The tennis world–and more–reacts to the Nadal-Medvedev U.S. Open final

September 11, 2019 Ricky Rapid reaction 49

Rafael Nadal outlasted Daniil Medvedev in Sunday’s U.S. Open final, a five-set instant classic that lasted four hours and 49 minutes. The tennis world–and the entire sports world–was abuzz throughout the match and also afterward.

Here are some of the notable social media posts.

 

49 Comments on The tennis world–and more–reacts to the Nadal-Medvedev U.S. Open final

  4. I expect Roger texted Rafa privately. It’s what Rafa says he does with people he knows “personally”.

    Nice speeches from both guys. Rafa congratulated Daniil for his amazing summer and becoming #4 at only 23. I couldn’t help thinking about Rafa at 22: 6 grand slams, world #1, a slew of Masters, an Olympic gold in singles and 2 Davis Cups.

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    • Can’t compare Medvedev at 23 to the big three. Fed at 23 had 5 slams plus 2 WTFs and some masters; Djoko had 2 slams and a WTF and some masters.

      I think even Hewitt, Safin and Roddick had done better than Medvedev at age 23, but Medvedev is playing in the big three era, so all the more tougher than in any other era to win a slam imo.

      His time will come as he’s still young.

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      • Right. Young Rafa “only” had to deal with Federer and Djokovic and quite a few other early threats. But its true that young tennis players develop at their own pace. Look what Stan’s achieved so late in his career after finally finding the right coach fit. And some early promises (waves at Gulbis and Kyrgios) fade before they bloom. There’s others like Berdych, Monfils, Tsonga that just don’t quite make the top drawer. It will be interesting to see how #NextGen shakes out in the next several years. Either we get a slew of different slam champs as in the early years of this century or a few rise to the top. Or maybe the Big Three continue to rule the roost for the next couple of years.

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  5. Rafa said something in his interview back in Spain. He said he couldn’t rank this final among his others until he’d watched it. He’d only played it! It never occurred to me. Somehow I don’t think watching it is very high on his to-do list. Guess he will though – he learns from watching himself, both the good stuff and the bad stuff.

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  6. Great win by Rafa, unfortunately I wasn’t able to watch it live but it was a fantastic match.

    Looks like just a matter of time until he takes the lead in the GS count now.

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    • thinwhiteduke, thanks for your nice words☺

      I couldn’t watch the match either because I was travelling and had no access to a tv or a stream – it would’ve given me a heart attack anyway – but there are 45 minutes (!) of great highlights at the official YouTube channel of the USO! And judging by those highlights the match must’ve been really special!

      You said before the match that we Rafafans frazzle too much and are nervous even if Rafa plays an opponent who isn’t at all in his league, and that in this respect we are a bit like Rafa himself. Well, in this case we frazzlers have been somewhat vindicated😉 Of course, some of the tension could’ve been easily avoided if Rafa had kept it together after winning the first two sets and hadn’t surrendered his break in the third set. But I think most Rafafans sensed that he might be very nervous because of this golden opportunity to bag another non-clay slam. At his age these opportunities don’t come along frequently. And indeed nervous he was! However, that shouldn’t diminish Medvedev’s grand effort. He didn’t give up when he was with his back against the wall and came up with some great and unpredictable shots. We all suspected that the match wouldn’t be as straightforward as the Toronto final, and sure enough it wasn’t. Medvedev forced Rafa to dig deep and to produce some incredible shots. The end was a bit like the boxing match of the first “Rocky” movie: the trusted champion won in the end but was exhausted and bloody, and the underdog stood almost as tall as the winner. And both respected each other very much. In the end this is far more satisfying than a straightforward win in three sets. After having a rather uneventful path into the final where the only mild challence came from former USO champion Cilic, Rafa needed to subdue None other than the hottest player of the NA hardcourt swing. The title was by no means gifted to him. Looking at Novak’s and Roger’s injuries, I just hope that Rafa and Medvedev don’t have to pay for the rest of the season because of the physical strain on their bodies. I really want to see more of Medvedev during the indoor season and especially in London. That will be a great arena for testing his newly found excellence against the very best players.

      As to Rafa’s chances for ending the year for a fifth time in his career as No 1: while it’s probably doable because he doesn’t have to defend any points for the rest of the season and since he leads the race now by almost 2000 points, he has a very sensible perspective and won’t do anything which could possibly compromise his health. The next season is far more important. However, if it should happen this would of course be great, since he would tie Fed’s and Novak’s achievements in this department, while Sampras is still the overall leader – for now. Btw: this is a somewhat underrated record and one of very few which Fed couldn’t take away from Pistol Pete. And I suspect that Fed will not be the one who will eventually tie or even surpass Sampras’ record. Novak as the youngest of the Big Three has probably the best chances and could still do it, if he regains and stabilizes his health. But Sampras has to thank Rafa for still owning that record, since he stepped in and wrestled the No 1 ranking away from Fed in 2008 and 2010, and in 2013 from Novak. He also finished 2017 ahead of Fed. We will see if he will be able to hold off Novak until the end of the season. I suspect btw that Novak’s approach is very similar to Rafa’s: he won’t compromise his health for the year-end No 1 ranking, since his openly proclaimed big goal is to surpass Roger’s and Rafa’s slam count.

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      • As to the subject of highlights provided by the official YouTube channel of the USO: after many protests they came up with a great and lengthy video of the men’s final. This is a great gift to those worldwide tennis fans who couldn’t watch live. However, the same cannot be said about the highlights from the women’s final! It’s a big disgrace because it’s totally chauvinistic. It’s edited in a way which overwhelmingly shows Serena’s winners and neglects Bianca’s great moments. The uneducated viewer will be totally surprised that Bianca and not Serena won the match in the end – and it wasn’t even very tight, since Bianca won in straight sets! I have never seen such a blatant snub before. You are shown hardly any of Bianca’s breaks and great moments, and you will mostly see how Serena crushes winners past Bianca. The true progress of the match can only be gleaned by glancing at the scoreboard. The matchpoint is one of the few points won by Bianca which they couldn’t very well edit out, although I suspect that they were tempted to do so😒
        Are the American WTA fans really that gullible?? The official highlights video is borderline fake news! And is this really ok for Serena herself? IMO it doesn’t do her justice either. She was beaten after all by a young woman who came up with great tennis. Serena’s defeat looks much better if this is clearly shown. She didn’t lose to a dofus!

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        • Yes, it was disgraceful that they showed only Serena’s winners. I also felt that Osakas sportsmanship and humble act with Coco made Serena to act cool and praise her opponent which is not her nature.. lol..

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          • Glad that you noticed it, too! I’ve never seen such a blatantly obvious distortion. Didn’t the editors realize that diminishing Bianca’s game doesn’t enhance Serena’s accomplishments at all?

        • let me tell you something, serena williams loses on purpose to players who havent yet won anything or are struggling. serena wins when she wants to win and lose when she wonats to lose..look at her unenforced errors.

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      • It’s occurred to me that Medvedev “giving up” in the 3rd set (as he said in his runner up speech – he stopped worrying about winning and simply tried to play the best he could) may have relaxed him and been the key to his resurgence!

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        • I’m quite sure you’re right. Medvedev said himself that he stopped worrying about losing the match, and that he just wanted to win the next point – and when he then heard some spectators chanting his name, he felt obliged to do his very best for them.
          I think that he is a very intelligent and eloquent young man!

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      • Good post, and I agree it was no easy run in the end. It looked like a repeat of 2017 in a way, but Medvedev really threw the kitchen sink in that final. I don’t want to get too excited about Medvedev’s potential given some of the ups and downs of the next gen so far (Zverev, Kyrgios, Tsitsipas), but he looks like he has a good head on his shoulders despite those issues with the crowd. I like his adaptable game, and hopefully he’ll be able to challenge with the big three in future.

        I agree also that Djokovic is mostly gunning for the slam count at this point. It looks like he is spending more time with family outside of the slams & may be preparing less for the smaller tournaments. I won’t be surprised if he goes into the AO as the favourite once more, but obviously fitness/injuries are more of a concern these days than they used to be.

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  7. When Rafa lost his Winby semi to Fed I said he’d have great chances to win USO! People were saying it was Novak’s to take but Rafa proves me right and proved the doubters wrong!
    I always say “if healthy” because the health issues have been the biggest impediment to Rafa’s success! By watching him and Fed play at their respective age I see constant improvements and development of their game! Just look at Rafa’s net game and his S&V! One couod not think of Rafa S&V players but he saved so many clutch moments with this approach that I am just amazed!
    I must say I am so proud of Rafa! These young guns thrown everything at him but he always fights back with more of the good stuff! Unbelievable tennis player and wonderful human being!

    Vamos Champ!

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  8. I’m one of those who believed Rafa had a good chance of winning this USO, because as Id mentioned before, the Wimbledon final would take a lot out of Fed and Djoko, and players at their age would take a long time to recover, more so when Djoko didn’t even seem 100% fit at Wimbledon to start with. I liked Rafa’s chances at the USO, esp after he won Montreal with minimum fuss.

    I also knew that Medvedev was the player to beat in Djoko’s half of the draw, after both Djoko and Fed lost early there. It’s a fitting end to the slams this year and this decade, when we had a classic USO final, with the remaining big three member in the draw being the last man standing after beating the red hot player of the NAHC swing.

    Rafa is exhausted but he’s not injured, and he now has the whole of October to rest (if he doesn’t play the Asian swing) so I think physically he should be fine for the indoor events at end of season.

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  9. Rafa won the USO at the start and at the end of the decade, who would have thought that the USO would be Rafa’s second best slam, when he couldn’t make a single final from 2003 to 2009, when it looked like that would be his worst slam. 👍RAFA!

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    • This is indeed astonishing, especially if we consider that before Rafa’s first win in 2010 there was the common perception that he might never be able to win the USO and that he might never complete the career slam. This was silly insofar as Rafa always had good hardcourt results and had already beaten many all-time greats on hardcourt. But the common notion was that his body was too banged up at the time of the USO.

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      • Rafa would normally have played the DC quarters in 2010 – Spain lost to France that year after Rafa withdrew – but he said specifically that he wanted to be rested and healthy to make a run at the USO. Winning RG, Wimbledon and USO in the same year is a tremendous achievement! No one else has done it since the USO switched to HC. That was also the year Rafa won the “clay slam”.

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  13. Apparently Djoko is still playing the Asian swing, so I doubt his injury is that serious. It seems he’s determined to hold on to his YE no.1 ranking.

    I guess failing to get his second four in a row slams plus second career slam, and failing to add no.17 at the USO, the next best thing to go ahead of Fedal is to get to 6 YE no.1.

    I hope Rafa is ready for the challenge, he’s really the best player this year, in terms of big titles won, match W/L ratio, and results at each event played (getting to at least SF for all but one events played), and of course he’s the race leader this year. I just hope he can hold on to the lead and ends the year as no.1 to get to five YE no.1, to be at least equal to Fed and Djoko.

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    • Djoko is real lucky.. 2018 wimby, he stole from Nadal (ofcourse he beat him when all circumstances turned wrong for Rafa. Long 1st SF, roof etc). And 2019 wimby, he stole from Fed.

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  14. I wish to talk a bit about Medvedev; considering he’s the same height ( at 6’6” ) as Delpo, Cilic and Sasha, he’s quite amazing in his footwork and speed around the court. I don’t remember the other three guys moving as light footed, as quickly and as easily as him.

    When asked about why he only breakthrough at age 23 and not younger, he said for some players, they could breakthrough as a youngster, but for him, he had to work hard and did things step by step. He’s now a tough nut to crack, even with tapes all over his body, he still could go the distance to reach the USO final after an exhausting NA HC swing.

    I can’t help but think of Delpo and then lately about Sasha. Both broke through early in their career, about 20 years old, and we know what happened to Delpo with his multiple injuries. Sasha who’s 22 now, has also suffered some minor injuries (he’s wise enough to have a good team around him to help prevent major injury). Both Delpo and Sasha broke through early and reached a high ranking, but perhaps by pushing their body too hard to get those results when their body were still maturing might be the cause of their injuries (not many can be like Rafa, Rafa is a rare physical specimen, very well built and athletic to start with, if not for his congenital foot issue, he may be even better than he is now).

    I feel Medvedev’s approach is a wise one, he doesn’t rush through his development, giving himself time to grow up and mature physically, while working hard at his game. It seems to me he’s able to take the grind more than say Sasha who’s one year younger, even though Sasha is more established in his career (more titles, more prize money, more time in the top ten).

    I feel Medvedev is here to stay, even Rafa has high praise of Medvedev, admiring Medvedev’s tactical prowess; it’s rare for someone so young (age 23) to be able to match Rafa in a five setter.

    As long as Medvedev keeps himself healthy and continues to develop his game when he gets more and more experienced esp in big matches, I feel he’s one who may win at least a couple of slams (per Rafa) or even multiple slams.

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    • All true what you say about Medvedev. What’s striking about him is, that – unlike for example Zverev – he is able to adapt and change tactics during a match. He is able to come up with Plan B or C quickly, while Zverev tends to implode when things aren’t going well for him.
      It’s very interesting that we see suddenly so many young Russians or players of Russian origin playing top tier tennis. There are Medvedev, Khachanov and Rublev, and then we have Tsitsipas whose mother is a former Russian athlet and Sascha Zverev, who was born and raised in Hamburg, but whose parents are also former athlets who emigrated from Russia. I think that his older brother Mischa was born in Russia. Sascha speaks Russian fluently and there was apparently a choice early on to represent Germany instead of Russia, because the conditions in Germany were supposedly better. All these young men are in their early twenties now, and they share a few striking similarities. They are all extremely thin and – with the exception of Rublev – very tall but surprisingly mobile and enduring. I feel that all of them eventually need to add some muscles to their frames in order to be able to generate more power.

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      • Shapo too, his mum is from Russia. Shapo is 6’1”, not your typical Russian built. There’s really something about Russia, perhaps iit is now its time to shine, after the traditional British and French, followed by the Swede in the 80s, then the Spaniards. Maybe we can count Serbia and Croatia too, and then the Italians are also coming! And, the next wave is from Russia!

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        • Lucky, yes, as soon as I hit the post button, I realized that Shapovalov belongs to this group, too, although, while he’s also not heavily built, he’s not quite as tall.
          So, besides English, Russian may well be an often heard language for the next couple of years in the tennis scene.
          It could all be a coincidence – but somehow I don’t think so. I can’t remember many periods with so many good Russian tennis players. We have to go back to the times when Kafelnikov, and a bit later Marat Safin and Davidenko were active.
          These young Russians still need to win important tournaments. With the exception of Zverev they haven’t done so, yet. But to quote Norman Jewison again: “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming!” 😊

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          • Since the players with Russian roots who don’t have a Russian passport (Shapo, Zverev, Tsitsipas), have at least one Russian parent, I wonder if their successes have something to do with a common mentality. Because of my husband’s job (theoretical physist) we have learned to know many Russians and have been in Russia frequently. It’s striking how important a good education, fierce ambitions and career achievements are for them. Those who raise their children in Germany are very disenchanted by our school system and think it’s too soft. And they often coach their children privately. The last decades have been economically very difficult for Russia, and Russians needed all their mental resources and energies to stay afloat. Their children have witnessed these struggles and I’m sure it left traces in their personalities and frame of mind. Also the prestige of being a top tier athlet and a celebrated sports hero has a long tradition in Russia which goes all the was back to the Soviet era, with all positive and negative connotations.

          • Re: the Americans. I was talking mainly about the Europeans, hence I didn’t mention the Americans and the Australians (both countries were great and famous at tennis since a long long time ago, producing tennis greats along the way).

            I must say the 1990s belonged to the Americans too with Sampras and Agassi leading the charge.

            From the 2000 onwards, it’s the Europeans who took over.

            One genuine question, had the South American countries ever at the forefront of tennis? They are getting stronger this current era with Delpo, Schwartzman, Pella in the mix.

  15. Rafas actually the only player this year to make 3 GS finals of the big 3, however when push comes to shove , number 1 ranking etc, the point is hes got 19 GS its as simple as that, its the post important thing, the rest are nice stats but thats about it ….

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    • Rafa has made it quite clear that he’s not going to “chase” #1, that being healthy is the most important thing for him at this point in his career. Also he’ll decide on his fall schedule some time soon when he gets together with his team. For this week he’s trying to disconnect from tennis. Probably not that easy when you’re giving interviews and making commercials…but they’re probably less physically taxing, at least.

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  17. If Rafa players 1 or 2 tournament for the rest of the year, he will get the #1 ranking. So, he really does not have to do anything special.

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  20. I want to comment on Rod Laver’s great tweet. I really enjoyed that Laver presented Rafa with the trophy. Great pictures from two of the greatest sportsmen ever – they are most certainly the greatest left handed players of all time 😊. And while Laver was an unabashed Fedfan in the past, I think that Rafa really has won him over by now with his indomitable fighting spirit. A lot of former great players used to underestimate Rafa – especially on hardcourt – because of his unorthodox style and somewhat deceiving clay court prowess. Sampras for example, who presented Wawa with the 2014 AO trophy after his win over Rafa (and we all expected, that Sampras, who has 14 slams, would give Rafa his 14th trophy in 2014😊 – oh well!), said after the semi-final clash between Rafa and Roger, that he had never before watched Rafa live, and that it was an awesome experience, and that he was now totally sold on Rafa’s specific brand of greatness. One could say that Sampras must’ve lived under a rock for the last decade – but better late than never😉
    However, while Laver pointed out in his tweet that Rafa is definitely dangerously closing in on Roger’s records, I don’t think that Laver conceded anything as far as the GOAT question is concerned. Many interpreted the two little icons on the bottom of the tweet (a rocket and a goat) as a hint that Rafa could soon be the reigning GOAT. But there’s another possibility: since “Rocket” is Laver’s nickname, this could very well just mean: “Congrats to Rafa from Rocket, the GOAT!” 😉
    Laver has never shown any false modesty as far as his own career achievements are concerned. And he is probably the only player from a bygone aera who still deserves to be at least in the conversation re: the GOAT title. A closer look at his achievements demonstrate how difficult it is to compare different aeras.
    I came to the conclusion that the GOAT discussion is unsolvable as long as there even IS a discussion. It’s not even clearly defined which kind of hard and soft data add up to overall GOATness. I prefer now to look at precisely defined records. And Rafa, Novak and Roger are atm in a very exciting three-way race for holding the slam record – just as Serena tries to tie or best Margaret Court’s record of having won 24 slams, although there’s no serious doubt that Serena’s career achievements are far superior to Court’s achievements – even if Serena never manages to beat Court’s record.

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  21. Raj,
    I’m not a big Serena fan. But it’s hard to deny that she is one of the most accomplished tennis players of all time! There’s no need for cherry picking or pink glasses. Her overall numbers speak for themselves – even if she never manages to beat Court’s slam record. But because that’s so, I find this extended highlights video from the official USO Youtube channel even more problematic. Serena doesn’t need these distortions in her favor. The editors come across as petty and chauvinistic!

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    • This comment popped up at the wrong place! I was answering Raj’s comment about the YouTube highlights reel, where he said that he doesn’t necessarily buy into Serena’s greatness. I’m paraphrasing, though. Maybe, he wanted to say something else…

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  22. How is Medvedev at 23 compared to the big 3 at 23?

    Fed at 23 (2004 to Wimbledon 2005) had won five slams, but he didn’t have three players at the big three level to contend with at the slams.

    Rafa at 23 (2009 to mid 2010)had won 6 slams, and he only had Fed (one of the big three) to contend with.

    Djoko at 23 (2010 to mid 2011) had won 2 slams and he had both Fed and Rafa to contend with.

    Medvedev has to contend with the big three (granted they may not be at their peak anymore, but they’re still the TOP three guys). He pushed Rafa to the limit at a slam final at age 23; I feel if it’s not Rafa in the final, Medvedev might have won it.

    Medvedev may be the one among the young gen to get to multiple slam titles, and he may start to beat the big three in the next few years (if they’re still around) at the slams. He has the game to beat them imo, just has to gain more experience in big matches, and perhaps learn to shorten his matches at the slams, ie pace himself nicely. Even during warm up events, he could learn to shorten points and perhaps plays fewer events to get to the slams in better shape.

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