The balls in your court.
Banned
Will Federer Ever win the French Open?
Will Federer Ever win the French Open?
- Thread starter The balls in your court.
- Start date
M
Morrissey
Guest
What do YOU think? If yes, you are one stubborn fella.
The balls in your court.
Banned
No way in hell. I think its obvious now.
No -- Federer has peaked, Nadal and Djokovic are still to peak...and there may be some other threats around the corner...three strikes at the Final, and Federer has struck out...time for a new batter...
Probably shouldn't have had 'Undecided' in the poll...that's no fun for this type of question...
Probably shouldn't have had 'Undecided' in the poll...that's no fun for this type of question...
anointedone
Banned
After today this question should be officialy put to bed forever. Even if Nadal suffered some horrible career ending injury (and no that wont happen, there is only a 0.1% chance of that happening or something) then there would be Djokovic there to spank him on clay in the future. In future years there will be a few more, even though they arent there now.
Nadal_Freak
Banned
Nope. Clay is a surface for young players. 20-25 is usually the best age for Clay.
anointedone
Banned
Please. Djokovic would have spanked Federer at the French Open the way both were playing. Federer is not the 2nd best clay courter at the moment, unless he re-raises his game drastically, and he only was in the final due to his joke draw of this years French. As todays final proved, he did not really even belong in that match.
Mick
Legend
i don't know what would be the outcome of a federer-djokovic match. not sure who would come out on top but i don't think it would result in a blowout.
in my view, federer likes the flat balls of djokovic much better then the high topspin balls of nadal. futhermore, nadal's a lefty and that bothers federer even more.
Legend of Borg
G.O.A.T.
Maybe it's his intimidating physique?
Mick
Legend
anointedone
Banned
Fair enough but in the past Federer was strong enough to take Nadal to 4 sets regularly in best 3-of-5s on clay, even with Nadal's superiority on clay and any potential matchup issues. I dont think any matchup problems explain away how much more competitive Djokovic was vs Nadal then Federer. Djokovic at this French Open was just alot stronger then Federer. Maybe if they played it wouldnt have been a blowout, but Federer wouldnt have won a single set. I would bet money on that if a time machine could make it happen somehow.
Legend of Borg
G.O.A.T.
haha. nadal is definitely a lot more muscular than djokovic
If Nadal had Ivanisevic's temper, he would be one frightening competitor.
I think this year was Federers best chance to win it, now I think everything is going to go downhill for him (I still think he will take 2 more gs) but he may even lose wimbledon to nadal :shock: especially if you saw the replay of last years wimby today, nadal was shockingly close, a couple of points here and there and it would have gone the other way.
M
Morrissey
Guest
I agree, back in 2006 I said that Fed would have 2 more chances to realistically win this thing. I think of his 4 matches with Nadal here this was so lopsided and non competitive that I can't imagine Fed doing anything to change the result in future encounters.
Let's just think for a second here. If Fed continues his "subpar" year into Wimby and US Open and doesn't win a GS he will not finish #1 this year. He has an awful lot of points to defend from here on in. Wimby, Montreal final, Cincy, US Open, Madrid final, Shanghai. There's alot of points he could lose from here on to the end. Nadal doesn't have many points to defend after this Wimby. So if he continues his excellent playing for 2008 so far he has a real shot at #1, or at least continue as #2.
anointedone
Banned
Nadal's biggest obstacle to the year end #1 is Djokovic. Djokovic is now the best hard court player in the world and most of the events remaining this year are hard courts. He is less then 100 points behind Nadal after the clay court season. To be honest Djokovic is a huge concern for Nadal for the year end #1, but it could go either way between them.
M
Morrissey
Guest
Fed will retire first. If he's injured who's to say Fed is a lock? Joker is a serious threat now and others will become threats in the future. Fed is declining as he gets older, this much we know. If Nadal gets injured I can bet it won't happen during the FO. Maybe the US Open or Aussie, but not during his beloved Roland Garros. He'll play with one leg if he has to. I'd still like his chances even then.
D
Deleted member 25923
Guest
You never know. A lot of the other winners were very unexpected when they did win. However, it is hard to think about it now.
M
Morrissey
Guest
With Nadal around you won't be seeing unexpected winners at the FO, maybe some unexpected finalists. Not for a few years.
anointedone
Banned
Djokovic has surpassed Federer on clay ability wise this year IMO. Just look at the semi and final matches of Nadal at this years French. So Federer is not even the 2nd best on clay anymore IMO. Yeah he beat Djokovic at Monte Carlo, but since then Djokovic has impressed more each time out on clay then Federer has. In future years a few others could also surpass him on clay, particularly if he continues to decline, especialy on that surface which does not favor age. So you are right if Nadal is injured Federer would no longer be the one to win the French, even in that case.
Even if the haters who have been wrong on almost everything so far are miraceously right and Nadal suffers early burnout/retirement, etc.... it is still hard to believe Federer would be a huge force on clay by that point anyway. In the most extreme case scenario that would be 3 years from now, and Federer will be going on 30 then. Even if he is still at the top, he wont be on clay at that point.
NikeWilson
Semi-Pro
today's match should put an end to this question.
also, Djokovic played better against Nadal than Federer did. therefore, Djokovic would've had the upper-hand against Federer too.
also, Djokovic played better against Nadal than Federer did. therefore, Djokovic would've had the upper-hand against Federer too.
FuriousYellow
Professional
After watching today's beatdown, I'm starting to think his first or second times playing Nadal were his best chances. Not only has he not figured out how to beat Nadal on clay, Nadal appears to have him completely figured out.
M
Morrissey
Guest
That's such a good observation of you, because it looked like Nadal knew where Fed's shots were going to land even before he hit it. He looked like he knew one or two shots ahead of Fed. Fed hasn't and won't figure out Nadal on clay, ever. Watch out for Wimby too. Nadal might be figuring it out too. We'll see.
edberg505
Legend
There I fixed that for you.
M
Morrissey
Guest
You're on a roll.
M
Morrissey
Guest
It was music to my ears to hear 5,000 French people be silenced today.
Alejandro D
Semi-Pro
I think he'll never beat Rafa at RG. He might win the french if Nadal gets injured. Otherwise, no way.
TheTruth
G.O.A.T.
I agree. Djokovic was way more convincing than Fed. Fed looked like he didn't want to be there from the first ball!
10 character
Didn't Fed just beat Djokovic at Monte Carlo this year?? Did Djokovic improve that much in the few weeks, and Fed regress that much???
I don't think you can put too much stock in one result, I think it's an aberration.
Until that last set, Djokovic was looking pretty helpless against Nadal also. He was down 2 breaks in the last set, managed to tie it up.
TheTruth
G.O.A.T.
They were quiet because they were in shock, but the music to my ears was when Ted Robinson said late in the match, how the people were chanting Rafa's name during the changeover! JMac and Carillo didn't even respond.
DarthMaul
Professional
Was Agassi young when he won the FO? He was 29 years old, if I am not wrong!
Thor
Professional
99 points ont the ATP RACE(which is 495 points in ranking points earned since the begining of the year).
Nadal still leads by 360 points.
crawl4
Rookie
sorry but im pretty sure federer beat him during the season and he made the final..
daddy
Legend
Speaking about Djokovic ? I think Fed would switch place with Djokovic right now and take the performance in semis vs Nadal over his performance in finals any day in the week.
zagor
Bionic Poster
No question about that,in fact he would probably take Belucci's perfromance as well(although that was Nadal's first match this year at FO so I guess he wasn't fully in his clay machine mode yet).
daddy
Legend
Kid is underrated. He had a set point, he was playing excelent tennis and in the third set he fell apart which is expected ( Djokovic and Federer fell apart in the 2nd ). The fact that he went out in the very first round is killing the chance of people talking about him but if he was in any other part of the draw he'd go deeper.
zagor
Bionic Poster
Yeah,Belucci has game I expect to see a lot more from him in the future along with Gulbis.
PimpMyGame
Hall of Fame
I say undecided because given the right factors he can still do it.
Next year the pressure will be on Nadal to win 5 in a row. By the next FO it's a reasonable assumption to say Federer might just be on 13 GSs. I think Fed will adjust his training to accommodate more and more clay court practice and strategy, if he really wants this title.
In any case, I don't think Fed has to prove to anyone (apart from himself maybe) that he's the best tennis player of this generation, and one of the best (if not the best) of all time.
Next year the pressure will be on Nadal to win 5 in a row. By the next FO it's a reasonable assumption to say Federer might just be on 13 GSs. I think Fed will adjust his training to accommodate more and more clay court practice and strategy, if he really wants this title.
In any case, I don't think Fed has to prove to anyone (apart from himself maybe) that he's the best tennis player of this generation, and one of the best (if not the best) of all time.
daddy
Legend
I do agree with the very first sentence, I think he's more than capable of winning the RG in couple of years to come. I dont agree with the sentence is bold as I strongly believe Fed will not be able to win if Rafa is in hos path - therefor the right factor for me is singular and it's the absence of Rafael.
zagor
Bionic Poster
Look,Nadal handles pressure of being the favourite probably better then any player I've ever seen and has reached another level on clay this year while Fed will be 28 next year.Fed's my favourite player of all time but let's be realistic here,I think Roger will equal or break Pete's record but his chances of winning FO are over IMO.
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