It’s a dream semifinal lineup for Canada, with two of its own joining Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal for Saturday action. A surprising matchup on the bottom half of the Montreal draw pits Milos Raonic against Vasek Pospisil.
(1) Novak Djokovic vs. (4) Rafael Nadal
Djokovic and Nadal will be squaring off for the 36th time in their careers when they collide in the semifinals of the Rogers Cup on Saturday night. Nadal leads the head-to-head series 20-15, but Djokovic has won 11 of their 16 hard-court meetings. They have faced each other twice this season, with Djokovic ending Nadal’s Monte-Carlo reign courtesy of a 6-2, 7-6(1) victory in the title match before the Spaniard earned revenge with an epic 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-7(3), 9-7 triumph in the French Open semis.
Although this is by no means his best tournament, Nadal has been in outstanding hard-court form in 2013. The world No. 4 captured the title in Indian Wells and has remained undefeated on hards for the season thanks to straight-set scalps this week of Jesse Levine, Jerzy Janowicz, and Marinko Matosevic. Nadal is the only one of the four Montreal semifinals who has not dropped a set, while Djokovic surrendered one to Denis Istomin during a disappointing third-round performance. That was sandwiched in between blowouts of Florian Mayer and Richard Gasquet. The top-ranked Serb is 42-6 for the year; Nadal is an outrageous 46-3.
Nadal may have a slight edge in current level of play, but–as their past history suggests–surface seems to be the most important factor in this rivalry. The eight-time Roland Garros champion is 13-3 lifetime against Djokovic on clay and a mere 7-12 on all other surfaces. Nadal has played unusually aggressive so far this week, a strategy that propelled him to his lone U.S. Open title in 2010 and one that he must employ again to have chance versus Djokovic. It’s a more difficult tactic to implement, though, against an opponent like Djokovic who can consistently keep his groundstrokes deep in the court and with plenty of pace. Nadal had enough trouble with Djokovic on clay earlier this season, so the advantage should go to the two-time defending champion of this event.
Pick: Djokovic in 3
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(WC) Vasek Pospisil vs. (11) Milos Raonic
It will be an all-Canadian semifinal when Raonic and Pospisil clash for the first time in their careers at the ATP level on Saturday afternoon. They have played one another four times as professionals, three times on the Futures circuit and once in a Challenger event. Pospisil leads the head-to-head series 3-1, including 2-1 on hard courts. They have not met since 2010, when they split a pair of hard-court matches.
It has been a dream run for Pospisil, who needed a wild card just to get into the main draw before showcasing a flair for the dramatic. He upset an in-form John Isner in a third-set tiebreaker, crushed Radek Stepanek, edged Tomas Berdych in another third-set tiebreaker, then got a first-set retirement from Nikolay Davydenko. On fire right now in the immediate aftermath of a Challenger title in Vancouver, the world No. 71 will likely be seeded for the U.S. Open if he wins this one. Raonic, meanwhile, is finally heating up after a relative rough patch on clay and grass. Montreal’s No. 11 seed had been 2-5 in his last seven matches prior to this week, but he is back on track thanks to defeats of Jeremy Chardy, Mikhail Youzhny, Juan Martin Del Potro, and Ernests Gulbis.
Raonic has never played in a Masters semifinal, but he has been to the quarters on two previous occasions (Toronto and Cincinnati last summer). Pospisil, of course, has never been anywhere close to this stage of such a tournament. Furthermore, an emotional Pospisil has used a raucous crowd to fuel his amazing trip in Montreal. He won’t get the same support against a fellow Canadian in Raonic, who has relied on a huge serve, some opponents’ gifts (from Gulbis), and some controversy (against Del Potro). Against a more experienced player with the fans not entirely on his side, this may be where the dream ends for Pospisil.
Pick: Raonic in 3
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@sanju,
I agree with you regarding the repetition of 2011 by Nole with the rise of Muzz. But, then again, he has done it once and maybe can do it once again. 2011 Nole was all about fighting till doomsday arrive and felt like he can’t be beaten by anyone and played like that. He has lost that intensity somehow. 2011 Nole mentally defeated his opponents. Now he is trying to beat them with his game thus resulting in closely contested losses like USO’12 final, FO’13 Sf, or yesterday’s Sf etc. He just seems to have lost that aura.
Thanks RITB. You mean the good Nole and Fed fans, not the trolls who stank TT in the last few months 🙂
Abhirf – I dont thnk he will repeat 2011 at all again, that was an exception. He will be 3 years older in 2014 too, dont forget that, far more miles clocked in the legs. And I dont think the rest of the field will surrender to him anymore just like that. He will have to play it to win it which he ofcourse cn , he wont because of his aura, that aura is more in the minds of his fans. He will have his priorities and go after that is what I believe and Rafa will do the same, set certain priorities and goals and pursue them. I def dont see Rafa either making a kill for all in years to come.
The metamorphosis of the 2011 version of Djokovic was an extraordinary thing to behold when he was riding a tidal wave of confidence post the Davis Cup win and swept everything before him. It was inevitable that it would not last indefinitely but nevertheless it is still surprising to see him struggling this year since the AO.
H Rafaelo..nice to see you too my friend :-). Hope you are happy seeing Rafa do well and are not too nervous 🙂
Sanju, yes mileage is definitely the factor.
But the aura does helps. Even today while facing Fed (not so much this season) and Rafa, their opponents in the closing stages of a set or a match start faltering. Just by the thought of it that they are going to beat Fed or Rafa makes them nervous enough to lose their game. It definitely helps when your opponent is beaten in the locker room itself.
Good example of the impact of “aura” is the just ended Montreal final. Poor Raonic could hardly lift his arm for a proper ball toss because of the sight of who was across him and what he was doing with the ball…………………
Yes Abhi..but what I meant was his aura with the Top 6-7..not the rest of the field
A DelPotro has beaten him, Berdy has beaten him, Tsonga has beaten him and they all know they can beat him. I am not even talking of Rafa, Murray, Fed who ofcourse know they can beat him on their day and know it boils down to who will play better on the day .
I am very happy that Rafa won his 8th title this year and his 25th Masters title! I am glad that he didn’t have to play a long final, I expected a tougher match.
Rafa said after the final:
– the surface in Montreal is faster than that in Indian Wells; the surface in IW is the most suitable hard court surface for him;
– he recovered well after the match vs Djokovic;
– he practiced serve return a lot in Montreal and his return worked well;
– it’s difficult to reach the world No. 1 spot this year, but he is going to try.
An interview with Rafael Nadal (August 11, 2013)
http://rafaelnadalfans.com/2013/08/12/an-interview-with-rafael-nadal-august-11-2013/#more-9023
While watching the Raonic match, first set I kicked myself for having predicted a 7-5, 6-4 win for Rafa and “more lobsided based on Raonic’s nerves and serve”. How Rafa played this week, esp against Nole should have made me, for once :-), not so conservative.
Years ago a friend of mine who is a Fed fan (but entirely grounded and realistic) told me that Roger’s main problem is his lack of humility re that there is little he could improve on. I agree with those of you who are saying that Nole has had a similar lack of the right kind of humility since 2011 (and before). Nole is talented both with various tennis skills and his incredible flexibility (something his early coach work him hard on). But he is not quite in the league of Roger and Andy in sheer tennis potential. And perhaps not in Rafa’s either. I always think that Rafa had a lot of tennis potential but not nearly as much as Roger and Andy, plus he has all the deep repercussions of the foot issues he was born with. However he made up for this potential (small?) difference in sheer potential with the way he and Toni developed his mind and his skills… no need to elaborate on all that I mean by that. And as a result Rafa has come closer to his maximum potential than most athletes come, or let’s say at least closer than most if not all present-day male tennis players.
In other words, there is always room for improvement, there is always a distance from you maximum potential in every aspect of your game, and that includes what you do with your mind during matches and between matches. Clearly Nole has not maxed out on the mind aspects, nor really on the other aspects. He came closer in 2011 and played better than almost any male player has ever played for a year. which does not mean he could not do even better. He was also helped by Roger not having a great year, Rafa having had that injury at the AO and the flue and thus starting the rest of the year weaker in his matches against Nole than he might have. Not to take anything away from Nole’s level that year. But he has not been approaching his career with the attitude of keep on doing everything to improve anything that needed improving.
Roger perhaps did in his early days but I believe he has not really done enough of it since. I still don’t believe that it is mostly the matchup of lefty topspin Rafa shots to Roger’s one-hand backhand that would explain most of the severe lopsidedness of their H2H… had Roger had the level of the right kind of humility that Rafa has cultivated over a lifetime …. their rivalry would have been even more interesting and their H2H more balanced.
So you could summarize by saying that Roger’s and Nole’s main limitation / obstacle to overcome is their mindset, Rafa is his foot-issues-related and physical-game-related knee injuries, and Andy his mindset (in a different way than Roger and Nole). Lendl seems to have been very helpful to Andy with this, as was expected and as we were hoping.
Sana,
I am another Rafa fan whose second fav is Andy. I think there may be a couple more of us from TT.
While Novak shares Fed’s arrogance interns of his talents, he differs from Fed in that he is weighed down by a massive inferiority complex, unlike Fed. Novak has tweeted that he watched the Rafa/Raonic final and said it was a like a “dance”. No prizes for guessing who that referenced. He was seriously spooked by Rafa’s form in the semi and is scouting Rafa out. Btw, Novak follows Rafa on twitter, Rafa does not follow Novak. After a beat down by Rafa, Fed made a point of not watching Rafa’s subsequent matches, at least that’s what Fed told us. Fed does not follow Rafa, and Rafa does not follow Fed.
Oh RITB..Fed really said that, have not read it. When did he say it?
Chloro, didnt you said the same as above post on TT. And as far as I remember we had quite a lot of discussion on it.
Though I too would agree with it to some extent. Fed with a slight better attotude could have attained even more success, but he already has too much. I’m more than happy and satisfied with what he has achieved till now. Just want to see him play for more time. A sheer joy to watch him play. Even if he doesnt add any more titles now, I’m ok with it. Though some more wouldn’t be bad 😉
Hi abhirf,
Yes I did write about the same re Fed on TT (but not about Novak, this is the first time). And I remember we had a conversation about it then. Rafa and Roger make for a very interesting study of contrasts re their attitudes. (And I’d say that given the context he grew up in Roger would be hard-pressed to turn out a lot more like Rafa than the way he did turn up.)
Roger, to me anyway, embodies more how the general culture is many countries seems to steer the next generation. Rafa embodies values that seem less prized nowadays…. generally speaking. Although, to be more fair, Roger also embodies other fine qualities that were more prized in previous generations… so to be more fair I’d say that Novak embodies even more the way the media, peer pressure, and other factors in modern life seem to steer the new generations.
yes. They all have given something different and valuable to the game with their persona and attitude. That’s why they have become legends.