2014 Roland Garros

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Hodgepodge said:
I didn't mention Federer . . .



Still makes for an inflated record He's the best clay courter you'll ever see, but beyond that he's not in the top echelon.
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Of course he is still top echelon. In his era to beat Roger Federer in Wimbledon Finals is an achievement in it's self
 
Just watched it this morning, disappointed to say the least. Djokovic was not able to play at his best today, though it is not surprising as that has been his level for most of the tournament. He had his chances in that 2nd and 4th sets to break Nadal, but he could not take them. This loss will hurt him for a long while.

Congratulations to Nadal, but really wish he didn't win the match last night.
 

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Nadal is a champion. What an athlete.

Still looks utterly unstoppable at the French. Will he ever lose there?

Nadal's French Open acheivements must be one of the most amazing sporting records in the history of sport. Cant think of anything better right now off the top of my head.
 
Disappointing result, was definitely on the side of Djokovic. Nadal is just such a GS BO5 beast, so mentally tough. 9 GSs at the French Open is insane.

Djokovic has had a really tough year or two. Since AO12, he has won 1/9 GSs, despite being the best player over that period and making the SFs in all but one of them. That period also includes a 1-5 GS final record. Really feeling for him at the moment, psychologically that must be a little disturbing. Not that he is outright choking, just it's a really tough era. He also just missed out on the Bronze medal at London as well.

For Novak's sake, I really hope he can win a slam this year.
 
Great win for Nadal. Physically both players struggled, Djokovic from the 3rd set and Nadal towards the end of 4th. I don't think Nadal had much left in his tank and Novak was starting to look better again. A fifth set would have probably gone Novak's way. But let's face it, if Nadal plays anywhere near his top level he is unbeatable on this court. Without belittling Wawrinka's slam, Nadal got really unlucky at the AO. He is not someone who would throw in the towel after going down a set in a slam final. He would have made Stan earn it. I expect a better show from Nadal on grass this year. He wasn't moving well on grass last year, this year he seems to be determined to do well on grass. If he can cross the first weak I wouldn't put my money against him at Wimbledon.
 
Haha yeah, in light of his great second week record, and recent first round losses at Wimbledon, that factor might be even more acute than normal.

Wimbledon is a weird one this year. Prob need to look at the lead-up form of a few guys more so than usual. Optimum year for Nadal to strike.
 
Well what a fantastic two weeks! When you consider the form he was in pre tournament it's been a brilliant effort to not only win the title, but the way in which he did it. Absolutely steam rolled everyone Novak aside. And even then, he was clearly the better player last night.

Obviously with that win he goes to 9 FO's, 14 Grand Slams. He's won 3 of the last 5 and played in 4 of the last 5 finals. Everything's coming up Milhouse.

Do feel a bit of sympathy for Djokovic though. The most consistent player on tour over the past couple of years, but he just keeps getting pipped at the post in majors. It's sorta hard to believe that since that epic Australian Open final in 2012 he's only won one. Nadal's won 4 in the same time frame.

Bring on Wimbledon. :D

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evdo1706 said:
Great win for Nadal. Physically both players struggled, Djokovic from the 3rd set and Nadal towards the end of 4th. I don't think Nadal had much left in his tank and Novak was starting to look better again. A fifth set would have probably gone Novak's way. But let's face it, if Nadal plays anywhere near his top level he is unbeatable on this court. Without belittling Wawrinka's slam, Nadal got really unlucky at the AO. He is not someone who would throw in the towel after going down a set in a slam final. He would have made Stan earn it. I expect a better show from Nadal on grass this year. He wasn't moving well on grass last year, this year he seems to be determined to do well on grass. If he can cross the first weak I wouldn't put my money against him at Wimbledon.
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And I reckon of the big 4 he has the least amount of pressure on him. Federer has long said that Wimbledon is his best and possibly only chance at winning another GS before he retires. Murray goes without saying, and then you look at Djokovic now who will feel he needs to win either this or the US to make the last couple of years worth while.

Rafa can sorta just roll up, he has nothing left to prove, nothing's really expected of him even though he'll be in the top line of betting. He has no points to defend. It could just be that all of that will give him the edge... can't wait.
 
Imagine if Nadal wins the next four grand slams, then faces Roger at Wimbledon. It'd be a battle for the most grand slam titles :eek:
 

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Flameboy said:
Obviously with that win he goes to 9 FO's, 14 Grand Slams. He's won 3 of the last 5 and played in 4 of the last 5 finals.
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Yet we constantly hear about his back injury or his knee injury or him feeling really tired. Very much over all those types of comments from the Nadal camp. Has been happening for years, yet he still maintains dominance.
 
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pepsi said:
Yet we constantly here about his back injury or his knee injury or him feeling really tired. Very much over all those types of comments from the Nadal camp. Has been happening for years, yet he still maintains dominance.
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Yeah imagine if he was fully fit 100% of the time. He'd be undefeated on all surfaces in all tournaments over the past 5 years! :p
 
Flameboy said:
Rafa can sorta just roll up, he has nothing left to prove, nothing's really expected of him even though he'll be in the top line of betting. He has no points to defend. It could just be that all of that will give him the edge.
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Nadal just needs to get through the early rounds when the grass actually plays like grass. Has struggled in the first week at Wimbledon for his whole career. We start to see him excel once the courts have transformed to dirt in the latter stages of the tournament.
 
I noticed Steve Darcis returned last week hasn't played a grand slam match since beating Rafa first round last year at Wimbledon, wouldn't it be interesting if he plays Wimbledon and draws Rafa first round again. o_O haha
 
Honestly can't see Rafa losing many French Opens until his career ends. It is very much a 'specialist' surface and Rafa's game is 100% suited to clay, although he's gotten so damn good that on other surfaces he's still awesome as well. 9 grand slams at the French already- absolute domination and the best clay courter of all time.
 
Rabbit of Caerbannog said:
Nadal just needs to get through the early rounds when the grass actually plays like grass. Has struggled in the first week at Wimbledon for his whole career. We start to see him excel once the courts have transformed to dirt in the latter stages of the tournament.
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Good weather would be to his advantage too, last year it was damp and crappy when he went out which just exacerbates what you're talking about. Plus he didn't play a warm up tournament on grass last year from memory which really means that he's going in cold.
 
Rabbit of Caerbannog said:
Nadal just needs to get through the early rounds when the grass actually plays like grass.
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The grass always plays like grass. It wears off gradually over the course of 14 days and that process has always been the same, in fact the main reason why they decided to change the composition of the grass in 2001 was to make that process slower. There is a big misconception that the grass has somehow slowed down, that is actually not very accurate. What has actually changed instead is the bounce of the surface. Along with the change in composition of the grass, the all England club also decided to increase the hardness of the surface as they realized that with the improvement of racquet and string technologies in the 1990s, the serve became way too dominant at Wimbledon and people started to complain against it as boring. So they increased the hardness and balls started to bounce a little higher in the 2000s. The higher bounce allows for a better ground game and it was perceived as a slowing down of the grass. If you look at the service statistics, the number of aces now are actually equal or higher than the 1990s, but the number of returnable serves have also increased. This is an excellent video explaining the death of serve and volley at Wimbledon -



Having said all of that, I actually agree to your statement. In the first week the ball skids through and does not bounce as much as the second week. Nadal enjoys higher bounce, so his first challenge would be to get through to the second week. It would also be interesting to see how he moves on grass. He was a smooth mover on it till 2011 but last year he looked quite uncomfortable.
 
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Hodgepodge said:
Yes Rafa's record is inflated, but this doesn't mean a natural reference to Federer, even if the same were true of him . . .
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Nadal's records are not inflated. He is the best clay court player, so he has completely dominated it and won 9 out of 9 finals on clay. Now take a look at his non clay finals. He has played 11 of them and 9 of those were against either Federer or Djokovic, both great players. He won 4 and lost 5 of those9. That is the only reason why he hasn't won as much outside clay. If he got to play Baghdatis, Philippoussis, Roddick, 35 year old Agassi, Hewitt etc in grans slam finals like Federer did from 2004-07 he would have also won majority of those matches. So you can't ignore the level of players he has had to compete against. The same is true for Djokovic too. If you replace Federer with Djokovic and let him play against that field from 2004-07 he would have won a lot more GS titles and with his consistency he probably would have remained #1 for all of those years.
 
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evdo1706 said:
Nadal's records are not inflated. He is the best clay court player, so he has completely dominated it and won 9 out of 9 finals on clay. Now take a look at his no clay finals. He has played 11 of them and 9 of those were against either Federer or Djokovic, both great players. He won 4 and lost 5 of those9. That is the only reason why he hasn't won as much outside clay. If he got to play Baghdatis, Philippoussis, Roddick, 35 year old Agassi, Hewitt etc in grans slam finals like Federer did from 2004-07 he would have also won majority of those matches. So you can't ignore the level of players he has had to compete against. The same is true for Djokovic too. If you replace Federer with Djokovic and let him play against that field from 2004-07 he would have won a lot more GS titles and with his consistency he probably would have remained #1 for all of those years.
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I reckon wait 24/36 months to see if Nadal can get to number 17. If he remains equal with Fed on 17 it will be pretty difficult for anyone to argue he is not GOAT.
 
I wouldn't say that Nadal played so good in this final, it just Djokovic was a complete disaster :)
 
Arguments about Fed having easier GS final opponents during his prime, ignore the fact that peak Federer in the current era would still be winning lots of slams. It's not his fault that his opposition in that time contained less 'Big 4' obstacles.

Nadal has still had the fortune to play GS finals against Puerta, Soderling, Berdych, Ferrer & Wawrinka after all. Only 1 slam between that lot. The latter 3 of which have mostly been hapless victims against him. Not to mention 4 FO finals against Federer, who counts clay as his least favourite surface. I'd take that over Roddick, Hewitt, Agassi, etc. any day.

Djokovic on the other hand has only played 1/13 GS finals against non-Big 4 (Tsonga AO 08).
 
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