rafa should atleast reach the quarterfinals and push for a semifinal berth too.......defend some of his points.........thts wats important right now for him........winning uso is still a thing too far!

VAMOS rafa!!

I couldn't agree with you more vrael.

Something to think about... if we get a Fed-Nadal final and Nadal wins, not only will Rafa be the 7th man to win a career slam, he would win a "Fed" slam, ie. beat Federer in the final at all 4 grand slam venues. That will surely open a new can of worms on whether Federer is the GOAT.

that is an excellent point u have made there cable! now lets pray for our man ...that he sumhow reaches the qrt finals with good rhythm and overcomes the big challenges from there on te face roger in the final!

LOL, FED Slam huh? Does this mean beating Fed in all Slams is an achievement as great as winning the Slam itself. I'll take that as a compliment.

Nadal said in an article that in his opinion when asked about Fed's win in FO, it's more important to win the tournament than beating your rival, and he would love to win a tournament without facing Fed.

Best player to me is the one who wins the hardest tournaments most than others and it's not decided by 20 matches between the player and another player.

for diehard nadal fans - i think that your man is the 'dark horse' in USO - I think he is ready too! read on!

NADAL IN TOP NICK By Neil Mcleman 31/08/2009

Rafa Nadal last night claimed he was in "perfect" condition to complete his career Grand Slam at Flushing Meadow.

The Spaniard missed Wimbledon because of tendinitis in both knees and has played in only two tournaments since his return this month.

But the 23-year-old, who lost to Andy Murray in the semi-finals here last year, insisted he has benefitted from the two-month break since his shock defeat at the French Open.

"I am feeling very good," said the world No.3. "The knees are perfect right now. Everything is OK and I don't have any problems. Psychologically I am perfect. I am 100 per cent fit."

Federer v Nadal final - i cannot wait!

cable - that made me giggle this morning! I suppose you could also say that "when" fed wins :), he also wins a "non-nadal" slam - you know, the times that rafa hasn't made a slam final and fed has - how about that! :)

and by the way, I was really heartened by this article - i think your man is going to do "just fine".

I think you are missing the point there torres9. If he is able to achieve that feat, what would that do to Federer's reputation and claim on the GOAT title? Remember also that the "Fed Slam" is also a career slam ... which is no mean feat.

Nope, it doesn't really affect Fed's reputation and he is not the one who claims he is the GOAT. It just means that Nadal is close to Fed's level.

Nadal winning USO will be his 7th Slam. Still a long way to 15th. Andre Agassi had 8 Slams and still is not considered better than Sampras who doesn't have a career Slam.

How bout if Fed loses in the 1st round and Nadal winning it against other players? Does this mean Nadal's win is not legitimate becoz it's not a 'Fed's Slam'?

FED's Still THE BEST Even If he loses in the final in USO2009 to Nadal or whoever.

if fed is the best but he has an embarrassing losing H2H with Nadal, than that makes Nadal even better!

torres9..he is rite ..u r may b nt getting the point bro.look...roger fed..many claim that eh is the GOAT but IF rafa beats him in the US final..then it will be a rafa career slam over roger ! incredible it will be...people will think...well we call roger the GOAT but there is a guy..his rival who has topped him in the final of every slam on the plnaet including every damn surface! that is gona make things verryy interesting! and agassi didnt cmplete the slam by topping pete all the time..any way its a long way tho...i hope rafa wins US then we will talk abt it

Good point vamosrafa. Let's not get into another ugly confrontation over something that hasn't happened yet. I was just simply making the point that if that scenario came true then some that have called Federer the GOAT may jump off the bandwagon.

Nope, Slams are not decided by 20 matches between 2 players and also no.1 rankings. The '1 guy' is there because he peaked at a different time than Fed. That's all. And winning 1 time in AO and 1 time in USO and also 1 time in Wimby against Fed isn't much of a feat considering Fed won USO 5 times and AO 3 times and WImby 6 times without having to face the '1guy' who wasn't good enough to even be in the final to stop the Fed before.

FED's still the best.

I dont actually like it when fans make excuses for their favourite player. injuries are part of sport and each player arranges their own schedule along with their managers. Both Roger and Rafa are great champions in their own right. Should rafa win the USO this year, it will be a statement that he is well and truly back - but as torres said, he has been playing with tendinitis for a long time and no one forces rafa to play. The fact that Roger won the FO (with rafa being knocked out in the fourth round) does not degrade the French Federer won (Soderling defeated Nadal fair and square). Rafa is still the best clay courter i have ever watched (on TV) and federer is second (imo), even tho' he won the french - Federer is better than Nadal in hard courts and grass, no argument there but he lost in Wimbledon and Australia to Nadal despite being considered the favourite for two reasons (i think), 1) he has a mental disadvantage against Nadal for losing so much to him in clay and the fact that Nadal has not reached many hard court finals until Australia. Also i feel that federer was under tremendous pressure in terms of getting that 14th slam (at the AO), but that was "his own" pressure. Nobody should take away anything from Nadal because Federer?s back was hurting in Australia (that was obviously in the fifth set collapse ? go watch the video footage), or Fed has some mono residuals in Wimbledon... he simply lost because Nadal was mentally better (Even though he may not be the better tennis player technically (imo). At the same time, Nadal does not have Federers consistency and found an inspired Soderling that simply beat him playing better ?on the day? at the FO. No excuses there because he was the favourite in France and was winning easily until Soderling defeated him.
Even as i am writing this, i dont think i have ever seen a player who just fights when he is 2 sets down at AO and at FO -and that is what makes federer so great. Excuses shouldnt be made by the fans, if federer and nadal arent making them. We should just enjoy them both whilst they are still on tour.

maxi relax, just winding up torres :D

Hope you are enjoying uso and your fav!

hi homos -i'm absolutely fine thanks. just finished watching kim cliisters playing - she played brilliantly - been out of the game for what? 2 years! homos! it's amazing! knocked out a seeded no. 79 player! now getting ready to watch roge. enjoy uso too homos!

well....maxi i dont wana elongate this these arguments as we all tend to do many times.But..when u say roger had a mental disadvantage after losing so many times on clay...thats flawed mate..look...go back to wimb 06...nadal was up 6-1 !!!!!!!!!!!!! majority of the victories on clay and one in dubai final.BUT nad wasnt just good enuf to topple roger and so it happened..fed won in a tite mtch that lasted four sets!! where ws the mental thing that time,it ws just roger being better on grass that time??next year he edged out in 07 wimb aswell despite clay losses.So it has was clear in roger's mind that even tho rafa pulverizes him on clay ,grass and hard are his territory! as he always says "he shares his part (RG) and I share mine(wimb)...so come wimb 08 roger ws so confident !that even though rafa wins on clay he has been the king on grass no matter wht the current h2h! rafa beat him in wimb 08 by being the better player as he improved so much..and came Aus open 09...90% xperts voted for roger and it ws clear that nadal wasnt even on 100% energy level.and roger having in mind his hard court success..the fact that it was rafa's first final...the fact that rafa is weak on hard relative to grass WAS believing he was gona prevail ! BUT RAFA WON!!

And as u saud...we shud enjoy watching both of themm....and mr torres "STILL the best" mentionning the lists of slams tends to forget rafa is 5 yrs yunger..lol..cheers

Still, at least Fed has won 15 Slams and no one can take it from him. Nadal is 5 years younger doesn't mean Nadal gonna rack up 15 SLams in the future. We are all well aware that Nadal is not really dominating as Fed did during 2003-2007.

I dont see that changing especially in the present situation where Fed is still here, Muzza and Delpo rising, Djoker lurking and so many young players.

Fed faced the same challenge of young players when he was 25-28 and still won a lot of Slams with the young players challenging him. As for Rafa, he hasn't really dominated the way Fed did, so until he does,

FED"S STILL THE BEST... LOL

hi vamosrafa, i take your point - its just that i think that this year (in particular), federer has "redeemed" himself in the eyes of many who wrote him off last year - horrible times for federer fans - believe me - i think the times that federer felt a confidence splurge disappear when he was facing nadal have now all but gone - and madrid did that for him. I completely understand your adoration of nadal which is the same as mine for roger - i think this year, we see a very different federer with much more confidence, different shots in his game and a different mental attitude as a result of the confidence gained through winning so many tournys this year (I wont list them, cos you know them!) - but i dont believe the age thing (in my view) is an issue because you could have used that argument this year against some of the players that rafa lost to who were younger than rafa - equally roger played both novak and murray (more recently) who are 5 years younger and he beat them. Personally, I believe in strong mental attitude and application to the game - if you have those two (along with the skills of course), then you are on a golden road. Age is nothing. Skill is everything. Apart from that, roger has won 15 slams in half the time that sampras has - and fed is 10 years younger - so you can use age for lots of different arguments but i think the winning is what counts and the slams are what ALL players want and it just so happens that federer has the most.

hi vamosrafa, sorry, i have kind of brought the age issue into it (on the back of what you just said, so i have to justify that now) - i meant to say that if you are going to use the age argument, then you could use it EQUALLY for both rafa and roger. Firstly, roger has won 15 slams, in HALF the time that it took sampras to gain 14, and sampras won his last slam at 31, - so what does that say about federer? so that's 15 slams in 6 years. Pretty amazing, huh? meaning fed has another 3 years of "top tennis", (to equal sampras's age) - tho' i mentioned to carrie, i would like him to play until he is 60! (tho connors played until he was 40, so i could live with that!) secondly, you could say that rafa, having won 6 slams at 23 is equally as impressive. Whether or not he will win 9 more slams to equal roger's at 27, in 4 more years - remains to be seen - so no one, can answer that because it hasn't yet happened, if it will happen at all. And to be honest, whether or not rafa's knees will stop him from achieving more slams isn't going to change my opinion of him, that he is a great, GREAT champion. Hopefully i've clarified things - and thanks for the chat! i just think we are all mature adults and should just stop throwing the mud at both players - what's the point?

hi maxi..i really appreciate the way u put forward your ideas.basically mate my main point was about tht clay thing and mental lapse against roger (roger losing in wimb and oz due to mental lapses against nadal.) i wrote for that and re-read it iif u skiped sumthng.Age thing ...i agree with alo tof stuff u just wrote...and i want even arguing much abt that thing rite now..lol..i ws just saying raf ashud be given more chances to prove himself ..whether he shines that way or not is another thing but atleast he should be given chances. AND il say another thing "there is one kind of a diamond that shines most brightly for quite some time like none other, another diamond shines very birhgtly may b not that brightly but shines for a much longer peiod (startd shining early and may well have shone later) (pete!! won a slam at 19 and 30)...which diamond wud you prefer?? =) =) up to you..i knw its not that simple tho..and once again i wud say i agree wid alot of stuff u wrote dude!

and talking about thorwing mud on roger!! no wayyY!! i have never done that ! i respect him alot....

the "mud throwing" was generic vamosrafa, not aimed at anyone in particular (honest). the "mental lapses" i was talking about with roge - was kind of giving a reason as to why (then) roger was not rising to the challenge as much as i have been used to seeing him "rise to the challenge" and beyond. rafa outdid roge at AO in last set - the first 4, (first raf, then rog, then raf, then rog), were tie breakers for rafa and 6.3, 6.4, roger. fifth set was a number of things (imo), mental collapse being one of them. Rafa monopolised on that and won the match (along with his awesome play). Wimby 08, vamosr, was an "either way" win for me. close, close, close - fed had match point, threw it away, (i cannot remember how many rafa saved, i think roge saved 3 match points), it was gripping-i can tell you. so wimby 08 will be forever "THE" match for me. Rafa AND Roger both deserved to win wimby 08 - there was no "clearcut" winner for me, but RAFA "pipped roger to the post". That is not to take anything away from rafa AT ALL. It was enthralling. I loved it. I'm not sure what you are saying that "rafa should be given more chances to prove himself. I dont think he has to "prove" himself? He's already done that and more besides.

Rafa will be third on court tomorrow, round about this time, and Federer will be playing at night.

guys, rafa been scheduled to play THIRD on Ashe tomorrow, Safin is second and Fed has a night match with Greul - rafa was just practising with safin, 2 minutes ago!

maxi, you should have gone into more detail in your 4:55 p.m. post above. you didn't explain to those who don't understand, how federer has lost all these matches and it's important that we all know before criticizing roger. you should have made it clear that 2008 french & wimbledon, federer's mono & back problems flared up, then, they went into remission for the 2008 usopen, then they flared up again for the 2009 australian open, 2009 monte carlo, then, they went into remission again for the 2009 madrid, french, & wimbledon. now, we'll have to wait and see whether they will flare up or go into remission for the 2009 usopen. i'm sure you'll let us know!

how is Nadal playing his 1st round the same day Fed plays his 2nd?

By the grace of...the USTA Ricky.

Fed was vocal about wanting a night match and it being on Weds. It was said in a joking manner, but taken and probably meant to be taken in all seriousness.

what's done in the dark will eventually come to the light! God loves justice!

maxi...yes wimb for soo close ..both deserved to win...roger saved 3 mtch points but DIDNT hold any match point altho he was very close in many ways.By saying 'giving rafa more time to prove himself' i actually meant rafa givin more slams to go at! :)

Federer: 'I would love to WIN my 2nd rd match on Wednesday night.'

USTA: 'Sgt Smug your word is our command.'

The space shell suit complete with No 16 is already in the locker room, the champagne is on ice to swill with his friends in USTA, and all is well in the Federer world. Nice work if you can get it.