As a Rafa fan seeing Novaks level of play today makes the semi loss to Fedr hurt more.

[Rafa24]

its difficult to compare matches...but yesterday i thought the same...

nadal had beaten this djokovic. too bad he was´nt at his best against federer.

two years in a row he lost the semi and would have won the final (2018 for sure....2019 80%)

100% chance he wins 2018. That one stings for me abotu as much as this one stings for fed fan's I'm sure. And the fact he got screwed by the roof rule makes it even worse. As a Rafa fan 2012 AO was probably the most deflating followed by 2017 AO and then 2018 Wimbledon.

 

[Rafa24]

It's kind of funny actually. Fed screwed Nadal, Novak screwed Fed. Nadal didn't get to screw Joker because Thiem did it for him.

Something perverse about this picture, so don't take it literally.

lmao. it is weird in a way how each of them are rising and falling and making this slam race close. I think DJoker will end up with the most slams at the end of the day which will be interesting since everyone loves fed and have called him the goat forever.

 

[Rafa24]

Very convenient for Nole to avoid Rafa everywhere off clay from 2017 until W 2018 lol

i get tired about hearing about that too. the "rafa hasn't beat fed off clay since 2014". they played 1 match in 2015, didn't play each other in 2016, fed beat him 5x in 2017. Didn't play each other in 2018 and this year they have met once on clay and once on grass. So in 3 of those years that "rafa couldn't beat fed off clay since 2014" they played 1 total match.

2017 is the only year that had enough matches to be significant when talking about fed beating rafa everywhere but clay. And 2017 AO final was a 5 setter with Rafa up a break in the 5th.

 

[StrongRule]

Djoker isn't bad on clay. But i agree everyone knew in 2015 rafa was going to lose at RG. He was playing awful that year.

I never said he is bad on clay. I said he doesn't have any great wins in RG. So all this talk about Nadal being "lucky" that he didn't have to face Djokovic this year is a joke.

 

[Rafa24]

I never said he is bad on clay. I said he doesn't have any great wins in RG. So all this talk about Nadal being "lucky" that he didn't have to face Djokovic this year is a joke.

Oh I agree. I wish djoker had made the final. Rafa would have mopped the lines with him. Only time he ever got rafa at RG was at the worst in rafas career and he was near peak.

Realistically djoker and fed are probably in the top 5 of clay courters all time. take rafa away and they each have 4-5 RG+.

it does suck about this final as i still give the edge to djoker if he played rafa but rafa had a chance.

 

[Biggest3]

I don't understand how Nadal would have had a good chance in beating Djokovic when he was lousy and nervous against Federer.He had all the reasons to be confident going into the match considering he just beat him at Fo and was having a great tournament untill that point but then went on and play bellow par when it mattered the most.What makes you think he will suddenly be calm in playing Djokovic and find his best after all the hard beatings he suffered at the hand of him.Also when Djokovic plays Nadal he just goes berserk.The guy wants to murder Nadal whenever he plays him no matter what his form is.He was really tame in the final in comparison almost like he didin't really care about the title that much.

 

[hoodjem]

"Novak Djokovic Is the Greatest Player of the ‘Big Three’ "

Article in The Atlantic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/enterta...novak-djokovic-outlasts-roger-federer/593947/

 

[onyxrose81]

Completely different matchups. Like the other poster said, I think Novak was more prepared for Rafa than Roger. Roger's serve and lack of rhythm was near deadly to Djokovic. Rafa wouldn't have that. You can't say Rafa would beat him because matchups matter.

 

[Gary Duane]

lmao. it is weird in a way how each of them are rising and falling and making this slam race close. I think DJoker will end up with the most slams at the end of the day which will be interesting since everyone loves fed and have called him the goat forever.

I have no idea who will end up with the most slams. The only thing I'm pretty sure of is that it will get closer, because of the ages. I'm not even sure of that, but I would be shocked if Fed moves up a lot more and the others don't. Nadal has also been knocking on the door this year. His biggest problem is the body. He's still F Win SF so far in slams. That doesn't look to me like the record of a guy who is done. As for Novak, who knows. He actually said at W that he now looks up to Fed as an example of what other players can do. If he's doing what Fed is doing, at nearly 38, LOOK OUT!

 

[King No1e]

If Rafa played the semifinal like he did in his previous rounds, like Kyrgios or Querrey, he would've probably beaten both Fed and Nole. His serve and forehand gave out in the last 2 sets vs Federer.

 

[Daniel Andrade]

I quite disagree.
We would have seen a painful loss just like in 2018.
No thanks.

 

[Daniel Andrade]

If Rafa played the semifinal like he did in his previous rounds, like Kyrgios or Querrey, he would've probably beaten both Fed and Nole. His serve and forehand gave out in the last 2 sets vs Federer.

Yes.
But I think that's the point. Nadal won't ever win against Nole and Fed just serve botting and playing forehands to the backhand. Not anymore I'd say. Federer will simply outserve him and punish his bad return game. Or in the case Rafa holds on, he will lose three tiebreaks and be out in three sets. The issue is Nadal tries to become more aggressive but does not follow the same game plan towards its conclusion. Djoko and Fed beat players who serve better and hit faster forehands all the time. If Nadal wants to see his serve and forehand aggression recompensated he needs to hit FHs more DTL, he needs to mix serve, not just hard to the BH. He needs to go to the net more, or else his attacking will become too risky by itself. AND HE NEEDS TO IMPROVE HIS RETURN. Otherwise, he will always be playing at a disadvantage. Fighting like a warrior, but at the end losing because of the worst strategy.

 

[Nole_King]

Have to agree, I think Rafa would have had a decent shot at beating this Novak.

That said, he would have also given Novak more rhytm (part of Novak looking out of sorts was because of Fed's superlative serving) so it would have been a different match-up.

I'd say it would have been 60-40 in favour of Nole.

It was not that Roger lost in straight sets. He had freaking 2 MPs on his serve.