Predictions :

1. Rafa to go 3-0 in RR.

2. Roger to go 2-1 in RR (losing to Murray).

3. Nole to go 1-2 in RR (beating only Berdych).

4. Robin to go 1-2 in RR (beating only Ferrer).

5. Murray to go 3-0 in RR.

6. Berdych to go 0-3 in RR.

7. Ferrer to go 0-3 in RR.

8. Roddick to go 2-1 in RR (losing only to Rafa).

Semis Murray over Roddick and Rafa over Roger.

Final Murray over Rafa.

I so wish Rafa plays Roger at the WTF. This is Rafa's worst surface, so it will be nice to see if Rafa is able to beat him here.
In all probabilities, he will beat him.

I favor Ferrer more than Roddick based on current form. Ferrer lost early in Paris because of his success in Valencia. He lost 'early' in Shanghai because he was in the final of Beijing the previous week and semifinal the week before that at KL. He had played 18 matches, if I'm nor wrong, after the USO, the same no. as Fed and Sod. Roddick played lesser matches and his form varied from tournaments to tournaments.

I think Ferrer has a chance to win one match in his group, it may be over Sod or over Murray. I think Fed and Murray may win two matches each in their group and finish as top two of the group.

For Group A, I think Rafa and Nole will finish as the top two. I hope to see Rafa vs Fed and Nole vs Murray semifinals, and either Rafa/Nole or Rafa/Murray final.

Good analysis Ricky, but I think we should not forget the psychology of head to head statistics. I agree that group B looks like the tougher group, but group A is perhaps more open than it seems at first glance. I do not see the possibility of Rafa not advancing in this group, and I would be surprised if Berdych wins any of his matches, but Roddick actually leads 5-2 against Djokovic, 6-2 against Berdych and has a moderate 3-5 against Nadal, and actually won in their last encounter. This should be compared with Roddick?s negative record against all four in group B: Federer 2-20 (!), Soderling 2-3, Murray 2-6, Ferrer 3-4. So Roddick got an excellent draw. For the same reason, Djokovic would obviously have preferred Ferrer (5-4) over Roddick (2-5). In group B, we have vice versa. Murray would obviously have preferred Roddick (6-2) over Ferrer (1-3). He must be happy to have avoided Djokovic though? Well, Djokovic is better than Soderling, but here psychology may play in. His record against Djokovic is pretty even, but Murray has won their three last encounters in straight sets. Murray's record against Soderling is also even, but here Murray has lost his two latest matches in straight sets (6-1,7-6, and 6-1, 6-4). In sum, Nadal and Federer will advance for sure, and look out for Roddick and Ferrer.

Again Nadal gets an easier draw.

it's NOT hard to tell which is the tougher group.

group A: federer, söderling, murray, ferrer. all in good or great form.

group B: nadal (injured), djokovic (still pretty good), berdych (terrible slump), roddick (slumping, just not good enough)

these groupings are ridiculously uneven!

croc why uneven? You mean uneven for Nole, because Rafa was injured, Berdych in terrible slump and Roddick in slump? So you prefer Nole in Fed's group and Sod in Rafa's group? Really? Or you prefer Murray, Nole and Rafa in the same group?

To me this is a very balanced draw, even you switch Fed and Rafa around, I would have said so too! Rafa can deal with all those players in Fed's group, no issue. As usual tennisnba wants an even more ridiculously easy draw for Fed: Sod, Roddick, Berdych. I think tennisnba is now seriously doubting Fed's ability that he/she thinks that Fed can only win with an easy draw. He can only win when he avoided Murray & Nole in the RR, and Rafa in the semi!

I assume that neither Rafa nor Roger will have any great problem to win the round robin in each group, but I think Roger got the better draw for further advancement. As a winner, he will face either Djokovic or Roddick, and he has a very good record against both. Rafa however will face Soderling, Murray or Ferrer, which one must judge as much more difficult.

I agree with croc that the groups are uneven. Group B (fed,soderling,murray and ferrer) is clearly tougher than Group A. Nadal hasnt played in a while and could be rusty. Berdych has been playing top 50 level tennis since wimbledon. Roddick has been far off his best recently. Djokovics the one that benefits,as he will cake walk into the semis unless nadal shrugs off the rust(which there is a possibility) or if roddick or berdych get hot(highly unlikely).

my semifinal picks are federer,soderling,djokovic and nadal. Am not going to go any further now.

nadal is very unreliable for this tournament, due to injury. hard to tell before his first match.

i would say the four most in form players in contest are federer, söderling, murray, ferrer... all in group b!

i dont agree.. i think nadal has the tougher draw and i say that because i rate berdych and sod pretty much equal and also becasue i rate roddick much higher than ferrer (he desreves to be too). so it is marginal but nadal has a tougher draw by the difference between roddick and ferrer as in my eyes all other things are equal....

Is it wise for murray and nadal to be playing with injury?

@FedistheGoat
"think nadal has the tougher draw and i say that because i rate berdych and sod pretty much equal and also becasue i rate roddick much higher than ferrer (he desreves to be too). "

Maybe soderling and berdych are equal as tennis players(which is debatable) but the fact is that soderlings form is immesuarably better than Berdychs at this point in time. As for Roddick and Ferrer,at peak form Roddicks the superior indoor player,but the American isn't at peak form. At this point in time,Ferrer is actually playing better tennis than Roddick. I am not sure if Murray and Nadal are still injured,

to all fedfans specially tennisnba a.k.a maxi the lunatic queen of fedfarts,

you start again the easy draw rant, forgetting that the ranking is in consideration in every tournament. You are stupid to ask the organizers give to a distant no. 2 ranked player federer a much lighter draw? Actually the organizers have given a favor Roger for not following the seeding which Federer should be drawn against 3, 5 & 7 while Rafa should drawn against 4, 6 & 8. Bear in mind fedfarts that Roger is just a 2nd ranked and we all know the rulings when it comes to drawing a draw according to seedings.

Bottom line: SHUTUP fedfarts you are stupid specially you tennisnba aka maxi.

raindrops, very cultured, kudos.

tj600, i was not going by form... somehow i can never bring myself to go by form.. it seems to matter less the bigger the tourney is

croc, if we swap around, we may have Fed, Nole, Berdych, Roddick, not much difference for Fed or Nole; Nole may beat or lose to Rafa/Fed. To Fed whether it is Sod/Ferrer or Berdych/Roddick, it doesn't make any difference to him, the only difference is Nole/Murray, though on his good day, he can beat either and on his not so good day lose to either. Even if we have Ferrer instead of Roddick, still there won't be any difference to Fed/Nole/Berdych. I think Roddick is happier in Group A than in GroupB, as he doesn't need to play Fed in the RR stage, and he has chances against Rafa/Nole/Berdych too. Against Fed/Murray/Sod, I think Roddick would most likely lose to at least two of them.

Not much difference to Nadal if he has Sod/Murray/Ferrer in his group, as all these players can beat him but can also lose to him, no definite answer, just like Nole/Roddick on their good day can beat Rafa too. The only difference here is Berdych, who is in terrible form. Sod and Ferrer may be happier facing Rafa in the RR than facing Fed, though if Rafa is in form, he is equally hard to beat. For Murray not much difference whether he faces Fed or Rafa.

I can't say that Murray is in form, judging by his performances in the last two tournaments. Fed, Nole, Sod and Ferrer are in form players, so Fed group's has three in form players, can't think of anyone to swap places, Sod and Nole shouldn't swap, if not one group would have both Murray & Nole. If Roddick and Ferrer swap places, Roddick will be killed in Fed's group. So in conclusion, I still think the draw is an even one, if we take into consideration all the players' interests and not just Fed's or Rafa's. Sorry if my post seem confusing.

VaaamosRafa - great post, thanks.

luckystar, according to the seeds in the draw, you need to compare djokovic/söderling, murray/berdych and ferrer/roddick and nothing else. so your arguments don't make sense.

in all these three pairs: federer drew the most in form player and nadal the least in form player

i maintain the draw is ridiculously skewed.

but perhaps berdych wins the title anyway, ha, we'll see :)

croc - Soderling in better form than Djokovic? Are you serious?

Soderling, despite playing on his best surface, has only had one good tournament since the U.S. Open. Then, in Paris, he played nobody in the Top 7 of the world and still should have lost in the semis.

Djokovic has been on fire since the US Open. He only had one early loss, and thats cause he had played a ton of tennis; and that loss (to Llodra) was to a guy who SHOULD have beat Soderling the next day.

spot on Ricky, my thoughts as well, but sounds much more convincing when you say it. just hope mental nole doesn't show up at the wtf.

croc, as long as Nole and Murray are not in the same group, it doesn't matter which group the others fall into. Nole's and Murray's levels are close, so they should not fall into the same group. Whether it is Sod, Murray, Ferrer or Sod, Murray, Roddick, or Nole, Berdych, Roddick or Nole, Berdych, Ferrer, they make no difference to Fed or to Rafa. However, Roddick should be happy that he is in Group A, for he can avoid meeting Fed in the RR stage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdtJmF2NL1Q experts analyzing the WTF 2010

http://bleacherreport.com/tb/b74N7 - WTR analysis

Does anybody get Mats Wilander, he says Federer is playing better now than he has in the last 3 or 4 years, he is just not winning.....What????

Yannik Noah gets it right when he says if Rafa is 100% no one can beat him anywhere anytime.

I am paraphrasing by the way, before you know who accuses me of changing what was said.


Rafa is the ultimate tennis player.

Roger is the ultimate tennis player.

It's really lovely to read the following, from someone who actually knows something about tennis, rather than the 'paraphrasers' who only want to write their own interpretation.

Nadline, Yannik Noah? Can you tell me something about his tennis career please that is worthy of note?

Paul Annacone was a pretty fair tennis player.


He served and volleyed his way to a career-high ranking of No. 12 on the ATP Tour, as well as three titles. He reached the singles quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 1984; his only major title came in 1985, when he won the Australian Open doubles with Christo van Rensburg.


Roger Federer enters the year-end championships with confidence after making the requisite strategic changes to his game.

But his greatest impact on tennis came as the coach of Pete Sampras. The combination of Annacone's intellect and Sampras' athleticism resulted in a flurry of Grand Slam singles titles. Sampras won eight majors (and reached three more finals) in their seven seasons together, from 1995 to 2001. When Sampras was winding down his final year, Annacone returned for one more run. It ended with Sampras' fifth U.S. Open title -- and record 14th major -- at the age of 31.

And now, after a nearly four-year stint as the Lawn Tennis Association's head of British men's tennis, Annacone is at it again, attempting to conjure a few more majors from the man who broke Sampras' Slam record, Roger Federer.



"When you have his skills, his drive and his discipline, there is not much that cannot be achieved," Annacone wrote ESPN.com in an e-mail. "It think that is shown by his record. Personally, it has been terrific for me to be part of the team and be involved with a great player and more importantly terrific person.



"I am really enjoying it."



Federer, heading into the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals that start Sunday, seems happy with the results. Which, considering how the first half of the year went, is something of an upset.



He came out of the box fast, as he usually does, and won the Australian Open, but there were troubling early-round losses to Marcos Baghdatis, Tomas Berdych, Ernests Gulbis and Albert Montanes in his next four tournaments. When he lost in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon (to Robin Soderling and Berdych), the end of Federer's record of 23 consecutive major semifinals left some people wondering how much he had left.



Quite a bit, even at the age of 29, as it turned out. Federer has won 29 of 33 matches since Wimbledon -- significantly better results than the past two years. He lost to Novak Djokovic in a spirited five-set semifinal match at the U.S. Open but came back to beat him in the Basel final -- winning 6-1 in the third set. Federer held five match points against Gael Monfils in the recent Paris semifinal, but lost two of three tiebreaker sets.



ESPN tennis analyst Darren Cahill said he sees some new tricks in the old dog.



"A lot of people think Roger's best tennis is behind him," Cahill said recently. "I disagree.



"To me, it looks like he's trying to come in on every ball, looking for every opportunity to be more aggressive. He's already got one of the best offensive games in the world and now he's got more of an attacking mindset. He's not wasting time looking for opportunities."



Annacone, understandably, is a bit more circumspect.



"Roger has been playing terrific tennis," he allowed. "He is a great player with great perspective, so he really understands what is going on and why. This gives him a great ability to adapt and adjust."



But is he consciously playing more aggressively?


"Roger is a great player with a large variety of tools in his tool kit, so to speak," Annacone wrote in answer to the specific question. "Much of the challenge is figuring out when to use which tool. This is a great asset and as great players do, Roger reads the situations and puts the best plan into place to reach his goals."



Cahill, who coached former No. 1 players Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt (and, very briefly, Federer himself), said he sees the fingerprints of Annacone all over Federer's game.



"Before, Roger would problem solve as he went along," Cahill said. "Now, he's going out there with a specific game plan. There's more structure."

Federer, who complained of back and leg injuries after Wimbledon, was upbeat after losing to Monfils.



"I feel good physically," Federer said last week. "In a way it is a relief that I was able to finish the [Paris] tournament in good physical health. I'm fresh mentally, too. This is the most important thing.



"Victories are important, but when you're not fit and when you're injured, it's bad. So I think I'm going to recover quite fast after that loss. I think I have good chances maybe in London for winning."



Annacone likes what he's seeing and, going forward, it appears Federer will have the best strategic support of his career. For that reason alone, 2011 should provide some compelling theater.



"It is a luxury to have such diversity," Annacone wrote, "but more importantly it is a skill and talent to know how and when to implement each [weapon]. And it is a process, so each day is a new challenge and a new opportunity."



Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.

VAMOS ROGER!

These are the top eight players in the world. No group is easy as, potentially, every one these players has the ability to beat the other and win the WTF!

I am happy with Rafa's grouping, based on current form, yes. Will Rafa win? I don't know - I hope so.

Roger has a history of talking himself up before big tournaments, I guess it's his way of building his confidence up and maybe trying to put doubt in the other player's minds. Annacone, being Federer's coach, has to talk favourably about his charge, what coach wouldn't???

I'm just looking forward to great tennis.

Nadline, Yannik Noah? Can you tell me something about his tennis career please that is worthy of note?

Paul Annacone was a pretty fair tennis player.

maxi , 11/17/10 9:35 PM

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

I would shut it if I were you, because you've just demonstrated that you know nothing about tennis, you should not even mention Noah and Annacone in the same sentence, considering that Noah won 23 titles, 20 more than Annacone, including 1 GS at RG, and reaching No 3 as opposed to Annacone only making it to No 12, and winning 3 minor titles.

Make yourself scarce maxi, you add nothing but unpleasantness to any discussion, and trying to dress Roger in Rafa's clothes just doesn't wash, Roger is no Rafa.


Rafa is the ultimate tennis player
Vamos Rafa

lol, that was a blooper of course, yannick noah is a slam champion and in a diff league than annacone... besides when u are a pro it doesnt really matter.being a pro gives enuf weight to ur voice...

...and Yannick is really cooool guy.
He even sings much better than Annacone...
Maxi... you must have to much spare time to make posts like this... lol...

zare,

She feeds off any responses. We are trying to ignore this troll so as not to feed her incessant need for attention at all costs.

Very very balanced draw.... only silly says other's draw is easier....

I mean only silly says Rafa's draw is easier....

predictions - http://www.tennistalk.com/en/blog/Ricky_Dimon/20101118/Approach_Shots: _2010_season_comes_to_a_close_in_London

Here is the article re Rafa in sportsillustrated.cnn.com:

In a short time, Nadal has gone from a clay-court impresario to a worthy opponent of the great Roger Federer to a player who, himself, might retire as tennis' most accomplished practitioner of all time. In 2010, Nadal brushed up an already-impressive resume, winning three Majors, ascending to the ATP's top ranking and generally beating all manner of opponent on all manner of surface.

For more than 25 years, no man had won both on the clay of the French Open and on the grass of Wimbledon in the same summer. Nadal has now pulled the "summer double" twice in three years. Before this year, Nadal had never even been to the final of the U.S. Open. In 2010, he won the event, dropping just one set along the way, thus completing the "career Grand Slam," i.e. winning all four Majors.

For the better part of the past decade, tennis fans have been treated to Federer's graceful, stylish tennis. If Federer is Monet, all light and delicacy, Nadal is Jackson Pollock, all force and power, all toil and trouble. Nadal is, by his own reckoning, something other than a natural. "If I could play like Federer, trust me, I would," he says. Yet precisely because he's not a natural, he works like hell at improving. In 2010, he added an almost uncanny amount of wattage to his lefty serve. He developed his net game to the point that no less than John McEnroe has deemed Nadal one of the best volleyers in tennis. In part because of the knees he's worked to strengthen, Nadal, at 24, moves as well as ever.

There are players who serve better than Nadal does. There are players with flatter, more potent strokes. What does Nadal do so well? For one, he has no peer at going from defense to offense, scrambling to retrieve shots and whistling them back. (He resembles the superhero who doesn't just catch the thunderbolt; he then chucks it back with more force.) Beyond that, Nadal is the most mentally tough athlete -- not tennis player; athlete -- in sports today. He just doesn't have the "choke" chromosome. The bigger the stakes, the better he plays.......

ricky: in what sense has djokovic been more on fire than söderling since uso? the only top ten player he's beaten is berdych. and he didn't win a title.

it's not logical to favour djokovic to söderling coming this tournament, it's only an emotional argument.

but i must say djokovic has a dream draw, therefor he can be favoured.

ok he won shanghai, but that was a smaller tournament...

NNY: I'm coming round to thinking that tettylds sudden appearance at this particular moment is slightly weird. There is something vaguely familiar. It couldn't be an alter ego by any chance? It's like someone talking to an imaginary friend.

I don't know why people seem to be blowing off Nole. He has proven that he can play with the best, and give them a dang good fight and us tennis fans, love that when he plays, we are getting a great tennis match. Finals in a GS, semis and finals in other Masters and other tours......nothing to sneeze at! Though I am definitely rooting for Rafa, I would not make the careless mistake to underestimate ANY of the participants. We all know that all it takes is an off day by one player and the upsets begin. Personally, I am just hoping for some great tennis matches and no injuries!

ed,

I just don't know at this point. We have to watch, wait and see. Also, I wanted to tell you to make note of the time when tennisnba posts. It's during the day, work hours in England. That's why there will be a different ip address, if this person is posting from work.

This crazyiness will test us to the limits. Good to see you here posting. If I find out anything, then I will try to give you a heads up! :)

oh shut up yourself nads.

of course I know who noah is, you extraordinarily vacant woman!

I wanted to see if you were able to back up your limited knowledge about tennis for a change - seems you were able to google some stuff! bravo nads.

Nads:

"I would shut it if I were you, because you've just demonstrated that you know nothing about tennis, you should not even mention Noah and Annacone in the same sentence, considering that Noah won 23 titles, 20 more than Annacone, including 1 GS at RG, and reaching No 3 as opposed to Annacone only making it to No 12, and winning 3 minor titles.
********************************

The thing is nads, you are NOT me, thanks to be God.
Make yourself scarce maxi, you add nothing but unpleasantness to any discussion, and trying to dress Roger in Rafa's clothes just doesn't wash, Roger is no Rafa.


Rafa is the ultimate tennis player
Vamos Rafa
nadline
, 11/17/10 10:30 PM

make YOURSELF scarce nads, what an unpleasant voice you have - if you can't answer a simple question - this is a forum and not everyone is going to agree with you, except your fanclub.

maxi, 11/17/10 9:35 PM:
"Roger is the ultimate tennis player.

It's really lovely to read the following, from someone who actually knows something about tennis, rather than the 'paraphrasers' who only want to write their own interpretation.

Nadline, Yannik Noah? Can you tell me something about his tennis career please that is worthy of note?

Paul Annacone was a pretty fair tennis player."

maxi, 11/18/10 8:20 PM:
"oh shut up yourself nads.

of course I know who noah is, you extraordinarily vacant woman!

I wanted to see if you were able to back up your limited knowledge about tennis for a change - seems you were able to google some stuff! bravo nads."


YOU asked her a question and she answered you and now you try to act like you knew it all along--LMAO---and deride her for answering YOUR question. What a hoot!

yes you do make me laugh fan4tennis, i am really pleased that you find my posts a hoot. Am glad I have made your day. It pleases me. :) she was a bit rude though don't you think, telling me to shut up? I mean really! I'm shocked at her aggressive nature. do you think you could protect me fan4tennis? I dont know what I would do without your support. Thanks.

Ricky,

what is your take on the DC finals Serbia vs France? French look good even without Tsonga?

muzz to beat rafa in the final.

Andy could very well do that alex. He could beat the entire field. But so could any of the other 7. I am not good at predictions and so I am patiently (?) waiting to see what form Rafa is in, whether he has healed or is match-rusty. I will be rooting for Rafa but if he plays AndyM, I'm going to have to hide from you and deuce or at least provide lots of food for behind the sofa-lol.

Oh for pity's sake.

Stop the personal insults and attacks everyone. I don't want to have to go on a "deleting posts" spree. It's OK to disagree about favorite players, et. al. but calling each other names is not really useful.

now back to your regularly scheduled programming......

fan4tennis,

I am also not comfortable making any predictions, particularly about Rafa. He hasn't played in a while and I don't know the exact nature of his shoulder injury, so I will have to wait and see his first match to get a sense as to his form. The thing that makes this kind of tournament so hard, is that you have to come in ready to play. There are no lesser players to provide some time to get your rhythm and game together. That will be the challenge for Rafa. Of course, I hope he is able to do well here, but for now I will just sit back and watch the tennis.

legends pick rafa & roger

http://tinyurl.com/29zjj4m

Three things about the WTF are absolute:

No group was ever going to be easy.

These are the top 8 players in the world, therefore, each one of them has the ability to beat the other 7.

It will be great tennis.

Cheryl,

Please have a deletion spree! If you read through all the posts of the past few days, you'd notice a troll has been disrupting all threads, starting all the insults, dragging messages from other blogs/forums to here and stalking posters around. The behavior is disturbing. I, for one, have tried to ignor the troll but the environment here has become unpleasant to be around. Please act!

Putting the top eight in a tournament is tough for the Fed Fans AND the directors who want Federer to win or in the very least a Rafa-Fed final.

No way to give Fed one of the spectators for first round like they usually do, an overweight linesman with a broken leg for second round and a eight year old ball boy for the quarter finals.

But, alas, they did their best as always. They made sure to keep Nole out of his half since Djokovic CAN decide not to spend the time on a walkabout on occasion. Of course they put Soderling in his half since Soderling's beaten him twice out of how many times? Murray has been in a funk recently tho' he's the most likely to beat Roger on any given day since he hasn't drunk the Kool Aid of GOAT. Ferrer is a nice player but usually doesn't give much trouble to the top five, esp. not Roger.

There are three new religions out there and it's heretical to speak against any of the the three: Global Warming, Apple Computers and Roger Federer.

To try to make sure Djokovic doesn't upend the Rafa-Fed final applecart like he did in the US Open, they put him in Roddicks section.. Roddick has Novak's number for some reason. Almost always beats him. Berydich has been in a slump, but slumps can end spectacularly. Even if it ends he's no threat to Federer. Fed does not let the serfs beat him a second time. Look how he took out Djokovic in Asia. Half his game is keeping up the image.

Rafa and Federer -- that's the final they want; that's the final all the tournament directors want and they do their level best to get it to the point of manipulating the draw.

Ooops Ignore the last two sentences. They were in the rough draft and scrolled down so I didn't realize they were still there. Sorry.

Waffletiger

Growltiger..

looks like that you can find fault in any draws!!

Growltiger:

"There are three new religions out there and it's heretical to speak against any of the the three: Global Warming, Apple Computers and Roger Federer."

only a bit of an exageration, but in essence true :-)

They are the 8 best players in the world at the moment, what's there to fix.

If everyone is so keen to have a Fedal match, they should create tournaments just for them, although their matches are usually a foregone conclusion with Rafa winning, so I think the use of the word 'rivalry' in the context of Nadal and Federer is not really appropriate, their rivalry is really for the No 1 spot, between the two of them, Rafa is the better player, that's obvious.

then i think the pop should try to get Maccenro for tweeting about Federer "not being THE man any more"
send him an email,or maybe Jhon should hit the church for some confessions

PS: a CC to the draw makers might be usuful because they must have made the gods angry for this draw!

Latennis,

Thank you for saying what needed to be said! I am tired of saying it myself. There was one person who was responsible for starting this and disrupting the civil and respectful discussions on this forum. I would have welcomed her posts being deleted immediately and then we all would have been saved the trouble of having to read repetitive and highly inflammatory personal insults directed at all of us.

It only takes one to get everybody upset and then everything deteriorates!

Good BBC interview with the players on 5 Live:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/9212156.stm
Hope BBC aren't being awkward again and non-Brits can get it.

thanks for that alex! great interview - nole's impression of nadal was awesome :D

alex, thanks for the link. Did Roger have to remind every one that Rafa lost the 3 matches in the RR in straight sets last year? He never fails to put Rafa down.

@nadline, 11/20/10 4:01 PM
Fed doesn't miss an opportunity to remind of Rafa's losses.
See Fed's answers in "Flashback 2010 before the grand finale"

http://www.livemint.com/2010/11/17200402/Flashback-2010-bef ore-the-gran.html

alex: ooh very bold prediction....reminds of last one u did........;)
growltiger: brilliant moniker, hilarious post :)

federer got fans favourite award for 8th straight year

@saxenanalin, 11/20/10 7:22 PM
Rafa won the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship award, voted by his fellow players.
Vamos!

deuce, hope I've not jinxed him again. I'm just an incurable optimist.

But I'll really try to conatin myself when it really matters (Oz).

that was such a great impromptu imitation! haha!

So far I'm 1 for 1 in my predictions. (pats self on back) :-)

2 for 2

3 for 3

numero: now I'm getting very nervous about your prediction for tomorrow, could u be right again.......tremble, tremble....
alex: shhh

4 for 4