Fed 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(10)

nadal 6-3, 4-6, 7-5.

3 main motivations for Nadal: History, sweet revenge and home advantage:

Nadal 6-2, 6-2

there is the silver racket holder with another brave prediction.. :)
and believe me rain, i would love nothing more than your prediction being right!!
i can't really sit through a 3 setter..
plus, i have another game to watch!! :)

i honestly believe that this match will probably decide the next two GS bcos the confidence gained from victory will spur on the winner. hoping for a very nadal-fed summer

nadal:6-4,4-6,6-3

i posted this in the wrong place.
i'l post it here.



nadal hasnt beaten anyone in the top 8 for over 12 months now.
this is the first top 8 player that nadal has faced in the clay court season this year.
if he cant beat a top 8 player on clay then i think its time to retire!

atr,

please dont spoil the day today for either roger fans or rafa fans. We both want to enjoy this, and with you spamming these comments all over the place, what are you trying to prove? We all know you love rafa, and these comments are just mad. Rafa is back, you know it. Roger is peaking. you know it. Neither should retire, but should both (mind and body willing), continue to give us the joy they currently are.

please, - even just for a day - this is a special day.

atr is really funny. first it was top 10 now it's top 8. next it will be top 1.

so happy to see another rafa-fed final!! i really hope it's a great match or luckystar will be disappointed!! :)

Finally, they're facing eachother again! Can't wait to see this one... the winner will take some momentum from this match into Paris. On the other hand, conditions in Madrid are different then in Paris, unless it really heats up this week in Europe (which I don't think, it's still cold in the Netherlands).

Both Fed and Nadal will be poised to win, but I'll give Fed the edge.

Fed in three: 5-7 6-4 7-6(5)

same scoreline as last year but in nadal's favour
6-4 6-4

Nadal 6-4 7-5

Fed:

7:6, 2:6, 6:4.

C'moon Federer!

Nadal - 7-5, 6-3

Nadal seems like he just doesn't feel good on Madrid clay compared to MC and Rome, where he is absolutely dominant.Fed has a good chance to beat him,but I think Nadal will prevail 5-7 6-2 6-3. I think he wants this match and title badly.

Bookmakers have made Rafa the odds-on favorite.

Federer peaking at right time. Nadal will lose. Home pressures. He is better playing on foreign soil.

I feel the FED is going to take this one. But it will be CLOSE!

Nadal seems to be the overwhelming favourite on TT, I won't make a prediction because I'm too biased, but I hope the punters on TT are right, it would be awesome to see Rafa take a bite off the trophy for the first time, and make history on two fronts - the first to win 18 Masters, and the first to win all three clay Masters in the same year.

VAMOS!

nadline I would second that to win all three clay Masters in the same year is something that would be very special indeed for Rafa... for Roger the win would mean maintaining/holding on to the #1 position no matter what happens in RG and thereby matching the Pete Sampras record of 286 weeks as #1 as of June 7.

Pardon me I meant to be the "FIRST EVER" to win all three clay Masters in the same year WOW!!! EXTREMELY special!!! It's not going to be easy... Let the games begin... C'MON!

sky, Roger being in the final of Madrid, I thought he is locked at the top spot even if he falls 1st round at RG (which is highly unlikely)?

nadline: strictly speaking, should he win the Madrid title, it would not be the lst time.
He won it in 2005 when it was an indoor hardcourt tournament. This is only the 2nd year it has been played on clay.

The information I've given was taken from an article by Tom Tebbutt Published on Saturday, May. 15, 2010 7:08PM EDT. In this article Tom Tebbutt also says if Federer loses Sunday?s final and Nadal wins the French Open, Federer would have to reach the semi-finals at Roland Garros to avoid Nadal taking over No. 1 in the rankings that come out on Monday, June 7

sorry raindrops, the above post is in response to your query

congrattsss to everyone....greatest possible prospect for this week ....our dream has been fulfilled.... as cheryl said there shall be one winner : TENNIS

prediction: roger was experimenting those drop shots frequently against ferrer and like last year he is going to play many of them against rafa.... rafa is the king of clay, fresh this time so big favorite i suppose but federer is servig supremely well and playing neatly.....

Rafa in 2 :D enjooyyy

@vamosrafa
i hope its a high quality match. If feds gonna hav any chance,he will have to serve the way he did against ferrer in the 1st set on a consistent basis.

well, since tennistalk won't talk about it,
i will just share the information here..
bryan bros defeated zimonjic/nestor 6-3, 6-4 to win madrid doubles title..

@vamosrafa: federer is not making any dropshots like against ferrer. he is not slicing the backhand return either. it is totally different tactics this match...
to me it looks like the match is played the way nadal wants it. he just won the first set...

well janadevchp is the closest!!
just missed by one point..

janadevchp is the closest i think!

hehe, the Silver Racket is still safe !!! No one did get the exact scorenie.

Vomit Raindrops !!!

vomit raindrops, you get to keep til next masters then?

well bronze racket in trouble since there is nice open from tomorrow..
but i'm sure no one will notice it!! :P
its not even listed on tennistalk tournament index..

lolz homos, yeah quiet enjoying this win of Rafa so satisfying, the intensity is grandslam-like no matter how they are going to belittle it. At least now Rafa has silenced once again those critiques that he has not DEFEATED any of the top 8 players. Now they got what they wished...it's the No. 1 that fell victim of Rafa.

Cheers homos and the rest of Rafans.

P.S. thanks for reminding me homos, comiserations to TJ, Champion7 and Sky (again).

@croc...federer played NINE drop shots in set 2 (too many for a set isnt it???) !! reason he did not play them in set 1 was that he was too much in awe of nadal , settled in set 2 !!

RAAFFFFAAA the chammpppp wooohoooooo

how are you vamosrafa, with this win, what's the ranking points now of our Guy heading to RG?

Never seen a match (let alone a tournament) end on a bad bounce/whiff like that. Oh well those are the breaks. What's up with the trophy? In Barcelona Fer'dasco got a huge trophy and 2 smaller ones, Sod even got 2 trophies. Yet in Madrid, a Masters, only 2 plates exactly the same for 1st and 2nd. The economy must be really bad now. Is Mutua Madrilena a bank or something? Hope they didn't get paid in euros since the currency is tanking right now.

hey raindrops m good wht abt you? :) ..... rafa now stands a good chance of getting back to no.1 ( plenty of work needed tho)...

roger now has 10300 and rafa has 6880 now, come RG we have a veryy interesting scenario folks....IF IF rafa wins RG he will move to 8730 and IF (big one tho) IF roger fails to reach the SF and falls in the qtr or earlier his tally wud plummet to 8660 ! , i.e rafa regains no.1 where he almost lost it last year :) that was just a possibility, we have 1000 more of them.

I will admit I was thrilled to find out Rafa took back his #2 ranking with his win over Nico in the semi.
So Rafa and Roger will (as they should be *g*) be on opposite sides of the draw.

@raindrops...lol..yes ur silver racket is safe and sounds until toronto and CLAYKING's bronze racket is safe too, but 500 events and 250 events are much more frequent

Ricky now has to defend his golden racket (the biggest prize on TT ) lol....watchout for KELLI,CHERYL and the guest analysts, Ricky :D

@vamosrafa
is it possible for djokovic to get to number 2 or 1?(doubt he will bcoz of his current form,and unlike federer,he cant up the anti by the flick of a switch)

yes,
djoko can get to no.1 (theoretically o f course)
fed currently has 10,030 points..
now if fed loses in 4th round, he will have 8310 points..
and if djoko wins he will have 8315 points..
in this scenario, if nadal is runner up, nadal will have 7900 points..
so u have djoko as no.1 :)
and this is highly unlikely...
now if djoko wins and fed does better than 4th round, djoko is no.2..
that is unlikely too..
so for djoko to get to no.1 or no.2 he will have to win FO and hope that above scenario plays out..
of course if nadal gets ousted before finals, djoko's chances for no. 2 increases.. :)

I wish Rafa could stay as long as possible atop the rankings but what I would really like to see is Rafa win US Open 2010!!!! There he would have achieved the Golden Career Grand Slam!!....something no one in the Open era has achieved....i dont think..

VAMOSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@monalysa, 5/17/10 4:36 PM
agassi has done it..
nadal can be the 2nd player ever in the history of men's tennis to do it..

Oh yeah, youre right Clayking!!.......i thought perhaps I was wrong there!!...thanks for clearing that up!!!

2nd maybe but no lesser...it will be the most prized tournament victory for rafael......IT WILL HAPPEN in the near future...im sure rafa wants to win this one very badly...

he will have to be very aggresive to win this elusive one though!!

Roger is the classic greatest. Love Roger

Roger is the classic greatest .... and his Master is Rafa.

of course winning US open anytime wud be one of the bet wins of his career..i really want him to win US BUT for me the best scenario wud be IF rafa wins US open by beating federer in the final!!! sooo special! why? here is the reason:
if he does so, rafa will earn golden career slam , we all know that BUT if he beats federer he wud also earn the FEDERER SLAM !! i.e beating federer in the finals of all slams ....that wud lift rafa's status soooo high ....so even with 7 slams he wud be regarded as one of the best ever i suppose ! they say fed is among the BEST EVER so beating this guy on all surfaces on the biggest of all tennis stages wud mean one of the biggest achievements in the past decades.

vamosrafa...........lol!!!

If that were to ever happen, Fed would retire for sure!!!...lol!!!!

It is possible that Rafa would beat Fed at the US Open to complete his career slam. One more thing to accomplish for Rafa, to win the year end championship, preferably to beat Fed for it too! That will be nice, and proves that Rafa can beat Fed on any surface; and silence some unpleasant Fed fans (not all of course, some of them are nice people), who keeps comparing Fed's 16 slams to Rafa's 6, forgetting that Fed has at least 3 years advantage over Rafa in getting to that number.

Fed need not retire even if Rafa beats him at the USO. It is to be expected sooner or later, as Rafa improves on fast hard court and Fed getting on in age. As long as Fed can continue to play well, he'll also has his chances to win some more slams. As long as he gives Rafa credit for what he has achieved, and not come out with some sour grapes, sore losers remarks when he lose to Rafa, I'm OK with him. I respect his achievements, unlike some nasty Fed fans, who always come out with sarcastic or nasty remarks about Rafa, esp when Rafa beats Fed.