Do you mean "elegantly" like when he dropped the "s" and "f" bombs at the USO because Del Potro was giving him a hard time, thereby distracting poor Del Po (he looks up to Federer), who lost the very next game on his serve (double-faulting twice) and the 3rd set? He didn't go down "kicking" and "screaming" elegantly there, now did he? The guy wants to win at all cost and, yes, he's a sore loser.

well...if anyone can drop the f-bomb elegantly, it's Roger. :D

I think he used to win elegantly and he hardly lost at all until Rafa came on the scene. But since getting hammered by Rafa a good number of times on a number of surfaces, the true character came out. A man displays his character in adversity like Rafa is so gracefully doing now. I am sure now that he is back to his winning ways, Roger will be the ever so elegant and the perfect role model that he tries to potray.
Vamos Murray(Cheryl and Andy)

this article is shockingly irresistable! i can only speak for myself, but i don't respect all of roger's achievements because he got them the easy way! his greatest and ultimate challenger, rafa nadal has always been made to appear "less than" in order for federer to appear "greater than." any player can achieve when things are designed to make it possible, but the real test is when you face the ultimate warrior and prevail. from what i have seen, everybody want to list roger's accolades, and i respect that, but very few people want him to be tested by the best, and we all know the best is RAFAEL NADAL! maybe greatness is beating those who don't pose a threat! whatever it is, i'm all for seeing the ultimate challenge in any sport and may the best man win! my perspective!

yes he does go about his business of winning even when not playing well, how do you do that? you disrupt the opponent's rhythm. so elegantly done even his fans excuse his very blatant toilet break time wasting, towelling himself including changing a shirt that was 80% dry after barely 1.5 sets. he'sdone it at other majors last year when the rhythm is with the opponenet, even the very one you mention - the big FO! will win at ANY cost. his way of covering? sldge others who take MTO and claim "i never do that". so he doesn't do that, what does he do instead? soemthing different. what the hell, a toilet break is perfect!

btw, i think another example of making things easier for roger is the the proposal of a world cup to replace davis cup. in my opinion, it's all about rafa having davis cup titles and roger doesn't! because roger will probably never win a davis cup, the cup must be dropped and replaced by something he can win. that way, rafa won't have anything on his resume that roger doesn't have! it's all a part of confirming roger's greatness and holding rafa back! but we are suppose to be too ignorant as fans to notice!

memi - I believe Rafa indicated that he was for the world cup thing as well....

Fed is a truly great player, to be ranked with Laver and Borg.

As for Nadal, he has beaten Fed mostly on clay, has hardly been consistent except at the French and Wimby, and he managed to beat Fed at Wimby when the match should have been partially postponed due to bad light. Even though the conditions were the same for both players, the fact remains that the conditions were professionally unacceptable!

Nadal had a winning record against Fed because Nadal was not consistent enough to get to more finals, which means that he had problems coping with the different styles of his opponents.. Also, Nadal is 5 years younger than Fed and that's a huge difference in the tennis world, as confirmed by Del Potro's matches with Nadal.

Almost a year ago, I predicted that Nadal would wear out the same way that Joe Frazier (the boxer) did and that winning 6 slams before the age of 23 meant nothing much because Borg won 8 and stopped at 11. Now, every time Nadal loses he seems to have stomach cramps or knee problems, but what about when Fed had Mononucleosis and back problems?

Nadal is a good man and I wish him well but I doubt he will win even 10 slams, because the vultures are gathering: Murray, Potro, Cilic, Isner, etc. and perhaps even Djoko. Emotional fans will not help improve Nadal's slam count and time will confirm what I said almost a year ago.

cheryl, did you expect rafa to say he wasn't in favor of a wc? imagine the headlines!

crespin79, in all due respect, you nor i know what the future holds for rafa or any other player! rafa is the most feared player in tennis history! if federer was as great as you guys make him out to be patrick mcenroe, chris fowler & co wouldn't have to use their commentary booths to constantly shove roger greatness down our throats while simultaneously putting rafa down. what roger has accomplished is there for all of us to see! they even talk about rafa's clothes and what on earth do clothes have to do with winning or losing a tennis match. rafa has more integrity and character in his fingernail than those people have in their whole bodies. it's pathetic how they constantly write and talk negatively about rafa to make roger look like a great champion. i have no respect for that kind of thing! however; i don't have problem with anyone else's opinion of roger; none at all!

Sometimes I think Rafans like to bring up the same things becoz there's limited things to bring up.

Fact is, Rafa had to face the same competitors that Roger had to face and Raf's achievement are still well behind what Fed's accomplished in those times.

Rafa may have come up with a good streak like in 2008, but to be consistent in 5 years is different and this is not referring to being able to beat Roger on clay and then on grass 1 time on HC 1 time and then just dissappear in other Slams.

I really dont see how the field is so much stronger than now. More baseliners now. But the way I see it, Murray,Djoker, Delpo are as promising as Roddick, Nalby, Hewitt when they were young.

And how do people explain how with a better competition nowadays, Fed still is in the final tomorrow? And Rafa WAS Fed's greatest challenger but look at him now, he's declining as if he's the one approaching 28 years old.

I think it's time people just appreciate what Roger has accomplished because he's done it through a lot of adversity: rising youngsters, late-blooming veterans, media, controversy.

Still I see the same dominating, smiling Fed yesterday talking to Jim Courier like the same Fed I saw 4 years ago. No change.

torres sweetheart, rafa's decline has nothing to do with what has already happened. history confirms that federer has played nadal time and again in finals and we all know the outcome! nadal has proven himself by beating federer in the final of australian on hardcourt, roland garros on clay, and wimbledon on grass. can you say the same about federer. that is why you guys talk that babble, but you are too happy for someone to take rafa down, so that federer will not have to face him. nadal's present condition has nothing to do with that. if he never plays another match, what he has achieved against federer will forever stand. spectulation surrounding nadal's decline is done every year, this year will be no different! we will see!

Memi sweetheart, can the same be said abt Rafa of what a lot of Roger has achieved?. Did Rafa win Wimby 6 times? Did Rafa win USO 5 times?

And yes, Roger didnt lose his crown to a player like Soderling, he lost to the no.2, unlike Rafa who lost to a player out of nowhere.

You can talk all you want. History is History. We already know who beat Rafa on clay 2 times, made him no.2 so long, and also outperforming him Slams for 5 years.

What Fed has achieved against Rafa and in Slams will forever STAND!

torres, you still don't get it sweetie, but you are right about one thing, history is history, that won't change!

If Federer was half as bad as the Memis and Homos' of the world would like us to believe, he wouldn't have won a single peer-nominated award, which their idol Nadal has not won.
Homos accuses Federer of taking a bathroom break to disrupt the opponent's rhythm, yet how many times has Nadal himself done that, not to mention having medical time-outs (which Federer has never done, even when he was playing in pain).
People like Memi and Homos make me sick. They are like people in the political far right who do not like anything the current administration is doing. Instead of appreciating the beauty of Federer's game and enjoying the friendhip he has with Nadal, why do they try to find fault with everything Federer does. I am a huge Fed fan, but I like Nadal and others too. Just because I like Fed more than the others, I don't have to put the others down.
Grow up guys. In trying to belittle Fed, you only belittle yourselves.

To get into the semifinals 23 times in a row proves ur one that just refuses to loose . It proves that you are the most consistent player on the tour for the past 6 years . It proves you are the best there is.
There is no one that comes close ....absolutely no one ! Putting anyone else's slam records in comparison in terms of consistency to Fed's makes Fed look like the almighty and the rest like a one trick pony that finally fails miserably .
I mean ...he was having a years of dominance ...and then apparently people started saying the field is getting stronger and yet he finds himself in the last 2 of the past 7 slams . seriously .....thats just insane . All the other so called challengers are back home licking thier wounds and this dude is still fighting it out for a 16th Slam . Win or loose the achievement is no smalll feat ...and till someone can come close to that consistency ( note i did not say beat it )...just come close ...you ought to appreciate the achievement or shut up ! there is no close second .....not in GS count , not in final count , not in semifinal count ....
When we talk about grand slams , bringing up nadals name is an embarrassment in comparison to fed ...not because there is anything wrong with nadal ...there is nothing wrong with him ...its just that he is no.2 behind fed ...but the distance between them is just too great . just too great . and the fact that Fed is still playing 2moro's final where else the closest guy to his records is out in the QF is certainly not helping close the gap !
Yes yes , thier careers are not over ....but at this point ....the direction their respective GS records is heading would and should make any nadal fan not want to compare the two in overall GS achievement . Come 2moro , nadal will not hold any GS championship for 09/10....Fed 'might' have 3 .
In short ...hope ur guy recovers and turn things around ...for now it does not look like it . so stop doing him a disservice by comparing him to Fed when he is down and Fed is so obviously not !
I actually dont enjoy comparings Fed GS records to anyone simply because its unfair . No one is even close to him ....and the fact there some of you are forcing the matter is embarrassing ...its like ur reaching so so far for minute facts to discredit Fed's achievement when the elephant in the room is that this guy is playing 2moro's final . There is no denying that every tennis player is at awe at what he has achieved ....note that i did not say at awe at him ...but most definitely what he has achieved .... its no minor feat.

C'MON !!
AO10...time to lift another one down under

tennisace, why don't you make a big stink when posters put nadal down? maybe you should take your own advice and grow up and realize that everybody has a right to believe what they want to believe. nadal's game is beauty to me; that's my choice! who you choose is your business! no one is forcing you to agree! sorry, you are sick! i'm sure you're feel better when you face the fact that everybody is free to choose who he/she wants to support! i suggest you mind your business, i'll take care of mine!

fedexfan, how did you know i was thinking the same thing. like you, i actually don't enjoy comparing nadal & federer, especially since federer is arguably the greatest, and nadal is supposingly an average player according to your standards, yet, the head-to-head stats tell a different story. now, that's an embarrassment! i can certainly see what you mean!

cheryl, when you put up an article like this, do you foresee the type of responses that followed? Time for another Fedal war?

For those that proclaim Rafa's soon to come demise, please be a bit more patient and adopt a wait and see attitude, for he may again surprise all of us. He may let you eat some humble pies.

Talking about age difference, didn't Fed win four of his slams when the likes of Rafa, Nole and Murray just started out on their career? Didn't Fed have at least two to three years at his peak while these three young guns are busy honing their skills? (2005-2007) All in all, Fed's achievements are unquestionable. Its up to the young guns to do well and challenge him. Nobody can say for sure that by the time these players retire, none of their achievements are comparable to Fed's. Isn't it too early to say so now?

peers nominated awards when fed was winning everything and didn't need to be sulky and lash out laft handed digs. it's simple anyway, you see what you want to see and i see what is shown to me. as i've always said, you have to be of a certain character and admire certain characteristics, to think fed is class and professional. how many times has nadal taken toilet breaks?? when he's down?? MTOs? now that's making up a theory and imagining it like fed fans accuse those who point out things they prefer others didn't see. classy!! when courier asked fed about the slow taking toilet break fed said "sure if the sun moves 1cm or 2 cm it still helps me". read it however you want, i'm glad courier was sharp and with enough balls to bring it up infront of RLA crowd. good on courier! now playing mind games inthe press with murray to try and get in andy's head. it's all over the papers. pathetic. even tho hes younger, andy's carrying himself publicly more mature, unlike the mock-humble pretentious mug.

memi is just one angry Rafan who always start this war. All she ever mention is h2h but she forgot that Rafa has a 6-7 h2h to Davy whereas Davy has a 12-2 h2h against the Fed. SO what does this show?
Does this mean Rafa is better than Fed but Davy is better than Rafa?

COme on, memi sweetie, i hope u are not that shallow.

And no one said Rafa is an average player. He just have a lot more to do to be compared with Fed yet and juz by beating Fed in Slams doesnt mean he is a better player especially when he loses frequently to other players in Slams. Muzza has beaten Rafa twice in a row in Slams now and the times Rafa had beaten Muzza i the past was when Muzza was not strong.

What does this tell? That Muzza is an evem bigger talent than Rafa?

memi , you made the mistake of making the assumption that i think nadal is an average player . no where in my post did i say that . he is as strong as the rest of the field ( top 10 ) .
maybe it does not show right now ..
Here we are talking about achievement in slams and you reaching for the head to head is my exact point about it being embarrassing when you compare the two .......they should not be compared . not now at least . Fed's achievement in GS are too great ....forget the elephant in the room and bring up the head to head ...thats what i find embarrassing ....especially since Fed makes it to the final only to find someone else at the other end of the court more often than not .In fact , tomorrow is just another living example of what im talking about ...

luckystar , i agree its too early to say so now ....hence why i find it ridiculous to compare Fed to anyone else in the tour when it comes to GS's records . His achievements are just too great .....with that said...when an article like this is written about how Fed is a fighter and refuses to loose ....a rebuttal that includes comparing him to any other player is completely ridiculous.....simply because its too early( as we both agree) ...and because no one is even close in comparison when it comes to GS achievements ( this , a FACT) .

Im not saying the record will last forever ....im not saying no one can come close ...i am saying that at this juncture Fed is incomparable to everyone else. In addition , the person closest to his achievement , is light years away from getting to where he is . In fact some one has to not only participate but also win matches in all GS's to thier semifinals till 2015 in order to actually match up with Fed. Thats how much the difference is between Fed and the rest .

Cheryl , I assume you knew this would have started a war ...but i see why u wrote the article . Its simply to highlight a champions refusal to loose ....something that many dont see ....

C'MON !!
AO10...time to lift another one down under

some ridiculously disrespecful comments here.
silly to bring up one incident again when federer swore. one moment in 11 years on the tour.one moment.when we see other players swear all the time on court and nothing happens. I guess as a federer fan, that is something to be proud of - that he has kept it together for so long, and the talk afterwards was that he was right to question it, the delay from delpotro was too long. should not have been a challenge. so am happy with that. and people are so jealous of federer's achievements, else why bring things up that have been long dead and buried.
homos, why dont you drop the toilet break thing. you go on about that but once again, fed didnt break the rules. do you hold a poo in when you are at work and you need to go, and do you sit there and suffer, hoping the feeling will go away? excruciating.
fed wanted to go, so what the problem. leave it. please.

Cheryl, you are right. Federer doesnt get enough credit with his "fierceness" or his capacity to call on his wits and instinct when he is facing a "more"determined opponent.
As a federer fan though, we do see this all the time. AO against berdych last year, 2 sets down, Haas at French Open, 2 sets down, in semi finals, 1 set down to Delpo at FO (first time delpo had got a set). when he was 2 sets down to rafa at wimbledon and fought back to equalise. There are so many of these moments.
Fed doesnt roll over in these moments. He toughs it out.And he holds on because the winning feeling is always with him. Never retires from a match. Toughs it out.

Do you remember the Masters at Shanghai, (2 years ago), against murray in SF's? He played for just over 3 hours. It was a fantastic match by both murray and federer.I remember that moment so well. talked about it with my friends from tennis.x He lost the match to murray,it was so close, but it was his "fierce" spirit that I remember (or calm spirit inside).

Federer is a champion of calm and a fierce spirit. You are right cheryl. Thanks for the blog.

Only thing they forgot to mention was after the toilet break, he sat down, wiped himself, changed his t-shirt than walked back to court - all after ump called time. Classy!!!

Tennis: Federer takes well-timed toilet break
Thu, 28 Jan 2010

The only three men to beat Roger Federer in the last 19 majors were already out of the Australian Open, leaving the Swiss star with a new threat to face.
Nikolay Davydenko's 13-match winning streak was the hottest on the tour and included two wins over Federer during title runs at the season-ending ATP championships in November and the season-opening event at Doha this month. The Russian unloaded everything he had on Federer for a set and a half on Wednesday and was suddenly in uncharted territory at a Grand Slam tournament.

That's when a bit of gamesmanship and a lot of big-match experience helped Federer switch gears and win 13 straight games en route to a 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, 7-5 victory that sent Davydenko packing to join Federer's former Grand Slam conquerors: No. 2-ranked Rafael Nadal, No. 3-ranked Novak Djokovic, and No. 4-ranked Juan Martin del Potro.

"Winning that many games in a row against a player that's been on fire like this, it's a great sign," Federer said.

The win stretched his record to a 23rd consecutive Grand Slam semifinal appearance, something he rated as "definitely one of the most incredible things I have in my resume."

Before Federer, Ivan Lendl and Rod Laver shared the record at 10.

"It's incredible looking back on how many years that is now, you know, I'm able to deliver at Grand Slam play, especially this year," he said. "Looking at the draw with (former No. 1-ranked Lleyton) Hewitt in the fourth round and Davydenko in the quarters, who has been on fire the last weeks and even today, you know, we saw big signs of it. "So for some reason I was just a bit worried I was not going to make it this time in the semis. Now obviously that it's safe again and I've been able to add one. It's amazing."

Besides his incredible run of Grand Slam semifinals that began at Wimbledon in 2004, Federer boasts three Australian Open wins among his record 15 major titles and 50 wins or more at three of the four biggest tournaments in tennis.

In Friday's semifinals, Federer will meet Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who removed Djokovic in a five-setter on Wednesday.

To beat Federer, Davydenko said, you have to be like the Swiss star.

"You know, to be like perfect," he said. "He's No. 1."

Davydenko had lost 12 matches to Federer before gaining some confidence with his back-to-back wins. He broke Federer's serve in the third and fifth games, and didn't give the Swiss even a glimpse at a break-point chance.

Federer decided to take a quick comfort break after the first set, to let the sun that had been bothering him move a little bit. That gave Davydenko time to cool his heels inside Rod Laver Arena - unfamiliar territory for somebody more familiar with the outside courts - and time to think about the situation.

It didn't work right away, Federer dropped serve three games later and then fell behind 3-1, but then the momentum swung dramatically.

"You're allowed to have two toilet breaks and I never use them, and I figured maybe the sun goes by 1 centimeter to 3 centimeters ... maybe it's that one point that makes a difference," Federer said, adding for the record: "Oh, I had to go to the toilet, too."

Uncharacteristic my ass!


Federer survives early scare against DavydenkoArticle
By Paul Malone
January 27, 2010 11:00pm

RATTLED Roger Federer opted for a bit of gamesmanship to outlast Nikolay Davydenko last night and gratefully survive the Australian Open's "Wacky Wednesday".

Federer uncharacteristically took a toilet break at the end of the late-afternoon first set in which the court was in half-shadow, returning from the locker-room like a man walking to the gallows.

Federer rallied when the contest was played out in cooling conditions in complete shadow and Davydenko appeared to be out of the contest when he lost 13 consecutive games from 3-1 in the second set.

"I was struggling with the sun coming in on the side and I was hoping for the sun to go down," Federer said.

"You are allowed to have two toilet breaks and I never use them.

"I had to go to the toilet too. But all I was looking for was one point to make a difference - and sometimes it does.

homos. are you watching the serena v henin match? they both just taken toilet breaks. why dont you write to ATP and complain?
Wonder what your thoughts are on roger arranging the hitforhaiti campaign as well?

Guess the argument here has turned into who is better. When you take the numbers Fedex wins hands down. However the thing is he does not lose well. He almost thinks it is his right to win everything he participates in. And all these things about he being pally with Nadal, I guess he would like to lose to any1 but him.
Its a good thing Del potro was the one who defeated federe at USO 09. If nadal was at the other side,we could have seen the famous melbourne tears again.
And you talk about Nadal winning less majors , he cant help it if there is only major played on clay while there are two on hards.
Federer represents genius while nadal represents hard work and toil
Vamos Rafa!!
PS:Maybe federer's bladder capacity is small

vmk,

so sad that you feel this way,but your opinion is yours, of course.i could list a whole lot of interviews where roger respects his opponents, most of all rafa,(most recently defended him in interview when others were writing him off), but it would be wasted on you. I feel it is jealousy on the part of some fans. dont understand it. never will.

you probably right. fed has a small bladder.but it doesnt really matter. what matters to me is that roger federer is in the final and he is going to fight like the true champion he is, and as massive federer fans out there will know, we stand united in our love,respect and passion for the greatest player on the tour and we look forward to the AO final tomorrow where roger has fought hard to get there, it may be tough, but that will make it exciting as hell. i wish all murray fans a great tournament too, for fairplay and respect on both sides.

Maxi,
I used to like Federer till he used to go about winning his titles without sounding pompous about it. I still recall his comments about Nadal just being a clay court specialist when he had beaten him thrice at the FO and that he did not think he had it in him to beat him on other courts. Then he complained Nadal took too long between points. I agree Fed is better on tennis statistics, but I enjoyed wimby 08 and melbourne 09 finals to the fullest
And the same rules apply to Nadal, tom if he thinks that he is above everyone else and its below him to lose to the likes of Davydenko, Murray or Soderling(and I would eat my socks if he did that), I would be one among the many Rafans to bash his behaviour.
And I do not this comment is wasted on you, Maxi.
Vamos Rafa

"ou are allowed to have two toilet breaks"..

homos , I was wondering how long are you allowed between points before you serve ? I mean , lets just factor in the fact that the server might be mentally slow and takes time to figure out that its his turn again to toss the ball in the air ? I still think there are certain players that dont make it in time eh ?

Also , is touching yourself on court something that needs to be written in the rule book before some people stop doing it ? hmm....

In fact , toweling down like crazy after your opponent serves an ace also makes no sense to me . Should there be something done about that also ?

The day Fed does something against the rule book and does not get penalized ...let me know ...for the cursing and the racket smashing which has been once in the last 5-6 year ....he has faced the music... but if he uses the bathroom ...twice as allowed ....save urself some face and let it go ...

Henin -Serena used the bathroom also ...heck ...serena even had a bag ....oh my god ...a bag !!! can we launch a complaint please . any other pathetic fans wana talk about the toilet issue ?

I resisted even reading this thread because the title was doing my head in.

Everything I would like to say on the subject has been well put by those who don't agree with the premise of the title. All I'll say is that some are born great, some achieve greatness (Rafa), and some have greatness bestowed upon them (Federer).

All his faults are immediately brushed aside so that he will continue to be the 'elegant, invincible tennis player.



Get Well Soon Rafa, tennis needs you badly
Vamos

VMK1, tennis is a sport, and Fed likes to win. Sometimes he doesnt and he blurts some comments that'll get some bad vibe from other ppl.

But Rafa is not perfect, no? I've heard him say, 'it's more I not play well, then he play unbelievable' which disrespects the opponents' achievement of beating him.

And when he lost to Tsonga, he said, ' I am no.2, what ranking is he?'.

it's the same thing. It's just that Fed's bursts of emotion are always amplified larger becoz other aspects of him is almost perfect so people will find faults no matter how small it is.

And no, even if it was Djoker who beat him in Ao2009, he'll probably cry too becoz his tears was for his failure to win his 14th Slam, not becoz his failure to beat Rafa.

" some have greatness bestowed upon them (Federer)."

carrie , the purpose of the article is to open your eyes to see that greatness was not bestowed upon him . If gives examples of how he fought and refused to loose.

23 semifinals in a row is never bestowed upon you ....you have to freaking earn it !!! Just because it is an incomprehensible unbelievable stat does not make it in any means fake or easy. It was earned ...

Basically , this very article was written to show those who think like u how wrong you are with regards to the FedExpress ....just because he makes it look easy ..does not mean it is


C'MON !!
AO10...time to lift another one down under

Mother luck is n his side.



Get Well Soon Rafa, tennis needs you badly
Vamos

Come for the clay court season directly. And start again from where it all began.
Tennis is not the same without you like carrie points out
Vamos Rafa!

for 23 straight grand slams ...haha ..talk about wishful thinking ...
or more like being naive ....

you didnt really sound too bright with that comment...23 consecutive GS's ...luck ....duhhhh

C'MON !!
AO10...time to lift another one down under

To whoever asked if I wanted this to turn into a Federer-Nadal battle - NO. This article isn't even about Nadal. It's about Federer and his unparalleled ability to do well at majors. Kind of wish the wars would stop, to be honest. I know they won't, but wishes don't cost anything....

Federer's accomplishments at Slams are a BIG DEAL and they deserve a blog like this. I will not refuse to write something simply because the fan wars are going to start.

Cheryl-I don' agree with you on this. Roger indeed gets a lot of credit from his fans, present and past tennis players, commentators and above all Rafael Nadal. I believe you started this thread to ignite the passions between the Federer and Nadal campfollowers and lo both camps are out to prove their points about what are bad in them. Both players are outstanding sportsmen with one of them having achieved success that has not been achieved by others.

Having said that their playing styles and mannerism on and off the court are vastly different and these different streaks are either liked or disliked by these two camps.

Some of the comments are the reflection of the attitudes of these followers of both players. But I think in the end it will all be evenly matched if ever Roger defeats Rafael in the FO and that can happen.

newfan - I didn't say he doesn't get ANY credit, I said he doesn't get enough credit for his toughness. I stand by that.

AND this article is NOT about Rafael Nadal. I could have written a blog about Federer's socks and the fan wars would start. So it's either put up with it or never ever write about either Federer or Nadal again.

cheryl, perhaps then make this clearer( (what do you think?). If this blog is nothing about Rafael Nadal, perhaps make a statement to the rafa fans who have negated what you wrote?. Oh, why does this have to happen every time?

Federer's greatness is "bestowed upon him".? I dont understand this. and mother luck is on his side? (best to be ignored).It's just rubbish. so disrespecful to the greatest of champions. he works hard to remain at the top,for so long now. and it's down to luck? am just laughing at such shallow comments. he deserves his titles. he deserves to be where he is.people are just insanely jealous and ridiculously naive if they think that roger is "lucky". hmmmmmm.what silly statements. they speak for themselves.no need to comment further.
Roger federer is the greatest, at the top of his sport, making the most of it and enjoying every moment. so happy he is bringing such fabulous tennis back and his aura is being re-established. He sent a message out yesterday and he'll do it again tomorrow.

C'moon Roger!
The spirit of a champion!

Just look at the 1st 5 posts here. These two Fed trolls has always been there to spoil things.

homos,
If you can't win a match because somebody took a bathroom break, you're not that good and weren't going to win anyway. If somebody takes 45 seconds between points, they can still be beaten so these little things mean nothing to great players.

memi,
Nadal is a bad matchup for Fed, especially on clay. Where was Nadal when Fed was in all of those other finals? I won't even go back to '03 and '04. Where was he in W'05, USO'05,AO'06, USO'06,AO'07,USO'07,USO'08,FO'09,USO'09 and AO'10? He wasn't good enough to get to the final. He was getting slaughtered by the likes of Tsonga, Ferrer, del Potro Murray and Sod-omised by Robin. End of story.

Fed turned around a lot of matches that he was losing, including Haas match last year and Davydenko match few days ago. Both of them are players who can play brilliant but didnt have the mental toughness Federer had. Roger really doesnt get enough credit for how good a competitor he is, most probably because Rafa is an even bigger one.

Journalists like to idolize players in some aspects and downplay the others to make a better story of it. Fed's competitiveness is overseen to idolize Rafa's, just like Rafa's shotmaking is downplayed because idolization in that aspect is reserved for Fed.

if you can't win without blatant gamesmanship than you're not that great after all. even admitting it his pathetic fans can still deny it. very sad.

I?m beginning to think that Rafael Nadal?s reputation for steel will (which he certainly has) was earned precisely because of all those times he managed to hold on just slightly longer than Federer ? Cheryl

Cheryl, Nadal was mentioned in the blog to prove how fierce a competitor Federer is, so it wasn't only abour Federer.

Anyway, Nadal fans are not exactly on top of the world at the moment, so you have to undestand why the war of words started; that's why I avoided the blog to start with, because just reading the title brought up all sorts of negatives about the elegant one.

How I long for Rafa to be back to normal again.



Get Well Soon Rafa
Vamos

homos. what is the matter with you today? federer (as am sure you aware) has won so many sportsmanship awards,there isn't enough room to write them here! c'moon homos - is it because rafa is out that you are being like this? why? you must try to be more sportsmanlike,otherwise its yourself that comes across as undeniably poor sportsman (sorry homos). I could play you match after match, interview after interview, in fact, go and read them on AO official tennis site, they are there for everyone to see - he ALWAYS refers to his opponent, brings out the good points/bad points of a match, yet still you dont believe? I s'pose when lovely champions like roger become more successful, the less successful become more jealous.

homos, i hope rafa gets back to full fitness for tennis sake,your sake (importantly), and for continuing rivalry for federer.the game is greater for them both, but this is roger's time now, so smile homos! :)

Far be it from me to jump into yet another Fed-Nadal whizzing match (talk about your bathroom breaks!), but I couldn't let this one pass without comment:

"To whoever asked if I wanted this to turn into a Federer-Nadal battle - NO. This article isn't even about Nadal. It's about Federer and his unparalleled ability to do well at majors. Kind of wish the wars would stop, to be honest. I know they won't, but wishes don't cost anything...."

Please, Cheryl, give me a break on that one. On this site? With that headline? And you really didn't think about what would break out?

Bull. You KNEW what would break out -- and that's WHY you did it. It's all about the page views, baby!

Nothing wrong with that; it's the nature of the beast in Web-based media. (And besides, who doesn't love to read the same tired posts pro- and anti-Fed?) At least own up to it.

Nobody has ever been able to beat RF comprehensively outside FO except JOKO in AO08 that is in three straight sets in any GS after 03. At the FO RN did it in 08. By beating comprehensively, I mean, in straight sets without conceeding a set. The two slam outside FO, RF was taken in only 5 sets and only by RN. Roger would not have been called the GOAT had it not been RN as an adversory. Without RN the GOAT campaign would not have been comprehensive. Only RN knows what it took for him to scale the peak or break the hmmm Da Vinci Code of Tennis. Roger, I believe, is an entertainer per excellence always there to surprise himself. It would take a Late Wallace (He committed suicide) to describe the etheral maestro like Roger. The AO10 is already in his pocket and I am waiting for the FO10 to see haw it feels to have sex without a condom.

SP - where is Nadal's name in the title of this blog? I'm struggling to find it....

ricky, it's not in the title, try the third paragraph - there's enough information in there to support SP.

SenorPlayDoh show him your laminated "Mensa" monthly bus pass.

newfangkc, how can you be so sure that Fed already has the AO 10 in his pocket. Its a bit disrespectful to Murray when you said things like this. Be careful, Murray may bake a big humble pie and present that to you!

newfangkc, you forget that Del Potro also had beaten Fed in 5 sets at the USO 09. I won't be surprise that the list of players beating Fed at a slam final is getting longer, starting from this Sunday. Who knows, Mr Murray may be able to accomplish the task in four sets or even better in straights.

First of all Federer and Rafa are both great players ( i prefer Fed because of his style of tennis ). Rafa indeed beat fed a couple of times. This is not because Rafa is a better player it's because fed doesn't like the way Rafa play's. Wayne Ferreira and Richard Krajicek both have a positive balance against Sampras does that mean that Wayne who?? en Richard Krajiek are better players????? It's the same with Sampras and Aggasi some prefer Agassi and some prefer sampras. But if you just look at the achievements of both players you have to say that Federer achieved more then Nadal ( thats why for now Fed is a greater player ). Also didn't Fed play his best tennis last year in the Australian open and in the 2008 wimbledon final ( in my eyes ). As i said before i think they are both great players but Federer is if you look at all the records he has broken en the titles he has won the better player.

luckystar,

i dont think i have seen any federer fan say what newfang has. (have just read it more carefully). I wouldnt be so confident - ever. but it must be good to feel that way. On paper, being world no. 1, roger "should" win.
We all know that sport is the winner here, but of course we support the person we want to win and hopefully that will happen with roger (for all federer fans). Both Roger and Andy have laid down the gauntlet with their own intent. (both looking forward to playing each other tomorrow and both wanting to beat the other, (of course). We shall have to wait and see what happens tomorrow. I'll stick with roger and hoping that his first serve especially is on fire and he wins easily. but it is going to be a tough one.

C'moon federer! Do it for the twins!
The spirit of a champion.

chr18, if you don't know there are a lot of bad matchups in tennis! that's the nature of the sport! there are bad matchups for other players as well! that's what champion do, figure how to beat a bad matchup. so, get rid of the excuses, they don't mean squat! i don't hear you screaming about bad matchups when players like del potro, cilic beat nadal! i'm on to people like you! you have your ready made excuse when it comes to federer, but any other player is a loser when he is beaten by a so-called bad match up!

SP - What precisely are you asking me to own up to? That I knew this was going to happen if I wrote a blog about FEderer? Of COURSE I did. The same thing happened last year when I wrote a blog about how Nadal isn't given enough credit for his on-court acumen or shot-making.

Are you trying to assert that I should refrain from writing things that are ABSOLUTELY TRUE simply because it's going to piss people off? Seriously. Great idea. Did I know what I wrote was going to piss people off? Of course I did. Did I write it because I WANTED to piss people off? No. I wrote it because it's the truth.

Here's honesty for you. Federer's wins are ascribed to his shot-making. Everyone does it, even when he's playing like complete crap. Nobody says "Man, that Federer is an absolute rock" even though he is. I felt that it should be said, therefore I did so.

Rafa indeed beat fed a couple of times. This is not because Rafa is a better player it's because fed doesn't like the way Rafa play's.

taxon , 1/30/10 8:11 PM



Last time I looked Rafa has beaten Fed 13 out of 20 times, you call that a couple of times. Shame that Rafa doesn't play the way Federer likes, like most other players who hand it to him on a plate.

I would have preferred Rafa to be in the final, but now I'm rooting for Murray to win tomorrow.



Get Well Soon Rafa. Tennis needs you badly
Vamos

cherylmurray

What do you have to say about Wayne Ferreira and Richard Krajicek you also thin k that they are better players then pete sampras because they have won most of their matches against them??? If Fed plays his best rafa has not even a chance to win a set!

Every time Rafa won Fed played about 75 % thats why Rafa won those matches and because most of them were on clay!

taxon -

I'm confused at why you've directed your question at me. I have no intention of getting into the "who is better, Rafa or Roger" debate. First, because I don't think there is a definitive answer to that question, and second because this blog was never about a comparison of their respective tennis skills.

cherylmurray

9 from his 13 wins were on clay!

No wonder he is ahead.

Why there is no definitive answer look at Fed his records. Rafa has a long way to go to achieve what Fed has achieved.

Nadal is done he will never win a Slam again

i really hope that tomorrow's match makes everyone on TT understand what a special day this is, after 2 weeks of some great tennis. This is the ultimate day. THE FINAL - for roger - a great champion already and for Andy - searching for his first slam. It wont surprise any of the federer fans that non-federer fans will support murray - no surprise there then.

It's so boring that everytime cheryl writes a blog it has to become a war. past is past with all players. tomorrow is a new tennis day, where anything can happen. head to heads dont matter, past wins dont matter.what matters is that for federer fans roger plays his best tennis and beats andy murray and likewise, for murray fans, andy murray beats roger by playing better than him.

Everything else is irrelevant. Rafa does not come into the equation for tomorrow, it is between two players who beat everyone else in the tournament. It's their day and should be respected by all tennis fans. And carrie (am very sorry), but players do not hand anything to roger on a plate anymore. Its very unprofessional to say something like that. He had to fight for a win a lot more than he used to, in this tournament (Andreev) and (Davy). The thing is, he is just better than all the rest, that's why he is in this final. He mentally toughed it out, he worked on his game and he goes into the final tomorrow - not the favourite with the british press - read some of the papers - so really, federer is going to have to fight again for another win tomorrow. I hope he does it with all my heart. I'm sticking with federer, and I love the fact that he still wants to win and is still in the game. It is a great story that continues to be written.

Go Federer! Go and win the AO!

C'moon!

maxi - excellent post all the way around. Whatever else is said, you can't take this achievement from Roger. It's just...staggering how consistent he's been in the big moments.

but players do not hand anything to roger on a plate anymore.
maxi , 1/30/10 9:22 PM


So you admit that they used to hand it to him on a plate.

taxon, you're late catching up! did you know that people like you said that nadal would never be #1 or win australian or wimbledon! thanks for being concerned but nadal will be just fine! nothing you say about him hasn't been said before!

No carrie i dont. i read my post and know what i mean when i say "anymore". means "any more than any other player" - not well expressed by me - apologies. To even suggest it is just, well - silly.

To say that anything was handed to any player "on a plate" disrespects the player, the opponent and the game of tennis. It is as if they have a "bet", am not sure whether you are trying to imply that there is some underhandedness here, what are you intimating? that they will lose to Roger federer "easily?" Perhaps Tsonga yesterday, but he was overawed I think. I think if you mean to say that players are "overawed" then yes. But then players are overawed"/overwhelmed" by rafa, novak, murray and delpo, even davy now. so i dont think what you say makes any sense.

Federer is brilliant.he is the best player in the world. No.1. he has had to maintain that by fitness,practise, dedication,motivation,commitment,talent,skill,love for the game,respect for players, day in, over and over, and he still loves it! yumma yumma to federer.A star. Everyone benefits from when others dont play in tournaments (whether that by injury, or whether certain players dont play in tournaments), but federer is consistent! and consistent for almost 7 years! That - is incredible - no one else comes close. Not even rafa (much as i love him). I hope that explains what I meant.

Enjoy the match tomorrow carrie.

C'moon Federer!
The Spirit of a champion!

hey taxon, 9 out of 13 on clay- rafa's favorite surfaces/.4 out of 7 on grass and hards- Fed's surfaces. Grand slam finals 5-2 in rafa's favour. Who's prepared to slug it out in the key matches.
And regarding Rafa never ever winning again, Roger was not supposed to win a FO ever. Rafa was to complete a calendar GS in 2009. You please do nt play god. Nadal has found a way to get around his handicap on surfaces other than clay and he will find a way to get around his knee problem.
Federer has been great with his will to win but considering his talent,it has been easier for him. It would have been so easy for Rafa to concentrate on clay courts and make the QF's of other GS to maintain his ranking but he is the one who has displayed the stronger will in trying to win on other surfaces.
And I hope Cheryl writes a blog soon for soothing the Nadalites. We are hurting.
Vamos Rafa!!

vmk, I've written many a soothing blog for Nadalites - and surely another will be coming along. ;)

vmk1,
Nadal was supposed to get a calendar GS in '09?
In what alternate dimension????????????
Only the most optimistic of Nadal fans dared to dream that. Just because he won AO'09 didn't mean anything. He was heavily favored to win FO but he couldn't get that done. He has won 2 GS in one year, never even close to a calendar GS.
When asked if he could do it last year, Fed said the other players would ensure it wouldn't happen. The only way he could ever win a calendar GS is if Tonya Harding starts to coach/manage him.

That is just ridiculous. Praise should be reserved for people who do something important. Federer is just playing tennis.

chr18, you remembered what fed said! there you have it! you just confirmed what i've been saying all along. the only way federer won the french and the only way he will ever keep winning slams is that other players help to keep nadal away from him. everybody knows that! federer has his little flunkies to do his work for him, face it, it's the only way, because it's no secret how intimidated federer is of nadal. isn't it a shame to be called "greatest ever" and people have make certain your greatest rival is out to increase your chances of winning! is that what you guys call greatness! that is why he has to have help to keep winning; federer doesn't fear anybody the way he does nadal, not even andy murray. a lot of people know it, but very very few people will actually voice it! it's a hush, hush situation!

btw, does being the "favorite" guarantee a win! i'll start worrying when it does! federer was favored to win the usopen, he didn't make good on that, so, what exactly does being the "favorite" has to do with anything? explain!

I can't think what the measure for "doesn't get the credit he deserves is. How could he possibly get more credit than he does? He's been amazing in many ways - and the media and fans constantly write about anc commentate about how amazing he is, at this point so hagiographically on occasion that it becomes almost laughable. I cannot imagine it being possible to give more credit than he gets!

LOL memi.. if Nadal is so great he can beat everyone no matter who he gets.

That's the difference between Fed and Nadal. Nadal always falter to lesser opponents in SLams . Fed only loses to players that are gud enough to beat him.

That's why Fed's record is wayyyyy ahead than Nadal. And Fed's not a bit scared of Rafa. How can someone who beats Rafa 2 times on clay be afraid of Rafa? Pfftttt....

torres, you're not capable of understanding if i were to tell you! i choose not to waste my time! for the record, any one who follows tennis know that federer is getting help to remain on top and particularly to remain ahead of nadal! simple as that! believe whatever you want! i know the truth!

sorry to butt in here, but does anyone know what's happened to malteser?

I'm sure she'd have a colourful contribution to make :)

Oh memi, now you resort to accusing me of not knowing the truth and not following tennis. None of your conspiracy theories have any valid proof. Not even Ricky, cheryl, Kelli (the closest ones to tennis than others here) can provide valid proof that there are conspiracies in making sure Fed wins all the time.

Let alone an angry blinded Rafa fan like u, pfttt..

maxi maxi maxi, my post has nothing to do with rafa. have i mentioned rafa's name anywhere in my posts? the articles is based on a match between davy and fed. first you guys denied it, accuse me of imagining it and making up a theory. so i posted it to show that i wasn't the only one who observed it. and to highlight to cheryl that there are other things fed is not credited (faulted?) for. i think you need to take a break maxi and try to calm down a bit. and enjoy the finals and cheer your man.

No, Cheryl. I didn't say you should do anything other than what you did. The post was one that needed to be made, and if it were Nadal in the same situation, the necessity would be no less.

All I'm saying is that on this site -- with the posters who are as reflexively hypercritical of either Fed or Nadal (and they know who they are) and can't take the least bit of criticism of their boy or praise of the other without feeling the need to immediately correct the record -- you shouldn't try to defend it as anything along the lines of "I didn't mean to turn this into a war." War was going to happen no matter what given the topic. It was inevitable, and it's all to the good from a page views standpoint, which was my point.

Defend the points you make -- and your right, nay, DUTY to make them. You'll never please everyone on this site when it comes to saying ANYTHING about Federer (or Nadal). No sense bother trying.

Just don't offer any kind of mea culpa about this breaking into a whizzing match. That's all. The whizzing matches will stop only when the i d i o t s -- on BOTH SIDES -- leave, and that ain't gonna happen any time soon, alas.

Until then, just sit back and enjoy the page count climb!

torres, sorry to burst your bubble, but i don't need Ricky, Cheryl, Kelli or anyone else to validate what i say. unlike you, i have a mind of my own! maybe you need validation! even if they were to validate it, do you think they would tell us! if you think that, you are more dense than i thought! i've been called worst words than angry and blind! anybody who stands up for what he/she believes and doesn't follow the majority, especially when the subject is federer, will always be called names! i don't mind at all; it comes with the territory!

Fair enough, SP. :D Though I still stand by what I said - I didn't write this to MAKE a war (though only a fool wouldn't have anticipated it).

I'm consistently amused by the fact that Roger and Rafa themselves get along WAY better than their fans. Go figure.

memi, then how do u validate ur claims of conspiracies? Do u have absolute proof in what you are saying? If you are just stating things as if it were a 'fact' when you dont have proof, then go on and live in ur world of denial.

Well I think the sun shines out of his bum.. He is a wonderful sportsman with a wonderful sense of humour and he is extremely graceful in both winning and losing..He sets a fine example to others out there who are not so gracious both on and off court. I love watching him and I barrack for him over and above my own countrymen...I say good luck Roger for today you deserve to win!

raj55 , 1/31/10 5:16 AM

Do me a favour. It's actually offensive for you to say that Roger is gracious in losing when the whole world knows how he ruined Rafa's moment this time last year; and to say that he sets a fine example to others - refusing to shake the umpire's hand when you lose and swearing audibly on court in a GS final, cannot be seen as a fine example.

These are the sort of things Fedfans say that really rub people up the wrong way, and want to have a go at him.

homos,

i'm fine. thank you. enjoy the match too.

Well I think the sun shines out of his bum..

raj55 , 1/31/10 5:16 AM


All I can say to that is, thank goodness I live in England, because we don't see much of the sun here!

I finally decided to give Roger the accolade he deserves: his shit doesn't smell and he'll find the sollution for world peace soon with his underrated fierce attitude :worship:
Who are you and what have you done with Cheryl Murray?

acionescu - don't forget the purple mountain majesties. :D

Carrie - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA

that's it everyone. you just all show yourself up by being disrespectful. cheryl, i enjoyed reading your live match blog, very much - but you just gone down a little bit here. shame.

Friends,
When I said that AO is already in Roger's Pocket I meant it. Having followed these players and having seen the recovery and prgress of Roger over the last two years, it would have taken a much calmer and astute strategist to overcome RF in the AO10 final. Without taking away anything from Andy it was beyond him this time in spite of his great play in the AO10. His two and half set can be discounted since Rafael is yet to recover and a long way to be the same player when he beat RF in W08 and AO09.

I even now think that RF may take all in 2010 and he has already served notice to that effect.

@memi!

One thing you are forgetting or overlooking deliberately that Federer has been doing the job of winning most of all the Grand Slam, and it is only on the handful of occasions when he couldn't convert those, that the ones like Nadals, Djokovics & Del Portro's won. How can you even compare those with Federer, even knowing that he had been doing this for so long ? And going by your logic, if all those wins were that easy, and wins now are tough, then how can earth can you expect Federer in the top half of all Grand Slams when it is so hard these days ? Even then you see this man is going great guns and reaching the finals of almost every Grand Slam, compared to that Nadal almost faded away from Grand Slams after that sudden AO win last year ? So, you call Nadal the best even then ? I think it's just a mindless comment or you are just saying this out of frustration or out of blind love for Nadal, seeing that he has made to pack away from Grand Slam Tennis for whatever reason it may be, in a great way!

The truth is, this man Federer is the best player ever to have played Tennis, and he will remain so until someone really come up to challenge his achievements of winning Slams. And Nadal is a long way back from that now.

I am really surprised to see that here in this website there are a few hardcore Nadal fans, who irrespective of everything, basks in the glory of Nadal winning more matches head to head against Fed & over looking everything to claim that Nadal is better than Fed, yet the whole world including some of the eminent tennis personalities keep Fed ahead of not just players of his time, but also of even a few past legends. Well, only thing that Nadal fans have to support is the head to head count. Is it really everything ? If so, then why is it required to organize Grand Slams every year and so many matches to decide who is the best ? Why not just another single match of Fed-Nadal to decide the straight away winner ? Huh ?

And I want to highlight on another simple thing to those Hard core Nadal fans. Fine that Fed lost to Nadal in AO2009, which is history now. But after that, Fed has won 3 Slams out of 4, but in those Nadal was nowhere near to challenge his supremacy in the tennis court. Don't you consider it a defeat ? Is it not, that after loosing once to Nadal, Fed has won 3 times or rather 4 times over the much favored Nadal ? Once because there was not Nadal in the final but Fed was still there to face him. And this claim is just because, Grand Slams are only to find the best in the business and not who defeats whom. I know, you people are very well aware of this aspect, but is not willing to admit that after those few minor lapses in 2008 & early 2009, Federer is way ahead of Nadal no matter what. And the way things are going, it's highly unlikely that this trend of Fed winning all the way no matter who play how in the upcoming Slams is going to change.

Cheryl, I really like reading your articles. About the constant war of comments - you are definitely the voice of reason there.

This looks like '06 and '07 to me. Fed is taking on all challengers and dominating again. At the start of this AO, everybody said 6 guys could win this yet who rose to the top of the heap again? The maestro once again. I think del Potro can win FO and USO if he's healthy and on fire like last year's USO. Other than that, it's all about the Fed.

Holy cow lol...what's going on in here?

Hmmm. Maybe I have a different take on the essence of the title/piece, but it doesn't read remotely incendiary to my eyes. Sometimes people forget about how much of a fighter Federer can be (especially in Slams), focusing just on the aesthetic of his game.

@ any inference that draws might be slanted or altered for Federer...surely the sponsors want to keep him around for as long as possible, but you can't fix or rig a blind draw. Players have to bear the responsibility of defeating him anyway, no?

Kelli i hope you had a good look at the final results of our TT predicting competition :) its on that blog :P

@carrie
What a shame to say that greatness is bestowed upon Federer. I wonder does this member here is sane or not, so that she has the audacity to say such a thing about the genious. Does she knows anything about the very basics of Tennis, or how on earth can she even think of that ? Huh, reaching 23 straight semi-finals, something which even the greatest of great couldn't even think of during their prime, and she thinks that this was just something bestowed on the great champion and not earned !!! Just because Fed makes everything looks so easy doesn't means that it should be taken as granted that it was all bestowed upon him. All she thinks is that those 2 sudden wins by the clay court specialist in Grass & Hard courts has to do with earning greatness! And this player is not even half way through when it comes to winning as many Grand Slam as the great champion and is already broken into pieces & cramming repeatedly showing strong signs of fading away, even then this insane dear reader saying the greatest ever tennis champion is not enough for Tennis, only that clay court specialist is needed to cause another upset victory or two in hard courts to enrich tennis! She is certainly mad or insane otherwise she would never have said such crap about the all time great just in order to glorify the clay court specialist, even after his repeated loss to so many players in the circuit! Was the matches of Fed-Murray,Del po-Cilic, Almagro-Tsonga any less rivetting ? Just some illogical thinking whatsoever!

My fellow members, I am sure, those of you who are real tennis lover, and had been watching the sport over the years, must be agreeing with me that we are blessed to see this Swiss maestro in full flow during our lifetime. He is such a genious that comes once in a few decades or so, and we are the lucky ones and our entire generation is so too, since we have a chance to see him play for so many years. No matter whoever plays where, everytime this renowned champion takes court, it's sheer joy to watch him play; He is one of those greats that every generation will boast of having one at their time, starting from Fred Perry in the 30's to Roger Federer upto this day. It's a shame to look down upon his achievement and greatness, doing which not only one tarnishes his reputation, but also Tennis's in general.

solitudine, you guys sound surprised! i've been watching sports a long time and i'm certainly not surprised; none at all! did you all think murray was going to beat roger! i knew murray's play against nadal was deceiving! he played well, but that's wasn't his normal game; therefore, he won't be able to do that all the time! the person who could have and would have presented a challenge was out of the tournament! in fact, after nadal's quarterfinal match, some friends suggested that federer fans could start celebrating because he was certainly going to win his 16th. i agree! there was no one to stop him.

congratulations to federer, but if this is any indication of how boring tennis, especially slam finals, is going to be with no real competition, i can see the ratings dropping now!

problem with players like murray, djokovic, etc. they spend too much time coming up with a plan to defeat nadal and get him out of the way, to show people that he ain't all that; then when time comes to step up to plate against federer in key moments, they have nothing to show!

nadal wouldn' have ever allowed roger to play his game that way. murray had too many chances; it's a shame! opportunity missed! federer was never concerned about murray no way!

@homos
This writer is just the most disgusting one that has ever posted in this thread. He is constantly whining about the toilet breaks that Fed took during the Davy match which was perfectly okay as per the rules. Actually this HOMO guy is having a tough time with Nadal getting hammered all the way in each and every single tournament that he is playing these days and by everyone possible in the circuit, and hardcore Nadal fans like him, who were worshipping Nadal as demi-Gods after that one single season when Fed was a bit down with Mono are getting nothing else to write about in the Tennis forums but to use slangs and useless blames on Fed to pacify their jealously.

But, hey, just be sure that no such evil attempt of doing that to Federer will go un answered, because specially someone who loves the sport, it's just an insult to even listening such bad mouthing against some of the Sports great such as Federer, Samprass, Becker or Edberg. I never wanted to say all this against any players, because every single player on tour has some speciality of their own. But these pathetic sick people are dragging me to that. It's high time they should be made to remember what the achivements of Federer really means. Just look at Nadal, he had a season when he held 3 slams out of 4, and the toll of such an achievement was so heavy on him that this guy is still not fully normal even after 1 year when that stint ended. And look at Fed, he had done this at least 3 or 4 times all together, had been on top for so long and even then is going great fully fit at the ripe age of 29. His elegance and supremacy has not faded even a little bit so much so that he can earn a slam just loosing 2 sets on the way still. He had a rough time in 2008, but quickly got back to winning ways and is now the best player in the world in his own right.

So, that is the difference between between Federer & Nadal. And perhaps will be so untill the day when both these players retire from tennis. Nadal is simply no match to Federer in any way. Don't think those head to head lead over Fed that he enjoys will let him win matches against Murray,Del Po & Cilic. These current crop of players that are playing today are no less determined & fierce than what Nadal was sometime back, and they can pretty easily do to Nadal what Nadal did to Federer. At least I won't be too surprised if I don't see Nadal in another GS final other than FO. And even if someday this Nadal reaches the finals of a GS, don't take it for granted that the result will be the same what it was in 2008 .Remember, 2008 was the year when Fed was so down with Mono, and even then he reach 3 GS Final & 1 semi final .Compare that to any other player including Nadal, when they had a bad time on tour, you will find that is nothing but ordinary.

Further more, never forget that Federer is clearly not only the better player than just Nadal, he is such a personality who is looked at par and his achievement in Tennis is considered equivalent to that of greats from other sports like Tiger Woods in Golf, Lance Armstrong in Tour de France, Jehangir Khan in Squash or Sir Don Bradman in Cricket. And such is his sportmanship & greatness, that he had been choosen Sportsperson of the world & as well as UN Ambassador too! So, when someone like Homos tries to tarnish his reputation stating that Fed lacked in gamemanship, what else can you think of him except that he must be psycho ? He has turned insane following Nadal's "demise" from world tennis, at least temporarily!!

solitudine, the truth can be disgusting at times! don't get so bent out of shape, roger won! he didn't disappoint you guys! save your sermon for church and enjoy the moment!

@memi!
Are you just blind or is overlooking the fact that Del Potro has already posted one such competitive matches in the Grand Slam finals against Fed ? Maybe, being a Fed fan you are not going to pay much attention to me now, but let me tell you, as things are developing right now, the real threat for Fed in the GS finals is going to come from Del Potro and not Nadal or even Murray, leave alone Djokovic!
If you are still not convinced, then let me present a simple stat for you all tennis lover, very few people have defeated the Fed in the final of a GS after Fed has won the first set. Del Po was the first to do so.

I won't be surprised if soon a day may come when people will ask for Del PO-Fed final in all the GS, and not Nadal-Fed finals, because matches are more competitive and intense when these two are playing. Make this post a bookmark and visit this after an year or so, you will see Del Po has become the real challenger to Fed ahead of anyone else, because he is going to be the "Federer" of future with the type of game he has. And as of now, there is no reason to disbelief that Nadal's one season burst is almost over!

solitudine, i'm not talking about one match, i'm talking consistency! i'm talking about what has been proven time and again! understand!

"... the real threat for Fed in the GS finals is going to come from Del Potro and not Nadal or even Murray, leave alone Djokovic"

crystal ball, made in china, dollar store, right?

rfzr, thanks for the forewarning! can't argue with a fan who has a crystal ball! i'm getting real scared! we will see, won't we!

Rafa revived tennis from the doldrums when it was so predictable that there was nothing to get excited about. Rafa turned up, won his 1st GS at 19 at his first attempt (Fed not till the age of 22 at his 17th attempt), and started beating the living daylights out of Federer time and time again.

Rafa has been the face of tennis in the last few years. Even at the USO last year, a recovering Nadal got more marquee scheduling than anyone else, because that's what the TV companies wanted because of advertising revenues. No one wants a fait accompli situation, where the winner is always a foregone conclusion, it turns people off, and they lose interest.

The Qtr round match between Nadal and Murray had more buzz and electricity about it than the final yesterday. Rafa is the man!


Get Well Soon Rafa. Tennis badly needs you!
Vamos

Carrie, r u sure Rafa won his 1st GS at his 1st attempt?

Your Rafa fandom makes u delusional.

.....but the supposed sizzling Rafa-Murray quarter final match FIZZLED because one of the guys quit when he's already 2 sets down.....I guess its all pre-match hype....

Kelli - thank you for being the voice of reason. I don't mind if people are responding to each other instead of what was actually in the entry - that's part of an on-line environment. BUT, it's as if some of you read the title but not the blog entry itself.

And shame on you Rafa fans for praising me up when I write something complimentary about Nadal, and then accusing me of shoddy journalism when I say something equally complimentary about Federer.

Just a little hint to you all - a compliment to one does not imply an insult to the other. Stop making this about what it isn't.

cheryl, you could call it blind loyalty, which is not a bad thing. 'Fan' is a shortened form of fanaticism, which in a word is uncritical zeal for someone or something.

By the way, I am not one of the fans who criticised you, but I disagree with you. Just to illustrate my point, why was Raoger told to do laps of honour when Serena wasn't? If this is a new feature at the AO, then all the champions of the various genres should also do a lap of honour.


Get Well Soon Rafa. Tennis badly needs you
Vamos

carrie, who cares if it's a lap of honour or if a lion is brought with the Lion King's theme with a trophy on his back to give it to Roger.

THis has nothing to do with anything. It's just something they thought they'd try.

carrie: last year they brought laver and his legendary victims in prep for fed to equal sampras. record but it backfired in their faces. this year they thought they'd try something more subtle ;)

torres, so why didn't they try it with Serena, or do they make it up as they go along.

Fair minded people do care about injustice and partiality.

Same people are arguing over fed-rafa in 2 separate blogs and 1 article right now :D There should be a permanent post for you guys to argue so that blogs arent flooded with the same arguments over and over and over and over again.

The smugness and skill of ?super? Swiss stands out
Analysis: Patrick Kidd


So Switzerland?s six-month wait for a grand-slam title is finally over. Another trophy in the Roger Federer cabinet, and another reason to want to slap him.

Gosh, that sounds churlish, doesn?t it? Typical sour grapes, poor loser, whingeing Pom. Actually, I think Roger Federer is a wonderful athlete, a sublime racket-wielder who turns mere sport into a thing of beauty. For sheer pleasure, give me Federer at his best every day. But does he have to look so smug?

There is something about his face that screams ?I?m super?. It?s the self-satisfied smirk, the sneer of his eyes and nose, that perfect hair. It brings to mind a Red Dwarf word: ?gimboid?.

None of us can help our appearance, of course. Ringo Starr was once asked if he felt as sad as he looked. ?No, it?s just me face,? he said. But Federer?s smugness is more than just his face. He sounds smug, too.

?There?s no secret behind it. I?m definitely a very talented player,? he said yesterday. ?I always knew I had something special.? This is typical modesty. He is fond of telling the press how brilliant his performances have been. Irritatingly, he can do it in four different languages: je suis formidable, ich bin unglaublich, soy espectacular.

His whole image is based on smugness. He has his own monogram, for heaven?s sake. And a cosmetics range. Then there are those insufferably matey adverts for razors with Tiger Woods and Thierry Henry.

He rocks up to Wimbledon as if it were Milan Fashion Week. Remember last year with the gold-ended puffy white kit bag that looked like a giant luxury chocolate? And then there was the tracksuit top with the number 15 (the grand-slam titles he had won) embroidered on the side in gold, which he had brought along just in case and unpacked at the end of the final with little thought for whether it was rubbing the win in Andy Roddick?s nose.

Still, there was one good thing about Andy Murray not being able to wipe away the Swiss smirk yesterday. The only thing more smug than Federer would be Sue Barker interviewing a British champion.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article70 10338.ece

"cheryl, you could call it blind loyalty, which is not a bad thing."

"Fair minded people do care about injustice and partiality."

Yes, the same person posted these completely schizophrenic thoughts in the span of less than 1 hour.

carrie, you're in a class by yourself when it comes to ripping Fed. In fact, dare I say it? You're the Roger Federer of ripping Federer.

rofl carrie! that article is hilarious!

Owhh come on, so the AO organizers are the one who asked Prince William to only come to Fed's match?

Probably they thought they'd do it since a record of 600k+ people came tot he stadium so they wanted everyone to get a chance to have a glance at the great champion.

SWEET 16!!!!! WOOOHOOO>>>

honestly,if anyone actually saw the article that federer gave, (videolink),it is a shame that such anti posters didnt laugh their heads off,it was so tongue in cheek, so funny,the journalists were laughing, to lighten the mood. it was wonderful to see roger federer so relaxed and so happy after playing some brilliant tennis.And let's fact it. He is talented. The best. When he said it, he was laughing, (does anyone know what tongue in cheek means?). may be you dont get it?
but nothing is going to work on this post, because people just want to believe the bad and not the good,not the funny,not the relaxed.so wasting time here.

And the round the lap thing was because it was the 60th anniversary of laver winning the first slam in 1969 and who better than to carry out the task than the winner of AO2010? Happened to be the Great Roger Federer who does it the best.

Well done Roger! Well done for organising hitforhaiti, for raising (along with tennis family), almost a million dollars,for defending rafael nadal when others had turned against him,for supporting the fans,for bring so much magical tennis - to tennis - yumma yumma, for being a massive role model, for being the best there is.

swissbliss!
The spirit of a champion.

"40th anniversary". (apgs).

1969-2010 : that makes 41 years in my book! If you meant the 4th Ann. of Laver winning his first slam, then Rafa should have done the lap of honour last year, but of course, the wrong man won last year.

oh pooh pooh carrie! there was something about laver and his first slam and not being there and whoever won in the 2010 slam was to do a lap of honour "at Laver's request", you so miserable carrie. whats the matter with you? I laughed when you posed the one about the "smugness and skill", in the Times.bought the paper.funny.there were two or three printed by different people in the Times.This was the one that got me the most (if you'd care to read),in the Times.

Murray: "probably the finest mortal tennis player on the earth but yesterday he ran into a God". lovely.

Sometimes I wished Fed doesnt make those kind of jokes coz ppl will think it's arrogant but that's how he jokes.

I remember in AO2007, Jim Courier asked him, ' Do you train a lot during the off-season? (he probably get asked 2000 times abt this in his career)'

So he answered, 'Owhh no, I dont train, the guys are not gonna catch up so I dont need to train (jokingly)' and some ppl would have taken it literally...

That's how he jokes sometimes. It does sound arrogant esp. to other fans. But i think the journalists would have preferred jokes than the same broken record answers from some players.

Of course Roddick''s the best in press conferences but this is just Roger and how he jokes. You ask a lame question like,' Do you train?' when u know the answer is 'yes' so Fed just decided to just joke abt it.

That's his character flaw, torres9. I think he is generally a nice guy but he may unknowingly (or perhaps deliberately) say things that potentially help him on court against his opponent, ie. psychological warfare. The media loves him and he plays along and who cares? Not many because he is loved by majority of tennis fans.

Here's an article from an Australian sports journalist:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/01/2806776.htm

I'm not agreeing nor disagreeing with the article by posting it. Just read it yourself and make your mind up. (I'm not directing this to anyone in particular, but I'm sure it's going to stir the pot even more)

It has been so long Nadal did not win a tournament and Nadal fan's are getting impatient and frustrated, may be he should try his luck in challenger circuit. I am sure there wont be any top 10 player playing there.

Yes cable, I read that article too. I agree sometimes he made some mistakes with what he says and what he jokes.

A lot of people take tennis seriously and when Fed jokes he probably would have made it look like it's easy for him to win so he can take it lightly.

But I think this is why he seems to perform good in the highest level. He doesnt try exteremely hard until his brain cramps like what happened to Muzza and Davy.

When Muzza started smiling in the 3rd set, he played better. Being serious is good but pushing ur brain to focus too much will cause it to strain.

'That's his character flaw, torres9. I think he is generally a nice guy but he may unknowingly (or perhaps deliberately) say things that potentially help him on court against his opponent, ie. psychological warfare'.

psychological warfare played by ALL players.Not just federer.Really,love it when he winds journalists up,but they see funny side of it as they laugh as well,we are all so very lucky to be living in these tennis times.and all people can do is be miserable.roger federer is great.no changing that though people would want him otherwise.problem is, when you talk about arrogance sometimes,every player has to believe,every player has to train,murray (who is melting me),always gives interviews on how much training he does in miami, running sanddunes in whereever,you never hear what roger does about training except he trains in dubai.well yesterday,becker, said an austrian friend of his goes to train with roger in dubai,he came back before AO and said roger trained for 4 hours on court as if he was training for his first slam, and he was unbelievable, and spent hours in the gym.you just never hear about it because he isnt as arrogant as some people want to believe.he is just the best there is.

vmm, if you can take a moment to pull your head out of federer's butt, you may soon see the light and realize that it seems to me you're the one worried about what nadal will do. i'm certainly not; it doesn't appear to me that other nadal fans are worried. you're the can't sleep for worrying about what rafa will or will not do. why worry about someone who doesn't pose a threat. you guys say that nadal is done, over, won't win another slam, so normally, people don't continue to discuss a player who is done and dusted! you have have made your point, we get it, federer is a genius, he's immortal, he is king and so on and so on!

nadal is the last player i will worry about because without a doubt, he will be just fine! from what i saw in the australian open final, federer didn't show me anything new; he just played a player in andy who could not duplicate what he did against nadal, because it's hard to duplicate a game that's not your normal game. similar to what tsonga did against nadal in 2008 australian, has he been able to perform like that again. NO! i thought you guys knew something about tennis! please! save your worry for federer because the sport of tennis is up and down. that's why nadal doesn't concern himself about all this garbage that is written; he knows how hard it is to remain #2 or #1 for four or five years. are you kidding me? don't be blinded by one slam. the year is still young!

memi: Actually I am really worried about Nadal. It would be nice for him and his fans if he plays tennis like tennis rather than boxing. Boxing hurts.

oh pooh pooh carrie! there was something about laver and his first slam and not being there and whoever won in the 2010 slam was to do a lap of honour "at Laver's request", you so miserable carrie. whats the matter with you?

maxi , 2/1/10 10:53 PM



OK, let's accept that Roger was doing it on behalf of Laver, why did the guy not say so? I am at a loss to see how Laver's achievement was being celebrated with his name not being mentioned.

I have the recording of the presentation ceremony on right now so that I don't get this wrong, this is what was said by the MC: 'We are going to do something just a little different tonight, we are going to ask the 2010 champion to take a walk of fame so that you can all acknowledge him once again.'

maxi, where did you get this stuff about Laver from?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/01/2806776.htm

nice one alik. i see the toilet break stunt and the mind games with murray wasn't missed on yet another observer of the sport like they consistently are on his hero-worshipping fans who were no doubt the ones who laughed along with him when he said to courier "oh yeah and i did need to go to the toilert" as an afterthought about why he took that overly prolonged trip and than leisurely sat down to change his t-shirt after time was called. they shrug them off as jokes and within the rules. i didn't see this much slack being cut for djoker when he took MTOs "WITHIN THE RULES".

i guess hypocracy, self-righteousness and the right to superiority rub different people in different ways. this article spells out what some of us already realised years ago. it's no surprise, and certainly no less distasteful.

alik thanks for the link, I'm posting the full article here. Hilarious!

I don't love Roger

By Gerard Whateley

Posted February 1, 2010 14:12:00
Updated February 1, 2010 16:04:00
Roger Federer won the Australian Open final against Andy Murray at Melbourne Park.

Roger Federer won the Australian Open final against Andy Murray at Melbourne Park. (AFP: William West)

I don't love Roger Federer. That's a character flaw. I understand that.

It's not that I don't recognise what is unfolding. There's no sense denying the Swiss his rightful place as the greatest of all time. His command over his sport has few contemporaries.

He plays with artistry beyond compare. Tennis seems to bow to his will. He's rarely hurried. His game doesn't rely on muscle and blunt force. Rather he strokes the ball. It's as if the Matrix has been revealed to him in slow motion.

It was there again last night as he controlled the men's final at Rod Laver Arena. He played tennis Andy Murray couldn't match.

To some he restores the innocence and splendour of youth. Acclaimed sports broadcaster Tim Lane wrote in the Sunday Age of watching Federer: "Victory takes on the sort of nobility I'd once associated with the great sporting heroes of an earlier time."

I wish I felt that way. Tiger Woods has been that for me. Makybe Diva as well.

But not Federer. And less so this past week as he completed the job of winning a fourth Australian Open.

The 28-year-old is a statesman for his sport. That is beyond quibble. His organisation of the Hit for Haiti on the eve of the tournament was further evidence.

I heard former No. 1 women's player now commentator Tracy Austin say of him: "Elite sportsmen know this is the way to act but very few can."

But it's the fawning over Federer I find intolerable. The desperation to beatify him. And the willingness to overlook behaviours that would be mortal sins for others that I can't abide.

What about his blatant gamesmanship against Nikolay Davydenko - taking a sauntering toilet break after barely half an hour having lost the opening set to allow the shadow of the roof to move further across the court.

He giggled about it afterwards. And everyone laughed along with jolly old Roger.

His treatment of Andy Murray in the lead up to the final was rampant psychological warfare. Federer doesn't like Murray. Didn't invite him to the charity bash. There was nothing good natured in his jibes about the pressure of expectation.

"Look he's in his second Grand Slam final now. I think the first one's always a bit tougher than the second one. But now that he didn't win the first one, I think it doesn't help for the second time around.

"Plus he's playing, you know, me, who's won many Grand Slams prior to that, been able to win here three times so I know what it takes and how to do it."

Even when excusing himself of the charge of "trying to screw with his head", Federer added for emphasis: "The next one is not gonna get any easier."

As if the flogging from the British press wasn't going to leave enough scars on the Scotsman.

And then there's been the slightly odd lapse from his place at the humble champion.

"There's no secret behind it. You know, I mean, definitely a very talented player (laughter). I always knew I had something special, but I didn't know it was like that crazy."

Not since Greg Norman declared he was in awe of himself has there been a sporting proclamation of such self-aggrandisement. And remember the cultural cringe that caused.

With history now his personal plaything, His Rogerness is doing stand-up.

It hardly amounts to despicable behaviour but a portion of balance on his sainthood wouldn't go astray.

Still it could be worse. At least he's not Tiger.

I remember commenting when Roger took the toilet break in the match with Davy that he seems to take a toilet break everytime he is on a backfoot. I distinctly remember him doing it before. Of course he felt able to confess that he was engaged in gamesmanship knowing that his worshippers would just laugh it off.

vvmm, what a compliment to the greatness of nadal! i'm sure if you and other players could box and win 36 titles at the age of 23, including 6 majors, 15 masters & counting, defeat the greatest player on his turf of wimbledon & australia, ultimately hold a winning record over arguably the greatest player ever, and at the same time have a pretty nice looking bank account of roughly 27 million from tennis alone, i'll rather box than play tennis. goes to show how below level you are!

i don't think you would be doing any crying if rafa didn't play another match; however, thanks for pretending!

memi, well put in A NUTSHELL!



Vamos

Interesting article. Let's see if I have this right: Whateley says he doesn't like Federer and calls him out for playing mind games with Davy and Muzz.

OK, you don't have to like everybody and one man's gamesmanship is another's unsportsmanlike behavior. Fair enough comment.

But he also says this about Federer:

"There's no sense denying the Swiss his rightful place as the greatest of all time. His command over his sport has few contemporaries.

He plays with artistry beyond compare. Tennis seems to bow to his will. He's rarely hurried. His game doesn't rely on muscle and blunt force. Rather he strokes the ball. It's as if the Matrix has been revealed to him in slow motion.

It was there again last night as he controlled the men's final at Rod Laver Arena. He played tennis Andy Murray couldn't match."

This is a guy who doesn't like Federer and spends an entire column describing why. Can anyone here imagine some of the most vocally anti-Fed fans on this site saying any of the same things? Not a chance. To them, Fed's a duffer who has won everything by sheer luck or pre-arranged underhandedness.

Then Whateley winds up with this as his passing shot:

"It hardly amounts to despicable behaviour but a portion of balance on his sainthood wouldn't go astray."

In other words, Whateley's saying: Fed's not perfect, but he's not a jerk either. (And he is the greatest of all time -- Whateley's words, remember.)

Nuff said.

Hi,

I thought it was over after the Murray-Federer Match. But then the fans would not just give up there are >130 comments from some 13 or a few more. Hmm, I will have join them for another long piece. Tomorrowwwwwwwwwww.

SenorPlaid.you are a clever man Senor! a great post - thank you - problem is - who is going to listen when consumed with jealousy?

maxi, I would be interested in your response to my post at 9.40am on this thread.

Fed's slam streak is surreal. WIth his 23 consecutive semi thingy, is there anyone in the world who has actually played in the last 23 slams?? lol.

memi: I would miss Nadal as much as any of his fans if he does not play a match from now onwards, to be frank I will miss him more than Roger as Roger already achieved more than I want from him except one and that is beating Pete's record of 286 weeks as no 1. Having been watching tennis for 20 years I dont have much hopes on Nadal looking at history of grinding clay court players. I dont mind if Nadal comes back beats all Fed's records, I just dont want the records to be under Pete as I think he does not deserve them under his belt when compared Fed/Nadal's talent.

Having said that I have no hope on Nadal that he can even come close to Fed's records. The only guy who can do it is Delpo who is younger and talented than Nadal, great serve, backhand, forehand, mental toughness. I agree that best ever mentally tough guy is Nadal but Delpo has enough to achieve great things.

this is getting more and more interesting by the day.

first, the fanatics denied and screamed "it's within the rules and he needed to go to the toilet, so what, you imagined it anyway!!"

now, when it's blatantly obviously that astute and fairminded people have picked up on it, they've changed their tune to "but look what he says about fed's game and talent" - which by the way, i've to see anyone here disagree with.

amazing what length some would go to to dodge the ugly truth.

oh god ...i see we are still on the toilet thing ....i facebooked roger btw ...told him that he will be the only player on ATP now that would have to hold it in no matter what since his 16GS are in jeopardy because of the toilet breaks.

again....they day someone can prove to me its breaking the rules and that the umpire gave a warning ....we will talk .

SP , good point ! It easy to take blow at someone....and here you have some one who despite not liking the FedExpress ( which is fine) , has so many good things to say about him ..

and speaking of the HFH ...I watched it yesterday ......i think it was awesome . Everyone looked upbeat and happy to be there except Rafa .He looked down ....as though his dog just died and was being forced to smile . Djoker and courier were hilarious . Serena and Fed were also very vocal and in a jovial mood.

Muzza was not invited or declined to participate ? I dont think anyone knows who was called and who was not and who did not want come take part. I know Sharapova did not want to participate (hear say) but donated cash for the cause . She was busy on the practice court i think .
Anyways , what i wanted to say was that was going beyond the call of duties for the FedExpress and we are very proud of him .

C'MON !!
Sweet 16 baby !!!! Still on cloud 9 !

Just a note on who's invited for Hit for Haiti and who's not.

First of, those that involved needed to be REALLY BIG NAMES so they can draw in the crowds of Melbourne. That will be Federer, Nadal and Serena Williams.

Secondly, they need to be people that the Melbournians/Australians want to see, i.e. locals/Australians or people that the Aussies really take a liking to: Lleyton, Sam Stosur, "Aussie" Kim Clijsters, "Cameo" Bernard Tomic.

Thirdly, they need to be people who are entertaining, engaging, witty, and endears to the crowd: Andy Roddick, Nole (who also has a huge fan base due to the rather large Melbourne Serbian community).

Murray may have gained more fans in Australia post-final, but let's face it, he wouldn't be a name that WOULD draw the crowds in. He's not entertaining like Roddick/Nole, not endearing enough to Aussie public like Kim, and not big name enough like Rafa.

Also, Fed may have called him up, we don't know that. Roger did say that some people chose to participate and some chose not to but donated money anyway (i.e. Maria Sharaporva).

I would think the emphasis would be on the success on the event, and that enough money was raised to make a difference in Haiti, rather than "who's invited and who's not". This is not Elton John's post Oscar bash after all. Why does it even matter?

fedexfan, I would have to correct you on Rafa though. He really WAS having a lot of fun. Sometimes he was lost because the rest spoke in lightning fast English and a lot of things got lost in the context for Rafa. There were several times when Roger/Andy/Nole directed at Rafa and he was just like "WHAT??" and then he laughed along with the rest of the crowd. Maybe he was a little bit more serious than the rest in chasing balls/counting points, but it was all in good fun.

All of them showed a light-hearted side to their on-court personas. The whole crowd REALLY enjoyed the entire event and as far as I can tell, no one seemed to act as if they were forced to be there.

jyannis , maybe i missed that part . but yes ..i agree that the event was a huge success . if you say rafa was having fun then ill take your word for it . it was suppose to be a fun evening for all .

and as for the participants ...i think i would agree that murray would not do much service to making the evening even more lively ..its nothin bad ...just that its not in his personality i guess.

Cheers !

C'MON !!
AO10...where we've lifted one down under !!

homos, all I'm willing to say to you at this point -- because anything else would be a waste of my time -- is you're the Roger Federer of baiting Federer fans.

I usually try to avoid these endless arguments between Fed and Rafa fans, because no one ever wins. It just becomes a spitting contest to see who can say the worst about the other's favorite.

I was able to skim over most of the comments from Fed fans. It's really the same old thing, never changes. Even in victory, there is no indication of pulling back from the same old trash talk about Rafa. I find that very interesting. For a guy who all the Fed fans say is pretty much finished, will never win anything again, got lucky with his three straight grand slam final wins over Fed on three different surfaces, etc., well, you certainly are devoting an enormous amount of your time still attacking him. If you truly do not care about someone and don't see that person as a threat in any way, shape or form, then you wouldn't be devoting all of your precious time and energy on him.

One of my favorite sayings from Shakespeare is - methinks thou dost protest too much. It certainly applies here. Don't try to make excuses, either. Rafa has gotten under the skin of Fed fans. They just can't let go. He took something from Fed, and that's not okay and never will be with Fed fans. If you honestly in your heart of hearts, did not think Rafa was a real threat to win against Fed, then you wouldn't have to keep saying that he doesn't have a chance. There's another saying that if you repeat something often enough it becomes the truth. That's what Fed fans are doing.

Unfortunately for you, Rafa has a mind of his own. He also has a way of defying predictions and exceeding expectations. Too bad for the Fed fans. Also, if you noticed, I managed to write this without taking any shots at Fed. So this is one Rafa fans whose hands are clean. :)

We are just annoyed that sum ppl like carrie, homos, luckystar who keeps posting Rafa stuff in Fed-Murray thread,NNY. And then when they started the war, all we did was respond.

If they can question Fed, we have every rite to question Rafa.

NNY, if only every Rafa/Fed fan can be as fair-minded as you, there would be a lot less mudslinging and more intelligent discussions. Good on you for keeping your hands clean :)

torres,

I didn't read every comment here from start to finish, so I can't say for sure who started it. Fed fans have been just as guilty as some Rafa fans of pushing buttons. My point is that the argument itself is pointless. No one will ever win. It just goes on and on and on. I am not defending any hatespeak on the part of Rafa fans. I have tried to make my feelings clear about this issue. I don't believe in hatespeak against ANY player for whatever reason. I have had issue with Fed's comments in the past. I spoke my mind and that was it. I am not thrilled with some of Fed's comments about Murray leading up to the final. I am not pleased with some of Fed's comments at the awards ceremony. Period. End of story. I am not interested in trying to best Fed fans in an argument.

To be honest, some of the points made by both Fed and Rafa fans have real merit. Both of these players have proved themselves and achieved great things in the sport of tennis. I think these two champions can stand on their own. Rafa is five years younger than Fed and there is no arguing that what he has done at such a young age is quite extraordinary. Fed has records that may well last long after he retires from tennis. What he has done speaks for itself.

I know it's useless to even pretend that these arguments will go away. But I just think it's a real waste of energy and effort. Right now all I care about is Rafa recovering quickly and returning to competition. That's my focus right now.

jyannis,

You can trust that I will never engage in that kind of trash talk. I can't stand it. I know it happens and feelings run high on both sides. I also know that Rafa and Fed have a great deal of respect for each other. I just wish it could be so among their fans. But it is everyone's right to express what they feel. I just know that it won't go anywhere.

In the end, nothing will have changed. It will be two armed camps, ready for battle at a given moment. For Rafa fans, all I can say is that I believe that the most important thing is to wish Rafa a speedy, swift recovery so that we can once again have the privilege of seeing him play.

I dunno why but when Rafa wins, it's seldom that Fed fans will try to spoil it.

But a lot of Rafans show up and troll Fed especially when Fed wins..

This is what is most annoying...

"OK, let's accept that Roger was doing it on behalf of Laver, why did the guy not say so? I am at a loss to see how Laver's achievement was being celebrated with his name not being mentioned".

Carrie, after roger won the AO, I must have read 20 or more articles of his success (though I neednt have bothered, you have posted so many here! - thanks carrie!) - and the rod laver reference was from one of the australian papers, I think the herald. Laver couldnt be there (for some reason), and he requested that the winner of the AO, do a lap around the tennis court (walking with trophy). Do you really think it is for roger to announce that? (i dont think so carrie), he isnt the course organiser - the man with the grey hair who spoke on podium announced it).

This conversation (to me) is so pointless. despite what you wanted and other rafa fans out there, roger won. believe or not, was upset we did not have a roger/rafa final - i love it when that happens.

rafa needs to take care now - great care - as he is in a difficult time in his career (as ricky said earlier).

whether you like or not,roger is the best out there right now.and deserves to be where he is.

swissbliss.

way to go roger!

The Aussie Open set a record for attendance in 2010?Roger Federer?s Haiti charity effort, which began with a ?Hit for Haiti? hit-and-giggle with miked players before the start of the Aussie Open, has raised over $600K thus far?

what sort of a sports journalist is that gerard whateley?? sounds to me like he's suggesting roger said & do those things on purpose like as if roger is a mean, evil, calculative, spiteful person..... prolly having one of those 'dunno what else to write' day.....

well, sounds like quite a few here are also suggesting that about roger.... sigh! it's so silly... hilarious... that some people think that they know it all....

torres9

"I dunno why but when Rafa wins, it's seldom that Fed fans will try to spoil it."

Dont know about his fans but Fed himself spoilt it at AO09.

I know one thing for sure, Roger will think twice from now on before taking a toilet break when he is behind in a match. I had noticed it long before he admitted to it at the AO.

In order to move this boring discussion forward, i wondered if any of the rafa fans know exactly what rafa's injuries are? I read on tennis.x that he has a tear above his right knee which means he will be out of tennis for at least 6 weeks? if so, do you think we could discuss on a rafa post and keep the celebrations for roger federer on this one?

carrie, i wondered why, if you dont like roger so much, have you thought about writing to him directly (seriously), with your advice. His address is on RF.com or even better, write to the ATP? It might make you feel much better?

we all have different ways of coping with stress/feelings of helplessness at certain times/points of our lives.you know, when we need "time out" to rethink plans.i suppose you could look at this in many ways.roger felt the need for a poo (he had the runs), needed to go immediately. would you rather he did this all over the court when he was playing? and if you say carrie, that you noticed it long before he admitted it, are you saying he needed to ask you first? Considering that he rarely does this, imo he must have needed to get that waste from his system, poor man. Thank goodness he did. he started to play a lot better when he got back.

Every time Federer wins Anti Feds will always find an excuse

maxi, I've just had my dinner, and I don't like where this conversation is going.

whatever carrie.but you asked for an explanation and i gave it to you. you could have put your dinner down when reading my post.you chose to read and eat. what can i do?

maxi, stop making things up - when did I ask for an explanation. You live in cloud cuckoo land.

maxi, I would be interested in your response to my post at 9.40am on this thread.
carrie , 2/2/10 9:31 PM

whose living in cloud cuckoo land carrie? I really dont think there is any need to be rude. I havent been rude to you. You asked me a question and I replied.

maxi, you seem to be muddledmabout the subject that I was on about, so to reming you see below, it was nothing to do with Federer's toilet break, it was to do with your claim that Federer was parading the trophy on behalf of Laver, NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH HIS TOILET BREAK:

OK, let's accept that Roger was doing it on behalf of Laver, why did the guy not say so? I am at a loss to see how Laver's achievement was being celebrated with his name not be
oh pooh pooh carrie! there was something about laver and his first slam and not being there and whoever won in the 2010 slam was to do a lap of honour "at Laver's request", you so miserable carrie. whats the matter with you?

maxi , 2/1/10 10:53 PM



ing mentioned.

I have the recording of the presentation ceremony on right now so that I don't get this wrong, this is what was said by the MC: 'We are going to do something just a little different tonight, we are going to ask the 2010 champion to take a walk of fame so that you can all acknowledge him once again.'

maxi, where did you get this stuff about Laver from?

carrie , 2/2/10 9:40 AM






maxi, I would be interested in your response to my post at 9.40am on this thread.

carrie , 2/2/10 9:31 PM

I remember commenting when Roger took the toilet break in the match with Davy that he seems to take a toilet break everytime he is on a backfoot. I distinctly remember him doing it before. Of course he felt able to confess that he was engaged in gamesmanship knowing that his worshippers would just laugh it off.

carrie , 2/2/10 3:56 PM

Carrie, after roger won the AO, I must have read 20 or more articles of his success (though I neednt have bothered, you have posted so many here! - thanks carrie!) - and the rod laver reference was from one of the australian papers, I think the herald. Laver couldnt be there (for some reason), and he requested that the winner of the AO, do a lap around the tennis court (walking with trophy). Do you really think it is for roger to announce that? (i dont think so carrie), he isnt the course organiser - the man with the grey hair who spoke on podium announced it).

maxi , 2/4/10 7:31 AM

I answered your post carrie, way way ago. I have printed two posts which show how you interchange your posts/thoughts whether that about toilet breaks (boring) or questioning rod laver (even more boring).

Please read my post carefully. It was rod laver's request that the winner do a lap. the presenter of ceremonies didnt say this (i didnt say he did), it was a request. so whoever won the tournament, rod laver requested the winner to do this. if i were in your position, (someone who doesnt believe), then why dont you ask the real journalists on this site, cheryl or ricky, who am sure will have read much more than me. like i said, after roger won (as I always do), I read. I read a lot of articles. a lot. too many to mention. if i have some free time this afternoon, i will try and dig it out. but i dont lie about things like this carrie, sometimes I am not always organised with my thoughts.and that is a problem of mine i work on very hard.i havent got time to lie about things. I read it. I believed it.I respected the fact that Rod Laver requested it. It made sense to me as rod laver wasnt there at the ceremony (and he usually is, isn't he?), so when it was reported (in the herald.sun - i think), that he had requested this, i had no reason not to believe it). I am different to you.

maxi, I expressed my opinions about the toilet break, but nowhere did I ASK YOU TO EXPLAIN IT! You are in no position to do so than the rest of us, anyway Federer himself said said he did it to allow the sun to move across,

Don't respond to this, because I've had enough of your inability to pursue a discussion in a logical way. You've simply morphed everything I said on different matters that have nothing to do with each other.

this article is about Rogers toughness, so why are rafa fanatics talking about rafa. carrie, ur comments are nothin short of idiotic. I have to say that whenever something is about Roger, you and your cronies always bring up shit about Rafa that is totally irrelevant to the article. Please, save ur comments about Rafa to threads about Rafa. As for the mental toughness thingy, cheryl is absolutely right. After losing the 09 Wimbledon final Andy Roddick said something like this: "He gets credit for a lot of things, but not for the number of matches where he digs deep..." Mean no offence to all the rafa fanatics who always seem to criticise Federer about everything he does(particularly after he has won something), but I think Roddick knows federer a bit better than u do.

ps: federers not my favourite player. (delpo and tsonga are) I also dont think that Rafa is a shit player. At his best, he is one of the greatest we have seen, physically and mentally. Its just a shame that some of his fans(NOT ALL) are no where near as great as he is.(not as tennis players, I mean personality wise)

Extract from the blog:


Think about this ? the last time he lost before the final of a major was in January of 2008 ? and that when he was ill with mono. Consider the unprecedented consistency that statistic requires for a moment and tell me the man is not a rock. I?m beginning to think that Rafael Nadal?s reputation for steel will (which he certainly has) was earned precisely because of all those times he managed to hold on just slightly longer than Federer ? because frankly, nobody else (until Del Potro) was able to do that to him at a Slam.
*********************

tj600, this thread has nothing to do with Rafa? Have you taken the trouble to read Cheryl's blog above? Learn not to jump in on other people's discussion without getting your facts right. You seem to base your comments on the title of the blog and not it's contents, which exposes your lack of attention to detail.

maxi, I would be interested in your response to my post at 9.40am on this thread.

carrie , 2/2/10 9:31 PM


carrie , 2/7/10 12:55 AM

? I dont understand you carrie. i try very hard. but this time- i dont understand the difference between giving you a response and giving you an explanation to your request?

This headline must be a joke. This site is nothing but a Federer love fest.

maxi, for the last time, my post at 9.40 am was about Roger doing the lap of honour on behalf of Laver, you chose to explain his toilet break.

Cheryl, brave woman for opening up this can of worms. Just to balance things out a bit, is anyone going to write about Rafa not getting enough credit? :)

EDIT...Re-phrase Q to is anyone going to write about Rafa not getting the credit he deserves? Thanks.

Carrie!
Well, all those things that Roger Feder is doing is something only he deserve to do. It would have been a smug had it been done by some less soul like Nadal, specially because Nadal's accomplishment is galaxies away from Fed's. So, whatever Fed did like bringing that kit bag, and legendary people coming to see him play and all that is all that he deserve. After all, he did played better than anyone living or dead, and he has the authority to state it not just by his own statement but by all such shows on court and off court.
And if he has own every match before and after that short spell when he lost a few more matches & Slams in 2008 then it is not his fault, it is his greatness that is eternal and cannot be surpassed with some struggling display of youth, what exactly happened when he lost 3/4 grand slams due to his illness or whatever, and fortunately for all Nadal fans, it was Nadal who was beneficial. That could have been anyone else. This fact was stressed during that all of last year. Remember, it is the momentary slump of form from Fed that made what Nadal is today.

He deserve to give a victory lap, every sports have it in them and millions of people around the world comes to see him play out his magic and then take the most coveted prize. So, if the organisers think they would oblige millions of fans and let him do a victory lap, what is wrong in this? This once again stresses the point that ROGER FEDERER is so special and every about him has to be done in a grand way and different from everyone else. At the same time one must know that, a vistory lap shouldn't have been organized had that been a upset victory like last year.

Only a fanatical and jealous Nadal fan would consider Federer a smug. These are the type of fans which stabs sportsmen just to see their own idols win everytime, even when they themselves are not capable. Remember, tennis is not all about Nadal, and now that he is down and out of the game, that is in no way going to diminish the charm and attractiveness of Tennis. If Nadal brought intense competition, more of it is brought today in world tennis by the likes of Del Po, Cilic & Murray.

memi!
you think every time Nadal loses it's the other player who played beyond their normal game ? It's an insult to those players who have defeated Nadal in those games prviously. Certainly there will be more wins for Murray & Del Po's in the coming years than loses, because they have it in them to surpass Nadal and they didn't won those Grand Slam matches against Nadal just by fluke. That's simply a mistake on your part. Or you are too disturbed now that Nadal is loosing too often. You will be disappointed to see more players will start to do that in the coming days.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/tennis/federer-a-stone-cold-kil ler/story-e6frey69-1225825722715

solitudine, your posts show why someone with as much hatred, jealousy, arrogance, cowardice and hypocrisy can only be a federer fan.

solitudine, in attacking me in your post at 9.08am, you are simply setting up a strawman so you can knock it down. You should have taken the trouble to find out what the discussion between maxi and I was about before opening your mouth. I wondered why Roger was made to do a lap of honour when Serena wasn't if this is a new angle to the presentation ceremony, and maxi claimed that he was doing it on behalf of Laver, hence the following conversation:



oh pooh pooh carrie! there was something about laver and his first slam and not being there and whoever won in the 2010 slam was to do a lap of honour "at Laver's request", you so miserable carrie. whats the matter with you?

maxi , 2/1/10 10:53 PM



OK, let's accept that Roger was doing it on behalf of Laver, why did the guy not say so? I am at a loss to see how Laver's achievement was being celebrated with his name not being mentioned.

I have the recording of the presentation ceremony on right now so that I don't get this wrong, this is what was said by the MC: 'We are going to do something just a little different tonight, we are going to ask the 2010 champion to take a walk of fame so that you can all acknowledge him once again.'

maxi, where did you get this stuff about Laver from?

carrie , 2/2/10 9:40 AM

solitudune, next time you want to barge in on other people's conversation, take the trouble to find out what the conversation is about.

Roger is bad for tennis because itmakes it so predictable. Don't worry, Rafa will be back. I understand why Fedfans don't want him back, because he is the only one who regularly gives Roger a good hiding on all surfaces.

To be honest with you, to me tennis is diminished without Rafa, and everyone knows it. Without Rafa, it's dull and predictable, and the sooner everyone accepts that the better.

To refer back to the title of this blog: I think Roger gets far more credit than he deserves, because he plays boring tennis!

Boring results are not the same thing as boring tennis. You might make the argument that Federer's unprecedented consistency is boring because you can always predict who one of the two finalists in a slam will be. And predictability is boring, etc...etc...However I simply can't agree that his tennis itself is boring.

Carrie boring is subjective. For every person you find who finds federers game boring I ll find two in return who finds it interesting. Do you want tennis players to grind it out like Rafa and have short(er) careers , that is being bit selfish on your part.

Good point on what constitutes as "boring", nirv02. Boring is indeed very subjective. I find Murray boring (his game and his personality), lots and lots of people will disagree with me. I find Tolkien boring, millions of fans would say I should burn in hell for that. I find economics boring, my economist sister finds medical stuff boring. I find Star Wars boring and Invictus interesting, and my boyfriend is of the EXACT opposite opinion. Etc etc etc etc, and the list goes on.

Fair enough if some people find Roger boring, they are entitled to their own opinion. But seeing how venues/stadiums are nearly packed to its maximum capacity in every match that Roger plays, even in the early rounds such as Round 1 and Round of the just concluded AO2010, I would say the people who find Federer boring are probably in the minority. :) Just my observation.

And hey, if playing boring tennis can enable one to win 16 Slams, maybe the rest of the ATP should start playing boring Roger tennis!

nirv02, Who said Rafa is going to have a shorter career? Until he retires because he is unfit due to his style of play, reserve your judgment.

cheryl, let's say I find Federer's style boring.

By the way nirv02, am I Rafa's coach, why do you think I'm selfish because I like his style of play? If you have an issue with the way he plays, you will have to take it up with him and his coach.

I'm not the only one who thinks a lot of Rafa's style, see below:

As Michael Miner put it in his column for chicagoreader.com
"Tennis, per se, isn?t the ultimate sport. But tennis the way Rafael Nadal plays it could be."

fair point, Carrie. Style, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

Those of you Rafa fans who wonder where the lovey-dovey blogs about nadal are, I point you to this entry that I did last year. http://tennistalk.com/en/blog/Cheryl_Murray/20090202/Nadal_takes_the_b ack_seat_to_Federer._Again.

I try to spread the love equally, don't you know. :D

cheryl, I admit that Rafans have had their fair share of slushy Rafa blogs from you, but Fedfans have never missed the opportunity of disagreeing with our sentiments, so they should not complain when we do the same, fair play.

Maybe it's going too far to say Federer's game is boring, it's not that exhiliarating to me at least, I have never really appreciated the beauty, with tennis being a sport, I want to see the sweat. Not that I want players to run themselves into the ground, I just want some action.

Rafa is slowly changing his style and he doesn't seem to be losing any of the buzz. If I could give up anything to see Rafa kiss a few trophies again I would, I'm sure he will, we just have to be patient.

At last! A comment from John Mcenroe!
?FEDERER IS THE GREATEST PLAYER OF ALL-TIME? ? JOHN MCENROE
Posted by WTM on February 9, 2010

I think there is enough credit here for Federer.

John McEnroe has always stopped just short of declaring Roger Federer as the greatest tennis player of all time, until now.

Ahead of his appearance at next month?s BNP Paribas Zurich Open in Federer?s native Switzerland (March 9-13), McEnroe explained his views to the Swiss media while promoting the new ATP Champions Tour event in Zurich.

?Roger is just the greatest player of all time,? he said. ?He is the most beautiful player I?ve ever seen and I don?t ever get tired of watching him. Rod Laver is my idol, Pete Sampras is the greatest grass court player ever, but Roger is just the greatest player of all. I think we can all appreciate how incredible he is even more lately, because he?s shown a bit more emotion on court and he?s become a father so he seems a bit more human, more relatable. That makes what he?s doing seem even more amazing.?

McEnroe added that, of all Federer?s astonishing records and achievements in the sport, his run of reaching 23 consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals since Wimbledon 2003 is the most remarkable of them all.

?It?s difficult to pick out one of his achievements as the best because they?re all so incredible,? said McEnroe. ?But I would probably say the 23 semis or better in a row is the best record of them all. There?s probably not another player in the top 20 who?s even played 23 straight majors (Grand Slam tournaments) in a row. Then throw in the fact that he got to 18 out of 19 finals and that he?s averaging two Grand Slam titles a year, it?s just phenomenally consistent. It?s amazing.?

Federer?s glittering career has included an intense rivalry with Spaniard Rafael Nadal, whom he has battled against in seven Grand Slam finals to-date. It is something McEnroe can relate to having been part of one of the most iconic sporting rivalries of all-time with Bjorn Borg.

?It?s unfortunate that Rafa is struggling with injury because his rivalry with Roger has become an incredible one, and rivalries are great for the sport,? said McEnroe. ?I think at the moment Nadal?s injury is working to Roger?s benefit because he was able to take advantage of it at the French Open and dig deep to win that one. But at the same time I think it would be nice to think that Nadal could stick around for a couple of years and push Roger a bit because competition like that can push you that bit harder.?

At the age of 28 and having just won back his Australian Open crown ? his 16th Grand Slam title, Federer shows no sign of relinquishing his grip on the Number One spot, but McEnroe acknowledged that nothing lasts forever.

?When you?ve won as much as he has you have to wonder how he will react when he starts losing regularly at major events ? not reaching finals or semis. That?s not going to be easy for him. But, he seems to take great care of his body, the way he moves doesn?t put a lot of strain on the body so you would think he would be able to play at this top level a few more years. I hope so, because we are lucky to have him.?


And that's the point."We are lucky to have him". And that's plural.

Even McEnroe appreciates Rafa's role in tennis today. As for McEnroe saying Federer is the most beautiful player he's ever seen, his right because he (McEnroe) couldn't watch himself, because I think he is a close contender for that accolade.

The article I posted carrie, was about roger in the main but the main point I was trying to make was that "We are lucky to have him". To have Roger playing tennis,so when people have nothing nice to say about Roger,that is what is sad.

maxi, I don't care what point you were trying to make, I am free to make my own point based on the same article.

likewise carrie.

maxi,
And your point is.....?

i dont have a point at all carrie.it seems though, that you do. i like to share things with like minded people who share a passion for tennis and want to discuss rather than accuse.nothing more.

i hope you have a good day. there is plenty of stuff out there right now on rafa, and as it appears you dont really like federer, would be good if you could post someting about rafa on a rafa thread and perhaps we can talk about him for a change? how about it?

Hello all,

This is what a former davis cup captain wrote about federer

'How does one solve the mystery of Federer?s unparalleled reign? Loose limbed and casual looking without rippling muscles, he has run the 6?4? and above giants of the game into the ground.

I am no scholar but suspect that with his searing focus and other qualities, he has strayed into spiritual territory. Devotion, discipline, sacrifice and austerity demanded by the all consuming search for perfection are a form of tapasya.

What?s more and paramount, is that he seems to be liberated from ego and the jal of maya. Federer?s success, I like to believe, is akin to yoga and the tennis courts around the world are his Himalayas.'

Mr Naresh Kumar is probably the only gentleman who predicted that there is no way Roger could pose any problem to Nadal in FO for the week backhand slice return that is hopeless in clay. The same man writes 'Federer?s suspect backhand was everybody?s target from the first round onwards.

It never wilted and Federer fearlessly kept on going for it. As the tournament progressed, it got better and better and eventually was honed to become a potent weapon in his final against Murray.

Especially the down the line backhand, which is one of the most difficult shots in the game. In modern tennis it is a match winner because it dislodges the opponent from the left corner of the base line from where they all tend to control the rallies.'

He also wrote ' The peloton chasing Federer is like a pack of hungry wolves. All are younger than the 28-year-old champion and they no longer believe that Federer is invincible.

Federer too feels the heat and said in an interview said: ?I?m being pushed a great deal by the new generation coming up?.

From the fast hard courts of Melbourne their quarry is moving into the ?testing fires? of the slow clay courts in Europe ? Federer?s weakest surface.

Federer summed up the improved standards in the game saying: ?when I came on tour, matches were played very differently. It was more of a bluff game, guys serving well, but there was always a weakness you could go to.? The many long rallies of over 20 shots at unbelievable speed yet accurate have brought the game close to perfection. But in achieving such a level in highly competitive conditions, players often violate bio-mechanic limits of the body and go through unbearable mental pressure.'

So there you are. The phoenix has risen again.

He further adds 'The New York Times summed it up beautifully, ?With Australian Title, Federer returns from Vulnerable to Invincible?. '

Federer fans note the comments. As far as Nadal fans- hmmmm waiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit for vamoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooos!

Hello all,

This is what a former davis cup captain wrote about federer

'How does one solve the mystery of Federer?s unparalleled reign? Loose limbed and casual looking without rippling muscles, he has run the 6?4? and above giants of the game into the ground.

I am no scholar but suspect that with his searing focus and other qualities, he has strayed into spiritual territory. Devotion, discipline, sacrifice and austerity demanded by the all consuming search for perfection are a form of tapasya.

What?s more and paramount, is that he seems to be liberated from ego and the jal of maya. Federer?s success, I like to believe, is akin to yoga and the tennis courts around the world are his Himalayas.'

Mr Naresh Kumar is probably the only gentleman who predicted that there is no way Roger could pose any problem to Nadal in FO for the week backhand slice return that is hopeless in clay. The same man writes 'Federer?s suspect backhand was everybody?s target from the first round onwards.

It never wilted and Federer fearlessly kept on going for it. As the tournament progressed, it got better and better and eventually was honed to become a potent weapon in his final against Murray.

Especially the down the line backhand, which is one of the most difficult shots in the game. In modern tennis it is a match winner because it dislodges the opponent from the left corner of the base line from where they all tend to control the rallies.'

He also wrote ' The peloton chasing Federer is like a pack of hungry wolves. All are younger than the 28-year-old champion and they no longer believe that Federer is invincible.

Federer too feels the heat and said in an interview said: ?I?m being pushed a great deal by the new generation coming up?.

From the fast hard courts of Melbourne their quarry is moving into the ?testing fires? of the slow clay courts in Europe ? Federer?s weakest surface.

Federer summed up the improved standards in the game saying: ?when I came on tour, matches were played very differently. It was more of a bluff game, guys serving well, but there was always a weakness you could go to.? The many long rallies of over 20 shots at unbelievable speed yet accurate have brought the game close to perfection. But in achieving such a level in highly competitive conditions, players often violate bio-mechanic limits of the body and go through unbearable mental pressure.'

So there you are. The phoenix has risen again.

He further adds 'The New York Times summed it up beautifully, ?With Australian Title, Federer returns from Vulnerable to Invincible?. '

Federer fans note the comments. As far as Nadal fans- hmmmm waiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit for vamoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooos!

Wow, I missed all the fun, Cheryl! Love the article, and agree wholeheartedly that Rog doesn't get enough cred for his "fierceness". Love it!

I see it stirred up Rafaelites (is that a new phrase? I kinda like it!). I really feel for them with Rafa and his knee struggles.

There was never a doubt in my mind that Roger would win AO. What was interesting was how matter-of-fact the win and the ceremony afterwards was. I guess everyone's expecting even more slams - I know I am!

It's great that federer is out there showing he still wants to win slams even though he was written off 18months ago - and it seems just yesterday that the critics of the game said in very solid fashion, he would never win a slam, then USO happened 2008, the rest is history really. It was also great to see JMac saying he had never seen a player play 'more beautifully than roger', and I remember him saying shortly before USO 08, that he thought federer wouldnt win, so am pleased that JoMac is eating some humble pie for once.I think he changes with the wind sometimes though.Yes rafter,more slams for roger would be nice, but he has given us so much already.(still want more though!).

after reading some blogs over the last couple of days, i noticed one from pete bodo (he does get carried away with himself sometimes), saying a few negatives about roger, and what swissbliss it was to find this one from Douglas, which if ever you wanted to argue about rafa/roger and credit, then read on. I think these type of comments are often missed because some people always go by h2h's or "put an asterisk" by some of roger's achievements.

The Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal rivalry: The myth of the asterisk
By Douglas Perry, The Oregonian
February 12, 2010, 9:44AM

One thing I quickly learned on this fledgling blog is that there?s no better way to get tennis fans talking than to bring up the Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal rivalry. This, needless to say, is something that many other tennis scribes figured out long ago. The attitude seems to be, I?ll just shovel a half-baked opinion out there and watch the two sides kick it back and forth like a load of smelly doggie do while I reap the web-page hits. I get it, and I?m not averse to playing that game. It?s fun.

The problem is that it leads to a lot of ridiculous smack talk. The latest comes from the venerable Peter Bodo. Don?t get me wrong: Mr. Bodo is deservedly one of the journalistic icons in tennis, the analytical Abbott to Bud Collins? goofball Costello. But Pete can get as squirrely as the rest of us at times. Here?s what he had to say on the Federer-Nadal debate this week:


One of my big takeaways from the Australian Open and the performance Roger Federer put on was that no matter what he or anyone else said, Rafa was in his head -- as deeply embedded as a piece of shrapnel -- until the unexpected events of last spring, starting at Madrid. For as Rafa has appeared to become vulnerable and suddenly less than picador perfect, Federer seems to have flourished. It's almost like the guy can breath deeply and freely again, or like a judge has just thrown out a legal action that had been brought against him. Since Federer won the French Open last June, he's looked like a man with a new lease on life.


What a load of malarkey, which Bodo acknowledged by spending a fair amount of the rest of his post hedging and herrumphing about his own opinion. But there was also more silliness when he came to the subject of Nadal?s clay-court record against Fed:


That [head-to-head] advantage had enormous repercussions -- among them, Federer's failure to secure a clay-court Grand Slam title until 2009. If tennis history stopped right now, this much could be said: the only man who was able to win a title at Roland Garros during the Nadal era was Federer, but he was only able to do it with Nadal absent from the draw. That was a good effort by Federer. The guy can play on clay, but let's face it, he's no Adriano Panatta. You may recall that Panatta was the only man ever to beat Bjorn Borg at Roland Garros, and he did it twice -- including a quarterfinal in 1976, after which Panatta went on to take the title.

There's no real or imagined asterisk alongside that one, as there is beside Federer's Roland Garros triumph.


Hold it! Put the brakes on. First of all, Adriano Panatta? Really? The guy had one very good year on clay before he tucked on a feedbag and spent the rest of his career rubbing his belly and waving at the fans in Rome. (Watch Panatta, in the dark shirt, in the '76 French final below.) Federer has had five very good seasons on clay -- and he?s going on great season number eight on all the other surfaces. Federer?s no Adriano Panatta: See what I mean about ridiculous smack talk? Bodo is just having fun with us here. He can?t even take his own premise seriously.



Secondly, and more importantly, Nadal wasn?t absent from the draw. This is a key point that way too many people miss. Nadal showed up at the 2009 French Open, he played and he got beat. That the loss wasn?t to Federer does not speak poorly of Federer; it reflects only on Nadal.

Same goes for all those U.S. Opens in which Rafa failed to reach the final. If Nadal had made, say, three finals in New York (as Federer has done in Paris against Nadal), how many would he have won? Best guess: Maybe one, when he was playing science-fiction-quality tennis in 2008. More likely none. The Flushing Meadow cement works even better for Federer?s game, and worse for Nadal?s, than Wimbledon?s slowed-down grass or the Australian Open?s bouncy rubberized surface. When there?s so little separating two players, court surface really does matter.

But I?m falling into Bodo?s trap. Let?s face it, this kind of thinking is lazy and gets us nowhere. Do we put an asterisk next to Andre Agassi?s two U.S. Open titles and his Wimbledon victory? After all, Andre didn?t have to beat Pete Sampras in any of those tournaments.

If you go down that road, then Rod Laver gets an asterisk for his 1962 calendar-year Grand Slam (Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad, Pancho Gonzales, etc. were all in the pro ranks) and again in 1969 (Rosewall and Gonzales were old men by then, Hoad long gone). Do we take away Jimmy Connors? great 1982 season and John McEnroe?s untouchable 1984 season because Bjorn Borg retired early? This way lies madness.

One last point. Bodo states: ?It's too bad that Nadal had to come up lame just when things were getting interesting.? Ah, one more fallacy in a post chock full of them.

As I?ve argued before, it?s quite possible that Nadal coming up lame wasn?t simply bad luck for Rafa. It took supreme effort for Nadal to reach Federer?s level on surfaces other than clay. He had to push himself beyond his limits. This caused Nadal to break down. So in my book, Federer?s 2009 Roland Garros and Wimbledon triumphs count as wins over Nadal.

To be clear, none of this is meant as a knock on Nadal. I wish him a speedy and complete recovery. He?s a great player and a good guy. Professional tennis needs him. But even an all-time great like Nadal must pay the price of playing in Federer?s era. As long as Roger Federer is at the top of his game, expect to see Rafa on the sidelines as often as not.

-- Douglas Perry

thank you for posting the above article maxi, depicts clearly the Federer era (which is by no means over yet) :) Go FED go! Just do it! Roger.

Douglas Perry is obviously a Fedfan.

http://english.cctv.com/program/sportsscene/20100214/101898.shtml

a lot of people are carrie.i think it was you that referred to bodo respecting rafa's game?again, most people do. who couldnt? but i think the article from douglas perry (who is actually a murray fan - have read many of his), was trying to make the point that Bodo's article was full of flaws.depends which side of the line you stand.

thanks for the link nirv02.

..and carrie Rafa has already had a shorter career , if you look at the grand slams tournaments he has had to retire or not fight properly because of knee problems. Please enlighten me carrie on why Rafa has knee problems if it is not for his style of play.

Re: nirv02 , 2/14/10 10:18 AM

I couldn't nirv02 as I'm not his doctor. There are people with knee tendinitis who have never picked up a tennis racquet, at the same time, all real sportsmen/women - even Tiger Woods, suffer from physical problems every now and again, but because Federer is not really a sportsman, he is more a dancer, he doesn't.

You have already made up your mind that Rafa has had a short career, so as far as you are concerned his career is over. I happen not to agree with you, but by calling me selfish for liking Rafa's game, you are implying that I am making him play the way he does, I find that very flatttering, the chance would be a fine thing! But unfortunately, I'm not responsible for Rafa's style, I just love to watch him.

carrie,i wasnt going to respond to this comment by you:

'but because Federer is not really a sportsman, he is more a dancer, he doesn't'.

but really? have you lost your mind? I think you must be joking?

Nadal doesnt really play tennis, his game is basically, 'put the tennis ball back on court with the racquet until the opponent make mistake'.

Two can play that game

Carrie,
Yes, since you are not his doctor , maybe you should read from the press and other experts on what is giving him knee problems . Definitely not the playstation I hope. I said "shorter" which means at this moment, the number of "real" chances at grand slam tournaments has been "shortened" by injuries. And oh my gosh Tennis is not Golf. Selfish in the sense that you would not mind being entertained with his style of play at the expense of a shorter career. To which.. your argument is that his style of play does not contribute to his injuries and I respond by saying Oh! comeon!

People like torres don't realise that the more they criticise Rafa's game and make it sound as ordinary as they hope it is, the more bad light that sheds on RF who hsan't found a way to 'put the ball back' that Rafa sent his way. RF himself started it so it's not surprising that those fans of his who are not quite with it will sing the same tune.
It's interesting that when Rf loses small tounaments, it's his slams that count. When RF's bad H2H with Rafa is mostly clay matches, it's not the Wimb and AO GSs that count.

jean,if you dont mind me saying, i dont think that h2h carry much argument (you of course will have your opinion on this)and I always find it really misleading. but i would be interested in your comments:

For example, Davydenko leads Nadal by 5-4 whereas he trails Federer 2-13. (davy) so would you say from this that Davydenko is a better player than Nadal but inferior to Federer whereas Nadal is inferior to Davydenko but superior to Federer?

That really doesnt make much sense. Similarly see the h2h of Nadal against Del Potro it stands at 3-2 in his favour whereas Del Potro is 2-7 against Federer. Same in the case of Soderling, Roddick and many other players. So h2h is rather misleading.

What matters ultimately is consistency and consecutive 23 grand slam semi finals is the pinnacle of achievement which every Tennis player can only feel some envy.

Yes, Federer is 2-5 in major finals against Nadal, but let's put that in perspective.

Three of those finals are at the French Open, on red clay, the surface least suited to Federer's game, yet they were still 5 set classics. What about all the fast-court greats who never made even one Roland Garros final?).

I dont really think that torres means what he says, i think it just a reaction to the post before,but he'll sort it out am sure.

What's this perspective that we have to put things into, it's your perspective maxi, not the facts that are glaringly obvious. I would say that 5-4, is nowhere as clearcut as 13-7.

If Roger was leading on clay, then you would have twisted it round to say that only clay matters. The ATP doesn't think clay doesn't matter, so who are you to say so. Stop hiding behins your warped perspective and face up to the fact that Roger can't cope with Rafa - end of.

What about all the fast-court greats who never made even one Roland Garros final?).

maxi , 2/15/10 6:43 PM

******************

Yes maxi what about them? Doesn't this go to show that it takes a special player to win time and time again on clay? I simply don't understand what you mean by saying that because clay is the surface least suited to Roger's game it shouldn't count, I can't think of a word for it. So what about saying that h/c shouldn't count because it's the surface least suited to Rafa's game. You are not sounding like someone who is thinking straight.

nirv02,
all these experts that are commenting on Rafa's injury have never met Rafa, they have never examined his knees, they are forming opinions on heresay and on their imagination on what is wrong with Rafa's knees. I prefer to listen to his doctor who says that it is the lack of recovery time between matches that is doing his knees in, his doctor has never recommended that he changes his style of play. Obviously, he can improve with more experience and learn to shorten his points; all the Spanish players play like Rafa, it's not only him. The other thing is, because Rafa has been so successful, he tends to play more matches at each tournament than others who generally only make the the second or third rounds; Rafa tends to either win or reach the final, so he has more wear and tear.

I can't do anything about Rafa's style; do you expect me not to enjoy watching him play because all the time I should be thinking that he is not doing his knees any good? How will that change the way he plays, what you and I think about his style is of no consequence to him, I'm sure he gets good advice from far more worthy people.

As for Rafa having a shorter career, he already has more GS titles at the age of 23 than many other great players, Federer, for instance, who at that age had one, so what is actually your point?

Carrie , if you ask the CEO of a company how is company is doing they are always going to give a diplomatic "its all fine". Why does he need to shorten points? Why does he need more recovery time than other players? And please dont bring up the argument about the number of grand slams at 23. In professional tennis the shelf life of a champion starts from winning the first grandslam plus roughly 10 years (thats it). By that scale Rafa is almost middle aged maybe 4 or 5 years left. Federer is also middle aged in that sense. You only have to look at the careers of Borg, McEnroe, Agassi, Sampras etc. Connors was exceptional.

I am not asking you to influence Nadals style of play, you ofcourse cant. What I am asking is given a choice would you want to see Nadal continue this style or would you prefer longevity?

actually carrie, roger had 4 slams when he was exactly the same age. by the end of 2005 he had 6. Roger more than compensates for not winning a slam b4 22 by racking them up at record pace.(Dont tell me that rafa will do that) Please stop tweaking facts(These arent opinions) to back up ur argument.

it;s not that the h2h dont count, it just that it doesnt count as much as Grand Slam records, week at no.1 and W-L record.

Only Rafans overemphasize h2h and then when we say Davy is better than Rafa, they disagree.

The Fed Fans who persist in trying to demean Rafa's last three grand slam wins over their guy on all three surfaces, are making a nonsensical argument. Of course it matters! You better believe it matters to Fed! He fought his heart out to win the 2008 Wimbledon. No way did he want to see Rafa win that match. So the more you try to use twisted logic and bizarre rationalizations, the more ridiculous you look. I have said it before and will say it again - you are making Fed look like a lesser player when you ridicule or minimize Rafa's victories. You simply cannot have it both ways. You can't dismiss Rafa's grand slam wins on grass and hard court, without by inference insulting Fed. Give it up, already! This is an argument that you cannot win.

I am also getting a big tired of all these pseudo-doctors here who keep spouting ignorant nonsense about Rafa's injured knees. When any of you have the opportunity to review his medical tests, mri's, cat scans, or any other diagnostic information, then you can come here and act like you know what you are talking about. Without that information, it is all pure speculation, which is worth precisely nothing. Anyone can have an opinion, but I prefer to rely on facts.

I also think it's pretty harsh to trash carrie for loving Rafa's tennis. It in no way means she wants to see him hurt and to even imply anything of that nature, is inappropriate. It's nice of some Fed fans to try to explain the nature of Rafa's game to us, but we really don't need any of you to tell us what Rafa's tennis is all about. Most of you don't have a clue. I keep reading this brainless bashing about a defensive player who waits for his opponent to make a mistake. If that's what any Fed fan thinks Rafa's game is about, then they must have missed the manner in which he won those last three grand slam finals.

Well since there are no mri scans or expert comments out there for review , maybe everyone should take an agnostic position about Rafas knees.

That his knee problems may or may not exist. No one here needs to go on and endlessly defend his lack of injury or the injury. Both Rafa fans and Fed fans will play by the rules . "Since we dont have mri scans and expert testimony, Rafas injuries may or may not exist".

As far as his unfortunate retirements are concerned we will have to maintain a lack of opinion because we dont have expert comments about them.

People who think it is to do with his style of play shall in their free will continue be worried and hope for his longevity through change of style.

People who think it has nothing to do with his style shall in their free will
continue to love the style and not be worried with his full exertion of power.

NNY, Rafa wins AO and Wimby are great achievements but it is still only 1 time he won on those GS.

Is Rafa better winning it 1 time than Fed who won it 4 times and 6 times respectively.

Only the blind will say that.

nirv02
I have responded to you on 'Vamos Rafa - No matter what,' because this line of discussion is about Rafa, and people might claim that this is a Fed thread.

Stop hiding behins your warped perspective and face up to the fact that Roger can't cope with Rafa - end of.
carrie , 2/15/10 7:36 PM

carrie, that is your opinion and i respect that. you cant have a discussion when you end it "end of". It means you are not prepared to listen.i dont have to "tweak". over and over how special rafa is, the problem is that you overcompensate for him.hyperactive,bouncing around with blinkers on. (can be funny sometimes though!).

i dont very much like your comments on roger when you say he is "just a dancer". very rude. but I think to myself you are having a joke,so i gloss over it.

yes. rafa has a 13:7 over roger. yes. this speaks volume - on clay - on clay carrie. CLAY. No one can touch rafa ON CLAY except soderling last year. that's when it all changed.

That nine-match advantage seems to have enormous repercussions ? among them, Federers?s failure to secure a clay-court Grand Slam title until 2009.
If tennis history stopped right now, this much could be said: the only man who was able to win a title at Roland Garros during the Nadal era was Federer. Making 4 finals and winning 1 of those finals turning it into a career grand slam. marvellous. rafa has made roger a better player and I think the other way around too.

The simple fact is, it's not easy to keep up with Roger Federer. I suppose carrie, if that's what you are going to base your argument on every time (h2h), then you have to base it on every player that rafa plays - that makes sense, yes? davy is better h2h than rafa, so davy better player, blake better h2h than rafa, so blake better player, yes? I could list a whole lot of players here,which would say that they are better players based on h2h, but I have to be out in 5 minutes. I prefer to hope that there is a continuing rivalry between fed and nadal,but we shall have to wait and see. Until then, h2h aside, with rafa winning zero USO's in his time on professional circuit, how can they be compared here?

"Yes maxi what about them? Doesn't this go to show that it takes a special player to win time and time again on clay?I simply don't understand what you mean by saying that because clay is the surface least suited to Roger's game it shouldn't count, I can't think of a word for it. So what about saying that h/c shouldn't count because it's the surface least suited to Rafa's game. You are not sounding like someone who is thinking straight.

carrie , 2/15/10 7:43 PM

I'm thinking very straight carrie and I didnt say that rafa wasnt special, so please dont do my thinking for me. Rafa is a wonderful tennis player. I miss not seeing him out there. I really do. But what can be done? he an intelligent man, who can make his own choices (which have done him no justice in the past - too many matches, too many stretch and challenges). If the h2h stayed that same. I wouldnt think any less of either rafa or roger. Roger is still the best.


have a good day carrie.

maxi,
go to Vamos Rafa-No Matter What for my response.

carrie,thanks.

we do have a laugh a lot on tennis.x, and one of colleagues over there has posted a youtube link - you may or may not find it funny - but i think sometimes things get a bit serious over here, and i wanted to share this with other tennis fans who can take a bit of humour - it's a spoof (though the hitler element i can see would offend some, it's not meant to, if you've seen inglorious bastards with brad pitt then am sure you would find funny. so if you want a smile (in the spirit that it is meant, then click on: (it's not to everyone's taste).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miOwOT1FYig

maxi ...im ROFL ....hahah...thanks for the link .

C'MON !!
AO10 ...where we've lifted one down under

nirv02,

One thing you will learn about me is that I do NOT like to have my words twisted or distorted to mean something they did not. You know perfectly well what I was trying to say about Rafa's knees. No one is questioning his knee problems. It's been well documented, so let's refrain from hyperbole for the sake of this discussion. I think you know exactly what I was saying - this incessant speculation and amateur diagnosing of Rafa's latest injury or any prognosis as to his future in the sport of tennis, cannot possibly be meaningful without access to his medical records. People will continue to speculate and maybe predict the worst for Rafa, but when it's all said and done it amounts to nothing of merit or worth.

Rafa seems to be recovering nicely from this latest injury, but the real test will be once he comes out on the court to play. Once we see him in competition, then we may have a better idea of his condition. I just dislike anyone writing Rafa's epitaph. He deserves to be the one to say when it's time to retire.

torres,

You persist in changing the discussion. I was not comparing the NUMBER of wins for Rafa and Fed, I was speaking about Rafa being the only one to challenge Fed and actually beat him in successive grand slams. However, I must say that it annoys me greatly that Rafa's grand slam wins at RG against Fed are somehow conveniently overlooked. So Rafa has four RG wins to Roger's win!

I am not taking anything away from your guy. His Wimbledon and AO grand slams are a great achievement. If I wanted to talk about Fed's number of grand slam victories versus Rafa's, then we know how that would come out. I can do the math! But that wasn't my point.

To go over it again would be redundant. I think my point about Rafa having the kind of success against Fed in grand slams has been made. It does not demean Fed in any way. In fact, these wins are all the more remarkable given how difficult and rare it is to defeat Fed. Surely you understand that there is no intent to disrespect Fed and his wins. Again, as I have said before, his record speaks for itself.

maxi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miOwOT1FYig

LOL

"So" funny!!! Referring to Rafa as a drag queen!!! C'MON!!!

NNY, coming from one of the Rafans who are the most persistent in changing topics, that's a hypocritical statement you made.

The biggest offence is that everytime Fed wins a Slam without Rafa in it, Rafan are gonna post same old h2h and Rafa sole 'glory year' as the best antidote to disperse the most painful poison for them:

Fed being victorious.

FED's THE BEST NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ4GaVRybW0&feature=related

Rafa, Borg, McEnroe, Henman, Krajicek bringing some Rafan poison here.

LOL

If Hitler is a fan, what more can I say. I think Rafa, Murray and Delpo are the winners here.

Oh, Djoko as well.

you might try smiling once in a while carrie, try and split your lip, move those corners and smile.you might feel better for it.do you have no sense of humour?

Cheryl, I feel a blog coming on entitled:

'Rafael Nadal doesn't get the credit he deserves'

Nice video maxi! Lol

FEDistheGOAT,
your pen name suggests that you are trying to convince yourself that Fed is actually the GOAT. When was Roger awarded the title, and by whom?

oh my god carrie did you mother hated you or something why are you a joy spoiler at every place here you should try using this energy in a positive way try yoga !
you should visit threads that talks about Rafa to feel good just leave the people having fan
and try to have a life outside this website!

tennislover, you obviously have no answer to my question, so you go on the attack.

carrie ...do u really want fedfans to start posting videos of borg , agassi , sampras , mcenroe and so many others calling fed the goat ? I cant be bothered to go search for it for u ...but im sure if u have watched as much tennis as i think you have( based on how much u comment on TT) , then i need not elaborate ...unless you have selective memory ....

give it a rest will you...please .. ...next you'll be accusing me of convincing myself im actually a fed fan .

tennislover ....i echo your thought ..

p.s: im still buzz we have the sweet o 16 !!!!

C'MON !!

fedexfan, why do you think all the people you listed have the slightest authority to appoint the GOAT, they are just ex-players, they have no official status, they are entitled to their opinions and so is everyone else. To Fedfans and some ex-players, he is the GOAT, to others he isn't.

You cannot force people who don't think like you do to agree with you, because you are just another tennis fan like the rest of us.

Some Fedfans turn to insults when others to share their admiration and worship of Federer, but I'm not going to be deterred from saying what I think.

@ carrie
, 2/22/10 10:17 AM

i am not 'trying' to convince myself as are most of the other players who would have been in contention for that post and most of the 'experts' and fans.

"they are just ex-players" ??? Oh, so after all they have achieved and therid obvious ardent devotion to the game, all you can say to their grudging opinion is "they have no official status"??

Well for your information according to all 'official' records, rankings and stats, he is indisputably the greatest tennis player, fit to stand alongside the likes of Ali, Jhonson, Pele etc..

Roger played in an era of mediocre tenis players until Rafa came along. Whe challenged and beaten consistentley by a real oppenet he lost his cool and elgance and he forget to be gracious in defeat.
Rog is a sore loser and to me not really that great.

Its all a matter of degrees.

not true emm. beaten consistently? think again.wasted conversation with someone who doesnt know the game.

@maxi, he forgets that apart from a few new comers the same 'mediocre players' still makes a mark in the top 10

i always think FEDITG, that when people say "mediocre players", they talk with no sense, safin,hewitt,sampras,agassi,roddick, plus others, all slam winners, and fed still playing at the top of his game, but it is just wasted on emm, so am not even going to try. i dont think people understand how difficult it is to win a slam, this is what makes roger so special.

Federer is a goat?? ha ha! very funny!! How many more nadal fans on this site? How will I help all you stupid nadal people to get over it?? Deuce and homos help me please! You two know what gorilla nadal is! But why is federer a goat? Someone help me! He would if he grew a goatee!! 'Goat'eee! Right? right? !

@GoMuzza,
Roger Federer is the Greatest Of All Time ie G.O.A.T

Refer below..

ROGER FEDERER IS THE G.O.A.T. ? ANY QUESTIONS?

There were so many questions going into the French Open this year, like ?will Rafa lose a set?? and ?which half will Djokovic be in?? and ?Roger?s win in Madrid was a fluke, wasn?t it??

Only the bravest Fed Fanatics were willing to raise their hands and ask, in embarrassed tones usually reserved for asking teacher for a potty break:

?So why can?t Roger win Roland Garros this year??

Turns out he could. And now that this question is answered, another one is, too:

Roger Federer IS the Greatest Of All Time.

And it?s not just John McEnroe who?s saying it.

Pete Sampras: ?Now that he?s won in Paris, I think it just more solidifies his place in history as the greatest player that played the game.?

Andy Roddick via Twitter: ?That?s an unreal accomplishment and puts and end to the GOAT question in my humble opinion.?

Legend Roy Emerson (another career Slammer): ?I believe he is [the greatest]. Now that he?s won a major on all surfaces, you can?t really argue with it.?

etc etc in a list that includes Becker, Lendl, Laver and even Nadal

Roger Federer (via The Telegraph): ?I don?t know if we?ll ever know who is the greatest of all-time, but I?m very proud to be up there. How well did I do? Good, great, very great or medium, I don?t know. It?s for others to decide.?



Roger answered some other big questions at Monday?s post-tournament press conference in Paris.

Can he win another RG title?:

?I?m sure I?m going to enjoy Paris even more in the future. Because the pressure is off, and everything that comes now here is going to be much more fun.?

Can he keep this up?

?I can?t answer the question if I?ll be able to continue playing well, but I don?t see a reason why not. I?m in great shape. I?m motivated. I?m hungry to play, and I?m excited to be becoming a dad and seeing Mirka happy and the baby happy. I?m sure it?s only going to help me play good tennis.?

What will keep him motivated, given all his success?

?Pleasure and desire before everything. Now I can play freely. What am I still missing in my list of achievements? More Grand Slams, of course. But also a gold medal in singles at the Olympics. The Davis Cup is also in the future. It will become more clear after Wimbledon, The U.S. Open and the birth of my child. I have nothing to prove.? (translated from French via Tribune de Geneve)

And who does Roger think is the favorite for the Wimbledon title?

?I do think I?m the favorite actually with the success I?ve had and how close I came again last year.?

So there you have it, Roger Federer is the man who has everything ? including all the answers.



More quotes if you want-

Pete Sampras: ?When I look at Roger, I?m a fan.?

Bjorn Borg - "For me Roger is the greatest player ever who played the tennis game."

John McEnroe - "I grew up idolising Rod Laver and I didn't think it would ever be anyone that possibly could be as good as this guy from Australia and I think I may have find someone in Roger Federer."

John McEnroe - "Thanks a lot for making us to look so average." :) loved this one!


And of course, i havent forgotten the fed's biggest fan - Rafael Nadal. a man who is so inspired by fed that he changed his attire, hair style and even his style of play as much as possible to match fed's.

Rafael Nadal - "For me, Roger is the best player of all time and I am the best number two in the world."




And this is for people who say of fed being a sore loser -

Rafael Nadal - "Well, it is disappointing for me I am in the same time as the best player in history, Roger Federer. His attitude is always excellent when he wins, when he loses. So just thank you very much, Roger."


So Roger Federer is the G.O.A.T to almost everyone and even the few who don't like such a tag and still agrees he the The Most Complete Player Of All Time. Wish i could make a sensible acronym of that.

Cheers.

FEDistheGoat, I've thought of a suitable acronym for you - FING -Fed is not the goat.

@carrie, if that is your opinion it can be your name. Why should I use an acronym to suit your opinion. Anyway that post had to say only about federer and hence i assume you are here in your position as an anti-fed rather than as a rafa fan.
Nice to know that you don't share rafa's opinions. In that case why don't you go to rafa's official website and start an argument with him?

i dont understand why carrie wants to spoil every single thread about federer?

Cheryl, please can you write a suitable blog for carrie alone, and do something about her ongoing silliness.

Every single live thread is a Fed thread if you want to call it that, there is a new thread for every nuance of Federer's illness, you can't avoid them.

Federer is ill
Federer is not that ill
Federer has recovered
Federer .....................
Federer........................

@maxi,
Another quote from Rafa, you have to admit maxi that if you stop listening to his fans and to only the guy, fed fans would just love Rafa!

If he doesn't play very, very well and I play one of my best matches, I have a little bit of a chance - Rafael Nadal quote on being asked how he managed to take the number 1 position from Federer.

The guy is honest, knows how good he is and loves to talk about how good fed is. To any fed fan who doesn't like rafa, my appeal is just that please stop listening to his so called fans who tirade against federer and listen to the guy himself. No fed fan can not like rafa (unless when they are playing of course-then it is free for all abuse time :) !)

Another quote from Rafa, you have to admit maxi that if you stop listening to his fans and to only the guy, fed fans would just love Rafa!

FEDistheGOAT , 3/7/10 9:57 PM


Some people will use any flimsy excuse to declare themselves a Rafa fan.

*yawn* to carrie.

FedistheGOAT,

rafa knows what he is talking about,right?

I think much of the credit should go around his recovery, on the physical and emotional sides, after the mono and the loss to djoko in the AO08 he made a reasonable clay season by being beaten in the finals by Nadal in two masters then massive loss in the FO and drama of Wimbledon he fought the mono and the tired body in a way only very rare champions can in time people kept writing him off and somehow they forage that he was sick had physical problems did the fighting that was hard enough to get him all the way to the final but the body fail him to get to the win, somehow he survived all that and won the USO by beating Murray playing one of the most amazing tennis beating Djoko in the semis, then bad start and back problems again in the AO and then breaking the racquet and the media went to telling he would never get to another slam then he fought again to have after that one of the most amazing tennis season any great player can dream of.
my point is, now media always gives Rafa an excuse when he miss up :the injured Nadal you read in the headlines but back when Roger had the mono there was no excuses they were waiting the crown to be replaced on some one else's head as they were waiting to this guy to fall, no sickness no physical troubles excuses for Federer what so ever, no body gave him the benefit of the doubt that Rafa is enjoying now, the media missed one great sport story Roger's recovery of mono to win USO08,that was not worthy because he is Federer wining and Federer are no news they forgat at the end of the day he is a massive talent that lies in human body.
But I guess they invented "the mighty Federer" term to establish a new human physiology rules around him!
I hope he is well again.

@tennislover

Absolutely agree that it was among the most amazing stories in sports. Don't forget the doubts that would have been creeping up then. it was a feat in physical and mental fortitude.

@maxi, absolutely he does. Rafa is so proud of having done so well against the 'greatest player in history' (in his own words) and also knew quite well that fed was struggling with his fitness. they happen to be good friends and that is why in spite of his ferocity on court, Rafa was never carried away by his one season of great success.

@carrie, are you implying that i should now be ashamed for having said that rafa is a likable guy?

FIG, not ashamed, just be upfront about the fact that you are a closet fan, that's all.

What is wrong with all you people?? Federer is not going to win ok! Federer only said that he would be happy if he got at least ONE set in first round ok!

Mr.Arthritic of course is playing his last few months of tennis so good that nobody voted for Mr.Arthriticus Neanderthalus (Ya nadal only because he is the first cave man to have arthritis Ha ha!).
Djokovic is tired and full of asthma!

So only Murray can win ok! Murray is the best on clay courts! tThen why everyone is voting only for federer? vote for Murray please??? He has the least with 3.4% ok! But it is 100% and everyone knows nobody can beat Murray on clay right??

Carrie hello! So you are also nowbecoming ashamed of being Mr.Tennis Wedgie fan!! Good! Forget \fed has a 'goat'ee\ guy, he thinks that federer is greatest and all, no point in talking to people like that who wont grow up and see that murray is definitely better than anyone else!!

Murray has a winning H2H against federer carrie! that means he is better right?? We both know that, but these stupid people dont understand that!

Poll

Who is going to win Indian Wells?

Roger Federer 72.6%

Rafael Nadal 9.2%

Andy Murray 3.4%

Novak Djokovic 8.3%

Somebody else 6.5%

1404 votes

GoMuzza: please, please GO somewhere else, you are just an embarrassment to true Andy fans who would NEVER claim the load of rubbish YOU claim for him. And please stop insulting Rafa in that horrible, monotonous way. I know you are not a real Murray fan because generally Rafa and Andy fans get along very well indeed, do Andy and Rafa themselves.

Deuce hi! i know it an embarrassment that nobody has voted for murray. Completely agree with you. I hope you voted. Murray is good friends with everyone in ATP ok not just with nadal. He feels pity for nadal he even said he gutted nadal after wiping the floor with him.

Gomuzza... 3.5% and that is too much!!!
Go and find girl...or boy...

dear zare. You go and do want you want ok? Rest of us are here to talk of tennis not to find partners! I was just talking about why murray is btter than any other plyer right now, if you cant bear that, answer me that and not stupid insults ok??
If you agree that H2H is important, Murray is better than anyone else, if tournaments Muray is still better than anyone else. Fitness? Murray is better! Only in GS murray is a bit back but that is only matter of time ok? See I am talking decently to you and my anger with Mr.Arthritic is only that he was so indecent as to run off with pretend injury when Muzza was winning and make it less importnat. That is the only reason Muzza lost in the final, Nearderthal-man made muzza wonder if it was due to his ability or not he won and that questin made him lose ok? Everyone knows that. So anyone who likes watching tennis will hate that stupid porn star Mr. TennisWedgie ok? You also know it!

''Only in GS murray is a BIT back...'', ha, ha..what a joke... zero GS can't be described as "a bit" and you know it...stop saying stupid stuff here and leave alone the guy who has proudly won 6 GS versus murray's zero...and, as zare rightly said: go away and find someone to play with..

GoMuzza,
IW is not on clay ; it's on a slow HC. Mandy hasn't proven much on clay as yet in any case.

GoMUzza... "if you agree that H2H is important, Murray is better than anyone else"
sorry but thats a joke.. rafa leads against murray 7-4 !! he has a combined 34-16 against top 4 !!!

Gomuzza ... man...you r pathetic, really...
If muzza can hear you...how you are pleaseeeeeeing, pleaseeeeeeeing people to vote for him... he would be really pissed of!!!
Don't go looking for girl or boyfriend. Go and look for medicaments, cure...
Man you really don't know sh.t about tennis!!!!

Zare wht is this? see your post ok? who is pathetic? Why are you saying pleease like that to me???? I already voted dont worry! anyway Muzza is going to win and show everybody! if you want any medication my uncle is doc ok, i'll help you.

vamosrafa see, soda owns nadal right? no? Muzza owns soda ok so who is better? Its ok.


Look at this all rafatards! Look how arrogant Mr.Arthritic is!
London - (Hawkeye): "Ain't pimping my suntanned grand slam ass for no midget-sized talent like Mrs Ashley Cole," Rafa told reporters today.

The macho Spanish athlete was responding to reports that Cheryl flaccid solo career could get a shot in the er, arm! - in a Shakira-esque promo vid.

Vamosrafa even Cilic has a better H2h against nadal! cilic should be world number 3 then??? Boo! Davydenko is also better than nadal in H2H!!! Double Boo!!!



Helllo chr18, thanks but i think it is played on clay and cement mix ok any way nadal cant run anymore and he is going to start more in hard courts now as wheelchair cant roll on clay well. His facebook page says that he is going to be greatest ever wheelchair champion. only prob he says is that he'll have to keep getting up to pick his butt! ha ha!

GoMuzza..haahahahah..u are so childish !! srsly..there is no pnt arguing with you...giving the overall h2hd was for you to grasp that rafa has done much better than muzza against others.... soda owning rafa? go chek the h2hd....davy leads by one match and that was won by a rafa retirement ..anyhow.... simon leads fed in the h2hd and rafa leads simon so rafa better than fed??? ahahahahahaha THATS ABSURD !! how old are you?? 9?10 ?? u are so funny !

Hello vamosarthritic! Of course you are correct as usual! We all know that nadal was better than federer because of the H2H no, carrie will support me ok, so of ccourse simon is better than federer!! Otherwise it will be different logic both places no, you have to understand these things buddy!

You also will agree that nadal is better than federer no? yes or no? becuase of h2h right? forget now, ok, even though he is only a Wheelchair player trying to find a way to pick his butt, even then he was greter then ok! So simon is better than federer and Murray is better than federer!

So if you argue that it is not so then Murray becomes better than everyone else because of what you say only! correct? Thanks!

Anyway all young players are better than older ones! Havent you studied evolution? Ya by the way, that is another reason why nadal couldn't survive! Survival of the fittest! Nadal was least fit and muzza most fit! So who'll survive?? ask yourself! Roar!

Thanks again and dont worry i'll help you get over your problem with Mr.TennisWedgie, join the muzza camp!

Go Muzzzaaa!

u know, but i actually believe GoMuzza when he says hes not atr. coz he is actually 10 times wores than him!! Even tho atr was rude at times, he has actually been supportive of Rafa, he was just incredibly harsh on him when he lost. GoMuzza on the other hand is very insulting to Rafa, by calling him Mr Arthritic and being rude to vamosrafa vamosarthritic. He is even rude to federer and all the others. GoMuzza, you dont have to like every player, but at least be decent in your posts. (Like saying Simon is better than federer, which I bet even the most ardent rafa fans would say is preposterous.)

oh comon tj:the sercasm is so obvious that one is good GoMuzza, Simon better than Federer my garny is better than Simon................
i think this site needes him he enlighten stuff didnt like the nickname that he is using for Rafa i like "the famous Ass" (TFA) more..............
take it easy,dont forget the clay season issoon dont get the sand man angry ..............

"i think it is played on clay and cement mix "...haha...gomuzza you are complete idiot...but you make everyone here laugh...
Just one question...what happening with that court after first rain...
This is "pearl of net". Man... (or girl) you are disgrace for Murray and Scotland!!!

ZARE THANK YOU FOR THAT AWESOME NAME!! Mr.Arthritic TFA like people have MD. etc to show their qualifictaion no?? Ha ha Nadal's greatest achievement is he was the only only player ever to be play the 'pick-ass' brand of tennis! That is why he is Mr.TennisWedgie!! But TFA is like wow!!

but sorry zare everyone knows you are the idiot now! it is played on plexipave surface ok! it is a mix of plastic, cement, clay etc ok!!

hello tj600 nadal fans hate federer murray fans hate federer ok! So we all agree that anyone who has better h2h than federer is better than him ok otherwise nadal wont be better than him no?? But all tennis fans hate nadal now because he is such a bad person he will do all kinds of bad things and take all credit away from great people like Murray who everybody likes ok!!! I am atr!! Attracting Tremendous Respect!!

Why is everyone behind me??

Don't you people understand that i am just trying to help these mentally ill nadal (TFA) fans to come out of their stupid liking for him and be fans of someone who is a tennis star and not a porn star?>??

@GoMuzza, what do you want? I will concede anything if you'll just shut up for once. This is a Federer appreciation Thread, don't clutter it with such nonsense, please.

hi fed is a 'goat'eeee! He only got a cow! Federer Appreciation Thread my foot! Show me a Murray Appreciation Thread then otherwise don't tell me what to do ok!

" Show me a Murray Appreciation Thread..."
Maybe in Benny Hill show or Mr Bean...
That will be the cold day in hell... Murray Appreciation Thread...tragicomic... hilarious... well done muzza...haha...thank you.

276...

277...
...is it enough credit???

hahhaaahahhahaaaaaaa!!!

GoMuzza, whoever you are. I do love you!

i read TT all the time but rarely post. same old posters mainly with same yada, yada.....journos write a blog to instroduce the usual argument, with some transparent twist and get the predictable hundreds blah de dah of usual tit for tatters.

but you are hilarious!! thank-you. you are truly what this forum needs, hahahahaha!

The undeserved credit he gets for false modesty more than makes up for it.

Viewers on SKYSPORTS questioned why Roger won the Sportsmanship award, citing some of his unsportsmanlike behaviour last year. He has to win it now until he retires, because whenever he doesn't win it, it would mean that his behaviour that year was worse than it was last year.

Frankly, it's now so meaningless that only his fans are excited about him winning it. Federer's legacy would be an award for The Roger Federer for The Most Over-rated Player.

Sorry, I'll say that again:

The Roger Federer award for The Most Over-Rated Player.

ha ha carrie good one! but I will also say this again unles you hate hate hate Mr.tenniswedgie Nadal, you have no right to talk of any other player ok!! Otherwise become a Murray fan! the best player, fittest, humblest most decent!


Dear CARRIE, i am posting this again here just for you because you actually hate Nadal I know!



"Ha ha! i thought only Nadal- Mr.Arthriticus Neandrathalus was a big time racist!! I mean nadal's racism is like Extreme Racism He takes to the guys in the dressing room, called hewitt a monkey and hewitt was like huh? seriously, you of all people? Then those coaches filed a complaint against nadal ok!! Nadal is a racist!! Now federer also?? Soon murray will be the only decent player in top ten!!

Dont believe me?

watch this ok!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz9Yg59QrSw&mode=suggested&searc h=

The translation is like this ok;

[Nadal does a major fist pump of an error of gaudio and glares at him a while before, then after a point they chance to lock eyes again]
GAUDIO: Don't play dumb. Don't be a oversmart!
NADAL: I did nothing.
GAUDIO: Don't be over smart, I'm just telling you.

[both sit down, Nadal makes an angry face at Gaudio, distorts his already ugly face even more]

GAUDIO: Don't make that face to me because I'm serious. Don't.
NADAL: But I did nothing.
GAUDIO: Don't make that face to me, I'm just telling you.

NADAL: Shut up, you sudaca @ss****! Estas chupcabra! (these 'Goat suckers')
[Gaudio looks at Nadal in disgust and disbelief and stalks off]

Everyone hates nadal no? Now rog also! Ha ha ha! I love Ricky Demon!!

GoMuzza
, 3/15/10 11:46 PM

Ok? Happy?? And worst is that after bullying everyone inside the dressing room etc, he comes out and tries to look all false modesty as REMI said!! HE is evel this Nadal is! Classic two-faced Hollywood villain!!


If that ALSO is not enough for you, LOOK AT THIS! he talks as if Tsonga is a nobody!! And after that wimby match against Soda, rafa actually tried to shoulder soda on the way back to dressing room!!

Every player on tour hates nadal except federer and that is why i hate federer also!!



here is the press cong after Rafa-Soda match in wimby!!

Then in the press conference Nadal was asked:

He was asked how he thought Soderling conducted himself.

?Really, the truth, maybe worst possible,? said Nadal, who speaks with fractured, but improving, English, and sometimes asks an interpreter for help.

?In the end, we will see what?s happening in the end of life, no?? he added.

Soderling did not hear Nadal?s comments, and seemed surprised to learn of the criticism. He said he would not air such laundry in public.

?If he?s complaining about that, that I never say ?Hi? to him, what can I do?? Soderling said.

Asked about the omission of a courtesy wave when his ball struck the net and trickled over, Soderling seemed perplexed by the custom.

?Why should I say I?m sorry when it?s the happiest moment of my life?? he said.

After volleying back several pointed questions about his behavior and Nadal?s criticisms, Soderling ultimately admitted to being frustrated by Nadal?s slow play. Between points when serving, Nadal often milks time by wiping his face with a towel and adjusting his cropped pants or his socks. When receiving, he sometimes holds his racket up, signaling that he is not ready.

?I think all players play faster than him,? Soderling said.



Huh! EVIL YOUR NAME IS NADAL!!! I am sure he is totally totally taking steroids! And that greasy yucky hair makes me think of the ORCS in Lord of the Rings movie!!



If you don't reply to me as if you think that is so cool ha the joke is on all you rafatards!! because the truth is out there for all to see what a f@g he is!!

Viewers on SKYSPORTS questioned why Roger won the Sportsmanship award, citing some of his unsportsmanlike behaviour last year. He has to win it now until he retires, because whenever he doesn't win it, it would mean that his behaviour that year was worse than it was last year.

Frankly, it's now so meaningless that only his fans are excited about him winning it. Federer's legacy would be an award for The Roger Federer for The Most Over-rated Player.
carrie , 3/16/10 5:52 PM

I watched SKYSPORTS carrie and they said nothing of the sort.why do you make things up? you should know about overrated.your comments are the most overrated on this thread.you just cant stop yourself.its just funny.GoMuzza understands you more than you believe. *yawn*

Golummuzza...pls can you repeat post for me, one more time...

It is there on top zare and I have added to it that is why i repeat posted... made it more relevent and comprehensive ok. Gollums are important religious relics of jews ok. if you mean golum from lotr ya i agree that nadal would look more like him once he has become weak and wrinkled with his arthritis. thaks for pointing that out!

maxi, don't accuse me of lying, Marcus Buckland on SKYSPORTS has just said again, before the Tsonga/Montanes match, that they have received a lot of emails on the subject, and they are going to ask the ATP for an explanation on the procedures for the award. If anyone is recording the match they can go back and listen to it.

maxi, I will never doubt anyone's word, just because I didn't hear it myself. Obviously, unless we all watch every second of coverage, we are going to miss certain things. Make sure you pay attention for when they get a reply from the ATP, and I would expect an apology from you then.

maxi, I've been trying not to get drawn into an argument with you, because you do my head in as you tend to confuse issues, but I couldn't let this pass, you accusing me of making things up.

There are certain posters here that I don't bother reading because I don't wish to engage with them, and you are slowly becoming one of them.

Two hundred and eighty-eight... the suspense is double-bagelling me...

carrie: remember when i rbought up the toilet break at ao? the usual suspects accused me of making it up. it was right there for the whole entire world to see. coureir commented and even asked roger after the match about it, it was in the papers, on teh internet, etc.
carrie, the real issue imo is that if they don't like it or don't agree or cringe about something fed did, i think they prefer not to bring it up. if you do, then you're making it up because it surely can't be true. it's all about denial. seems that some people are being cruel that they accuse me off. very interesting.

that is very inetresting that they are still talking about it during iw. obvioucly the fans and TT aren't the only ones who have begun to notice it.

So....now they just accuse people of making things up!!! Wow!! It gets more and more exciting by the day!!

compare your two posts carrie, now you have explained yourself,you will see they are totally different.

"they are going to ask the ATP for an explanation on the procedures for the award"

@carrie makes her judgement BEFORE ATP.

"Frankly, it's now so meaningless that only his fans are excited about him winning it."

since its his peers who voted him the award, seems it is only yourself carrie who is getting "excited" about it,if its so meaningless, why you comment on it? would be interested in a response here carrie.i get confused by what you say.

it should mean nothing? sorry carrie,but i dont understand your concern? did you see marcus buckland?i think he wearing lipstick colour wine, and had his teeth whitened?did you see that?

homos,thanks for apology ear,lier.again you discuss toilet break.why?any excuse, which is not positive homos. :(.it wasnt against the rules,so what do you want to do?you want fed to break the rules? why?

what surprises me homos and carrie,is that you both dont comment on rafa's expletive of "raci*t?the one that gomuzza posted, where he "clearly" says it.do you think rafa should win the sportsmanship award after saying this?and really, what do you think of rafa after he said it?you have subtitles/translation so there no denying it. i note yo u both havent replied to that? why? perhaps you didnt see it?you should. i couldnt believe it? thought how unsportsmanlike for rafa to call another player by that name, i think one of the worst things you could say in today's culture.what do you think?

carrie,i cant get a link to watching the federer match right now,so dont know whether there are any fans out there to hang with. but your comment on skysports got me thinking.i checked the fan page on the site, and to keep it fair, because of course that is what sport should be about,i have forwarded the youtube video of rafa calling the other player racist,to see whether skysports can comment, and what the ATP say about it,and if that can promote some discussion about sportsmanship awards.what do you think?

maxi what actually is your problem? i'm talking to carrie about an incident which i see as being similar to hers - it happens to be the toilet break issue. so are you saying now that just because you don't agree and don't like it, i can't discuss it? it doesn't work that way maxi. i will continue to discuss whatever i want as long as it is relevant and i want to argue my point to someone.

you know maxi, the fact that you have a big issue with it and see it as negative and you keep trying to suppress people who bring it up, means you know deep down what fed did was not a good show of sportsmanship. you just won't admit it in public. i don't need to give you any excuse maxi, and where did i say that i WANT fed to break the rules? i specifically said he DIDN'T break any rules. fed himself said that when he was continuously having a go at djoker taking MTOs and retiring, he said "the rules need to be changed". so even he criticised djoker knowing it was within the rules and i'm simply doing the same at fed. you don't happen to like it because it sours your perception of your idol. fed is not above the rules, maxi. if i see an incident where i think a player was out of line, i will bring it up, any player.

maxi i think you are a bit mixed up in your mind. we allowed to discuss whatever we want on the related threads. i mean are you actually aware of that maxi? it's not a case of "i don't like it therefore you guys should not bring it up". no maxi, ok, cheers. and you're welcome. that comment was only directed at the few simpleton fed fans, they were named. you were not named so you should have ignored it.

homos, fed isnt above the rules, you are right.

thanks for your apology.

homos,it's all okay so dont worry. i read posts and respond in the way that i see them, i dont mean any harm. just disagree where i think unfair, like you really. we both on the same side, if you understand what i'm saying? as a discussion point homos, what do you think of gomuzza's video on rafa making the raci*t comment?i couldnt believe it, but it there to see, i suppose it shows that all great players get angry sometimes.

maxi,
there are one or two posters here that I prefer not to engage with therefore I don't read their posts, you are slowly becoming one of them, mainly because you often can't follow the drift and then go off on a tangent with abusive comments which are totally uncalled for. I enjoy tennis, and I don't go on forums to have pointless arguments with people I don't know, so as you are always trying to pick an argument with me, I suggest that you do not read my posts and we'll both be happy.

So pardon me if I don't respond to you again.

If I want to make things up, especially on the internet, which I certainly wouldn't dream of doing, I wouldn't quote a source like SKYSPORTS that is watched by millions of people.

maxi ok no problem. i don't know what link gomuza posted. fyi i don't read any of gomuzza's posts. i find them difficult to read and regard them as total rubbish. if rafa made a racist comment (to wom?) so be it. i'd need to hear it in context but as i've never said he's perfect, it's not like i'm going to faint from shock. there are things rafa has done in the past which i didn't like, happy to admit. other players have been racists like hewitt yet i've always been a fan, i don't condone his racist comments to blake, but in the heat of the moment, i'm incline to try and understand. if i'm going to be a fan of only perfect players, i would not be watching tennis at all. alsowhen hewitt did a fist pump on chela's mistake, chela hit a serve right at him and spat at Hewitt?to me chela was like a hooligan but i don't hate him at all because on the court, it happens.

the only person i would fault for on court abuse is serena at uso, i can't think of anyone else right now. and before you jump on me, i haven't said that fed's uso outburst is a why he shouldn't have got the award - that was cheryl and others. i listed other reasons that were mostly "off court" when i don't think it's excusable (the only on court incident that happened DURING a match that i have a problem with is the toilet incident). i actually don't think fed's uso outburst was that big a deal (compared to other things) in the heat of the moment. but what does get me is people trying to deny that he has faults. there's always an excuse, misinterpretation or it's delpo's fault for taking time to challenge. THAT is what i find completely pathetic. and that probably makes fed's negative behaviours appear even worse than they probably are.

Nobody is flawless...I happen to like and watch football (soccer!) and most of the time I come across outbursts and verbal fights (if not even physical) of players regarded to be the best in the world...and do I need to not like them because of their immediate reaction in certain situation...NO! I still appreciate them and have high regards for their talents and for what they do for the sports...all of them are only human and if they are so stiff to manage to keep it under control every single time, then they are not real, they are only acting and pretending, which I find equally wrong...stress relief is sometimes very much needed and if it takes to break the racket or to engage in verbal conflicts so let it be...we all sometimes can not hold from saying something that we will afterwards regret and feel sorry for...they should be forgiven considering the pressure they have to deal with...they are not Gods...it?s not a sin to be human..

...and here it is 300!!!!...wow this is some credit:-)

zare :)

homos, I am happy to admit that Federer has faults - not a problem with that at all and thanks for responding in a really mature return post, homos :) above. :)

No, i couldnt believe again the youtube video of rafa calling *gaudio* a "raci*t", I had never seen that before homos. It has subtitles and i am not sure whether rafa was fined? I think perhaps you might know about it more than me - the youtube video cannot be denied, it's here: I suppose it shows that our great players are human and make mistakes, like the rest of us, but I would say that is the worst i have heard and never thought that rafa could be like that. seems i was wrong.

This bit is above a few posts: (posted by GoMuzza):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz9Yg59QrSw&mode=suggested &searc h=

The translation is like this ok;

[Nadal does a major fist pump of an error of gaudio and glares at him a while before, then after a point they chance to lock eyes again]
GAUDIO: Don't play dumb. Don't be a oversmart!
NADAL: I did nothing.
GAUDIO: Don't be over smart, I'm just telling you.

[both sit down, Nadal makes an angry face at Gaudio, distorts his already ugly face even more]

GAUDIO: Don't make that face to me because I'm serious. Don't.
NADAL: But I did nothing.
GAUDIO: Don't make that face to me, I'm just telling you.

NADAL: Shut up, you sudaca @ss****! Estas chupcabra! (these 'Goat suckers')
[Gaudio looks at Nadal in disgust and disbelief and stalks off]

not pleasant, really unedifying homos.

homos and carrie,bearing in mind (especially carrie) has so much to say on federer, i would be really thankful for a response to the above post which i see has no response so far?

maxi don't be so impatient, people have places to be and this site is not amongst the most important. can't you just wait? i'm quite busy at the moment and carrie is probably in bed.

what reponse would you like from me? you didn't ask me anything. if you read my last post again, the response is already there. i had a look at the video, tnx for posting it. there is no english translation in the video, only one done by a fan below. the video doesn't show rafa much, only gaudio shouting at him. what am i looking at? i'm happy to keep an open mind maxi and if rafa did say what the fan translated, i've already said above about what i think of players' outburst in the heat of a match (what i condone, don't condone) as opposed to calculated attacks in a more (slightly or otherwise) relaxed atmosphere. ok? this is why i don't have a huge issue about fed swearing at chair ump although others seem to. having said that, i'd need to see the whole incident from start to finish, who spoke first, why, etc. for me to make an informed judgement about rafa's behaviour. if he happened to call gaudio racist names in the press room or in teh media, i would be looking at that quite differently. as he hasn't i'll reserve my judgement. you could say sod did similar at wimb when rafa didn't say anything to him, fed swearing at ump, chela hitting ball and spitting at hewitt, hewitt being racist towards blake and linesman, etc. are similar - or not if you hate rafa and that's perfectly fine with me. i've made racist slurs to others maxi so i'll not be the first to throw a stone at rafa IF that's what he did and that's why i don't have a promblem with hewitt or chela's behaviour. if anything i would have though hewitt's is worse but notice he's not being discussed here with video links and the like.

of course you are more than entitled to be shocked by rafa's behaviour. you are not me so i don't expect you to look at things my way and jugde them according to my criteria. which is why we support different players and nearly always disagree.

homos, thanks. i really respect what you say. i dont hate rafa at all,so dont take me badly that way.and there was no reason for you to post about hewitt, chela, as it was a response to the video posted by GoMuzza that i wanted a rafa fan (such as you) to comment on - and you have, so thanks again.
what "concerns" me homos is the lack of respect/judgment carrie has, and really i understand you want to support your friend,but there is very nonchalent,damning behaviour from a person who "constantly floods" federer posts with yawning words sometimes. very poor.Not only this,i ask questions in respectful ways and get a steel barrier which throws no further light on her remarks. apart from that, she is very quick to bring roger down when he has millions of fans that respect him and enjoy his game.then gets "too personal" sometimes.(I think you know this homos, don't you?). you only need to look at the baggy thread, there are no barriers with that person.she surprised me as when i first joined, she was very welcome towards me and kind,but i now see that she is turning to a not very edifying person and then attacked me for a comment she misconstrued. so when i ask questions about rafa, i do so for discussion, healthy discussion. but for carrie, she does it for the attack and the enjoyment of disrespecting the greatest player there has ever been.

Yes, i was shocked by rafa's behaviour. very shocked, but for me, your opinion here is respected, and thanks.

i agree maxi, like carrie was the one who said roger was an average tennis player. like its one thing to hate federer becoz of his personality and demeanour(so i respect ur opinion homos), but its another thing to deny reality.

maxi i'm about to head off so just to explain, i didn't mean that YOU hate rafa. it was a general statement. i'm sure you'll agree with me there are fans who hate rafa, fed, djoker, muzz, etc. that's all i meant.

as for chela and hewitt, yes i saw it as relevant to bring up but more to do with the clown who brought up the rafa-gaudio video. it was simply to reiterate my point about behaviour in the heat of the moment. i know you were asking only about the gaudio video and that's why i also replied to it with the additional egs as a comparative point.

as for carrie, i don't know why you are telling me all that. you should sort it out with her and if you can't, you'll just have to accept it. everything you say about her, maxi, i can apply to at least a couple of fed fans on this site. the fans will not agree or get along always, maxi, you're going to have to accept that. pursue it if you think it's important enough but i won't interfere as only you and carrie know exactly what's going on between you both. i don't follow all your arguements so it wouldn't be fair for me to comment. you are not the only one who's frustrated about fan behaviour, just ask ricky and cheryl :)

ok tj600 thanks.

maxi, you seem to have a very thick skin, I made it clear early on that I am no longer interested in what you have to say, and I am glad you have found a new bedfellow, you and GoMuzza are welcome to each other.

I would appreciate it if you refrain from mentioning me in your posts.

Thanks.

From what I can remember 56.4% of pollsters thought Federer would win the tournament, now only 52.1% think so, so 4.3% have seen sence, 52.1% are still deluded.

carrie: i think the percentages remain as they are even after the player is knocked out - because they don't re-ask the question to get a more accurate and up-tp-date view. so if a player is knocked out and new voters vote for another who's still in it, the percentage for fed drops. it's relative. i think.

homos, I know that, I'm just having a bit of fun. During OZ, I suggested that they up-dated it as people got knocked out and they did.

Actually homos, what they did during OZ was re-do the poll and let people vote again for the players left in the draw, until the final when there'll be only two names left.

right. i didn't know they re-did the oz poll. or i forgot. i find them funny. of course most fans would vote their favourite. probably only few would vote objectively. they should ask more controversial questions or maybe the blogs are for things like that ;)

maxi, forgot to mention that you and your new best friend make a very powerful gruesome twosome.

carrie,thanks for that, such a grown up remark from you! :)

i have never really given Gmuzza any time at all and i was not aware of the rafa video,but i did click on and see for my own eyes with subtitles (i wont say ears!), could not believe what i saw/read. i think (to me) Gomuzza is very much a rafa fan, just behaves as if he is hurt, dont you believe?),no. i am nothing like gomuzza.and certainly me? powerful? hardly like that at all, else why would i need to go on assertiveness course? because i take insults from adults, am used to them, you included but learn a lot about the hearing world and feel it is not a nice place to be - especially when people like you are in it.

homos and i were having a very civil mature discussion and then once again you come on with garbage. i wonder what you do, do with your life?are you married? if so, you must spend little time with your husband/partner because you are always on here attacking posters, especially roger.
then i think you must be someone who perhaps is retired? a spinster? perhaps bitter? like Miss Havisham in Great Expectations? perhaps jilted at the altar by a lover and that has stayed with you. perhaps your lover was a roger lookey likey, which is why you hate so much. i feel sorry for you a lot of time. you must feel lonely and sad (sorry to say). I hope you feel better soon and that one day, you learn to love yourself once more - and others -

TOILET BREAKS ARE ILLEGAL CONFIRMED! HOMOS THE GREAT SAYS SO! Swearing in the heat of the moment has been legalized but toilet breaks are punishable by one year ban right homos? Dumb men!

@Gomuzza,homos

All players take toilet breaks, sometimes when needed sometimes when they need a break, get back concentration. Nothing wrong about it, perfectly within the rules of the game. If homos is more put out by blatant r*cism, than by making use of rules to collect yourself, that just shows what kind of person he is.


@Homos
Come on Homos, you keep stating in this thread and the other one that anything done in the heat of the moment doesnt bother you but fed taking that toilet break to turn momentum was off putting for you.

He was down then, he needed a break, so he took it using a rule that is perfectly legal and waited used it so that he doesn't have to play withe sun in his eyes. basically he was using the time to remove a disadvantage to himself than to oppress to put the davy at a disadvantage.

I don't get your logic just like i almost never get Gomuzza's logic.

Edit -
*If homos is NOT more put out by blatant r*cism, than by making use of rules to collect yourself, that just...

aaaww look!! i wonder why torres' little friend hasn't come by here to post old quotes from me where i say toilet breaks are illegal...mmmm....i'm pretty sure he'll even find one where i even say it warrants the death penalty.

FIG, much as i appreciate you trying to discuss this unlike the tards i dealt with yesterday, i've explain my point more times than i care to remember. if you don't get it you don't get it. i was having a very nice discussion with maxi - which i actually enjoyed - and i don't want to spoil. maxi doesn't like the toilet issue brought up and i've made my point to her/him already and tj600 got my point too. cheers.

homos@8.53: completely agree with everything you wrote. I don't even have a problem with Serena, stuff happens, she over-reacted, end of. Nobody is perfect....not even little old me......

Deuce my friend...how are you? It's been ages!!!! Is the couch/Tapas gang still going strong? Things are the same....urgh...

remi darling! I spotted u on another thread and said a big HELLO! Welcome back. Fan4T left as well so it hasn't been nearly so much fun here and as u say...same old same old....Now don't go away again, you hear....please...

it's true that people are so judgemental about roger. the times that i have seen andy murray swear on TV and the TV channel have apologised. His has a difficult mouth sometimes. fortunately, the channels are able to mute the expletive (most of the time). let's face it, roddick and murray have to be the worst on tour right now. and as for smashing racquets? well, happened twice this year already with murray, and the same with novak, so it happens at the top. the stress of the game (after reading murray's recent interview), shows the immense pressure they must be under on the tour. yes, the money is great, but to live in hotel rooms around the world, is hardly a recipe for stability. It is a "short term aim" for a "long term gain". so the odd expletive, smashing racquet should not be over-analysed, unprofessional though it is, understandable it is.

323!

Do I win a Mazda, or have they all been recalled too?

well federer fanas djokovic fans muzza fans rafa fans doesnot matter.what i have noticed is that there is so much diff bwtween the mannerisms,tolerance levels etc among diff posters here. maxi is a roger fan but its always nice to talk to her/him abt and issue becoz he/she (are u he or she?:P) patiently listens and offers respect...FEDisthegoat is also a nice poster here....duece and alex, ollyk and his nole brigade company :P....and many more....and obviously i love my fellow rafa fans too...we all shd be patient and listen to each other and then come up with reasonable posts :D

GoMuzza is by far the MOST RATIONAL POSTER here..and this was the MOST SARCASTIC STATEMENT U ARE EVER GOING TO SEE !! :D :D

@vamosrafa,

now that the topic has exhausted comments, we will all start commentary on each other aye? By the way, I must say that like tennislover, you also seem to enjoy other players doing well too and not just your player and I appreciate that. I am completely rooting for rafa in IW and through the clay court season right up until FO final :) I just hope fed fans don't kick me out of their camp due to that.

By the way, I forgot to thank you for tipping me off on that Sachin innings, my gramps is a brit and he was over the top when i managed to get him a replay of that game (I couldn't figure out why he was so elated at seeing someone from another country though, but i guess that is how loving a game for the sake of the game works eh?)

@FEDistheGOAT...LOL...mentioning names was not a good thing i guess so I am sorry abt it :D,,and u are right the topic has xhausted comments :P

my pleasure my friend, agree with 'guess' aswell :D:D

There seems to be a lovefest going on between Rafans and Fedfans at the moment, which is a good thing. This morning on the radio, they had a phone-in about why support for a team or player could decsend into hatred or loathing of the other side, and one of the callers was asked what he would do if his daughter married a fan from the other side, and his response was: 'that's a ridiculous question, it will never happen, my daughter knows the rules, and no Sunderland supporter is marrying into my family'. He meant it too, and it made me think how silly it is for all of us to get so carried away.

In appreciation of the nice words about Rafa by Fedfans, here is a link to a video of Federer when he got the giggles during an interview. For those who haven't seen it.

Here is the link:

http://www.tennis-x.com/xblog/2010-03-18/3645.php

hahaahaha..thnx carrie...nice ending too ..reference to rafa's speaking spanish allowing him to have a good record against roger! LOL

btw is was wondering what genders diff posters here have :P now i know quite a alot of you since long times but not sure whether u are male or female fellows...carrie is a female fellow....what abt maxi..FEDistheGOAT...duece...homos..nativenewyorker is a female too...tj600,chr18, ?? it wud be kinda nice to knw it :D

vamosrafa, you are right it does make a whole lot of difference to know if you are communicating with a male or female. I'm assuming you are female.

ok vamosrafa is trying to turn this thread into the facebook of TT. Maybe once tt develops a forum then we'll all have to have profiles. As to your question, I dreamed of playing the ATP tour once :)

vamosrafa, i dont mind telling you at all. i am a girl, and you? i think a man? - you are very sweet.

carrie - LOL at the video. I had not seen that before, so thanks for posting. There is another I know of where Fed had the giggles. In Basel.... Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETRQj2z-y7M

lol..its okay..the question had a silly part i know that :D.... carrie got it rite tho,it makes a diff when communicating to a male/female...anyway its ur choice na, :P
maxi thanks forur sweet reply....so carrie and maxi i am a male(boy) ,a university student....:D

well, im a male. started uni recently...

good luck in your studies vamos and tj! (sounds like a drink! :). vamos, i thought you were a male (dont know why).tj, yes. too. and i enjoy your posts as well. you both know a lot about tennis (more than me!).

i saw the fed video when it first came out, in september. I laughed a lot then, and it was just as funny 7 months on! there is another one out (not of giggling), but a serious interview with pinto and novak saying how much he wants to be no.1 (of course).

hey tj..its my first year in uni too :) ...maxi...u also know a lot of tennis ..its just that u are nice nd dont wana brag abt it :P

here is something fransisco ROig (rafa's secondary coach) had to say abt rafa:
?I have never seen Rafa play like he has this year in my life,? Roig, a 41-year-old former tour pro, said. ?In Qatar, in Abu Dhabi, in the first two sets against Andy [Murray] and this week, we have seen he is a more complete player, someone who is able to do more things with his game.?

So, what of the doom-mongers? ?People have no idea,? he said. ?To talk about these things, you have to be inside of the work day to day, to know what he can do. I see him on the practice court every day and I am surprised every day.

?I stand behind him and I do not know how a player can hit the ball so strong, so good. I have never seen anyone in this sport who can arrive at a ball with not a good stance and still generate so much power. That is something he has had all his life, but now we are adding to his game.?

There are no real trade secrets in tennis ? once you have seen a player often enough, you sense what they do well and not so well.

Nadal, the world No 3, has never had a devastating serve, his ground strokes lacked on different surfaces the bite he could rouse from the clay, so they needed to acquire a flatter trajectory. The assault on his limbs from hard-court tournaments would always count against him. Roig believes that he has four, maybe five years at 100 per cent and then he may have to call it a day.

?Rafa has finished four years as the No 2 player in the world and one as the No 1,? he said. ?And he still has the ambition to win the big tournaments. I asked him once how many grand slams [tournaments] he thought he would win and he said, ?Six, seven??. I said for a player of his talents, he should have between eight and ten because he is a better player than those who have that number, in my opinion.

?But tennis is much, much tougher now than it was three years ago, especially among the top players.?

Into the semi-finals here, where he plays Ivan Ljubicic, the veteran from Croatia, today there is a sense that Nadal is relishing his tennis again. Watching him in the doubles with Marc López one is taken by the intensity, the drive, the frustration when a single ball goes awry. There is a gleam about him.

?He feels he is a really good player again,? Roig said. ?It has never been only power with Rafa, but ability also and people do not see that. It is not always nice the way he does it, he is not [Tim] Henman. This is a different tennis. Sometimes, at the important moments, it is more important to be a mechanical player than a smooth one. Rafa knows the importance of how much risk he can take, and what risk is beneficial.?

There are not many coaches who would speak the way Roig does, be he part-time or not. The essence of belief in his player is all pervasive.

great find, thanks for the article vamosrafa.

vamosrafa, thanks for this, it's very encouraging.

Do you know, I thought you were a girl, because I thought Rafa only had fangirls - very very encouraging to see that contrary to the usual opinion, people don't only like him for his looks.

vamosrafa, that was a great article you posted on your rival, full of insight; intelligence and analysis on his tennis - the way it should be. good luck to you.

thnx fellows :D

hey nice article mate. thnx

someone praising Tim Henman...!! Lordy, lordy!! Wonders will never etc

FEDistheGOAT, here is a videolink from Tom Gainey on tennis.x (and to all other federer fans out there). It's sweet.

http://www.tennis-x.com/xblog/2010-03-22/3697.php#comment-12 9051

@FEDistheGOAT, thanks.
carrie, LOL, certainly there are ppl who like rafa for other reasons ,only becoz of his looks :D :D he is awesome.

I thought this blog from Cheryl Murray generated enough debate between fans of Fed and Nad with great fireworks ending in some kind of truce. The most interesting thing that every other person wanting to know 'hey u r a boy or a girly?' Very interesting. So I found everyone I thought to be fair was fair - by sex and the others not so fair were hmmm guyes.

But the moot point is CM stirred a hornest's nest as I blogged several weeks back. It was indeed to CM's credit that it had such a long and protracted conversation between the two groups of fans.

CM astutely placed the views to excite- like- Nadal hung a little longer, nobody has done that to RF before DP. CM has forgotten the match between RF and MS in AO long time back- that hell of a five setter lo9ng before the emergence of RN as a potent weapon against RF.

Then Cheryl astutely spoke about the walking on water, ballet dancing and so on, at the same time commenting fierce is only attributable to the muscleman from malorca.

Truth is every other guy in tennis today for the last seven years have fought to dethrone him from the pedestal of invincibility and it is to the credit of Nadal that he almost did it in 2008 faltering at the USO but reclaiming in AO in 2009.

But to his credit the Phoenix rose again. Roger had shown to the Tennis world that he did go nowhere after 2008.

Then this applies to Rafael too. He has not gone anywhere and would be back to his very best and win titles. He, like Roger before him, is sometimes playing erratically like the second set against Ivan in IW and he said it was bad match he played an accident, as much as Roger told of his defeat against Marcos- passive, wrong selection of shots at the wrong time.

Lastly your love for Rafa (or Roger) need not be your hatred towards Roger(or Rafa).

Both are great entertainers of our times- no matter who eventually becomes the goat.

I thought this blog from Cheryl Murray generated enough debate between fans of Fed and Nad with great fireworks ending in some kind of truce. The most interesting thing that every other person wanting to know 'hey u r a boy or a girly?' Very interesting. So I found everyone I thought to be fair was fair - by sex and the others not so fair were hmmm guyes.

But the moot point is CM stirred a hornest's nest as I blogged several weeks back. It was indeed to CM's credit that it had such a long and protracted conversation between the two groups of fans.

CM astutely placed the views to excite- like- Nadal hung a little longer, nobody has done that to RF before DP. CM has forgotten the match between RF and MS in AO long time back- that hell of a five setter lo9ng before the emergence of RN as a potent weapon against RF.

Then Cheryl astutely spoke about the walking on water, ballet dancing and so on, at the same time commenting fierce is only attributable to the muscleman from malorca.

Truth is every other guy in tennis today for the last seven years have fought to dethrone him from the pedestal of invincibility and it is to the credit of Nadal that he almost did it in 2008 faltering at the USO but reclaiming in AO in 2009.

But to his credit the Phoenix rose again. Roger had shown to the Tennis world that he did go nowhere after 2008.

Then this applies to Rafael too. He has not gone anywhere and would be back to his very best and win titles. He, like Roger before him, is sometimes playing erratically like the second set against Ivan in IW and he said it was bad match he played an accident, as much as Roger told of his defeat against Marcos- passive, wrong selection of shots at the wrong time.

Lastly your love for Rafa (or Roger) need not be your hatred towards Roger(or Rafa).

Both are great entertainers of our times- no matter who eventually becomes the goat.

I thought this blog from Cheryl Murray generated enough debate between fans of Fed and Nad with great fireworks ending in some kind of truce. The most interesting thing that every other person wanting to know 'hey u r a boy or a girly?' Very interesting. So I found everyone I thought to be fair was fair - by sex and the others not so fair were hmmm guyes.

But the moot point is CM stirred a hornest's nest as I blogged several weeks back. It was indeed to CM's credit that it had such a long and protracted conversation between the two groups of fans.

CM astutely placed the views to excite- like- Nadal hung a little longer, nobody has done that to RF before DP. CM has forgotten the match between RF and MS in AO long time back- that hell of a five setter lo9ng before the emergence of RN as a potent weapon against RF.

Then Cheryl astutely spoke about the walking on water, ballet dancing and so on, at the same time commenting fierce is only attributable to the muscleman from malorca.

Truth is every other guy in tennis today for the last seven years have fought to dethrone him from the pedestal of invincibility and it is to the credit of Nadal that he almost did it in 2008 faltering at the USO but reclaiming in AO in 2009.

But to his credit the Phoenix rose again. Roger had shown to the Tennis world that he did go nowhere after 2008.

Then this applies to Rafael too. He has not gone anywhere and would be back to his very best and win titles. He, like Roger before him, is sometimes playing erratically like the second set against Ivan in IW and he said it was bad match he played an accident, as much as Roger told of his defeat against Marcos- passive, wrong selection of shots at the wrong time.

Lastly your love for Rafa (or Roger) need not be your hatred towards Roger(or Rafa).

Both are great entertainers of our times- no matter who eventually becomes the goat.

I thought this blog from Cheryl Murray generated enough debate between fans of Fed and Nad with great fireworks ending in some kind of truce. The most interesting thing that every other person wanting to know 'hey u r a boy or a girly?' Very interesting. So I found everyone I thought to be fair was fair - by sex and the others not so fair were hmmm guyes.

But the moot point is CM stirred a hornest's nest as I blogged several weeks back. It was indeed to CM's credit that it had such a long and protracted conversation between the two groups of fans.

CM astutely placed the views to excite- like- Nadal hung a little longer, nobody has done that to RF before DP. CM has forgotten the match between RF and MS in AO long time back- that hell of a five setter lo9ng before the emergence of RN as a potent weapon against RF.

Then Cheryl astutely spoke about the walking on water, ballet dancing and so on, at the same time commenting fierce is only attributable to the muscleman from malorca.

Truth is every other guy in tennis today for the last seven years have fought to dethrone him from the pedestal of invincibility and it is to the credit of Nadal that he almost did it in 2008 faltering at the USO but reclaiming in AO in 2009.

But to his credit the Phoenix rose again. Roger had shown to the Tennis world that he did go nowhere after 2008.

Then this applies to Rafael too. He has not gone anywhere and would be back to his very best and win titles. He, like Roger before him, is sometimes playing erratically like the second set against Ivan in IW and he said it was bad match he played an accident, as much as Roger told of his defeat against Marcos- passive, wrong selection of shots at the wrong time.

Lastly your love for Rafa (or Roger) need not be your hatred towards Roger(or Rafa).

Both are great entertainers of our times- no matter who eventually becomes the goat.

newfangkc, you are right, there is no need for fans of both camps to hate each other, because both Roger and Rafa like and respect each other, sadly it does get very heated here. If only everyone will accept that we are fans of one or the other because we see what we see in them. Some fans even like both of them at the same time, which is no mean feat.

I hope you are right that Rafa will be back, It's been a long time. To think that last year this time, he could virtually walk on water.

Vamos Rafa!

Now look at what happened in Miami! Erratic, not sharp at all and most often without either the passion or the focus, Roger is gifting sets and that too in tie breakers and he concedes that his game has a few issues while Nadal had grinded and then cruised to the semi. His progress is slow but steady. So would also be that for Roger. Slow start is making his matches difficult. Without the cutting edge first serves his game is now less dominating than as it used to be. Thanks carrie.

Three hundred and fifty-three...

Can anyone tell me the Gaston/Rafa incident, was it during their match in Argentina in 2005, when Rafa was only an eighteen year old kid? If I'm not wrong, Rafa had won the first set, and the Argentines were unhappy and they did something to irritate the young Rafa, and he went on to lose the next two sets 0-6, 1-6. I think Rafa was clearly upset by the crowd's behaviour and in the heat of the moment, had said something unpleasant.

I won't hold it against an eighteen year old kid. He has since grown up and I believe that even though he still swears now, he won't pass racist remarks like those anymore. I think he had learned to wise up.

Please, all these players are no saints, don't tell me that Fed or others don't swear or pass remarks like these in private. We don't know them personally, so what's that to be upset about? Don't we curse and swear as well?

Stop the hatred as both Rafa and Fed are no saints, mind you!!

fed does not swear in public as far as i know..
he just says
"oh God!! this is killimg me!!" :P

clayking, didn't I say in private? Also, Fed got mad too and said the 's' and even the 'f' word too! In the heat of the moment, they can say anything. I won't hold Fed or Rafa high up there as saints or whatever. They are human like us, so they, like us are subjected to all sorts of emotions. To hold something that happened five years ago against a guy who was then eighteen years old, I find it rather unwarranted and even shows that we are unforgiving. The guy has since grown up and I believe he has not behave like that anymore; if not his detractors will quickly come up with something more recent than that!

clayking, it is a matter of public record that Roger was fined for an audible obscenity at the US Open finals - he swore at the umpire during a changeover. It happened during a commerical break so TV viewers didn't get to hear it. Look up Cheryl's posts and the "Am I missing Something?" thread querying why Roger won yet another ATP players' sportsmanship award for 2009 in the light of this and other incidents last year (e.g. Miami meltdown vs Novak). It's all there.

oops!!
how did i forget that!!
actually i just wanted to highlight that oh God it is killing me part!!
just wanted to get this message across that fed moans too!!
but i seriously forgot about us open!!

I've seen the youtube video about Rafa/Gaudio, it was MonteCarlo 05. It seems both of them, esp Gaudio, are unhappy about something that started the unpleasant conversation. Anyway no difference to me, both of them had since moved on. I saw their match at Monte Carlo 2006 (have it on DVD, maybe I'll get the 2005 match on DVD as well!) and they were OK then, probably both of them already gotten over that incident. It seems fans here still couldn't, esp that one particular 'banned' poster who started all these. As I said we should moved on from there. Rafa has grown up and he is not going to make the same mistake or comment again, esp in public. Case closed for me.

Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award (voted by ATP players)
Roger Federer : Six straight year

Most Improved Player of the Year (voted by ATP players)
John Isner

Newcomer of the Year (voted by ATP players)
Horacio Zeballos

Comeback Player of the Year (voted by ATP players)
Marco Chiudinelli

Roger is the classic greatest. Love Roger

Time for roger to get more credit :) He just beat everyone in the Top 5 in the same tournament, another unheard of feat!

TMF - The Uber Tennis player!

The WTF Final reminds me of The Hmaburg Master 2007 final:

2-6,6-2,6-0 - similar score line to WTF 2010, similar kind of aggressive play from rog, and rog in red too.

Maybe Red attire plus unbridled aggression is the way forward for rog against rafa

TMF - The Uber Tennis Player

FitG, rafa didnt get bageled today! So it is not similiar score line!

My Analysis on 2011 possibilities for fed... It will take a super human effort to get back top rank.. it is tougher than it seems at first go..

http://www.scribd.com/doc/44269033/Can-Federer-Be-Number-1-in-2011 -Fedex-2011-Analysis

Give your comments please...

For what it's worth, FIG, 6-2's and 6-3's are not terribly comparable: 2 breaks up versus 1. Same for 6-0's and 6-1's: 3 breaks up versus 2 breaks up.

Refactored in terms of break ups the scores are: -2, 2, 3 (Federer, Hamburg 2007) versus 1, -1, 2 (Federer, WTF 2010). See the difference?

All that aside,
Congratulations, FIG on the biggest YES of your life!

So sweet of you chlorostoma, merry christmas to you..

NAdal only loses when he is injured or tired!!!

Hello everyone I just have to point out a growing trend we are being forced to believe in tennis. When Nadal loses a match, he is either tired or injured.

I will start by going to last year's French Open where he lost to an inspired Soderling that played much better than the Spaniard. But what are we told by the Nadal camps and his journalistic supporters, he was carrying an injury in the match, hence he lost.

After that Nadal played a couple of pre-Wimbledon matches against Wawrinka and Hewitt and lost in straight sets. But we were once again told he had not sufficiently recovered from his TENDONITIS, hence is withdrawal from Wimbledon. I believe he didn't want to embarrass himself because his form was very poor at that moment.

Fast-forward to the US Open, a trophyless Nadal lost again to Del Potro in the US Open Semi?s and yet again he played the injury card. Let?s fast-forward to the World Tour Finals in London last year where he failed to win a single match. Guess what his excuse was? His body was very tired and he needs to rest, and he has shoulder troubles!!

Well I believe Nadal got the rest he needed and came to Australian Open this year with a clean bill of health. He played very well until he met Murray in the quarters and lost in straight sets, although he withdrew in the third set when 3-0 down, however he knew it was a lost cause and he said to himself; let me play the injury card again. And once again we were led to believe such drivel.

At the Pacific life open and Miami masters this year he managed to get to the semi?s but will always be remembered for his over-dramatic performance against Roddick at the Miami Semi?s where he hit his knee repeated when he knew he would lose the match, trying to tell the whole world that his knee is hurting. Such a performance belong to the theatre. I think that was just very pathetic and he should have lost honourably, but with Nadal he doesn?t understand that concept. He DOESNT UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT OF HONOUR!

And then less than two months later when the Rome masters came, Nadal looked larger than life and there was indication of the Tendonitis we were led to believe he suffered against Roddick. Nadal went on to win the Rome masters, Monte Carlo, Madrid masters, the French Open and Wimbledon. It has to be noted that during this period, we never heard of an injury or apparent tiredness suffered by Nadal. It was as if he was a new born man.

And now again at the WTF in London, when he lost to Federer, we are being led to believe he was tired. Please spare us the excuses and Nadal should lose honourable because this excuse of being injured or tired whenever he losed is getting more ridiculous the more he uses it.


NADAL IS A VERY POOR POOR LOSER and always tries to take away the credit from his opponents!! Being honorable in defeat is more important than fake humility when winning(even that is wearing off fast now, if federer doesnt teach him is place soon, he will soon be getting ready to complain to tournament organizers for every ball called out or if an umpire accidentally stared at him!!)


Nadal supporters must fervently hope that federer teaches nadal his place in 2011, otherwise, he will soon be getting ready to complain tournament organizers (or maybe to the presiden!) for every ball called out or if an umpire accidentally stared at him or if the opposition player fell down or looked at him etc etc!!!

Nadal is a very poor loser and fast becoming a poor winner too But at least it was not that apparent when he won so he had a relatively better year.. but as the year ended and he got into a losing record, we could see hat his temper and real character was showing through!


SEE THE TRUTH ABOUT NADAL!

This is a federer appreciation thread, take your nadal hate elsewhere.

For fed fans, Roger Federer as a greek hero! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQsrV1g_q5A&feature=related

A few excerpts for those who say that hey find Federer's game boring. Please understand that it is a reflection of you rather than on Federer. Art has always been boring to those who cant appreciate it, if you prefer soap opera or cheap thrills, at least don't exhibit you shallowness so publicly by decrying great art. You might think you are commenting on Federer's game, but you are only commenting on your own inability to appreciate great art and perfection.

The excerpts follow:

Tennis has had the world's best sportsman in the last decade (won a record four Laureus World sportsman of the Year awards in a row)?
But you would find his excellence boring?

If so, you probably find the domination of Tiger Woods, Usian Bolt, Michael Phelps, Michael Jordan and other exceptional sportsmen boring as well.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
If you find Federer boring and his excellence boring, Perhaps you should try something a bit less intellectually demanding. Shakespeare, for example.

You can enjoy sport, like everything else, on many different levels. You can buy Van Gogh table-mats and spill your soup on them, or you can give Van Gogh a lifetime of study. Federer's dominance might have lacked cheap thrills: Above all, it lacked uncertainty. It was without any of sport's usual soap-opera pleasures.

And if you find excellence boring, then direct your attention away from sport, where excellence is the goal, even if it is rarely found. Instead, concentrate your mind, such as it is, on East Enders, where they value cheap gratification above such tedious matters as excellence.

There are people who will tell you that Sunflowers is a bit of a cliche? and that Hamlet is too full of quotations.

The same people will tell you that Federer is boring.

You can find shallowness in all things, and you can find profundity. It all depends on what kind of a person you are, or whether or not you are concentrating.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= -=-=-=-=

That is the end of excerpts. I hope it was not too intellectually challenging for those of you who are not fans. For Federer fans of course, you probably knew this all along.

So before you say a word about anything great being boring, ask yourself if you also find War and Peace boring? Most likely you are a big fan of Sydney Sheldon and have never heard of Nabokov or Proust.

@TheObserver,12/3/10 6:56 PM

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/F19623973?thread=7920001&show=50


Is this the same The Observer?

The article seems to be getting a very good response there. I wonder why it is getting such a cold reaction here?

Wait I know:

2 reasons:

1. It is stereotypical and offensive to lots of people here who really doesnt like Rog
2. You posted it on a Federer thread that no nadal fan is interested in leveraging. And FYI, this site has mostly anti federer fans, it is the sad truth.

Try posting it on the vamos rafa thread and you'll get plenty of comments and it will also help get our beloved thread to 600 posts. Game?

that The Observer argument... very lame, very unrealistic

federer wins a match against rafa on his best surface, and on rafa's worst, at the end of a tiring year (for both, but especially for rafa) with rafa playing 4 hours more than fed, and still managing to easily win a set, and now everybody is talking again about how great is federer. federer had NO matchup this finals. wait 12 months for rafa's 7 consecutive slams and first WTF, then see what you have to say about the great federer.

Tennis is a SPORT. When I want elegance and art, I go to an art gallery or the ballet, or yes, I am even smart enough to read a book. Cheap insulting shots like yours observer, are the epitome of crass and the hallmark of those "intellectually challenged."

Thanks for proving me right, fan4tennis. Sports is about achieving the superlative, it is about elegance and art, if you cant appreciate it, I understand that it is a waste of time to talk further with you.

and how exactly have you been proved right???

Roger Federer Gets Kisses From Nadal Family

A very sweet video :)

[Check out poor Kevin Spacey (lex luthor!) in the background - Superman doesn't notice him :)]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3zJZuE1REI&feature=player_embed ded

FIG, the Nadals are just showing how to be gracious in defeat.

nadline, of course, they are showing where nadal gets all his good grace from.

The Kevin Spacey part was truly funny though... Was he pretending to be a security guard to get a shot at meeting federer? :P

i heared that his best movie is "american beauty" which makes it strange to not recognize him maybe he didnt excpect him that is why he didnt say hello he likes celebrity so i would take it he would shake hands at least but it is funny. i tried to know who was his faviourate any idea?

Hello, I am male, 48 born in Spain, now residing in California. I find it hard to be a true Rafa fan without being a Federer fan, given how much Rafael idolizes Roger. Not only is Roger the greatest player to ever grace a tennis court, but he brings the best out of Rafa. Of course I am cheering on Nadal to achieve as much as Roger has, and in some cases (Masters titles) he's already there. But as Rafa says, there is a long way to go.
I also believe that Roger is far from done collecting titles. Check out this article:
http://blogs.bettor.com/Roger-Federer-thanks-American-and-Sw iss-coaches-Paul-Annacone-and-Severin-Luthi-after-Barclays-ATP-World-T our-Finals-victory-a45506

It would seem that the rivalry is on... Not even Lex Luthor can stop these Supermen. I sure hope to see R&R fighting it out in many finals in 2011!
Cheers!

Awesome video on celebrities - tennis lookalikes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXLqDrCW2fw

Roger Federer is right now on top of the "ATP Power Rankings" which I believe are independent rankings designed to aid in betting; taking into account all sorts of variables and math formulas to determine who is performing better at a given time. Anybody here know the criteria for Power Rankings in men's tennis?

Power ranking is more like a real time assessment of who is Hot and who is Not. So fed had a hotter closing season i guess...

Oh no, Space's best movie is surely "The Usual Suspects" but now he is director, sometimes actor, at Old Vic in London so his movie profile is not so high these days.

"He beat Tommy Haas because he refused to lose". Nah, Haas missed a juvenile volley to give Federer the upperhand in that match. Federer fights hard, but he's not in the league of tennis's best fighters. Most skilled player ever, perhaps - but fighter? Nah, there've been way better.

samprallica, there might have been better, but never one who enjoyed tennis more.

deuce:
i meant Federer's faviourate movie is " american beauty" that is why i thought he should recognize him, and my question whom was Space's faviourate Rafa, or Roger?

I'm not denying Federer's love for the game. He's definitely one of the best I've ever seen, just saying that he isn't tennis's definition of steely nerves. Then again, he's probably the most complete player ever so it doesn't matter.

Roger Federer - Hero -- Season 2011 Preview (HD)

Roger Federer, It has been an honour to share in your pain and your glory and your quest for Tennis Perfection. Bring on Season 2011, and we hope and pray there are more seasons to come.

TMF - The Uber Tennis Player


@samprallica, thanks. :) But honestly I dont remember any time when he lost a match due to lack of nerves... Nadal plain wore him out. Nobody can outplay the master outside of clay, and on clay too very very rarely.

Roger Federer - Hero -- Season 2011 Preview (HD)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEF6pDGois8

Roger Federer, It has been an honour to share in your pain and your glory and your quest for Tennis Perfection. Bring on Season 2011, and we hope and pray there are more seasons to come.

@samprallica, thanks. :) But honestly I dont remember any time when he lost a match due to lack of nerves... Nadal plain wore him out. Nobody can outplay the master outside of clay, and on clay too very very rarely.

TMF - The Uber Tennis Player

Roger Federer: An Aging King? So Much More

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/505389-roger-federer-an-agi ng-king-so-much-more


"He?s the type of guy we like to call the People's Champion. People want to see him win, wish for it badly. His pain is our pain. His joy is our joy.

Every time he wins, we feel like we're part of his victory. It?s not that Federer fans are delusional, but it's just that if there is one person who can do this.

It?s Roger.


Federer's humility towards his fans is something tennis fans have never really experienced.

King Pete was considered dull, Andre was a bit wild, Borg was very private, and McEnroe was dynamite. But Roger was plain old Roger. That's what makes him special.

He's a real person. He's not an enigma. Off the court, he's not trying to be somebody. If you met him at McDonald's and you didn't know who he was, you would have no idea that he's one of the best athletes in the world."

This is what I love the most about federer, he is a REAL person to his fans, he doesnt try to hide anything, doesn't give us fake celebriy humility or try to create an image for himself. He jus plain IS!


"The funny thing is Roger had been lauded as the GOAT way before he won his 16th Grand Slam title unlike other champions who HAD to achieve before they could even be acknowledged as a candidate.

There is no doubt in everyone's minds that Federer is the GOAT and his Grand Slam tally only consolidates it."


PS:Check out the amazing results for the pol on this article -

Which of these champions gave the most impact to the sport

Roger Federer-88.5%
Pete Sampras - 3.8%
Bjorn Borg - 3.3%
Rod Laver - 1.9%
Andre Agassi - 2.5%

Fed's tennis is not boring but his dominance is boring. If not for Rafa, just imagine how boring the tennis scene can become during the period 2005-2007, when the likes of Roddick, Blake, Robredo, Gonzo, Haas, Ljuby all of them couldn't win a match against Fed. And dear Nalby
was sleeping all along and only woke up at end of 2007. Rafa's appearance certainly make tennis more interesting. Someone once commented that as a Fed fan, each time Fed played, as long as it's not against Rafa, he'll get ready his drinks and popcorn, sit back and relax, and watch Fed played the game with no worries, knowing very well that Fed will sure win. If you are a Fed fan, you really have no worry back then except when he played Rafa. As fans of other players, I don't think they'll enjoy Fed's dominance that much. There's always two sides to a coin, so Fed fans cannot take for granted that everyone has to bow to Fed and appreciate him like his fans do.

Right now is Rafa going to dominate the tennis scene? Most likely, but unlike Fed, Rafa has to fight hard on the hard courts in order to dominate, due to the very nature of Rafa's game not being built on hard courts. Had the tours being built with 60-70% around clay events, we'll see Rafa dominating like Fed did in 2005-2007, which frankly speaking will be boring too, especially to non Rafa fans. However since majority of the tours events are on hard courts, that will make Rafa's dominance more interesting, as he has to fight against Fed, Nole, Murray, Delpo, Sod, Berdych and many other good hard courts players to exert his authority over them.

As to who plays more beautiful tennis, I say beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. While Fed plays with grace and fluidity, Rafa plays with speed and explosive power. I love Rafa's play because of his demonstration of his awesome musculine power, this is something women don't have, not even Serena Williams! Furthermore, Rafa is fast improving his tennis skills, and he is one chess master on the tennis court, so Rafa's tennis is fast moving from plain power to power with more sophisticated play, ie from an unpolished gem to become one polished and well cut priceless gem.

No conflicts there about Fed and Rafa, both should be appreciated and loved by tennis fans, for we do not always have to greats appearing at the same time and make things interesting for tennis fans in general.

I agree with you lucky, there's nothing "boring" about either of these players, but what is boring is the inevitability that either will win every match they play. I personally do not want to watch a match where someone is playing "flawless" tennis and the other is being wiped off the court....unless it's Andy playing Sod of course ;) That's why, for me, Andy v Rafa at WTF was the best 3 setter of the year, it tipped one way, then the other and in between some magic tennis.
And I know Rafa fans will hate me for saying this but...the inevitability of Rafa's dominance on clay this year, was boring for me. We've talked about Delpot perhaps he can challenge Rafa on clay? It seems his best surface, it's where his one win against Andy has taken place, I believe. Perhaps Novak too can start to rise to this challenge. Unfortunately this surface does not seem to suit Andy as well as other two..

deuce, frankly speaking this year's clay season was a bit boring because of Rafa's absolute dominance and the likes of Nole and Fed didn't show up. In the past, for eg 2008 & 2009, both Fed and Nole had put up much resistance against Rafa. Though they failed, at least they provided some interesting matches, like Hamburg 2008, and MC/Rome/Madrid 2009.

I believe for the next two years, Rafa will continue his dominance on clay, thereafter I am not sure. You mentioned Delpo on clay, but I think Delpo's favorite surface is still the hard courts. Delpo did play well against Fed at RG 2009, perhaps that was sign for things to come in the future, though I still think Rafa is too good for Delpo on clay. Getting near to Fed on clay doesn't equate to getting near to Rafa on clay, I'm sure both Fed and Nole would agree with me. Delpo was unfortunate that he had his wrist injury, if not who knows how much he could improve further in 2010? Now he needs at least one year to get back into shape and another year to improve and develop his game, that means he needs another two years to really threaten the top four guys. Well honestly, I think Rafa was fortunate that his 2010, his redemption year, was alot smoother with Delpo out of the way and the other top four guys were having their own ups and downs during the year. This takes nothing away from Rafa's achievements of course, as his fan I'm very happy with what he has achieved, especially coming back from the rock bottom of his career and surged to his new career high, siezing the opportunities presented to him and by his own hard work and determination, overcome all his difficulties and achieved what he achieved.

lucky, agree totally with what u say about Rafa. Now, if only Andy had his mindset, wow wouldn't that be something? :)

I was going through some of the earlier comments here on comparing rog and rafa, I believe this wouldn't be a discussion if Rafa was good enough to challenge Federer during Federer's peak. When Federer had fallen from his peak due to illness, Rafa took an opportunity. Not because Rafa's game has improved a lot as it's been claimed.

Rafa's Win-Loss record this year is same as his past years, except he had few more GS, since Roger was not in his form and good health.

The only reason rafa won 3 GS this year is that Rog was not in form, and we all know who was the King Of Slams, with The king not around to protect what was his, rafa made hay. But come 2011 and if the king is fit again, rafa will be lucky to win one slam.

Rafa is more like Hewitt, took an opportunity when there was a vacuum left between Sampras and Federer.

Right now there is an opening as Fed is winding down, and the next big player is expected to take his mantle. Once that next player comes along the slot filling counter puncher (like hewitt) will ow out to the next great player.

Have fun till this temporary vacuum is filled.

Observer wrote: "The king not around to protect what was his"

They weren't "his" to protect--lol. The 2009 USO defending champ was Delpo, Rafa never even played Wimby 2009 (in defense of his 2008 Wimby title). It isn't Rafa's fault that fed counldn't make the finals in the slams, just as it isn't fed's fault that Rafa didn't make the finals at RG 2009 so fed could complete his career slam.

Your a fedfan that whines if Rafa fans make excuses, yet your posts are full of NOTHING BUT EXCUSES FOR FEDS LOSSES! Plus, all your "if's" (if the king is fit again, if Rafa was good enough to challenge fed in his peak) are just hopeful wishes on your part. Rafa has beaten fed when fed was in his peak (and Rafa a mere teenager) and we always hear what great shape fed is in because of his schedule and style of tennis. Only time we hear of fed's illnesses/injuries is when he loses or people are trying to demean another players win against him.

TheObserver, I'm sure your Observation is incorrect. So Rafa didn't beat Fed during his prime in 2004 - 2007? I remember a seventeen years old Rafa beating the then no.1 player Fed in straight sets at Miami in 2004; Rafa also had beaten Fed on the hard court at Dubai in 2006, during Fed's PEAK, not to mention Rafa beating Fed time and again on the clay courts, and ran Fed close during the 2007 Wimbledon final, Fed having to beat Rafa in five sets. Not forgetting Rafa was still an upstart in 2004/2005 and was still learning his trade on the hard courts then.

So when Fed lost, he was not in form? Was Fed not in form during the USO, after winning at Cincy and reaching the final in Toronto? For your info, Fed was not good enough to reach the final to meet Rafa because Fed was beaten by the better player Nole in the SF. All along, Fed is around during all the slams, if not how come he can have his SF streak in slams? If you think Rafa benefited from Fed's 2008, I said Fed benefited from Rafa's injury in 2009. If not for Rafa's injury in 2009, we may be seeing Rafa with eleven slams now and Fed stuck with fourteen, mind you.

You are already building up an excuse for Fed for 2011, so when Fed lose again next year, he is not fit? What a convenient excuse!! Observer, you are certainly one big Fed fanatic, refuses to face the truth, that Fed no longer rules the tennis world. Rafa is the one ruling it now, dominating over the field on all surfaces, whether you like it or not. Please learn to accept facts!

There won't be any next big player as Rafa is here to stay and will dominate for a long time, now with his prowess on clay, grass and hard courts. Rafa a counter puncher? Have you been watching his matches lately, or are you still living in 2006/2007? Well maybe you are still living in that period, I don't blame you for that, for you are still bathing in Fed's past glory!

Rafa fans will sure have fun for a long long time, certainly not temporarily. I can't say the same for the Fed fanatics though. Good luck to you Observer, next time better make some correct Observations and stopped being disillusioned!

Match for Africa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JCzd-ZOvKo&feature=player_embedded&red irect=0

December 21st...

PS: check for the scene in which nadal and federer are facing each other and nadal does his signature shake of the head move (i dont know how to describe it, you'll know when you see it) and federer tries to imitate him :) - it is 13 seconds into the video ie 0:13s

that was really funny lol

@luckystar, 12/12/10 7:24 PM

There are times in our lives when there is a fork in the road that could lead down to very different paths. Roger nearly came back from 2 sets down at Wimby 2008. At that stage Nadal had not won a GS outside Roland Garros. Who knows what could have happened if he lost that. He would have been devastated. I have no doubt that Nadal is mentally strong but if he had lost that, it could have delayed his progress. Winning important matches fuels self-belief, losing them fuels self-doubt. There is an element of W2008 that was the springboard to lift him to where he is now. However, that is all in the past and we can only talk in hypotheticals.

Federer on FB:
"On my way to picking Rafa up from the airport"
"Just picked up Rafa at the airport. Looking forward to lunch together in town."
"Went for a quick walk around downtown Zurich with Rafa before lunch."

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=482214184940&set=a.70795379 940.71425.64760994940&comments