Nadal next year..

AO:R16/QF
FO:W
Wimbledon:W
USO:SF/F

AO is a wild one. It's the beginning of the season and Rafa is coming from recovery from injury.

FO/Wimbledon he should get a pretty good draw and play Fed again in the finals??

USO Rafa could win on hard court! It all depends on if he can make it to the final before playing Djokovic/Murray/Federer.
 
He got to the SF of the Aussie without dropping a set before losing to man who played one of the most perfect matches of tennis I've ever seen. He got to the SF of the USO without anything close to his best tennis.[/QUOTE said:
He got there through two of the most weaksauce draws ever.
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Gen said:
I am a Nadal fan, I am biased. My biased impression is that Nadal crushed Federer on grass in 2008 as he did on clay in 2006, and comeback will be very difficult for Federer. Actually he doesn't have the appropriate experience: he always moved up, didn't have any downs, and respective comebacks. But ... all this is a conjecture, hard proof will be given in AO.
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how is winning in the 5th 9-7 AFTER being up 2 sets to love crushing Federer????????? Crushing is losing straight sets after being outplayed, i.e. tsonga 6-2 6-3 6-2 over rafa.

Nadal won't win a hc slam this year. I'm saying quarters for both of them. He'll prob. win or come in 2nd at the French. Wimbledon is anyone's guess. If they keep slowing it down, it'll be slower than the french.
 
rubberduckies said:
Must Nadal to get to a hard court slam final and lose it before he has a chance to win one? Because that's what the statement that "he won't win a hc slam because he has never been to a final" means. If he does make a final and lose, we'll be hearing: 'Nadal can't win a hc slam because he has never even won one yet'.

He got to the SF of the Aussie without dropping a set before losing to man who played one of the most perfect matches of tennis I've ever seen. He got to the SF of the USO without anything close to his best tennis.
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He got to each SF with the easiest draws I have ever seen for a World #2/World#1.
 
Gen said:
I am a Nadal fan, I am biased. My biased impression is that Nadal crushed Federer on grass in 2008 as he did on clay in 2006, and comeback will be very difficult for Federer. Actually he doesn't have the appropriate experience: he always moved up, didn't have any downs, and respective comebacks. But ... all this is a conjecture, hard proof will be given in AO.
Click to expand...

It's not exactly cliff climbing dude. You say he's down like he's fallen off the great trango. Many players have had injuries, sickness, bad seasons and then they have come back.

And, if I were a Nadal fan I would say how well he did to take over number one, rather than how downward Federer was to make it possible for him to take over.
 
NamRanger said:
Yeah, that's why Roddick beat him down in Dubai and barely lost despite a shoulder injury at Queens. Get real. Any indoor/fast HC, Roddick is favored above Nadal.
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Dubai was an upset. Nadal has lost to weaker players than Roddick. It doesn't mean he would be the underdog on those surfaces. Nadal played very tentative in that match in Dubai and choked that tiebreaker. The fact that you use one tournament to generalize everything is a perfect example of how biased you are. The whole 2008 year shows clearly who is better on fast surfaces. Only 1 tournament showed Roddick as a monster on fast hardcourts. Every other fast tournament showed Roddick very beatable. (Madrid, Paris, US Open, Wimbledon, Queens, and Shanghai)
 
Last edited:
egn said:
Yea crushed..thats why it took him five sets to beat him after being up 2 sets to love. To put it simply it was a close match and in the last set it was 9-7. So don't say crushed.



Key word Federer still won the two tiebreaks. If Nadal was that much better why couldn't he win a tiebreak. Nadal lost in 2007 because Federer outplayed him. Stop making excuses for it, he still won it in 2008, he was the better player but don't try to take 2007 away from Federer, he still out battled him.


Back on topic I am not saying it is impossible for him to win a 3 or all 4 slams, but can we be realistic. He does not dominate on hard courts, his record was 46-10 this year I believe on the surface. I would pick Djokovic over him in both of the hard court slam finals and Murray any day.

Second lets not say oh if Nadal made the US OPEN final he would have won since that has to be the stupidest arguement ever. Since Federer did beat the person who beat him and making that assumption is just stupid. That would be like Federer fans saying well if Nadal didn't make the French Open final he would win it. It went downt the way it so deal with it.
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No , you don't say that it's impossible since he has already won five.

Why any day?
H2H:
Nadal-Djokovic: 10-4
Nadal-Murray: 5-1

If you sum the points won on hard in 2008, you'll see that Djokovic and Murray show better results due to TMC points only.

Annual total on hard:
Nadal: 3145
Murray: 3210
Djokovic: 3705

Subtract 300 and 650 respectively, and the figures are:
Nadal: 3145
Murray: 2910
Djokovic: 3055.
 
DoubleDeuce said:
It's not exactly cliff climbing dude. You say he's down like he's fallen off the great trango. Many players have had injuries, sickness, bad seasons and then they have come back.

And, if I were a Nadal fan I would say how well he did to take over number one, rather than how downward Federer was to make it possible for him to take over.
Click to expand...

I am not disparaging Federer. At least, this is not my intention. I am trying to respond to black-and-white statements like "Nadal won't win this, Nadal won't win that". It looks as if people never heard about lessons learnt. Merely 2-3 years ago it was: Nadal will never win anything outside clay. Nadal won 4 masters on hard, plus Dubai, plus Olympics. One year ago: Nadal will never win Wimbledon. Nadal won Wimbledon. Half a year ago: Nadal will never be number one. Nadal is number one. Now Federer fans' best beloved prophecy is Nadal will never win a hard slam. Guys, say thank you to god that you are not medieval prophesiers. You'd've been burnt at the stake long ago for the forecasts that never come true.
 
NamRanger said:
He got to each SF with the easiest draws I have ever seen for a World #2/World#1.
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Roger made the finals of the French and Wimbledon this year without playing a single opponent ranked higher than 20 (Hewitt at Wimby). Roger's been getting by with joke draws for years.
 
As many posters have pointed out, Nadal's progress has been steady and constant.

Given the fact that he does win a lot of HC matches and has been victorious at various HC masters, one could expect him to win a HC slam sooner or later.

The only threat hanging over his head are health issues. He has proved he can cope with pressure and has an incredible mentality. When his number 2 spot was threatened by Djokovic, he defended it succesfully in several key matches and then moved on to number one.

At his age, he has a lot of good years ahead. Again, the one thing that could spoil everything would be his physical problems. If they start bothering him more, his carreer could have a premature end. If not, I see no reason why he would not win one or two slams next year and over time complete his slam count up to 8 or 10 total victories in his carreer by the time it ends.
 
Nadal_Freak said:
Dubai was an upset. Nadal has lost to weaker players than Roddick. It doesn't mean he would be the underdog on those surfaces. Nadal played very tentative in that match in Dubai and choked that tiebreaker. The fact that you use one tournament to generalize everything is a perfect example of how biased you are. The whole 2008 year shows clearly who is better on fast surfaces. Only 1 tournament showed Roddick as a monster on fast hardcourts. Every other fast tournament showed Roddick very beatable. (Madrid, Paris, US Open, Wimbledon, Queens, and Shanghai)
Click to expand...


Wimbledon isn't fast and Nadal barley beat him at queens
 
Gen said:
No , you don't say that it's impossible since he has already won five.

Why any day?
H2H:
Nadal-Djokovic: 10-4
Nadal-Murray: 5-1

If you sum the points won on hard in 2008, you'll see that Djokovic and Murray show better results due to TMC points only.

Annual total on hard:
Nadal: 3145
Murray: 3210
Djokovic: 3705

Subtract 300 and 650 respectively, and the figures are:
Nadal: 3145
Murray: 2910
Djokovic: 3055.
Click to expand...

First, that is not their head to head on only hard courts.

Nadal v. Djokovic - 3-4 with Djokovic favored. Murray the h2h for them on hard courts is Nadal v. Murray - 3-1. However considering two of those one wins came before Murray hit is prime it is a different story now. Sure Djokovic up 4-3 is not much of an edge but then the same goes for 3145 vs. 3055 points wise. Second of all Nadal consistently performs better than Nadal at hardcourt slams having a win and a runner up. Nadal only made it to the semi finals in both this year and with some of the easiest draws ever and then lost in both to Tsogna and Murray who had consistently beat. Also Murray is a stronger player now and I feel has a better game on hard courts now then Nadal has, but then we will have to see. Djokovic and Murray have both had better hard court slam performances than Nadal I see them winning more before Nadal gets one.

rubberduckies said:
Roger made the finals of the French and Wimbledon this year without playing a single opponent ranked higher than 20 (Hewitt at Wimby). Roger's been getting by with joke draws for years.
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I agree with the French Open Draw, but Wimbledon this year was practically a joke, Nadal's only real tough opponent outside of the finals was Andy Murray, Youzhny is no threat on grass. However his 2007 Wimbledon was actually a strong draw (Gasqut, Ferrero, Hass, Safin all in it) and his 2006 other than his semi final match was a strong draw. (Ancic, Berdych, Henman) compare that to Nadal's 2006 outside of Marcos Baghdatis who was a threat. Agassi was way out of his prime and Nieminen was far from quality.

Other tough Federer draws
2006 French Open (Massu, Berdych, Ancic, Nalbandian all in it)
2007 French Open (Youzhony, Robredo, Davydenko)
2006 US Open (Henman, Blake Davydenko, also when he beat Roddick in the final he took down 3 top 10 players in a row to win.)
2007 US Open (Isner, Lopez, Roddick, Davydenko, also when he beat Djokovic in the final he once again took down 3 top 10 players in a row to win)
2004 US Open (Santoro, Pavel, Agassi, Henman, and once again when winning against Hewitt he took down 3 top 10 players in a row)
2004 Australian Open (Hewitt, Nalbadndian, Ferrero)

Okay that's enough so yea those are a few of his tough draws the others are decent I'd say one or two were actually extremely weak, with the French Open this year being the weakest he ever had.
 
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