Roger era is finally gone. It was about time. Sad but true.
The Master Cup 2010 was the last time we've seen Roger play at his best.

The worst thing is that there's nobody in the circuit capable of entertain the masses as Roger did over the years.

Era may have nearly gone but the player is going to stay, play, reach quarters, semis and finals and titles now and then for a few more years till motivation lasts.

We will still love to see him try to beat the Novaks, Nadals, , Murrays, Del Potros all of whom now have the skills and confidence to rattle Federer with their improved games on court. Federer will still remain the player to beat till he wields his racket.

No other player is as graceful on court as Roger.

Hey newfangkc, looks like you missed tennis for the last 6 or 7 years. Nadal didn't only NOW have the confidence and game to beat Roger. Newsflash: he's been beating Roger since the tender age of 17 and their H2H is 14-7 in_Nadal's_favour!! Nadal is the man to beat, not Roger - whether or not you care to face reality!!

As you guys have no dout read, Roger bores a great number of fans. Thankfully, Novak can now add more entertainment to Nadal's contribution because he is the true no. 2 and will soon take over that ranking from the old man.

new family member:

http://tinyurl.com/4an3ety

I'm glad that finally we may be seeing a Rafa/Nole top two positions. It's time for that to happen. Rafa's fan base is growing by the day, I'm sure if Nole carries on with his winning ways and be more consistent, his fan base will grow larger too, as he is a good entertainer on top of being a good player. The game will still go on, with or without Fed. Too much importance has been placed on him since 2004. If there is no rivalry with Rafa, and Fed has been winning everything under the sun, I believe there won't be many people interested in following tennis, as it really bored many people to death if there are no competition. After all professional tennis is a competitive sport, not a performance art by an individual. If the tennis match is not competitive, noone wants to watch it except maybe the ardent fans of the players involved. So, I'm happy that there is Rafa, who makes many people come back to watch tennis again, me included. I'm glad now that Nole is finally on the right track in realizing his full potential. I'm waiting for Murray, Delpo and Cilic to fullfil their potential so that we can have five young top players competing with each other and make tennis more interesting. Fed has done his share and he can now retire in glory, let the young guns have their share of glory before the next batch of youngsters, Raonic, Dimitrov, Tomic and Harrison start their climb into glory.

luckystar,

I don't think it was Federer's fault that he dominated almost every player he played(Leave nadal from the list).

Federer combined lot of skills with his grace which makes him a great player.He used to play serve and volley, go for long base line rallies and used to serve big whenever he needs some rescue, at his best (serving well) he hardly take 2 mins to complete the game and pushesh his opponent to serve.He comes on net whenever he gets the opportunity.

I belive he still have the chances of beating almost everyone on tour if he remained focussed on his game.

Some times he start hitting UE which you would not preffer from someone like fed but still he used to get out of it, but now Djoker and other are making most of the chances that they get in the match..

What is required at this time for him is to make the adjustment in his game as per his opponents and come out with a good tactics.

You better be prepaired to watch this old dog biting out his opponent.

You see Champ, I'm not faulting Fed for his dominance but rather his peers, esp Safin and Nalby, for not providing the competition required. Davy came late, in 2005 when he shot to prominance, by then Fed was already TMF. It was Rafa, a five year younger guy, who provided the competition instead. I believe the likes of Nole, Murray, Delpo and Cilic would provide Rafa with better competition than Nalby & Co could provide to Fed. The reason for that: they all harbor the thought of becoming no.1 in the world; they are good on the hard courts, which happen to be Rafa's worst surface, though Rafa now has become one of the best on hard courts but still has to fight tooth and nail to beat them.

Whether Fed can still beat Nole and the others we have to wait and see, I believe he still can do so if the conditions are right for him, example the WTF last year, when he was given sufficient time to rest between his matches. It's getting more difficult in slams as they are best of five sets matches and opponents nowadays are even harder to beat, not only at SF and F level, but also at QF level.

I put my hand up that I have never been entertained by Federer, on the contrary, he bores me. I always look forward to a Rafa, Nole or Murray match because they are athletes, and that's what I want to see in a sporting contest, there is a lot of dancing going in the West End if I want that sort of thing. Thanks to Rafa for reviving my interest in tennis which was left cold by the Federer era.

Having said that, I don't blame Roger for doing his best to keep winning, whether he's reached the point of no return or not, we'll have to wait and see. But on performance recently, Nole is the true No 2. Funny how in early 2008, people were saying Rafa ws the true No 1 until he took the ranking over, I believe this will be the case with the No 2 ranking between Roger and Nole.

Roger has a lot of long term endorsement contracts to honour by staying at the top of the game, but at the time, these sponsors didn't reckon on the Rafas and Noles squaring his pitch, they believed he would go on for ever. Sadly, he won't - no one can. Roger must see the writing on the wall, because he's never been one for training until Rafa now Nole started beating him regularly.

Rafa fans will remember that after USO 2009, the fanatic chr18 started exclaiming how Roger and Del Potro were going to dominate because Rafa was going to retire injured.

The tune has now changed going by recent articles even from some of the legends. I wonder where chr18 is hiding since posting that lame comment after Novak won the recent AO.


"Federer fades as Nadal-Novak redefine Dominance"

http://www.tennisearth.com/news/tennisNews/Federer-fades -as-Nadal-Novak-redefine-Dominance-141777.htm

--------------------- --

"Best of Five: Dubai setback shows Federer's consistency on the fade"

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/jon_wertheim/02 /28/best.five/

In 2008 everyone wrote off Federer, same thing was said,his finished, came 2009 and won almost all grand slams. Now the same, he will come back, I count on it.

How is 2 out of 4 almost all? In any case everyone knows that Rafa did not play a full 2009 season, because after RG he was injured and did not fully recover until 2010, so Roger was lucky.

Indeed. Rafa with 80% or better healthy knees would have been undefeated at RG again no matter who he would play. A healthy Rafa would have been a favorite for Wimbledon and Roger's Wimbledon title far from assured.

Note that the two slams Roger did not win in 2009 were both on his favorite surface.

Nadal never bored me. It was his fans who did. Now talk to me when someone gets 17 slams. Hey hey!

I hope younger players displace Fed soon. It is not good for a sport to have an old player dominating it preventing younger players from rising. His time is up and he should go.

In 2008 everyone wrote off Federer, same thing was said,his finished, came 2009 and won almost all grand slams. Now the same, he will come back, I count on it.

fofe , 3/2/11 3:56 PM


He is turning 30 already. It is not the same situation. Roger will never come back as he did in 2009.
I would be REALLY surprised if he gets another GS.

Federer's decline is very easy to spot. I watched some old Federer finals in 2005 and 2006 and noticed something decidedly different these days: He appeared more hungry and quicker then. His backhand drive actually is better today than it was back then. However, the backhand errors (and now forehand too) increase a lot more today, so I guess any improvement from 2005, 06 has been cancelled out and some.

I don't think he will get the quickness back. He might get some hunger but only if it's something like breaking or equalling records. So it looks like Wimbledon and maybe the US Open are the only realistic venues for him to win another slam.

jean, 3/2/11 9:30 AM,

I think it's interesting that you brought up our late, unlamented friend chr18 and his dreadful poems, serenading us with predictions of Rafa losing to Sod before the 2010 RG final. He made himself look so foolish that we have not heard from him since, especially since Rafa followed up the RG victory with another one at Wimbledon.

However, I sometimes get the feeling that he may post here under a different screen name. There are a few posts that sound like chr18. I would change my identity if I embarrassed myself in that way.

NNY: Hmm...interesting. You could be right.

KF: Yes Roger is graceful. Yes, I find graceful, deeply, deeply, booooooring zzzzz.....

if you sleep while MJ is playing or Roger is playing or while any of those athletes are performing, the joke is on you.

i know some stupid guys used to fall asleep in class, when one of the best academecians in this world was teaching. guess who is the idiot there.

clue : not the academecian or the guys who could appreciate his genius.

aestheticism is something only humans have. an animal would not be able to appreciate the difference between Michael Jackson performing or a Jean claude Van damme ( a totally inelegant actor) dancing to any of the King of Pop's albums. Most sensible humans definitely are able to. If you want to convince others that Jean Claude Van damme is a more graceful artist than MJ, saying MJ puts you to sleep, then most people will laugh at you and maybe even pity you for your inability to appreciate grace and elegance when you see it.

I sit down to watch a sport - tennis, I see a player dancing around the court mostly against seemingly hand picked sitting ducks, recipe to fall asleep.

I don't know if anyone has noticed that Roger leaves grace and aesthetics in the locker room when he faces Rafa, Djokovic or Murray. Roger has lived off easy draws for years.

As a matter of fact KingFed, I agree with every word you've written about Fed's beautiful game. However, what was boring was the fact that, during that astonishing streak, he was winning almost everything in sight. The point of sport is competition surely. And b4 u mention it, I have found Andy's two appearances against Fed at slam finals, to be extremely boring, not to mention disappointing :( But that's often the case with finals and the most exciting I've ever seen was THAT Fedal final at Wimbledon because right up to the last ball being struck you really did not know who would win. But that's rare. Now of course, human nature being what it is, I want to see more players step up and challenge this duopoly. Nole has and I'm hoping Andy can.

Roger's game is as majestic as zidane/maradona in football, usain bolt in track/field, phelps in swimming, michael jordan in basketball, tiger woods in golf, brian lara in cricket, fred astaire in dancing and one can keep going on and on.

KingFederer , 3/3/11 8:17 AM

Majestic and dancing don't go together. To me, dancing is what Federer does best, the tennis racquet is just a prop.

Maradona and majestic in the same sentence - uummmh! (The hand of God and all that). As for Phelps, Bolt, Zidane and Jordan performing like the passive Federer, all I'll say is you have a very vivid imagination. As for Brian Lara batting majestically, what's that supposed to mean? All I'll say is I hope these 'sportsmen' never get to see your post, they'll be just as baffled as I am.

I'll give you the comparison with Fred Astaire, just what I was thinking. Federer does play like a dancer. I am creased up at the thought of Maradona being like Fred Astaire. ROFL.

KF: If I want graceful, I go to a ballet class.

I go to the tennis court to watch high level competition (or at least I hope to). Watching someone dance around the court beating an opponent who threw in the towel before even leaving the locker room is not sport to me. It's a crime and I should have demanded my money back.

You appear to be confused with the definitions of 'appreciate' and 'preference'. Basically, if I don't see things your way or agree with you, I'm a joke or I'm wrong. You should pity yourself for being so small minded.

I hope you have your ticket for the next ballet performance because there appears to be no one bending over backwards to TMF. Enjoy!! These are exciting times for those of us who appreciate competition and challenges even to our favourite player.

There are two sides to a draw and Federer is always on the easy side, that explains why Rafa always has more competition because Monsieur Federer dances throguh until the Qtrs before he puts his ballet shoes away for real competition, that is if the other three have not fallen to much tougher opposition than Federer ever has to encounter. If you go back and watch any Roger v Rafa matches you will see the athlete, or trying to be, Federer, you won't see a ballet dancer. It would be interesting to see how the draws pan out now that Djokovic is a thorn in Federer's side.

By the way KF, do you count expletives at the umpire as a misdeamnor? How about challenging calls when the ball is almost a foot outside the line - what do you call that? Or taking a toilet break just to allow the sun to pass, and also take your opponent off his rythm.

Anyway, we are never going to convince each other, so each to his own.

By the way KF, have you never seen tons of articles where sports wax lyrical about Rafa's game?

Just asking.

KF: You either can't read English or in the habit of interpreting comments however you like! I have better things to do then try to explain tennis to a small minded, blind worshipper like you.

KF, I did not say the sports men you mentioned were not great, I'm just saying that they can't be compared to Federer because they are real athletes. Yes Ali floated like a butterfly but that's where the comparison ends, because Federer doesn't sting like a bee because ducks can't be stung.

Tell me that sports writers do not was lyrical about Rafa's game. It's a matter of taste, I happen not to like Federer's style, a style which he can afford to use because other players let him. That's all I'm saying.

Talking about draws, I'll bet you anything that we will not see the Raonics, Dolgos and Tomics in Federer's half any time soon. Mark my words.

KF, your comment shows your poor sense. Before 2007, Nadal was a teen or 20. So, no wonder other top players could beat him outside clay. What was extraordinary was that they could not beat even a pre-prime Nadal on clay. That's how extraordinary Nadal was. Being 5-6 years younger is an advantage for a player only after he enters his prime and the other player is past his prime. If the younger player is pre-prime and the older player is in his prime, it is a disadvantage. If both are in their primes, the older player with his greater experience has an advantage.
Federer is 5 years older than Nadal. Also, Federer always had easy draws. No wonder , he has that 23 consecutive GS semi streak. It is proof that the draws were usually cupcake. He might have been incredibly lucky or vested interests might have had something to do with his "luck". Despite favorable draws for Fed, Nadal did manage to beat him on all GS surfaces.
Federer's performance since 2008 in GS finals against Nadal prove that Nadal is superior to Fed. Fed was in his prime in 2008 and 2009.
Yes, we don't see a ballet dancer when Fed faces real competition.

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"Djokovic and his fans epitomise everything that is negative about Serbia as a nation"
FEDAL25...
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"but the serbians I have met, are THE scum of the earth."
"Tennis needs serbian players like zare needs a bullet to his/her/it non-existent head."
" you going to chicken out like serbians always do? "
"Is zare, serbian for sh!t? considering this moron's obsession with sh!t, i am inclined to think so. Or is Djokovic or novak, serbian for crap? "
KING FEDERER
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SO THESE ARE SOME HEAVY WORDS!!! IN NORMAL COUNTRIES YOU CAN GO TO JAIL IF YOU SPEAK IN THIS WAY ABOUT SOME OTHER NATIONALITY.
IF MODERATORS OR ADMINS DON'T BAN THESE TWO PERSONS I WILL PRESUME THAT THEY AGREE WITH THEM!!!
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YOU CAN START TO WORK YOUR JOB... BAN THEM AND LOCK THEIR ADDRESSES OR YOU WILL HAVE TO DO THAT TO ME...
BECAUSE OF YOUR IRRESPONSIBILITY THIS IS GONE SO FAR...
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THER IS NO PLACE FOR NAZIES ANS RACIST IN TENNIS !!!!


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King Federer
I THINK U DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT CRICKET...IF U R TALKING ABOUT CRICKET THERE IS NO ONE AS GOOD AS, AS GRACEFUL AS SACHIN TENDULKAR ( " GOD OF CRICKET"). BRAIN LARA ,STEIVE WAUGH,PONTING ALL ARE NOTHING BEFORE SACHIN..HE IS PLAYING CRICKET FROM LAST 20 YEARS.IN FACT 2 DAYS BEFORE HE SCORED HIS 47TH CENTURY AGAINST ENGLAND.....SO PLZ DON'T RANT ABOUT BRAIN LARA AS GREATEST CRICKETER EVER AS MANY PEOPLE IN THIS COMMUNITY DON'T ABOUT CRICKET...DON'T SPREAD FALSE INFORMATION.

KF, stop telling people what to like, what not to like. Many people here are old enough to know how to appreciate beauty and grace in whatever wall of life, no need you to come here to lecture everyone. You've created enough havoc in the other earlier thread about Fed in Dubai, so please stop creating further havoc here.

I for one like grace and beauty in tennis, but in women's tennis. I love Justine Henin's game, so much grace, elegance and beauty in it. I'll never like grace and beauty be associated with male, other than those involved in the dance industry, for example ballet. So, sorry, you can wax lyrical about Fed's game being graceful and beautiful but that's not what that appeals to me in the men's game. Men's game can be beautiful but need not be graceful. I'll prefer Safin, Nalby and Rafa's game over Fed's. They may not have as good a shotmaking as Fed, but in their games, I see the musculine power and awesomeness combined with intelligent shotmaking and tactics. To me, I like the tennis game to be played with a combination of great shotmaking, excellent footwork, intelligent tactics, great attitude, ie never give up, no
meltdowns, no choking; good stamina and fitness; and for the men's game, awesome musculine power on display too, and to me this separates men's tennis from women's tennis, which is more about grace and elegance. Sadly the women's game is lacking in the grace and elegance factors especially now that Henin has retired.

So KF, one man's meat is another man's poison. You can talk all you want about how beautiful
and graceful Fed is, that's your choice but that does not mean that all of us have to like him or his game. Show some respect for others, instead of keep critising the favorite player of other's, just because others happen not to choose your graceful Fed as their favorite player.

KingFederer has been banned and his posts deleted. Please do not respond to him any more.

lucky: that's an excellent post and I was going to respond to kf in a similar way, but decided not to. I love Fed's movement all grace and flow, sometimes he appears almost to float, but I also love Rafa's which is about explosive power, speed and surprise. To say that one type is better more "aesthetic" than the other is just a matter of subjective judgement. kf also never addressed nadline's point, which is perfectly valid, that tennis is a competitive sport rather than an art form. I too can marvel at Gasquet's back hand, a thing of purity and beauty, but after a while I really do wish he'd win some matches ;)

Someone mentioned the discussion on this thread as a *blind spot* for those of us duking it out on the Fed Dubai thread, which piqued my curiosity.

luckystar: 'So KF, one man's meat is another man's poison. You can talk all you want about how beautiful
and graceful Fed is, that's your choice but that does not mean that all of us have to like him or his game. Show some respect for others, instead of keep critising the favorite player of other's, just because others happen not to choose your graceful Fed as their favorite player.

luckystar
, 3/4/11 2:14 AM

You can choose to ignore my comments/questions if you want to, as I noticed it's already happening, but I'd like to know re the following: ".... that's your choice but that does not mean that all of us have to like him or his game ...."

Isn't that the reason there's so much conflict and arguments proffered on Nadal's behalf when fans of other players claim they don't likke Nadal's game which they claim is based merely on power? That same rationalization is applied to DelPotro. Some claim he's the best ball striker around, and yet I feel he's only about a huge serve and hitting his FH as hard as he possibly can for an outright winner, which eliminates him having to run, as he doesn't like running. I heard him state the same in an interview.

To reiterate, I've seen some heated arguments pertaining to these differences of opinions and preferences. To me, it's very much the same kind of rationale being used and applied to Federer, except the names of the players have been changed. It's all a matter of taste, and to quote you: "one man's meat is another man's poison." It's like six of one, and half a dozen of the other. Each and every one of us whether we say it openly or not, deep down we feel our fave is the best. I suppose it's why people vote. That said, and in view of the fact that this is a democratic website, I guess we're all entitled to our opinions, Yes?

Von, you'd think we are all entitled to our opinions, but it seems that some are more entitled than others in some people's eyes.

Von, I don't understand the question that you directed at me? I've never criticize any player like the way KF criticized Rafa. Whether I like Fed's style or not, I respect him as a great player, so I'll never pick on him the way KF picked on Rafa. Sometimes, when Rafa was being unfairly criticized, I'll bring out Fed as an example to counter those criticisms diriected at Rafa. As I've mentioned, we are entitled to our own preferences. How the fans of certain players choose to behave is out of my control and I'm not responsible for their behaviour. However as a Rafa fan, and a Cilic fan as well, I'll normally respond when unfair criticisms are made about them. I assume other fans would also do the same. I believe the moderators here will do their jobs to ensure civilized discussions here, what happened in the other thread was unfortunate, I think Cheryl has already clean up that thread by now.

luckystar: My bad. -- just disregard my post. After reading your post, @12.39 pm, I realized that KingFederer's post has been deleted and all I'm going from is your response to him.. since I don't know what he said, I shouldn't have asked the question or made a comment. Please excuse my post. The point I was trying to make is that we all think our fave player's game is the best, regardless olf how another sees it, as we all have different taste. As I said, just regard my post.

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Nadline: Now I'm confused. Is your post referring to King Federer's post, to which luckystar responded? If so, I don't know what he said. I think I'm becoming a bit confused. Please disregard my post. Thanks..

Oh no, not KingFed, it's those who generally take offence to me expressing my opinions if they happen not to agree with them, and even admonish me for saying what I think. Let's just say it's not KF or you. My exchanges with KF was OK, regardless of what else he said, which is why he's been banned.

Von, I was agreeing with you that we are all entitled to our opinions, but some people feel that some are more entitled than others.

nadline: thanks for explaining. i was beginnning to think I'm losing it. But that won't be so bad as it would help to block out the nastiness that has occurred over the past week.