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Deleted member 25923
Guest
I feel bad for him. He was oozing with talent today. That was not an easy match for Rafa.
Rafael Nadal v Bjorn Phau -- 1st Rnd USO
- Thread starter Love Game
- Start date
I feel bad for him. He was oozing with talent today. That was not an easy match for Rafa.
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Deleted member 3771
Guest
Good solid start by Nadal. He squandered a pile of BPs and barely had any BPs against himself all match and took care of business in 3. Don't expect him to peak like crazy in the first round, but good solid win.
35ft6
Legend
When I went to the US Open qualies, I would always try to watch Phau. It's really fun watching a small guy moving so fast and taking such huge cuts at the ball. He's like a baby Gaudio.
35ft6
Legend
He plays a high risk game. In the earlier rounds of qualies, he might just have his way with a guy or two, but later on, you see as he plays bigger guys, he's not looking to grind his way to a wind a la Ricardo Mello, another talented small guy in the qualies. He plays like Blake in a lot of ways, smash mouth tennis. One year I watched him beat Enquist in the first round of the main draw by basically out hitting him. Unfortunately, this style of play just can't be sustained all year round, but it seems to be the his best shot.
IvanAndreevich
Legend
As far as we know he has the game to beat Federer
http://www.atptennis.com/3/en/players/headtohead/?player1=Phau,+Bjorn&player2=federer
In 1999
Well it's about time RAfa gave credit to Rafa. He has always been considerate to his opponent when he has played well. The sharks are already circling( press) to pinpoint any problems he will have from now on being number one. So he has a right to be defensive. Furthermore he has a right to be jaded - what a player he is - he has proved beyond doubt that he is amongst the greatest - well done Rafa and good luck
LOL yes, I see what wishful thinkings can make to someone.
I was at the stadium and I never felt the match was in danger. Nadal is usually a slow starter and Phau was inspired today but it was obvious that he didn´t have the game to beat Nadal. It was just a matter of Nadal raising his game in a few points or Phau dropping his. It reminded me his first match vs Starace in Beijing.
I guess the break point chances Phau wasted are some kind of hallucination.
Nadal was 2/13 on breakpoints, Phau was 1/3. Phau had many problems to hold serve along the match but could manage to hold most of the times and stretch a couple of sets to the tie-break. If anything Phau was lucky to force a couple of tie-breaks. Straight sets victory for Nadal after wasting many chances so he was forced to play a couple of tie-breaks that were not especially hard. Nadal won 2 Slams this year and he is already the world no.1. The pressure is on others who didn´t live up to expectations this season.
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TennisandMusic
Guest
Yeah that was pretty cool stuff to be sure.
Tarsier
Professional
Yes, honey, his first break chance arrived in the 3d set. I was watching the match very attentively and waiting for that moment to happen, but there was not even a slightest chance for Phau to have a bp in sets 1 and 2.
orangettecoleman
Professional
If rafa continues to play this way he's going to be in trouble if he gets Kohlschreiber in the third round.
Fedace
Banned
Does he not remind you of Olivier Rochus ? Rochus overall had a very career so far but who knows, this will propel Phau into the top 50. Who's backhand do you like better ?
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Morrissey
Guest
This was a good test for Nadal early on, and he won in straights. So it's looking good.
Nadal (as well all the other players who stayed in Beijing until the day of the final) came to New York on a United direct flight that left Beijing at 1 pm on Monday. It is a 13.5 hour flight if there are no delays.
I imagine most of these players would not have minded starting a day or two later. Because indeed 12 hours is the maximum possible hour change you can get. Even if you are really disciplined in forcing yourself to stay awake and go to bed at the appropriate times, in order to try to adjust as fast as possible, it can still wreck havoc with your sleeping patterns for well over a week. If you are not disciplined, you can spend two or three weeks waking up in the middle of the night, wide awake, and then being overcome by intense sleep attacks at various points during the day.
Phau did play extremely well. No question about that.
edberg505
Legend
Like 35ft6 said he reminds me more of Kohlschreiber. I like Warwrinka, Gasquet, Philipp Kohlschreiber's (who should be Nadal's 3rd round opponent) backhands. But I would most certainly put Phau's backhand right up at the top. He was drilling that thing.
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Deleted member 25923
Guest
That jumping backhand was beastly. This guy definately has the talent to be in the top 50, hopefully he can pull an Agassi!
35ft6
Legend
He has top 20 talent but he doesn't have a top 50 game, IMO. His game is incredibly high risk, and he doesn't have a bread and butter shot or go-to shot pattern he can use to consistently win points against top 75 opponents. He's a really fun player to watch but he's got the tennis equivalent of a Streeball/Hotsauce kind of game. Maybe if Brad Gilbert would have gotten a hold of him earlier. Still, probably one of my favorite players, and you've really got to see him live to appreciate how hard he's swinging out.
I almost want to say if he was 3 or 4 inches taller, who knows. Maybe he could have been like Blake, but Blake hits much harder off the forehand. They play almost the same style, but even Blake seems like a master tactician compared to Bjorn. Seriously, that guy just goes for broke.
Marius_Hancu
Talk Tennis Guru
I enjoyed Phau **killing** Nadal from time to time with his 1HBH. Nadal wasn't getting even the whiff of it.
