Tennis Planet

Official Freaking Site Of Tennis Freaking Fans Worldwide.

«
»

Could Nadal have beaten Federer in AO finals on his form against Murray?

Posted by tennisplanet on February 5, 2010

About these ads

This entry was posted on February 5, 2010 at 5:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

26 Responses to “Could Nadal have beaten Federer in AO finals on his form against Murray?”

  1. saras said

    February 5, 2010 at 5:55 pm

    I believe Federer could have….

    He would have raised his level of play for sure. Federer did change few things

    in his game this year.

    But….Nadal didn’t reach Finals…so this discussion is mute.Same argument was

    at Roland Garros & Wimby….If Nadal loses before finals….what are we talking

    about his form…Give Roger total credit to reach the finals in these G.Slams &

    then winning them all..Had Federer lost it in Final to someone else in these

    Slams , then we will be bashing him all over again . Lets enjoy Fed’s game & be

    give credit to Fed for his achievements.

    Reply

  2. Pommesdesuisse said

    February 5, 2010 at 6:01 pm

    No. Federer only lost because he failed to serve well enough. With his 1st-serve% in this year’s final (66%) he would have won. Two, three more aces/serve-winners here and there – specially in the first set – would have made the difference, imho…

    Reply

    • Arjun said

      February 6, 2010 at 12:32 am

      There’s no reason to think that Fed’s 1st serve % would be the same if he was playing Nadal.

      How hard you serve, go for the lines, corners etc. definitely depends on who’s across the net.

      Reply

      • Pommesdesuisse said

        February 6, 2010 at 3:02 am

        You are right…
        But the question was “IF Federer would have had the form of this year’s final – means he WOULD HAVE HAD 66% – then he would have won. For sure… Think about Wimby ’07, where he didn’t play well but served great…!

      • Arjun said

        February 7, 2010 at 7:00 am

        Nope, form is a different thing entirely.

        It defines a level of play, or even a level of fitness. Fed could definitely be in the same form but have different serve stats against two different opponents.

        If the question was, ‘IF Federer would have had the 1st serve % of this year’s final …’, then you;d have a point.

      • Pommesdesuisse said

        February 7, 2010 at 5:26 pm

        Oh boy! Is the 1st serve% not a part of the form??!!!
        Whatever…

  3. chipnputt said

    February 5, 2010 at 7:41 pm

    Roger is set on improving himself even more. We all saw just how much better his backhand was at this year’s AO compared with the last couple of years. Reminded me of his play in AO 07, when in the semis he sliced it short, brought Roddick to the net and passed him at will with his backhand. Different routine with Murray but the backhand was rock solid.

    But the backhand is just part of the story. He is working on improving what John McEnroe has called “the greatest shot in the history of the sport” — his forehand. Attached is a link to an article by Pat Cash which says the Roger he started working on his forehand after losing to DeLPo at the USO. At the WTF etc, it was still a work in progress. Cash believes it still is: “Right now things are still in the early stages and there may be some bumps along the road. Perhaps it might even take six months to perfect but by then we’ll be at Wimbledon and, based on the assumption that he doesn’t usually get things wrong there, the slightly adjusted Federer game could be stunning to witness.” Scary.

    Here’s the link to the full article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article6999644.ece

    Reply

  4. chipnputt said

    February 5, 2010 at 11:32 pm

    Posted this hours ago but it went into moderation probably because it had a link in it. Taking out the link and re-posting.

    ————

    Roger is set on improving himself even more. We all saw just how much better his backhand was at this year’s AO compared with the last couple of years. Reminded me of his play in AO 07, when in the semis he sliced it short, brought Roddick to the net and passed him at will with his backhand. Different routine with Murray but the backhand was rock solid.

    But the backhand is just part of the story. He is working on improving what John McEnroe has called “the greatest shot in the history of the sport” — his forehand. Attached is a link to an article by Pat Cash which says the Roger he started working on his forehand after losing to DeLPo at the USO. At the WTF etc, it was still a work in progress. Cash believes it still is: “Right now things are still in the early stages and there may be some bumps along the road. Perhaps it might even take six months to perfect but by then we’ll be at Wimbledon and, based on the assumption that he doesn’t usually get things wrong there, the slightly adjusted Federer game could be stunning to witness.” Scary.

    Reply

    • grendle said

      February 6, 2010 at 8:29 am

      Fascinating. I remember Serena Williams saying a couple of years or so ago that no one had seen what she could really do. Some of the stuff she did in practice (she gave us to understand) was just beyond anything you could imagine. At the time, I took this for fantasy Serena talk. Now, I’m not so sure. Of course, most players can do in practice what they can’t reproduce in competition. Youzhny, for instance, used to regularly beat Federer, apparently, in practice matches. But Serena is such a one off freak of a player, I suspect that if everything did all come together on a particular occasion, it might be one frightening sight.

      So a Federer who can maintain the serve (“automatic” but not “great”, according to Bodo, archpriest of the obscure compliment), continue with the improved backhand, and is preparing to unleash the full potential of the forehand – well, are we in for a treat in four months? Or is hyperbole preparing a damp squib for we who luxuriate in another’s talent?

      Reply

      • chipnputt said

        February 6, 2010 at 5:51 pm

        Clearly Roger’s backhand looked better than it has in ages. Even if it just stays where it is now, Roger is already a greater threat for the standard game plan against him will need to be re-worked. I couldn’t tell if Roger’s forehand has started to improve but I’ll take Cash’s word for it. He is a pretty shrewd observer. If you go to timesonline where this article is from, you’ll see his pre match analysis of the AO final. I doubt there was a clearer statement in the media on why Roger would win.

      • Pommesdesuisse said

        February 6, 2010 at 7:19 pm

        It is Serena Fantasy Talk…
        Like actually everything is that comes out of her arrogant mouth!
        Just wait ’til Justine gets her rhythm back fully…and Lady “I just lost because I was injured” or ” she had some lucky shots” will get thrashed!

  5. Jef Costello said

    February 5, 2010 at 11:38 pm

    “Could Nadal have beaten Federer in AO finals on his form against Murray?”

    Not in a infinity light years. Nadal actually had to be in the finals to have a chance to beat Roger. He wasn’t. Ordinarily would be astounded that this most stupid type of question could be asked, then I have to look at who is asking it, and it all makes sense :-)

    Reply

  6. Dude said

    February 6, 2010 at 12:46 am

    I think u’ll get the answer for that, hopefully at this year’s Roland Garros.

    Reply

  7. Anonymous said

    February 6, 2010 at 6:46 am

    Jef: it is called a hypothetical, eg: “could Rafa have beaten Borg at RG? etc”. You just have to enter into the spirit of it.. I think it is a good question and is justfied given the signifiant improvement in Rafa’s game from the ATP Finals in November (I was there and it was not a pretty sight to see Rafa struggle..). I think it would have gone to 5 sets again and the winner would have been…whoever wanted it most!

    Reply

    • Jef Costello said

      February 7, 2010 at 1:39 pm

      Anon, I know it is a hypothetical, however on occasion, I get “over it” with this type of BS that constantly challenges RF’s achievements in the game, as he never played Nadal to win the final. I know TP can’t stand the guy, however I think it is question best left buried, as what is, is what is. Perhaps then TP can start asking slightly more applicable question akin to: if Murray had the final again – on the form he had against Nadal – would he have won? I cannot recall a time when TP has ever continually hammered the same scenario against any other player, like he has against Roger. Gets boring after a while.

      Reply

  8. Anonymous said

    February 7, 2010 at 1:48 pm

    Jef: TP had Rafa totally down and out a few months ago, so I think he is quite democratic in who he dishes it out to!

    Reply

  9. Jef Costello said

    February 7, 2010 at 6:45 pm

    Anon, me feels that TP has a much softer spot for Rafa than he does for Roger. TP writing off Rafa because he is injured, is far different to him ripping anything that RF does to pieces. Even when he praised Roger last week, in the next post (as with this one), he puts question marks, otherwise criticisms of RF. TP has a known “issue” with Roger, more than any other player, past or present. Even the fact that Roger belted the guy, that belted Nadal at this year’s AO, is not enough for him sometimes to credit Roger for beating the second best guy in the tournament. It gets boring.

    TP, like with many other writers / critics of this fair game, are now forever holding a question mark to any of Roger’s major wins, simply because Nadal is not opposing him for the trophy. They are not writing about how Rafa is not good enough to be on the other side of the net on the day.

    Reply

    • Pommesdesuisse said

      February 7, 2010 at 6:51 pm

      And once more, I totally agree…

      Reply

      • Jef Costello said

        February 8, 2010 at 12:13 am

        :-) :-) :-)

      • Barbara said

        February 8, 2010 at 1:08 am

        Guess he wrote this back in May, 2008:
        But our love and respect for him is not contingent on his wins or loses anymore. Of course, we would like him to win all the time, but if God wishes otherwise, we wish him best of luck and hope that whatever he is going through now ends up as a blessing in disguise, because no one deserves the good stuff more than him.

        Federer, we will always have your back. So go boldly and aggressively towards your journey wherever it takes you. You will always find us there with you.

        We admire you and love you infinitely.

    • ricky said

      February 8, 2010 at 1:38 am

      I agree with you but as they say in french: Qui aime bien châtie bien! meaning approx.: who likes well punishes well.
      I think TP loves Roger so much that he cannot let it show or be suspected to favor him.

      Reply

  10. Pommesdesuisse said

    February 7, 2010 at 7:00 pm

    Could Federer have beaten Nadal in FO and Wimbledon finals in 2008 without suffering and recovering from mononucleosis and therefor NOT being in best shape, and in AO finals in 2009 without suffering from back problems and eating less Spaghetti Carbonara while taking more toilet breaks after Mirka revealed to him that she was pregnant before she went shopping?

    Reply

    • boxingary said

      February 7, 2010 at 8:53 pm

      or…..

      if a chicken-and-a-half
      can lay an egg-and-a-half
      in a day-and-a-half…

      then how long will it take
      for a grasshopper with a wooden leg
      to kick all the seeds out of a dill pickle?

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

«
»
 
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 46 other followers

%d bloggers like this: