Roger Federer beat Rafael Nadal for the fifth time in a row–including four this year–with a 6-4, 6-3 triumph in the final of the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Sunday. The second-ranked Swiss cracked 10 aces without double-faulting, dropped only eight points in nine service games, and never faced a break point. He needed just one hour and 12 minutes to prevail.
A break in the opening game of the 38th career showdown between the two all-time greats Federer on his way. The 36-year-old consolidated it the whole way before breaking again for a 3-2 lead in the second set. Federer closed his dominant performance in style, breaking again at 5-3 to clinch victory.
Highlights:
This is Federer’s third Masters 1000 title of the season, having previously lifted trophies in Indian Wells and Miami. Federer and Nadal, of course, also split this year’s four Grand Slam titles.
“A lot has happened since and I was not here last year because of injury, so it is nice to be back in Shanghai, Federer noted. “[Nadal and I] didn’t think, maybe, we would have the year we have had. I definitely didn’t, so it is nice to share a court here with him here.”
It was lot nicer for Federer than it was for Nadal.
“It was a very difficult match for me,” the world No. 1 lamented. “He played very fast and he played well. I don’t know how many unforced errors he made. I could have done some things better, but that’s it. He just played too good. That’s my point of view. So congrats to him.
“I played a fantastic tournament, having very good wins; very pleased the way I played the whole Asian tour for me. Beijing and Shanghai have been a very positive two weeks for me. A lot of points, a lot of victories against great opponents. I come back with very good personal satisfaction the way that I played.”
Additional good news for Nadal is that he still leads Federer in the race for year-end No. 1 by almost 2,000 points. Nobody else is within 6,000 points of the race leader or within 4,000 of Federer.
Here’s why he’ll continue to beat the grinders henceforth. Federer’s talent is astounding http://www.138mph.com/tennis-federer-is-an-exceptional-talent-as-compared-to-nadal-and-djokovic/
Kavita, you are amazing.
Thanks!
This has been the most interesting tennis season I can remember, partly because it’s Rafa-Fed’s careers in microcosm, only closer in overall achievement and with roles reversed. So here’s a genuine question for Rafa (and Fed) fans:
Who has had the better season so far?
It’s obviously pretty even on the usual metrics. They’ve split the slams and each have 6 titles. Fed has one more masters (3-2) and has dominated the H2H. But of course Rafa has a sizable lead in the rankings.
I give the edge to Nadal at this point. Even though his rankings lead is pretty much entirely due to Roger skipping the clay court season, the fact remains that Roger did skip it, and consequently lost out on the chance to compete for 5500 points.
I imagine that some Rafa fans disagree, and I wonder how much the H2H plays into that. This is one of cases (very rare, imo), where it might factor in as a tie-breaker.
Roger Federer, i have given my reasons so many times.
All comes down to the world tour finals. Does anyone else have a strange feeling that Rafa will turn it around against Roger in the WTF and clinch the title for the first time
It certainly could happen, although there’s just no hiding from the sizable advantage that Federer has over Rafa on either fast or indoor hardcourt… WTF in London has traditionally not been the fastest court, but it’s the lower bounce and indoor conditions which typically render Rafa’s high-bouncing, heavy topspin ball less effective. Also, Federer handled Rafa this season on hardcourts that are not that fast as well. That being said, anything can happen when these two face each other. Although it was 2013 Federer, Rafa did technically win their last match at WTF! So you’ve got that going for you!
No I don’t ..I don’t think Rafa will beat Federer on an indoor court like fed won’t beat rafa on clay.
Joe..fed strategically opted out of clay and he has said it many times. Had he played he would have tired himself and may not have won Wimbledon.He should not be given benefit of doubt because he missed clay. Overall scheme of things would still remain same had he played because he would have lost points elsewhere.
Both had great seasons so far, however rankings don’t lie. The one who has higher points is the better player as he has won more matches.
#36
#4-0
#iwant6-0
#5winsinaroll
#4finalsin5meetings
#wow
#iamdancingbaby
Roger Federer is the best and the best tennis player this year, Irrespective of how it ends.
If Fed would have played clay court events, he would have played only Madrid/Rome and Roland Garros. And this would have been physically demanding for the old man had he went deep in these tournaments, but still there was enough gap between these events to recover. I don’t think that would have affected him winning wimby, because then he would have opted out of Stuttgart. I was little surprised he opting out of Roland Garros because he had a good chance of becoming number 1 at this age. Maybe only win/loss mattered him and not the rankings.
Rankings don’t lie is it? The best example is wta where Wozniacki/Jankovic/Pliscova all were world no.1 only to get embarrassed by lower ranked players.
You can twist it whichever way you want to make Fed look better but the fact is both have won same number of titles and rafa has reached 3 more finals to top it. The only blemish is his losses to Fed. Yes rankings don’t lie in the atp circuit and don’t bring wta into picture here as both tours can’t be compared.
Fed did not play clay for a reason so his fans should stop imagining the situation had he played. I am sure he knows himself better to decide why he opted out. Knowing him if he knew he could have done something in clay he surely would have played .
I’m not trying to twist anything to make Fed looks better. In fact being a Fed fan many a times I feel he should see how Rafa handles some players so easily that Fed should learn from Rafa.
I’m happy for whatever has happened, who knows had he played clay events and would have got injury then wimby would have been only a dream.
Rafa is no 1 and he deserves it fully but the rankings doesn’t always depicts the real picture even at ATP level see players like delpo/Kyrgios
which player do you think that Rafa handles easily that Fed struggles or should learn from? I feel infact Rafa should learn from Fed how he never allows some to play their game and always presses attack. However they are different breed of players.
This year Fed is doing well, it was in past like Rafa handling Berdych/Murray/Tsonga and these statement I mean only when Rafa is in his top form. If both are playing just about good tennis which happens most of the time as remaining on top for a longer period is quite difficult in that case fed handles better, at least he holds his own serve better.
Not Rafa’s style. Rafa’s is a counterpuncher’s mindset, he won’t change overnight to become an all out attacking player. He’s being trained from young to play his kind of game, that of problem solving, finding solution to counter his opponent’s attack kind of game. His game is tough on the body and on the mind, having to think his way out of a situation each time he takes to the court.
His is ‘allowing his opponents to play their game and him finding solutions to counter them before making his own attacks’. He rarely comes out all guns blazing or attacking from the get go, or dictating right from the first point, so, the FO tournament this year was a welcomed exception to the norm. He’s also trying to do that at Beijing, not as aggressive as his FO, but a good combination of defense/offense tennis.
I hope he continues to evolve his game, with inclination towards more offense than defense.
His game may be evolving,but he’s still not good at changing tactics DURING matches when its not going his way.
Not true, Big Al. I’ve seen Rafa doing that, if not how he snatched victories from the jaws of defeats so often??
Also if things were going well during his matches, why would he need to change tactics? You can’t expect Rafa to win 100% of the times right? Sometimes it’s not about changing tactics or not, as:
1) he may not be able to do so because of physical limitations; or
2) he’s just not playing well enough to enable him to change the way he plays during the match; or
3) his opponent is playing too well that he can’t change anything to counter that.
Wow!
I love #3, from a rafan that’s new but good.
See, R. Nadal will be bounce back and next year will be exciting if you love tennis because lot’s of player’s will be coming back, I just hope that they don’t reinjure themselves.
Next season will be difficult for everyone including R. Federer but b4 some good player’s figure out how they can stop Fed, Roger will win AO & some masters, Wimbledon one of his best or best tourney will be hard 4 him to win back not impossible just difficult.
N. Djokovic might win French open if he rediscovers his good form if not Nadal is the favourite but if Fed plays FO I doubt he will play, but if he plays watch out people, Roger is on a mission and I won’t bet against him.
R. Federer shouldn’t have played Montreal, it cost him big.
Injuries ofcourse can always cause aberrations like in case of Delpo or Rafa/Fed start of this year when they were 9/16 or Novak/Stan/Andy next year.
Kyrgios is talented but if he does not want to work hard and be perseverant, no one can help him.
I get what you saying but I mean in case of top players who are talented and work hard and persevere, rankings don’t lie unless injury plays spoilsport.
It might be a poor consolation but, in a way, it’s not that bad that Rafa is losing now against Fed because this gives him another challenge to face, this is what has spurred, on and on, his career so as long as his head is set on finding a solution, he’ll remain motivated to stay in the circuit 🙂
For all Rafans he has done very well this year winning 2 slams 2 masters and 2 other 500s, reaching 3 more finals. He won 2 hard court titles that he hasn’t since Jan 2014. He has beaten plenty of good players all year. He can’t win them all. We need to put things in perspective. Yes it’s difficult to digest the sudden losses to Fed which weren’t a problem all his career but then that’s a challenge for him to figure. Fed fans have suffered this for years to explain his losses to his 2 closest rivals in big matches hence maybe we can empathise with them now. All I hope is his knee recovers and he is able to compete and ends year as no 1. This year is almost done and hope for him to do some damage next year.
Don’t worry Sanju, it’s not like Fed hadn’t beaten Rafa on the HCs before this year. They’re 7-9 in Rafa’s favor prior to this year. They’re now 11-9 on the HCs, adv Fed. The fact that Rafa has made so many HC Finals and winning two (one of which a slam) this year is actually an improvement over the last few years.
I doubt anyone of us would have expected Rafa reaching the AO final this year, and reaching five finals on the HCs so far this year. I do feel both Fed and Rafa benefitted from the absence of a fit and top form Djoko.
We have to enjoy Rafa’s HC successes this season, not only the USO but also Beijing. He was exceptionally good at Beijing, very impressive given the draw. I checked both Djoko and Murray’s draw at Beijing in the past, I would safely say Rafa’s draw was still tougher than most of theirs when they were winning the Beijing titles, not forgetting HCs were/are their forte but not Rafa’s.
We can hope that Rafa recovers quickly and fully and continues playing like the way he played at Beijing this year. I think he was striking the ball so well there – his shots were hit with depth, he moved into the forecourt often, changing direction of his shots at will(unlike at Shanghai where he went CC almost all the time), serving and retuning well. He’s almost perfect there at Beijing, perhaps BP conversion rate could improve.
I think that Rafa’s Beijing title was very impressive. He beat pretty much the best the tour has to offer on a court like that outside of Big 4.
I am also hopeful that along with moya the solution for Federer will be figured out just like it was for Novak in 12 and 13.
Nny and Augusta..please do update us on the knee if you hear anything. Nny which is that vamosrafa site you visit ?
vamosrafa site? I don’t have any site mate!! lol
I think it was vamosbrigade.
Oh yeah lol…I forgot the name…they have all the latest info and nny visits it.
Sanju,
I have been checking in on vamosbrigade. If I hear anything about the knee I will post it here, with credit always given to the great fans there who translate the news into English for the rest of us.
I am concerned right now about the knee. But I do think that Rafa will figure it out with Fed and have his wins.
Thanks nny
My take on Fed skipping clay season:
I think he did it to avoid over-playing ans saving his body for Wimbledon. It makes sense why he did it. I do think, however, that he was holding on to his decision to play the French Open. I don’t think he would have played Monte Carlo , Rome etc to avoid playing too much (not because he feared Nadal would thrash him) but I think he wanted to see how Rafa is faring and in what shape he heads to RG. There is a very good chance he might have decided to enter the French if Nadal got injured in Rome or was playing shit losing to players like Fognini. So, I guess he did not plan on playing but could have changed his mind if Rafa was struggling.
Fed knows what a monster Rafa is at RG and the physical effort it takes to even play a 4-setter with him. It was reasonable for him to skip the clay masters (which he would have done anyway) and then RG as well seeing how well Rafa was playing.
This is my personal take but I am confident it is close to reality 🙂
Yes vamosrafa he did it to save his energy for wimby and also seeing how strong rafa was to avoid trying to attempt as he knew he has no chance there vs Rafa. He has admitted it openly that he did not want the clay losses to scar him as in the past. When he is openly saying it God knows why his fans are so upset.
Yeah. I think he would have played a reduced schedule regardless of how Rafa was playing but yeah, the RG decision was contingent on how well Rafa was playing. So it was just a combination of different things and I think it was a wise decision.
I think Fed has lost 2 matches out of what 35-40 in Grand Slams and Masters 1000. Fair to say he dominated everyone on tour this year.
I would still think Fed could have troubled Rafa had he arrived in USO with grass court form. But onone cares.
Rafa should still believe that he can beat Roger on slow bouncy London Tour Finals court.
Rafa always believes he can beat Roger on every court, I believe. All the top players know that even if they are a serious underdog on a given surface, they are still capable of winning. Like when Fedal met on clay in their primes. Everyone, including Fed, knew that it was a 90% chance that Rafa was going to win, but Fed knew that he always had a puncher’s chance even if it was low probability. Even though Fed lost to Rafa 13 times on clay, he did manage to beat Rafa on clay twice. That would at least give Fed some assurance that it’s not a 100% foregone conclusion he will lose. Same with Rafa when he faces Fed on a fast, post-US Open hardcourt. Rafa knows that the odds are stacked against him, but he also knows that he has beaten Fed once before after the US Open, so he will go into the match knowing that he has a chance because he’s done it before.
The match-ups where I cannot imagine how a player can go into a match with any confidence at all are the match-ups where the head to head is like, 15-0 or something like that. Like when Feli Lopez goes up against Fed. Or Almagro vs. Rafa before Barcelona 2014. I just cannot fathom how those guys are able to take any confidence into a match when they’ve lost so many time to their opponent and never beaten them. I’d like to know what was going through Almagro’s mind in Barcelona. Or I’d love to know what Andreas Seppi was thinking when he finally beat Fed at AO 2015.
James Blake’s win over Fed in Olympics 2008 was very odd.
No, not correct. He only played in four Masters out of eight, how could you call that dominating everyone? How do you know he would dominate if he played in all eight of them? He didn’t dominate anyone on clay when he didn’t even play on clay!
He didn’t dominate at the slams either, winning two and losing one; didn’t play in one that he’s unlikely to win. I don’t see anyone dominating at the slams either, as there’re two players winning two slams each.
Great post VR. Exactly how I perceived it too 🙂
I read Novak Djokovic stating that Rafa and Fed are the living proof the players can come back and play at the high level after a long time off. I expect Novak to come back with the blast.,.it will get tough for Rafa and Fed next year with Nole, Andy, Wawa around…this year was the greatest opportunity they could get…
I think Novak is probably the better all court player (better than Rafa and Fed) who have weakness in indoors / clay resp. Novak can win on all surfaces, no weak surface as such. Just a thought…
Yes, I think you’re right that Novak’s game style is a little more consistently all-court suitable than the other two. Basically, he’s not noticeably worse on any one surface than the others. Between clay, faster hardcourt, slower hardcourt, indoor hardcourt, grass, however else you want to break it down, I don’t think he is overwhelmingly worse in any of those conditions than the other conditions. Similar to Federer, it is almost strictly because of Rafa that Novak hasn’t won many more big clay titles in his career. 🙂
Totally agree w/all Fed fans above…he has carved GOAT in stone….but we should all be grateful to have these guys playing tennis for all of us…great players, class acts…BOTH of them!
He needs to win AO to make up for his losing record against two of his greatest rivals reclaim GOAT status. Rafa has beaten fed 5X in a row TWICE in his career.
Sorry, fedfans always say how it’s all about the slams where the 2nd best ever is just 3-9 vs the GOAT.
Let him get four up on Rafa with his 5 year advantage, and I’ll give the GOAT edge back to Roger.
But agreed, both true greats, class acts and we are lucky to witness the rivalry.
Nadal has beaten Federer 5 times in a row three times in his career.
Hasn’t Rafa beaten Fed 5 times straight thrice in his career ?
Rafa didn’t earn a single break point. Haven’t seen the match but I’m betting that Rafa failed to get the ball deep and left it short teeing it up for Roger’s so-called “improved” BH.
That said, for those that still say this Roger is not as good or better than 10 years ago, just how bad would their “peak” version of Federer beaten Rafa.
As I say before, Federer is betterer than everer.
Roger says:
I do believe I still lost that Wimbledon finals in ’08 because of the French Open beatdown he gave me. It just affected my first two sets when I played him at Wimbledon. Down 6-4, 6-4, and okay, I got lucky to win the third, but maybe if I don’t lose both first sets it might be a different match.
But, yeah, I think I have also played him well. Clearly avoiding him — not playing him on clay has helped. So I’m able to stay on the hard courts or on faster courts against him, but I have been playing very well when I have faced off against him
#HUMB2E
Not even humble, just honest haha. He knows better than to try to take people for fools. Everyone knows that if old Roger Federer is going to skip tournaments to give himself a better chance of winning, it’s going to clay. And he knows that everyone knows that he would very likely lose to Rafa if he made it far enough to face him on clay. 15 of their 38 matches have been on clay, and Fed has only won 2… It would have been insulting to everyone’s intelligence to try to claim that he would probably still have a win streak over Rafa even if they faced on clay. It would be like what our President does every night via twitter at 2am. 😉
Actually, Hawk, Nadal hit several very deep BHs in the match that came back basically as half-volley winners. Roger just refused to back down from the baseline, whereas Rafa seemed to be 20 ft back returning serve sometimes.
I had actually picked Rafa in straights based on how he had played in previous two rounds, but Fed didn’t give him any time and (I thought) took good advantage of Rafa’s deep court position.
http://metro.co.uk/2017/10/16/how-rafael-nadal-needs-to-get-nasty-to-end-roger-federer-woes-other-big-questions-from-latest-fedal-clash-7002851/
I think he just needs to get the ball deep to the BH again (mixed with the FH). He’s been leaving it short this year against Federer. That would never have worked in the past – regardless of Federer’s racquet.
So let him do that first once again. Until proven otherwise, why change?
I agree with you, Hawks- it’s all about the depth and penetration (not making a sexual joke). If Rafa’s loopy ball isn’t deep enough, it will just pop right up into Fed’s “sweetspot”, and Fed can do whatever he wants with it. He could maybe still get away with that on a clay court, as it would be harder for Fed to put it away and easier for Rafa to defend. But as long as Fed is playing well, depth is required against him on a hardcourt or grass.
The strategic error was in 1st game ..Rafa had the whole open court to hit the volley at net and he still went to Feds BH and Fed was waiting there and passed him. Had he not dropped his 1st serve, the match may have been more competitive as he would not have played catch up.
Ha, so now they’re teaching Rafa how to beat Fed, when in the past they’re teaching Fed how to beat Rafa? How things have changed, in this year alone!
To me, it’s simply that Rafa has to play like he did this year at the FO, ie take the initiative to dictate from the get go. He was all guns blazing from the get go in the FO final, never allowed Stan to get into the match, stamped his foot even harder on the pedal as the match progressed and didn’t look back.
He was also doing that in the USO final, not giving Anderson any chance of a comeback when he could neutralize Anderson’s biggest weapon (ie his serve) and pounded Anderson into submission; he won both FO and USO Finals in straight sets. How often we see a guy winning slam final in straight sets, this year we see one guy doing it twice.
Of course Fed isn’t Anderson or Stan, but as long as Rafa plays with an aggressive mindset, tries to dictate from the get go, playing like the way he played in Beijing this year, ie hitting with depth, changing directions with both his FH and BH, serving and returning well, he will have his chances.
He started his Shanghai final being tentative, hitting his shots in predictable pattern, including the dumb shot at BP in his first service game, not going to beat Fed playing like that as Fed’s so used to this pattern of play from Rafa.
Well, usually when someone is on a losing streak to another player, people talk about what they should do differently. Yes, people did that when Fed had losing streaks to Rafa. Naturally people will do it with Rafa now.
Nothing new here @lucky. Everybody knows tennis except Rafa. He’s always being told to play like Djokovic, serve like Federer, schedule like……………..a Martian landing on planet Earth would be forgiven for thinking Rafa is a journeyman judging by some of the punditry out there!
Rafa is fine. He does not have to be like anybody. He does not need to radically change anything. He just needs to stay healthy. As he says, in the brutal world of professional sport, when you win, you are a God and all your decisions are parsed like scripture. When you lose, you are an idiot.
This post claims that grinders and point prolongers like Novak and Rafa will not be able to beat Roger any further. Roger might only be taken down by the big hitters like Delpo http://www.138mph.com/tennis-federer-is-an-exceptional-talent-as-compared-to-nadal-and-djokovic/
Oh Kavita…. You’re like a sitting duck for Hawkeye haha. Do your thing, Hawks! 🙂
I don’t respond to gnats anymore Kevin unless I’m in a rare mood. They need to be more creative to get off the gnat list for me to bother. Not worth my time.
Gnats like Kavita and simpleton stanley are the true mindless grinders. A very poor substitute for something remotely interesting to say.
#HowsThat
#FailAgain
#FailBetter
#HERBERTWILLWIN #VINTAGEHAWKS
I’ve been wondering, what is the meaning behind #HerbertWillWin?? It must have started before I discovered this site. I’ve seen it used so many times, and whatever the joke is, it goes right over my head every time haha. Although it honestly makes me laugh even though I don’t know the meaning. 🙂 Am I searching for meaning where there is none? Is it just funny because it’s so random? Please, someone enlighten me!
I think it’s a random hashtag Hawks brilliantly came up with and started using when Herbert was playing well (which he would start doing so again cuz his game is awesome) and it has just kind of stuck.
Which I wish he would start doing again*
:>)))))))
Kavita, I think you sometimes have interesting analyses, but at least this year Nadal is not playing like a grinder. He has been playing a lot of very aggressive and creative tennis. He tried in the Shanghai final against Federer, but just couldn’t quite manage it. Missed a few early would-be winners by inches, saw some winners go by him, and maybe lost heart a bit.
Who the hell wrote that article? Chris Evert? Mary Carillo?
Hawktard the prince of the MORONIC Kingdom.
You are complete waste to humanity, an obsessive pervert has something to say this days, wow.
I don’t blame you, i expect perverted IMBECILES to act like MORONS.
I want to urge you to seek help but there is no help for you, you are a lost cause, an abject filthy swine, who will always remain a FOOL.
My condolences to your family, if you still have one, if you do have one, thank them everyday cos you are useless person.
Anyone who would post that kind of diatribe in response to what was said by Hawkeye, needs to really, really chill out!
Way over the top and completely unwarranted, but not surprising.
Can’t we have these obnoxious, self-indulgent posts deleted?
4 real, i don’t have the time.
I thought you don’t like me, aren’t we ignoring each other?
You made that decision not me, please respect it.
This MORON can say useless things and you are zip but Stanley responds and all of a sudden you know the word “diatribe”
Please, Plzzz, please, leave me alone, i am tired.
It was pretty clear with the way Rafa played Cilic that he was going to have a big problem against Fed. I highly doubt Rafa will beat Fed at WTF. He didn’t even earn a break point in Shanghai. Indoor courts give Fed a massive advantage just like clay gives Rafa a big advantage.
It’s not indoor or outdoor court, it’s the court speed that helps Fed when playing against Rafa. Fed is great on fast courts and indoor courts generally play quicker because they’re not subjected to the elements – no wind, heat etc – affecting the ball.
However, the WTF O2 arena is not playing as quick as Shanghai, and the bounce not as low, in recent years. I doubt Rafa will be playing as bad as in Shanghai, because there’s a one week break between Paris and WTF, so even if he plays at Paris, he’s not playing B2B week and should have time to rest and recover between tournaments.
The Beijing/Shanghai tournaments are B2B week; Rafa could hardly win B2B events on the HCs; his level at Shanghai dipped a little compared to Beijing, where he was hitting his strokes with greater depth. He was also having mental lapses during his matches with Dimi and Cilic at Shanghai.
Rafa also had a tough draw at Beijing, to be able to come through that and won the tournament was already something special for him. I’m even guessing that should Fed play Rafa in the Beijing final, Rafa would have a good chance of beating Fed!
Rafa was clearly playing better at Beijing than at Shanghai – he was playing better as he progressed through the draw in Beijing whilst he wasn’t when at Shanghai. At Shanghai, he was about to finish off Dimi in the second set TB when leading 4-2, but after the changeover, he had a mental lapse, lost his serve and then ended up losing the TB! He almost needed a third set vs Cilic after having some mental lapses and lost his serve while serving for the match! He wasn’t as sharp in Shanghai, perhaps the court was quicker there than Beijing and having to play B2B events, certainly not as fresh.
Fed beat him fair and square, as Fed was quick and served so well, rushed Rafa into his errors. Rafa was also not hitting with depth, played predictable tennis by going CC to Fed’s BH most of the time – unlike one week ago at Beijing where he would change direction at will from both FH and BH and hitting with depth.
But why do you think his level dropped so much in a week ? Is it more to do with himself or Fed not allowing him to play his game.
Both. We know Fed is great on a quick HC, he has played Rafa so often that he knows Rafa’s preferred pattern of play.
Rafa has played many matches already this season, to be able to play B2B events on the HCs, winning one and reaching final of the other is really very impressive by his standard. So far in Rafa’s career, he had won B2B weeks events on the HCs only once – Montreal/Cincy 2013. In 2011, he reached Finals at IW/Miami only to be beaten by Djoko, and that’s 12 matches over three weeks. I think that’s about all, I don’t think I’ve misssed out any. His 2008 was also great – won Canada, SF at Cincy and then won Olympics.
To be able to do B2B now and going deep in both at 31 is already great for Rafa, not forgetting the tough draw he had at both. I said earlier, I’d checked Djoko’s and Murray’s draws at Beijing during those years when they won Beijing; Rafa’s was certainly a very tough one by comparison, and that made his victory at Beijing that much sweeter. His draw at Shanghai was even tougher than Fed’s, I mean Dimi and Cilic B2B, when both were playing good tennis lately, reached SF at Beijing and Tokyo respectively. AZverev lost early at two events B2B (lost to Delpo at Shanghai) so he wasn’t good enough to meet Fed. For a no.1 player, Rafa certainly has the short straw at both events.
The way he played at Beijing was very positive and a joy to behold; he just has to try playing that way more often on the HCs, especially when facing dangerous opponents like Kygrios, Dimi, Isner. His performance vs Cilic wasn’t great, I feel he was more defensive as the match progressed; so Cilic had more chances to dictate.
Playing against aggressive players like Cilic and Fed, Rafa can’t afford to start slow. He was atrocious in his first service game vs Fed; that shot at BP was atrocious. By losing the first service game, he had given Fed more calm to play his game which was hard to contain or counter on this quick court. I was disappointed with the way Rafa started the match. His knee wasn’t affecting his movement I feel, but perhaps affected his serve when he couldn’t push hard on his right knee.
As long as Rafa is fit and healthy, plays with an aggressive mindset, and comes with a game plan to deal with Fed (ie no more his old game plan of hitting CC to Fed’s BH), by mixing in both CC and DTL shots from both wings, serves and returns well and tries moving into the court to dictate points more often, he will have his chances of defeating Fed.
@sanju October 17, 2017 at 2:52 AM.
Exactly! Now you are getting it.
I agree with you about the O2, Lucky. Every time I watch a WTF match, I feel like I’m watching the slowest damn hard court ever… I would assume that the ball still bounces lower than outdoor courts, as I think that’s trait of all indoor courts. Although the bounce height does seem to fluctuate each year. I remember certain years where he players said that they felt it was bouncing higher than the year before. But speed-wise, that court is slow as death…
I really miss the Tennistalk crowd. On there, even the Fedfans were funny. No-holds barred, ascerbic, adult banter………..and very, very funny.
The tribal and hard Djokovic fans, the merry Murray crowd and of course the always cultured, urbane, informed Rafans……………
Now, everything’s Trumpified innit? Sigh………….
Yup.
#EchoChambersAreEverywhere
#FDT
#KyrgiosIsRight
#ImWithColin
Is it me or does anybody else feel here that Fed’s shanks have drastically reduced this season. I dont see those crazy shanks from BH anymore.
http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/shanghai-final-2017-federer-reaction
Answer’s in there……….
@luckystar, rafa was playing FANTASTICO, his level throughout the tournament/tournaments were great.
Roger Federer just makes it look easy, he has Nadal’s number this year.
Roger’s victories has nothing to do with rafa’s form dropping, fast courts etc, it has everything do with Roger’s skills that are wickedly improving by the second, his strategy, his confidence etc.
R. Nadal will find it extremely, EXTREMELY difficult to defeat this R. Federer on any surface including clay, if they play in clay, R. Nadal will win some matches but i don’t think he will come out on top.
If they meet again R. Federer will also find it difficult to beat Nadal not because Roger is not the best player but because it is hard to defeat a good play twice, to do it 4 times in a year, five in a roll in 4 finals is unbelievable and difficult.
Roger’s victories and titles this year has nothing to do with his opponents but Roger himself, he has been absolutely ROGERLICIOUS!
#Pureclass
He doesn’t shank any more . It’s the bigger racquet that gives him more control as he says it.
Stanley,
You have a right to feel happy now about your favourite player 🙂
As Rafans we can only hope that Rafa finds a way to crack the Fed code again.
It’s good to read a fan that whilst rubbing it in a bit (we all do) is also respectful for the adversaries.
Shireling, you find this guy respectful? I think you’re the odd one here among the Rafa fans!
I don’t even want to read his posts! Good luck to you, for engaging in a conversation with him!
simple stanley is a rac ist, miso gynist, hom ophobe trump loving a hole and his hate speak should not be tolerated and normalized here or anywhere.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was Russian but that would be giving him way too much credit.
Probably has a tramp stamp.
#TrailerTrash
I am sick to death of coming on here and reading Stanley’s hate speech, trolling, sexism and so on.
The real issue for me is why Ricky does nothing about him. Site rules are simply not administered evenly or fairly. Trolls are actually allowed practically unfettered license here in a way which isn’t true of any other Internet site I have visited. Why?! Normal users of this site have posts amended so why not trolls who get special treatment?
It’s not just Rafans LOL 😉😅
Yes, Stanley is the odd man out for pretty much all of us, not just “Rafans”.
oh dear….
perhaps it’s because I don’t come here so often as you guys do and somehow, his latest past seemed fairly plausible to me, he rejoices at Fed’s greatness (as he puts it) but still acknowledges that Rafa is a very good player too…. but now that I read your posts I’m perhaps seeing between the lines.. don’t know
In any case, I’m sure Rafa is going to beat Fed again soon 🙂
I meant to say his latest ‘post’ …
I’m usually here to read lucky’s or vamosrafa’s takes on matches, before or after. These two do dot all the Is and cross all the Ts, and from time to time I borrow a bit of Nadlines’s unswayed optimism and of course just plain facts and stats from Augusta .. all spiced with hawkeye’s punchy style 🙂
Even though I don’t come here so often, it always feels good to read what you guys have to say
I don’t care about Stanley’s fanaticism toward Federer, as that exists everywhere, from fans of each of the Big 4. I get annoyed when Stanley disses on Rafa, or when Augusta takes personal shots at Federer, but I just accept that that is just part of great sporting rivalries.
However, I cannot tolerate the hate speech that Stanley skews on here. This has nothing to do with politics. Stanley can support Donald Trump and support conservative policy. That is not the issue here. What is obviously not ok is Stanley coming on here and condemning entire groups of people because they have different religious views, sexual preferences, etc. than he does. Stanley has the right to hate on the entire Muslim population, or the entire LGBTQ population, but he also has to accept the consequences of his words. This site is privately run, and just as Stanley has the right to hate speech, Ricky has the right to banning hate speech on his privately owned site. Now, I’m not about to condemn Ricky for not setting and enforcing rules such as an anti-hate speech one, as I don’t know anything about how to make one of these sites run smoothly. I’m pretty sure I am not alone, however, in wishing there there could be a rule banning hate speech.
More importantly, we shouldn’t need a hate-speech rule- Stanley should be able to understand why it’s wrong to hate on someone just because they have different religious views or sexual preference. But we have all tried to explain this to him with no success. So maybe a rule would be helpful? Non-Christians on this site don’t hate on Stanley for being Christian, so why must he hate on Non-Christians. Same with LGBTQ people. Again, this is STRICTLY an issue of humanity and respect, NOT a political one…
Surely it’s a given that people shouldn’t make homophobic, islamophobic, antisemitic comments??! And that if they do they should suffer consequences for it? Because Stanley does all.of these things as well as writing some incredibly dubious sexist stuff which I find very offensive.
This is not just an issue about Stanley as Mary has relentlessly trolled people on here explicitly breaking Ricky’s written site rules without any sanction.
I am not the only person on this site who thinks that trolls are not only almost free from sanctions here but given disproportionate licence.
Yes, I am of the opinion that there should be a rule that if someone uses hate speech on this site, they should be banned. I also believe that’s Ricky knows it’s wrong and would like for it to not be on this site. I guess I feel I need to give Ricky the benefit of the doubt that maybe it’s not as simple as just banning Stanley. Maybe because Ricky is so busy, if he were to ban Stanley and Stanley just kept making new accounts with different names and emails, Ricky might not have time to keep banning and policing users all the time? He would surely get complaints and requests to ban people all the time, often requests that have nothing to do with hate speech and are just one user being spiteful. Admittedly, I say this without knowing what the current rules are on this site. Are there rules laid out that users can be banned if they don’t follow them? If there are, then surely it wouldn’t hurt to make a strict no-hate policy. I’m just trying to say that even though I believe people should be banned for hate speech, I can’t pretend like I know anything about how this site works and how Ricky is able to run it when it is just a side-hobby he has. Or is it more than a hobby? I just don’t know. I just don’t know how this site works. Maybe we could create a petition to have a strict no-hate policy? What can we do? What can Ricky do?
There are written site rules on the site rules and maintenance section Kevin. Go have a look!! Stanley is clearly already in breach of them. Mary also was constantly in breach of them most particularly the one about constant harassment. She used to write vicious stuff, much of which was personal, after every single one of nny’s posts. That also is effectively or de facto hate speech imo and should not be tolerated.
I go to a site for another sport where the posters themselves regulate it. They would have kicked both Stanley and Mary off the site very early on.
ban the ip from which Stanley is missing.
*writing”
Rafa has pulled out of Basel citing ‘over-stressing of knee’ so I doubt is is anything serious. I think @Fedexal used the same term to describe Rafa’s issue so well done
https://www.elespanol.com/deportes/tenis/20171016/254725754_0.html
He has skipped Basel and will play Bercy. I think he wants some matches under his belt prior to WTF.
I guess as much. I think his knee issue isn’t serious, so hopefully after two weeks rest, he’s good to go again. I hope to see a ‘Beijing’ Rafa in Paris (if he’s sure to play there) and then in London.
He said he’s going to play at Basel next year? Unless he plans to skip Paris Masters, if not it’s another crazy/heavy year end schedule again!
It seems that Rafa wants to play more on the HCs these days; I mean he’s playing five events from Jan to Mar, all on HCs – Brisbane, AO, Acapulco, IW and Miami – and then Canada/ Cincy/ USO, followed by Asian swing and Basel, eleven events on HCs in total, and that’s not counting Paris Masters and WTF (if he qualifies).
Isn’t he doing more harm to his knees playing so much on the HCs? Unless he decides to go aggressive or super aggressive, something like the way he played at FO2017, how could his body, his knees in particular, take all the poundings?
Perhaps, Rafa is going to ditch the counterpuncher old self and adopt a new identity, that of an aggressive all court player?
Ideally he should have skipped Paris and Basel both. It will be weird if Fed skips Basel and Paris both. Then it would like Rafa is doing all the chasing.
Rafa rusts quickly and regains his edge slowly so he needs to play as much as he can if he wants to do well at the WTF. If he’s really got a problem I’d rather see him skip the whole lot and prep for AO next year, but I’m guessing he thinks he’ll be ok after a bit of rest and treatment.
He won’t skip WTF if his knee is OK. I mean he said he’s keen to win this one (he knows with the absence of Djoko, his chances of winning it this year has gone up).
I though he skipped Wimby warm up and was playing great on grass after almost 2 years . His third wound win was one of the highlights of Wimbledon. I think Rafa’s mentality of long practice session, lot of warm ups prior to WTF should undergo change. He should think of playing for more years and more majors.
I doubt Fed is skipping Basel, Paris maybe. If he’s stopped by Delpo or Cilic in Basel before getting to the final, he may play at Paris I guess.
If there is one court where Rafa has always struggled, its Bercy. Basel won’t be easy for Fed just like Beijing wasn’nt easy for Rafa.
Fed won’t skip both. He will surely play Basel as it’s his home tourney. But given that bercy gives 1000 points he may ditch his home tourney.
He has to play Paris. Else, he will be in trouble at WTF.
Pulling out of Basel was the right thing to do. His knees will be fine.
What is the trouble, lack of match play or YE number 1 ? I dont think it is tha latter.
trouble is he could be rusty at WTF. Not for YE1.
While the media loves to speculate, Fed cannot win Basel & Paris back to back and then win WTF is a week’s time at his age. He simply cannot.
http://metro.co.uk/2017/10/17/rafael-nadal-to-withdraw-from-basel-but-commits-to-paris-masters-amid-world-no-1-battle-with-roger-federer-7006945/
Where has Rafa said he will play bercy? He has just said pulling out of Basel.
When i am done with what i am doing, i will respond in kind.
I expect Hawktard’s and useless morons to say what you just said kevin, how can you accuse me of hate.
If it was coming 4rm a perverted filthy Hawktard or others who champion every ungodly & evil way i will understand, i am disappointed in you and i will caution you not to liar or accuse me of something false.
Telling someone the truth is not a bad thing, that’s what i have done and will continue to do.
I’m not referring to personal attacks, Stanley. Those have come from more than just you. I’m referring to your hate speech toward Muslims and gay people. That’s what I think has no place here, or anywhere for that matter.
Kevin, you are worse than a FOOL.
Where is this hate speech towards muslims.
I have taught and helped hundreds of muslims.
What type of wicked accusation is that, are you brainless?
If i quote from the quran, word for word, why do you attack me?
Did i twist any verse?
You truly are a brainless fool, attacking the one who is simply telling you the truth, you are a hater of truth and what’s right.
Homosexuality is an unnatural lifestyle, it is ungodly.
I can’t believe i am even Saying this, it is wrong for a man to have sex with a man likewise a woman with another woman.
God made them male & female and their sex organs are compatible, it doesn’t work the other way.
Most animals are more sensible than you are, if you want live and support such lifestyles that’s your prerogative.
I have friends that are homosexuals and friends that have left such practice, i respect them as human beings, i disagree with them, i love them but more importantly i love them enough to tell them the truth when the opportunity presents itself.
Telling someone the truth is not hate, the opposite is hate.
I watched this movie last year, it will explain a lot.
Audacity
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tbPu2rtmDbY&itct=CBIQpDAYBSITCPHnjObc-NYCFRGtfgoddEgHElIIQXVkYWNpdHk%3D&hl=en&client=mv-google&gl=US
Saying it’s wrong to murder innocent children who were created in the image of God is hate speech? I didn’t know.
Saying that it is unnatural, immoral, ungodly, filthy for two men or two women to be sleeping with each other is hate speech? Wow!
Condemning demonic ideologies that encourage terrorism is hate speech? My goodness.
You bunch of useless fools, blinded by stupidity, perverted in thought and in speech, it’s not enough that u support things that are demonic, no it’s not enough, you attack those who speak the truth in love, you accuse them & liar against them in other to further your agenda.
You call good- evil and evil- good, God will reward you.
I will rather stand up for the truth and have a thousand FOOLS attack me than sit to down and be silent and have a thousand FOOLS as friends.
When u attack me it’s ok, when you falsely accuse me it’s ok but when i defend myself, expose your demonically inspired views it’s not ok, you want me gone.
Useless hypocrites, in the name of healthcare you support the murdering of innocent children by the millions, believe me, God hears their cry and he will be faithful to answer them.
In the name of love, you support lust and you justify it by deceiving yourself and ignoring the obvious.
In the name of tolerance you willfully defend teachings that encourage the beheading & murdering of innocent people all over the world, the raping of women & children, the enslavement of innocent defenceless people.
The future is not bright for you if you don’t turn away from your wicked & evil views.
God loves the sinner but hates the sin.
He loves the homosexual but hates homosexuality.
He loves that woman who has murdered her child and that man who has encouraged it but he hates the shedding of innocent blood.
Amy you are not a smart person & i don’t want to waste my time with an immoral hypocritical filth.
It’s ok 4 you to come here, troll stupidity, falsely accuse me and promote demonic world views.
You are not worth it.
I would like these latest posts deleted as off topic. We are having a tennis discussion here, not some bizarre ranting and raving about good and evil and murdering and trashing the beliefs of others and their character.
Enough is enough! This is the latest abuse of the rules of this site!
let’s put this to vote?
I vote for such posts to be removed.
#DoYou?
Yes.
While I find skipping over Stanley’s diatribes adequate for myself they are extremely distasteful and, in my opinion, should not be permitted here. However, it’s Ricky’s site, Ricky’s rules and moderation is time consuming. But I’d really hate to see valuable posters such as yourself driven from the site by his drivel.
I disagree with virtually everything Stanley says, some of which is offensive, but not surprising given his fanatical brand of Christian fundamentalism.
However, it would be hypocritical to have only his posts removed from this thread. It was Lucky (at 11:33am ) who made it personal and especially Hawkeye (at 11:38am) who made nasty personal attacks on Stanley.
I vote that either all of these posts (and relevant subsequent ones) should be deleted, or else moved to the non-tennis forum. Stanley has generally been good about confining his political and religious views to that page, but I think he was provoked here.
Excuse me Joe, when did I get personal?? I was just surprised about Shireling’s remark! Don’t ever try to stir up any controversy where I’m concerned! From your post above, it looks like you’re trying to do so, poking your nose in to make things even more complicated!
Actually, reading more closely above, I take that back. It was Stanley who first escalated with a crazed personal attack on Hawkeye at 8:15pm on Oct. 16.
Stanley was responding to an earlier post in which Hawkeye referred to him (and Kavita) as a “gnat” and a “simpleton.”
Actually I respect gnats of all religions and sexual identities more than better than thou stanley whose behaviour is unchristian. He’s not Christian at all. Just angry at the world with a closet problem.
#WhatWouldJesusSay?
#ItGetsBetter
Blasphemous moron!
You are asking what Jesus would say, go read his words( The bible) and you will find out.
God doesn’t condone perversion, He loves the sinner but abhors sin, the wages of sin is death( eternal separation from God i.e hell) but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ( Romans 6:23).
Jesus died for our sins and He will forgive anyone including you who sincerely turn away from their devilish mind-set & life.
God’s mercy & grace is a gift for all, it is available for all and you can receive it by trusting in Jesus Christ as your saviour ( Ephesians 2:8-9).
#WhatWouldJesusSay?
A: His word say’s that those who practice the evil you practice & promote will not inherit heaven but hell.( 1 corinthians 6:9-10)
#ItGetsBetter
yes it gets better, when you forsake perversion, insanity, and every form of wickedness & evil, it gets better,
Jesus will give you His righteousness for your unrighteousness.
His mercy & grace for your sins.
His beauty for your ashes.
You lose nothing but gain everything.
There is a way for you and God’s grace & love is available for you, just reach out to Him and you will find true joy & peace that surpasses all understanding.
#Jesusistheway
I feel rafa won’t play Paris too. He will play straight at wtf
Sanju,
This is from vamosbrigade courtesy of forum member malimeda –
“Genny SS @genny_ss 7 h
Rafa withdraws from Basel, but plans to play Paris-Bercy:
https://twitter.com/Rafael_Plaza/status … 7540220930
According to “El EspañolE article, Rafa’s playing Bercy not to arrive in London w/o having played in 1 month, as the main goal is the WTF.
Re: the knee, Roig says Rafa felt something in the knee (as had happened in Acapulco early in the season) & decided to be cautious & tape it:
https://twitter.com/rioritariorita4/sta … 6022624257″
At this time it appears that Rafa will play in Paris.
Thanks nny.
Federer has clearly said London is his main goal and he wants to win it. Rafa wants the same. Who takes it ? Or will neither and we will have a surprise winner like zverev
Sanju, reading from your posts here, you seem a pessimist and one who worries a lot.
Don’t worry, if Rafa is fine enough to play at Paris, indoor or not, he’ll try his best. I bet he’ll play like Beijing rather than at Shanghai, because he’ll be fresh after two weeks break. I also think that he’s due an easier draw, after two tough ones at the Asian swing. I think Rafa will be YE no.1, and if his draw is good at WTF, he may end up winning it.
Yes I worry for him as i can only do that and it’s not in my hands hehe. I hope he ends as year end no 1 and wins wtf.
Roger Federer will win Basel & WTF, I am not sure whether that will be enough for #1.
#1 or #100, R. Federer is the best player this year and I hope he plays Paris and meets Rafito in WTF.
I want another Fedal plzzz.
My Rafito needs to be smoked again.
#6-0
A crazy guy posted this picture on Twitter.
https://mobile.twitter.com/BoffMaryPoppins/status/911234794356387840/photo/1
Yep. Someone like Zverev or Dimitrov can win it.
oh dear…. what a rant… Stanley man, if you want to write about religion go to religion sites, I’m sure there’s plenty of them.
Also about sexuality.
Let’s talk tennis here.
And please, no abuse of any kind from anyone on this site. Why is this so difficult.
homophobic misogynistic racist simple stanley attacking insults are not….
#WhatWouldJesusDo
#Hypocrite
A perverted fool, a demented Hawktard knows what Jesus would say, please read the word of GOD( The Bible) and you will see that God condemns every form of evil and those who practice it, if they don’t sincerely repent.
Jesus does not support or condone your DEMONIC views or EVILpractice because if you think he does, you are more deceived than the devil himself and if you don’t turn away from your wicked views, you will destine your soul to hell for eternity.
You called me a hypocrite, to me that’s a compliment coming from a moron, if your definition of a hypocrite which it is, is someone who is against the murdering of precious, defenceless babies & someone who is willing to tell you the truth no matter what, then i am a PROUD HYPOCRITE.
Every message that Jesus preached was rooted in love, even when he preached against sin & warned people about hell & the consequence’s of living life without putting their trust in him(Jesus) for salvation was all done out of love.
The Bible say’s that Jesus is the personification of LOVE(1 John 4:8)
God calls people just like you, who Willfully deceive themselves and support all kinds of evil “FOOLS”( luke 12:20, Psalm 14:1 etc).
JESUS called they corrupt, evil religious leaders who were deceiving they people of Israel vipers & snakes, this corrupt men not only deceived they people but they murdered the Prophets of GOD and despite God’s patience & mercy they didn’t repent and JESUS said in Matthew 23:33- You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?
Paul the apostle and disciple of Jesus called some men false apostle and servants of satan because they were preaching a DIFFERENT Jesus( just like you are) to they people in 2 Corinthians 11:4 &13-15 he said-
(4) For if someone comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
(13) For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
(14) And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. (15) Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
He also called them fool’s because that’s who they are( 1 corinthians 15:36).
John the Baptist one of they greatest prophet that ever lived called they Pharisees and Sadducees generation of vipers, because they wanted they forgiveness of GOD but didn’t want to repent from their sins in Matthew 3:7-8 it read’s-
(7) But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
(8) Produce fruit that is consistent with repentance!
I could name many prophets & disciples of JESUS CHRIST that rebuked those who practiced EVIL & those who supported them.
Do you call a thief= a sentry or a jurist.
Do you call a rapist= a victim.
Do you call a murderer or those who support the murdering of innocent children=decent human beings, no you don’t.
I am not insulting you, i am simply calling you, who you are.
Words cannot fully describe those who support the murdering of precious babies in the womb and all kinds perversion.
JESUS, Paul, John and so many others didn’t call this people what they did because they hated them, they loved this people and wanted to see them saved.
I don’t call you what I do because I enjoy it or hate you, my prayer for you is that you would have a change in heart & stop supporting the EVIL that you do.
#IAmpraying4U
Shireling please stop being willfully ignorant, it is sad.
I did not bring up religion or sexuality and i did not initiate this topic, i was simply standing up for what is right when it is attacked.
Even if i initiated this which i did not, what is wrong with the truth?
Truth should never be censored and that which is wrong & evil should be exposed for what it is & condemned.
Evil not only affects the evildoer( eternally) it affects the innocent( temporarily) as well.
Silence when evil is promoted or practiced is itself evil.
Not to speak when evil is trying to be justified through deception is evil, not to act is to act.
I will rather die ten thousand times in a day knowing that i stood up for what’s right, than to live for ten thousand years supporting evil and every form of wickedness & perversion which is inspired by the devil.
Right will always be right and wrong will always be wrong.
Truth has never changed and i will never change, a thousand years from now, right will always be right and that which is true & Godly will stay the same because Godly truth transcends time.
I’m wondering if you’re living room is full of dressed-up mannequins and if you like to pull off moths’ wings …
Here are racist stanley’s views on the Muslim religion (despite all his fas cist denials)
https://tenngrand.com/2017/01/09/kyrgios-wears-f-donald-trump-shirt-following-win-nadal/comment-page-10/#comment-250121
You are spiritual blind.
https://tenngrand.com/non-tennis-forum/comment-page-24/#comment-269703
https://tenngrand.com/non-tennis-forum/comment-page-24/#comment-269704
https://tenngrand.com/non-tennis-forum/comment-page-25/#comment-269707
https://tenngrand.com/non-tennis-forum/comment-page-25/#comment-269710
What am I reading on a thread talking about Federer and Nadal??!
vamosrafa,
You are reading a lot of gibberish that has no place here at all. Utter nonsense attacking people’s beliefs and throwing words around like “murderer” and also using quotes from the Bible to harass and attack and demean others.
From what I know about Jesus, that is now what he was about. Those posts should be deleted as off topic and also personally offensive attacks on other posters.
It has gotten out of hand completely.
Its beyond a joke now. Obviously the ‘moderators’ have no interest in sorting it.
Yes, and I don’t think Jesus would have approved of betting,either.
Big Al, the truth is not a joke and it’s a shame you think it is.
Just like hawktard you know nothing about Jesus or his words.
What is wrong with putting money on a team or a player to win?
This is not a slot machine or a dice etc.
Please don’t assume you know what Jesus would approve, you don’t know him or his word( The Bible).
How do you assume that?
Maybe I don’t know as much as you bout the bible,but what about the love of money root of all evil?
This is a tennis thread,so I’m not getting into this argument any more.
@Big al.
Because you are assuming something false.
You don’t know Jesus & you don’t know his word, because if you did you won’t assume nonsense or twist God’s word carelessly( maybe you do but you are assuming nonsense and i sincerely apologize if you do know me).
2 Timothy 6:10 say’s “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
Please read the whole verse, chapter and book it is self-explanatory.
The keyword is “LOVE” the LOVE of money.
When money or other things replaces a christians relationship with God, it becomes an idol and that is wrong.
This doesn’t mean that a christian should pray 24/7 etc, it means that a christian’s relationship with Jesus is a priority and nothing is more important, that Christ is the centre of our heart.
The word of God( The Bible) encourages hard work( this doesn’t mean that if someone can’t work because of injury, age, unemployment etc they are doing something wrong, no they aren’t) and is not against money, money is good, the LOVE( this love is a different kind love, please read b4 you post) of money is bad.
That’s what I said,if you read my post.Gambling is addictive and driven by love of money.So,it’s not a good thing for you to be dabbling in,is it?
When I said it was beyond a joke ,I meant the amount of spamming /off topic stuff that people were allowed to get away with.
Big Al,
Please don’t misunderstand, i don’t have the time for this, i have explained it to you but you are misunderstanding it.
https://tenngrand.com/2017/10/15/federer-makes-five-row-nadal-wins-shanghai-title/comment-page-2/#comment-285051
money is good and God is not against those who want to make money THE RIGHT WAY.
Stealing, prostitution, those who murder the innocent because of money etc is an example of the LOVE of money.
When money motivates you to do what’s wrong that’s wrong.
Can one make money the right way and Christ( or their relationship with God) not be a priority? Yes.
That’s why we all need to responsible & examine ourselves to see whether Jesus is the center of our hearts.
I am busy right now, so later.
Hey guys!..it’s easy to solve this Stanley thingy….Just ignore him…let him rant what he wants…skip his post and i think the best solution is….to talk tennis!…And this for example…And Nny,Hawks & other rafans..here’s for u guys!
http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/nadal-infosys-15-40-october-2017
MA,
You are right about ignoring Stanley’s posts. But when he starts spamming this site with these epic length rants cluttering up topic threads, it is a lot harder.
Thanks for that link!
😍
Hey Nny!!…You’re very much welcome Milady!!…Oh!..i’ve got something for u to ponder about this awesome quotes Nny…and we all know what are these quotes refer to right?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8YS5N1CAAETeNa.jpg
https://www.brainyquote.com/photos_tr/en/p/plato/109439/plato1.jpg
Wise,inspiring quotes MA 😉
Eugene!….Yeah!…Very wise & inspiring quotes indeed!
lol, thanks MA! Plato got it right, didn’t he?
Wow! The Willful stupidity is Amazing and i am not surprised.
It’s the Willful ignorance that is shameful, a refusal to acquiesce to the Truth that is before your eyes.
Blind but useful, useful idiots, it’s pitiful but at the end we will see ok.
Ride on, vamos, keep going ok.
Hahahaha!….Yep Ramara!!…Plato is a very very wise man!
Who is the FOOL?
Is it they one or people who support a DEMONIC religion(Islam) that encourages terrorism in the quran and other forms of wickedness?
Or
They one who exposes it for what it is, because Islam is inspired by the devil.
You tell me who the FOOL is, the one who defends the lives of innocent children and doesn’t want to see them murdered by the tens of millions all over this world.
Or they ones who supports the murdering of this precious little ones( God hears their cry and he will soon answer).
I am in my 20’s, i won’t live forever on this earth, i thank God for mercy & grace, i thank Him for forgiving me of all my sins, i thank him for His love and faithfulness.
Listen to me, if you don’t repent from your wicked & demonic views, you will spend eternity in hell and my words will be a witness on that day.
I do not condemn you, your words, views & lifestyles condemn you and according to God’s word( 1 corinthians 6:9 etc) if you don’t repent you won’t inherit the kingdom of God but hell.
1 corinthians 6:9-11.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=guXBTgAxhIw
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC9s3k3M_hDA0sLaP1KRuLBg
MA,
Those quotes are brilliant! Thank you so much!
How perfect!
I just really feel bad to see the Bible used in such a mean-spirited way. To attack and demean and spew out such hatred with the words of the Bible and in the name of Jesus, is really sad to see.
This is someone who has serious issues.
Your quotes says it all!
😍
Nny!…Hey hey hey Milady!!Good morning!!…Oh!this is for u Nny!…http://www.lovethispic.com/uploaded_images/241665-Good-Morning-Sending-You-Love-And-Happy-Thoughts-This-Thursday.jpg
Oh btw…You’re most welcome Nny!!Glad u liked those quotes…It’s awesome isn’t it?
Nativenewyorker, I don’t want to waste my time with you, you are not worth it.
I have done what I can, I have been truthful with you and patient on many occasions, if you want to support those who murder innocent children go ahead, keep going and we will see.
You can support, you practice but at the end, you have no excuse, you will reap what you have sown.
I hope you see the truth, that’s my prayer 4 U, believe it or disbelief, the end won’t be pretty if you continue in this direction.
God is Holy & His judgments are righteous, He is also rich in Mercy & Grace and you can be forgiven, you can receive mercy & grace when you call on Jesus and trust in Him.
Good point re the clutter. I play a video game that has an “Ignore” function so you don’t see posts from anyone you choose to ignore. I wonder how hard that would be to implement here? Probably save a lot of time on moderation if we could do it for ourselves.
Mira,
The truth hurts sometimes and I am not surprised that you are calling my comments rants.
Islam promotes evil beyond measure and every word/verse that I have posted are found in the quran and there are hundreds of verses just like the one I posted that encourage evil.
Those evil teachings are not my words, the are the words of muhammed found in the quran.
Why do you have a problem with me but not those demonic teachings?
Did I twist any verse in the quran or misinterpret it?
You will welcome back a moron because he is brainless about the truth and will always be a useful idiot for that which is wrong.
I didn’t start this conversation, but I am glad it was brought up because the truth needs to be told constantly, too many innocent lives by the tens of millions have been murdered because of the evil teachings of muhammed found in the quran.
https://tenngrand.com/non-tennis-forum/comment-page-24/#comment-269704
https://tenngrand.com/non-tennis-forum/comment-page-25/#comment-269707
Stanley….I called your comments rants because you abused the site rules over & over again…many poster’s asked u to post your smart comments to Non tennis coz that’s where it belongs actually…But u don’t listen to them…U keep posting here which is very unsuitable place to talk things other than tennis..Am i right Stanley?U’re not only don’t respect the site rules but u don’t respect other poster’s wishes too….
About your insults to Prophet Muhammad…please go to Non tennis Stanley…i will answer u there…
Mira, why are you being a HYPOCRITE?
I didn’t start this conversation and yet you blame me, when your friends defend evil on this page & other pages/articles, falsely accuse me and post trash, you applaud them & welcome them to continue because the are not opposed to the evil teachings in the quran, they are useful morons who are spiritually blind & Willfully dishonest,
You are pitiful!
Instead of condemning the many evil teachings of muhammed( and there are tons of this evil teachings) found in the quran that call for the beheading of people like me & others who are opposed to this wicked, devilish ideology that came from the pits of hell, you defend it.
Millions( uncountable millions) of my brothers & sisters have been a victim of this barbaric filth inspired by the devil himself because the love Jesus Christ and will not renounce their faith in Christ or love for him.
I don’t know you enough but i know or i believe you won’t act in such manner and that’s good but why are you defending evil?
Why can’t you see the truth that is b4 your eyes?
Please open your eyes and see, open your ears and hear, the truth is not far away, you can find it.
http://www.muslimjourneytohope.com/
https://tenngrand.com/non-tennis-forum/comment-page-25/#comment-270654
Btw…..WELCOME BACK HAWKS!!WOOOHOOO!!
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/14/3b/c6/143bc6ae05ad576502a9186801282c8e–we-missed-you-sweet-peas.jpg
Happy fathertime for Rafa :
http://en.mediamass.net/people/rafael-nadal/pregnancy-rumors.html
That website appears to be a rumor mill. I would not believe anything I read there! Rafa has a dog?!?! Seriously?
1) http://www.islam-for-dummies.com/
2) THE 10 MOST DIABOLIC EVIL TEACHINGS IN ALL HUMAN HISTORY-
http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/195861
The dog’s name is Fed ? Really :)))?
Ramara i think thats the whole point of it, if you notice they always say this rumour appears to be false ….
I really think it’s time for Ricky to step in and put a stop to this insanity. There is a place for personal comments and non-tennis related discussion.
This is a continued violation of site rules. It’s interfering with our discussion about tennis.
Rules only work if they are actually enforced. This is stifling quality discussions about all things tennis.
Maybe deleting these off topic ranting posts will convey the message to Stanley. There is a place for this if need be. Then at least we can have our tennis discussions without having to read this drivel.
ignoring seems the only way to go and it does wonders, I came to the bottom of the thread in no time at all 🙂
I wish the rumours about Rafa being a daddy are true, about time Rafa!
I have a lot to say but let’s end this, i didn’t start this conversation but i happy it was brought up.
You have made your views clear and by the grace of God i have done my best, i have tried to tell you the Truth and nothing but the Truth.
Hold on to you beliefs and keep going to where you going, you will reach your destination soon, sooner than you know it.
God knows my heart towards you all and the sincerity of my love.
I love you, i will say it again, I LOVE YOU and i wish you no harm, but i know this, at the end we will all reap what we have sown.
A word is enough for the wise and those who hunger & thirst after righteousness will be filled.
If you sincerely seek after what is true, you will find it.
I love you & i care about all of you, i mean it.
Fed just posted a really heartfelt video message to Rafa congratulating him on the 1-year anniversary of his academy.
https://youtu.be/4Iqmd5hqt_s
And invited himself 🙂 I guess the last year union they had at Rafa’s Academy brought them a kind of luck and prosperity in the following season. So, maybe Rafa will invite him again.
Too much bromance. Too good to be true. They are rivals and so much bromance going on. I mean it’s good to see but the sport is so competitive that it is difficult to be friends till you compete and are the top of the notch. Not sure if it’s because of the sudden head to head gap decreasing or is it realization that few years left on tour that is promoting this. Or is it genuine liking (respect was always there no doubt )
Genuine respect and appreciation of one another, I feel. Also, Fed winning five in a row (all on HCs) perhaps had made him feel better about this rivalry. However, I feel the streak is about to end soon.
Frankly, I feel Rafa when he’s fresher (ie not playing B2B weeks at end of season) will do better on the HCs. He’s so good at Beijing (even though he said he didn’t like the balls there) but was a bit slow and a bit more defensive/passive when he played at Shanghai. On a quick HC, you can’t afford to be passive, and I feel he was like that vs Cilic and then Fed.
Fed didn’t play particularly well vs Gasquet and Delpo, but once he passed all those tests, he was able to bring his best in the final, not making many UEs and served very well in the final (he didn’t serve that well prior to that, not that Gasquet or Delpo were better ROS).
He definitely started off the tournament relatively rusty, but by the DelPo match he looked awesome, especially in the second and third sets. I actually thought he played really well in the first set, he just wasn’t getting any free points in his serve. The quality of tennis was extremely good on the first and second sets from both of them. DelPo just played a little better in the first set. I re-watched the whole thing yesterday, and I didn’t realize just how great that match was for much of it. That was the best I’ve seen DelPo hit his backhand since the surgeries. He was primarily hitting topspin backhands for a lot of the match, even hitting winners and forcing errors with it! Fed just overpowered him in the end. Mid-way through the second set, however, it was starting to look like Fed might not be able to pull that one off, but he really kicked it up another level in the second half of the match. And then, as we saw, he peaked in the final. I’m certain that the sets could have been more competitive had Rafa’s knee not been sore, but there is no way Fed would lose that match under any circumstances when he’s playing that well on a fast court with the roof closed. I really hope that Rafa’s knee will feel better after a couple weeks of rest. With the WTF court being significantly slower than Shanghai, he would naturally have a better shot at beating Fed than at Shanghai. It wont be a walk in the park for either Fed or Rafa to get to the final there, though. Guys like Zverev and Cilic are deadly in those conditions in best-of-three.
As for Basel, even though Rafa won’t be there, I think it actually has potential for some really competitive matches! DelPo is obviously pretty well matched-up with Fed this year, and he would go into a potential Basel match with Fed knowing as a two-time former champ who beat Fed both times in the final. Those Basel courts suit DelPo’s game just as well as Shanghai. If he can continue hitting his backhand better, he has an excellent shot at Basel. Also, Cilic looked awesome in Basel last year, and will go in with a lot of confidence this year as the defending champ. I think it could be an interesting tourny.
You have to factor in the fact that Delpo got frustrated with the crowd mid way through the second set in his SF match with Fed at Shanghai. I even think that had he kept his calm, he might beat Fed in straight sets!
The Shanghai court not only suits Fed, but also suits Delpo and Cilic. Cilic was also playing very well after his first two service games hiccups. Rafa wasn’t as brilliant in Shanghai compared to at Beijing (he had tough draws at both) , had to battle past Dimi again in consecutive weeks (and Dimi was playing very well!), very unlucky for a no.1 player to have such tough draws in two consecutive weeks.
I would say that had Rafa had an easier draw and he’s able to play like in the Beijing final, he might not lose to Fed. Rafa was far too predictable in that Shanghai final, unlike at Beijing where he mixed things up nicely to keep his opponents guessing. Where it mattered (ie at the Shanghai final) Rafa couldn’t deliver; that atrocious shot at BP in his first service game said it all.
And Rafa is saying, Fed does not need any invitation. Just check Rafa’s latest Facebook post. All over each other.
First time number 1 and number 2 are so likable to each other.
Coming back to tennis, If you consider year after Rafa’s early loss against FED in Aussie Open, Rafa has outshone everyone. It was expected that Fed would probably win Wimby after preparing for that tournament only.
Winning big apple has really swung the year in Rafa’s favor. He should go all out for WTF so that he keeps the edge.
Rafa outshone everyone in NYC and Beijing, no doubt. I would definitely say that Fed winning another Masters, against Rafa no less, has swung it back in his favor for now. Obviously Rafa could swing it back toward himself by winning either Paris or WTF, or both.
Rafa’s performance at FO stunned everyone! Nobody expected that kind of performance from him, it was even better than his 2008 FO.
Rafa was consistently good at the slams; even though he lost in R4 at Wimbledon, he lost to a red hot player who played consistently well for quite a while during the season, not some random player ranked in the 100s and did nothing before beating Rafa at Wimbledon. He won two slams, reached a final and a R4 ( better than Djoko’s 2016; or better than Djoko’s 2014 where Djoko won a slam, reached a final, a SF and a QF).
I hope Rafa wins at least the WTF if not both (including Paris) and finishes the year as YE no.1; he’s a worthy world no.1 having come a long way, given his poor seasons of 2015/2016.
A lot of people have said Federer is playing better than ever. I think Nadal, since the FO, has played the best tennis I have seen him play. I agree: simply the best at FO, even better than earlier in his career. I would have never thought that possible at the beginning of 2017.
On HC, Rafa has been much better than earlier in the season, and (I think), even better than 2013. The one exception is his serve, which hasn’t been quite as good this year as 2013, but still very good, vastly better than early in the season.
In my opinion, a WTF title would be the single biggest thing Nadal could accomplish at this point; it’s the one thing missing in his career. In terms of overall legacy, I would weight it more heavily than winning another slam.
Agree, WTF would complete his career.
I think they’ve always had that genuine respect for each other. I think it’s become more outward now because they are older, and in Fed’s case especially, are approaching the end of their careers. I bet when they’re both retired, they will truly become buddies, even if they don’t see each other that often.
If R. Federer wins basel & WTF, will he become #1?
What does Federer need to do, to become #1 this year?
I agree. I know Rafa has always admired Fed’s talents and achievements and he just plain likes other great sportsmen. And Federer genuinely likes other players and has always done his best to encourage the growth of tennis. Plus he just plain likes Rafa – Rafa amuses him, too. It’s obvious in the body language, especially when Rafa was younger, more of a kid. Fed could not stand next to him without throwing an arm around him.
Anyway, the Big Four really are special. At an interview for IPTL a few years ago, Rafa was asked which of the big four he’d like to have dinner with. He thought briefly, then said, “All of them. Why not? It’d be fun!” And I expect they will some day. 🙂
Fed said it himself, that when both of them retired, he wished to do exhos with Rafa, (maybe around the world, I guess) or be involved together in some tennis related endeavors.
This is a nice topic. We don’t compare them. Instead, discuss about their friendship. Coffee is good, but sometimes you want to enjoy the cream on top of it.
Like many tennis fans I am in total awe at the way these two continue to dominate the scene and hog the headlines.
Their rivalry will enter the history books as one of, if not the greatest in, the open era. We are truly blessed to have witnessed this clash between two outstanding sportsmen of their era.
Well said Ed.
Watching the repeat telecast of the Shanghai final; just finished the first set. Robbie Koenig said Rafa didn’t play poorly the first set, just the first service game. Precisely! What boneheaded point Rafa hit in the BP! All three BP chances in the first set that Fed had, happened in the first service game of Rafa! On a quick HC, losing one service game was enough to cost you a set!
Rafa also made the boneheaded mistakes of hitting right back to Fed, couldn’t even change the pattern of play. Fed had studied Rafa’s pattern of play so well that he knew where Rafa would hit or serve to. Rafa didn’t play poorly, just not playing wisely! Not that he would win, but at least made it more competitive, and at least paved a way for him ( at least confidence wise) to do better in future.