story of the match was Nadal's return

it went from terrible (which is what it normally is) to god-like just like that

@RickyDimon dude, are you on crack? what is normally terrible? nadal's return of serve? it's the second best in the game, after djokovic's. Lay off the pipe...

I'm glad Rafa didn't get stuck at the SF stage again whatever the reasons were for the last two times.

I think, Nadal's ROS is pretty bad...I mean just that shot and not Nadal's return games

I'm not normally (okay, ever) one to stick up for Ricky, but when he says return, he's not talking about his ability to break serve, he's talking about Rafa's first swing of the racket...the LITERAL service return. Rafa's customary tactic is to get the ball back in play. I have never EVER seen him hit return winner after return winner like he just did in that fourth set.

It was...odd. Amazing and odd.

yeah, completed agreed

I also agree. I might not have understood what he meant. But yeah there were quite a few winners, most of them with the backhand, straight from Berdych's serve. Pretty rare from Rafa.

loved the expression on berdy's face when rafa was hitting return winners....tasted some of his own medicine....keep it going rafa....and stand a little closer to the baseline,por favor?...VAAAMOSSS!

I thought Rafa was also returning well at the USO last year in that match against Roddick? Is Rafa becoming like Fed now, where he can only play well in patches, and in Rafa's case, plays certain parts of his game well in patches? Maybe he's still getting used to his racket?

Anyway, I'm so proud of Rafa, that despite his nerve he manages to fight hard to win in four sets. I believe now that he gets that QF jinx off his back, he'll play more freely going forward. He still has a few more 'jinxs' to overcome, so all the best to him for his future successes.

Anyone other than rafa, I'd say it's going to be hard for them to come back and beat fed 2 days later, but I still see rafa in Sunday's final, against nole unfortunately:-(

not that muzz can't do it ...

As I pointed out in a different thread...2 of Nole's latest losses have come at the hands of Ferrer and Muzza. They're both capable, though beating Nole in a Slam is a more difficult prospect.

There are simply no guarantees.

The boy's back........................

The fight.....
The forehand on the run...........
The upper-cut Vamos............
The forehand.........
The fitness, come the 4th set, he looked like he was just starting..............

But most of all, the fight..............

Hope Muzza was watching, that's how you fight.........even when the tennis God's are conspiring against you...............Rafa was robbed of the first set.

Im sure that stupid fat bald umpire wont officiate rest of this tourney atleast ;-)

Isn't the explanation for the ROS going from ridiculous to sublime, is that for almost 3 sets you needed binoculars to see Rafa, he was so far behind the base line. Suddenly got confidence and moved forwards and bingo!

as most people figured out, I meant exactly what I said

Nadal's RETURN - the actual shot - has always been bad. Obviously Nadal's RETURN GAME is one of the best in the world since he is so good from the baseline.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jan/24/rafael-nadal-australian-op en-tomas-berdych?newsfeed=true

Rafans, enjoy...................

So happy that our Rafa won against Birdy. Vamos Rafa - you have done us proud!

Interesting to see what Nadal would do against Federer, a superior server in terms of placement. The match will probably depend on how Federer serves, nd his standard hasn't been exceptional this tournament. Fully expect Rafa to turn in another victory over the Fed in a major on Thursday.

I think Rafa will overcome Federer in four tight sets.

Unfortunately he's going to need Murray to beat Nole in any potential semi - final. He will then have greater chance of securing the tournament.

Expect the comments count to into full overdrive on this site in two days time

Yep. Exciting year ahead. I'll say it again: I hope that Murray continues with his current mental consistency... he deserves to rise to his level. Fed seems poised to do well this year. A grand slam would be a big ask but not entirely out of the question. Novak is poised to have a great if not excellent year, probably excellent. And a few of the other high ranked players. Therefore I ask that Nadal plays most of the time with the confidence he used to have. Then we'll be in for a terrific year all around the top players.

I think only this site gives Rafa some chance

majority of blogosphere like tennis.con, bleacher is full of ppl predicting Fed to win, many even saying 3 straight sets ..

Cant believe ppl writing Rfa off though I agree based o form and 24 -25 match winning streak, Fed is the slight favourite

Personally I find this fedal hard to call.

Bleacher and a number of other sites tend to be mostly Roger biased.

(And yes, in the last year Nadal fans tend to write on TT more often than other fans... but I would submit that IMHO we Nadal fans, with a few exceptions, are not terribly biased.)

in due time i will beat some sense into everyone's brains with some real analsysis regarding the Fedal match

i really enjoyed this match (apart from perhaps the first set tiebreak). i think it brought out the best in rafa. in the 4th set, it was almost like 2010 rafa back. not the one who lost to nole last year. his return of serve in one game was amazing. he hit 3 identical winners (i think. one could have been forehand and the other two backhand. i wasn't paying close enough attention) straight off the serve. and from a server like berdych, that's no mean feat

with regards to the fedal match... i don't know how it will go but i will say this... never count rafa out until he's shaking hands at the net. ever

I have feeling that Fed will be surprised with a lot of new momments in Rafa's game.
So... Rafa in four... First for Fed... Three next for Nadal....

Sib69
, 1/24/12 9:06 PM

completely agree with you...

I do not know who will win the Fedal semi, but I do think that 1) Rafa's passion has been rekindled and 2) Roger has drunk from the fountain of youth. Vamos Fedal!

Looking forward to Muzz-Djoker as well - sorry David and Kei.

My observations from Rafa's match yesterday are this:

1. Rafa's aggressive game is still in transition, it is improving;
2. Rafa and Uncle T noticed that Rafa's forehand in 2011 was not as potent and his opponents were attacking it. I remember one match Robbie Koenig saying as much, that Rafa's opponents were going for his strength, the forehand. It seems to me the tweeks with racket weight, court positioning etc were a direct attempt to rebut that threat. Team Rafa knew that the only way to turn Rafa's game (and his confidence) was to get his forehand working again. What we saw in the 4th set was just that: the forehand used as an attacking shot rather than a defensive shot. So, the message to his opponenets is|: you want to attack my forehand, make my day!
3. Re-introducing the running while taking the forehand just makes this Rafa even more fearsome.

My call on Fedal in the semis is that Fed will take this, simply because Rafa's game is in transition right now.

Having said that, I feel Rafa is on track to be the fearsome competitor he once was.

Vamos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I disagree. I think Rafa will beat Fed again, simply because Rafa is capable of playing tennis at that level we see from him in the third and fourth sets. Fed's game may be effective against other players, including Nole, but it's the least effective against Rafa. Rafa is playing better than when he's at the WTF but I don't see Fed playing better than his WTF.

With the AO QF curse out of his way, he has driven out one inner demon here, I think he'll play more aggressively against Fed this time. He knows Fed's game better than any other player knows it, so I think he should be confident enough to take on Fed.

If Rafa plays his 'A' game whether in transition or not, he will always beat Federer's 'A' game.

I am not saying a thing! I want to hear Ricky's Fedal analysis!

Good win for Nadal... It was a lot tougher than I would've predicted.

As for the dream Fedal-semi there will be a couple of keys for both players:

- Nadal will try to play long rallies and wear Federer down.
- Also the Federer backhand will be attacked most of the time.
- Nadal will try to come up with good services, in order to take control of the point early on and score a couple of free points.
- Do not drop the ball short during the rallies.
- Conditions favor Nadal. It's a slow hardcourt. Balls don't fly as much through the air at night. Should it be windy, the conditions favor Nadal even more.

Federer on the other hand will have to serve 65% + first services, to make life easy in his service games.
- Federer need to cut down on his UE, in order to win.
- Federer will try to shorten the rallies as much as possible, to give Nadal little rhythm
- Return aggressive, to take control of the point in Nadal's service games.
- Exploit the defensive slice backhand of Nadal, which isn't that great, to take control of the points.

As Federer being the aggressor, he tries to take the ball early and taking away time for Nadal. The hardcourts don't provide a lot of bad bounces, but when it's get windy Federer will start to mishit. Close one to call, it will depend on which player can execute their gameplan first. Nadal leads 4-1 on outdoor hardcourts, so he's the slight favorite. But Federer looks to be on a mission and I think he'll pull of the upset in 4 sets.

RITB: Past few days back, you were sure Rafa is in the final, cmon you cant change your stand so soon ;-)

My opinion is it can go either way but maybe Fed has slight advantage due to Rafas long qtr and Feds easy matches, Feds form is good and Rafa showed us terrific form only from middle of 3rd set and in 4th he was unreal.



The 4th set Rafa will thrash Fed but I dont think Rafa can play that level all through the match.

My opinion is 55:45 in favour of Fed based on current form unless Rafa creates havoc in his head and the demons start playing.

If Fed's serve is on then Rafa will have to work harder. sanju, I don't agree that Fed is in better form than Rafa. Delpo did not put up much resistance whilst Berdy was like a rocket going to space. You cannot use those matches to judge their form.

Tomm at this time high blood pressures and nerves consuming us totally.

God I hope tomm 6 , 7 PM comes fast and outcome is positive :-)

I meant 7 PM IST :-), its 5.5 hours behind Australia

sanju
, 1/25/12 9:04 AM

I know, I know. You see, my "predictions" depend on who's got the upper hand at any given time i.e. between my heart and my brain. My brain says Fed will take it, my heart says Rafa...................

Sigh................

Lol Sanju are you implying that the match will last over 4 hours then?

atul1985 and/or ts38 (who made stellar QF predictions), do you want to pick the SFs with us? email me ricky.dimon@tennistalk.com if so!

@Ricky - Thanks, will send my bit soon

sampra..why not? even a routine 3 setter with Rafa takes 1 hr 45 mns because his matches tend to be long by default ..and Fed Rafa match wont be routine..it will have lot of exchanges..maybe long sets too..

depends on how many sets they play..if its 4 ,it will be 3.5 hr atleast. :-)

2009 AO final was 4.5 hrs too I guess..

anyway by tomm at this time I think the message boards will implode :-), hope Rafans have the last laugh :-)

You and me both Sanju.