50 for now.

That match was alright. At least it wasn't dreadfully boring like the Sweeting match.
 
Tough match but a good win for Rafa at the end of the day. Like others have said, the backhand was working but the forehand was inconsistent and his serve was back to decidely average. Definitely needs to work on it but nobody knows that better than he does.

Tomic played better than I thought he would, so credit where it's due. His forehand is pretty good, I thought he needed a little more hussle in his game, there were times when he just seemed to punt his returns back into the court without much thought or strategy. Still, he's young so plenty of time to polish his game.
 
namelessone said:
It's pretty touch to play bad when your opponent can't get his fh or bh past the service line and has like 50% first serve in.

Rafa still played like crap for his level and came back from 4-0.

Any experienced player would have punished Rafa today.

People are missing the fact that Nadal couldn't buy a serve and couldn't hit through a kid who, while having a good serve and solid backhand for his age, played junk ball most of the time and wasn't exactly a mental giant(it's hard to be at his age).

Seriously, put Tomic against a guy with a decent serve and deep strokes and his age will show.
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He beat both Chardy (#44) and Lopez (#31) in rounds 1 and 2 ;)

And in STRAIGHT sets in both matches.

At 17 in 2010, he took Cilic to 5 sets

It amazes me how much people here underrate this kid.
 
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Cesc Fabregas said:
Nadal couldn't buy s a flat serve to save his life today. He needs that serve against Cilic.
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His serve improved as the match progressed... as did his BH

nadal_slam_king said:
2010 Australian Open: Cilic defeated Tomic 6-7(6) 6-3 4-6 6-2 6-4
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And that was when Cilic was playing excellent tennis. He made the SF last year. Funny he was almost knmocked out in round 2 (IIRC) by a 17 yo with little ATP tour experience.
 
Outbeyond said:
(sigh)...Nadal's won in straight sets. And you're worried he's going down the tubes.

I just don't feel the same concern. You see the stats. I see the score.
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Scores tell you very little. It's the actual game that matters. Particularly, when a experienced player plays against a new kid on the block., who makes mistakes at critical junctures. Hardly any Top 100 player would have lost the 2nd set against Rafa from 0-4 when they were so much in command.

The fact of he matter is Nadal played sub-par. This is NOT EVEN in the same STRATOSPHERE as his performance in the UsOpen where he was UNSTOPPABLE.
A casual observation proves this, moreover the stat prove it irrefutably.Compared to his UsOpen averages, Nadal's first serve % was 10-15% (55% compared to 66-70%) down, his points won in 1st serve 20-25% down and the speed down by 5-10 mph on average. He had less winners than his opponent and was defending for most of the match with 87% of the pts played behind the baseline. This stat was close to 50% or less in UsO.

Nadal is not a bad hardcourt player, but he has to play his best tennis to win hardcourt slams. Unless he improves dramatically he has LITTLE chance against anyone in the top 5, not least against Murray who's a bad matchup and can even beat peak Nadal (and who will absolutely obliterate "this" Nadal),

So you can't just look at the score, and say Oh because Rafa won in straights, he's winning the AO..

Fed's 5 set victory against Simon was 3x more impressive than Nadal's straight sets over Tomic, simply because Fed played great but his opponent played crazy good for 2 sets. Where as today Nadal played CRAP and made a rookie look like a GOD :)
The Simon who played against Fed would probably have beaten today's Nadal without much trouble.

Finally, Nadal needs to fire his Nike+ team designer and get some better fitting shirts which don't make him sweat buckets on court. .

I think this 4 slams in a row hype is getting to Nadal, He's feeling the pressure and it shows in his game..
 
namelessone said:
It's pretty touch to play bad when your opponent can't get his fh or bh past the service line and has like 50% first serve in.

Rafa still played like crap for his level and came back from 4-0.

Any experienced player would have punished Rafa today.

People are missing the fact that Nadal couldn't buy a serve and couldn't hit through a kid who, while having a good serve and solid backhand for his age, played junk ball most of the time and wasn't exactly a mental giant(it's hard to be at his age).

Seriously, put Tomic against a guy with a decent serve and deep strokes and his age will show.
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In that period nadal was down and but tomic was getting very easy points on the serve, also dictating play from the baseline with his groundies and taking the ball very early. Some guys from the top 30 can do all 3 of those things and might have taken a 2 break lead, but not everyone.

Imo nadal wouldn't have been down 2 breaks and would have likely recovered against several guys in the top 30.
 
Bud said:
He beat both Chardy and Lopez in rounds 1 and 2 ;)

And in STRAIGHT sets in both matches.
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Lopez is a primadonna(and his serve is half of his game, not to mention that his best result here is 3R) and chardy is inconsistent as hell(best result here is 2R).

I was far more impressed when he took Cilic to five in AO 2010.
 
Cesc Fabregas said:
Nadal couldn't buy s a flat serve to save his life today. He needs that serve against Cilic.
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Rafa's really not comfy with that serve yet. It worked well when he played sweeting. I think if Cilic gives him a good match, it should be up and running. Rafa looked sorta jittery today, all that matters is he won, and on to teh next round.
 
namelessone said:
Lopez is a primadonna(and his serve is half of his game, not to mention that his best result here is 3R) and chardy is inconsistent as hell(best result here is 2R).

I was far more impressed when he took Cilic to five in AO 2010.
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He beat 2 top 50 players back to back in straight sets! lol

This kid would currently be (at least) a top 50 player if he played a full schedule.
 
I agree with namelessone. :(


93027299.jpg
 
namelessone said:
I was far more impressed when he took Cilic to five in AO 2010.
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Cilic dug his own grave in that match and almost lost. Cilic has lousy technique on his forehand. It's great when its ON, but it's so flat that when it goes OFF, he suffers. Ditto with his massive back arching 2nd serve.

Tomic just allowed Cilic to self-destruct and still almost won playing PUSHER tennis.

Put a guy like Fed, Soderling, Djokovic or even Murray against Tomic, and I bet Tomic doesn't get more than 6-8 games in THREE sets. Fact is he's a rookie; a chump who can be easily blown off the court,. But Nadal was just moonballing in all it's glory and made Tomic look like a young Del Potro.
 
meg0529 said:
Jim asked him like about what kind of trouble he was having. So he was like Tomic was making him play bad, and he was just thinking he's going to have to come to the net more if he's going to destroy him. LOL
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Nadal should have grabbed his crotch when he said this.
 
DragonBlaze said:
Are TennisFan3 and namelessone related by any chance? :twisted:
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Not in the least. Honestly, I don't even know much about namelesssone other than the fact that his previous posts are said to have good tennis analysis.

The only way that we might be related is that we (at least I am) Nadal fans but do NOT drink the Kool aid and say " Rafa won in straights today. He's looking so good , he's gonna beat everyone and win the AO".

Let's not be afraid of calling a spade a spade.

Look at analysis by Cahil, Mats or anyone else you like. They will say the same thing. Nadal was sub-par and good news for his opponents.
 
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