this one should not be close unless Berdych suffers a MAJOR drop in form

Ha Ha Ricky, Cilic wins the first set. He's striking the ball beautifully and serving well. Not only that, his ROS is clearly better than Tsonga's last night, and he effectively mixes things up nicely, throwing in some slices . Berdych is still serving very well, I don't think there's a drop of form from him, more like he has met his match in Cilic.

Both hitting the ball cleanly, with their deep flat penetrating shots and that's the kind of hard court tennis I like to see, unlike the other final where some clay court tennis was played...well....

lucky, is this your way to tell Rafans: I told you so...are you sure you are a Rafan after all? You need to double check yourself and switching to the other group would not come as a surprise...I somehow think that at this moment you are gloating more than Andy's fans who have all the rights to do so...

natashao, what are you talking about? That's my opinion about the match, what right have you to question my opinion? Not a good way to vent your unhappiness on others!

Berdych won the second set, things getting interesting now, I hope Cilic doesn't lose faith or confidence.

Just watching this now. Like lucky Cilic is my favourite giant. But as ed says there's this fragility about him and with a double fault he loses second set :( So good looking though, he can give up tennis and become a movie star :)

Yes deuce, other than Rafa, I count Marin another one really beautiful boy. He needs to put on some weight though, to fill up that thin frame a little bit but not too much. I bet he's popular among girls back home.

Well, he always needs to go the distance this tournament, this is not the first time. He was leading Fognini the other day in the second set 4-1 and still managed to lose it 6-7 in a tie break after having match point earlier in the previous one or two games. Against Anderson, he also went the distance.

lucky, I don't question your opinion...I know your opinion, you have articulated it very well...it is just that bringing that up in a condemning way is tough to handle from a Rafan...you are right, maybe I am just too sensitive about this whole situation and therefore I apologize to you...but to be honest I admire your focus on other matches which at the moment I can not do...well, for me Rafa is always a priority and his loses are tough to handle...

natashao, as I said yesterday, I don't wish to post anything more about Rafa, but I've already said what I have to say. To me he really didn't play that well despite winning his matches before this final. I can see for myself how both Rafa and Murray played so far this tournament before the final. I feel that unless Rafa comes out and play aggressively from the start till the end of this final match, he won't beat this Murray, so I'm prepared for this loss in a way. After seeing how far behind the baseline Rafa stood to play this match, I know that once Murray played his best game, he would beat Rafa. In the second set onwards, Murray had woken up and served extremely well. With that serve, he could set up his points nicely. I don't wish to criticize Rafa anymore, but he didn't make any changes to his court position until it's too late in the last few games of the third set, where he tried to hammer some aggressive shots. It reminded me about that USO final this year, doing things too late to salvage the situation.

One last point about Rafa and I'm done talking about him here. I feel that this year, he is feeling all the pressure defending all his titles. Why you may ask, and there's two reasons. First he didn't start his year too well this year, he had his fitness issues since the AO; second the rise of Nole. The two losses at IW and Miami had obviously disturbed his 'calm' and you could sense he's feeling all the pressure defending his clay court titles, especially the FO. He's complaining till no end at RG about him being tired at 25, felt like playing for 100 years already in the tour. From the clay season onwards, I really felt that he felt pressurized defending all his 2010 titles. This Tokyo title is the last one he has to defend this year, though I know that its hard to swallow for him, having to lose today so embarrassingly to Murray, he should be fine starting with Shanghai, not having to defend anything there.

Rafa and his fans can always see the bigger picture, that Rafa has beaten Murray in all their slam meetings this year, and Rafa is a different 'animal' in a slam. With nothing to defend now, maybe Rafa and his team now can just concentrate on finding back his hard court game, the one he played so effectively at both AO 2009 and USO2010. He's still young, he can still make changes to his game. Mind you not new changes, rather re-found that lost game he once had on the hard courts, that flat CC backhand (not this present loopy one. Just watch how loopy his backhand is nowadays!), that flat powerful forehand (just watch his 2004 AO match with Hewitt and watch how he hit his forehand then) and continue moving up the the court and play his more aggressive net game and cut short on all the running and defending. I certainly do not wish to see him grinding on the hard courts as he grows older. Just watch how Berdych and Cilic plays at Beijing, hit powerful penetrating flat shots to attack, not the loopy ones which give his opponents more time to get into position to return them!

If Rafa continues to play aggressively and cut down the long points, he can save his body and at the same time wins his matches and titles. After all, its Rafa we're talking about, and despite him not playing very well, he still reaches 10 finals this year! Just stay positive. I may seem critical about Rafa, but that's because Rafa is just so good and I want to see his game in full flow with all his weapons firing well at the same time. Even with some weapons not functioning well these days, he's still no.2 in the world right now, that's proof enough how good Rafa is as a tennis player!

Oh, shame! Cilic imploded in the third set :( There's that fragility again.

It's ok deuce, Cilic is still young, this is a learning experiece for him. He'll win his titles soon. I like Berdych too, and mind you, this is Berdych's first title since 2009! Amazing that he's still in the top ten without winning any titles, and this is his first final this year!

Well done to Berdych, congrats! Cilic please don't lose heart, you'll have your chances soon.

thanks lucky...it is nice to hear your opinion on this and I must say I agree with most of it...however, I still think it?s not that Rafa is playing much worse than before...IMO Rafa's game has been exploited too much as Nole has offered a recipe how to beat him and other players are learning from it...Murray was only implementing a game that was proved to work against Rafa: attacking Rafa's backhand and serving wide on his backhand...In addition, Murray is playing great at the moment and I am not sure Rafa was even in belief that he would win today...that t-shirt he was wearing after the match was almost an indication that he was ready to lose today...we all see that Rafa's confidence is non-existent and in tennis that makes huge difference in key points...he just seems unable to take his chances...Rafa needs to work on his mental side as Uncle Toni said and it's only when he is able to fix those problems that he will start wining big matches in the finals...

natashao, its not just mental now, I'm afraid. Its his game having problem too. Didn't you see how loopy his backhand has become? Just compare that to USO2010, not even need to compare to AO2009! On the hard courts, he needs his flat backhand and flat forehand, if not he'll always be exploited by both Nole and Murray! He's effectively reverting to playing his clay court game on the hard court. He's hitting his shots too loopy and too short and allowed his opponents, Nole and Murray in particular, to step in an attack the ball. They showed some graphics this match, about Rafa and Murray's rally hit point; Murray was spending 33% of his time inside the court while Rafa only 8%! Its no wonder Rafa's loopy shots are always short and ripe for attack. Do remember also Davy, who used to beat Rafa on the hard courts so regularly, because he took the ball early and Rafa's loopy shots allowed Davy more time to get into position to return the ball and with interest. As I said, time for Rafa to find his effective hard court game back again, the game that won him his hard court slams.

lucky, you have the point there, but remember, Davy was beating Rafa before as well, which means that Rafa used to play this same game...when he is confident than he is more inclined to employ attacking tennis...when his confidence is at zero level he tends to stand far from the baseline...if you recall, the issues about his game were raised during the FO 2011 where we actually noted how Rafa seemed to forget how to play his clay court tennis...

I think his game will not change much in the future as it would require doing major changes like switching to a totally different tennis game which Rafa will never do...he hardly ever serves big serves as Fed or Murray and therefore he is rarely treated with free and easy points; he must fight on the key points and there he loses his focus right now due to lack of confidence...you can't expect him to play from inside the court as his court positioning has always been different from those that attacking players employ because he is primarily a clay courter who has improved his game to be able to play better on HC...he may improve his game more (but not much I believe!) to get more aggressive but to be able to do that he needs to TRUST his own game which he does not at the moment...his opponents know that and if they are good players like Murray, they will take advantage of it...

we have been here before...in 2009, following his fiasco at FO and his injury, it took "ages" (6-8 months) for Rafa to recover and he was titles during that time...it basically lasted until the clay season began...I remember him losing matches that he was supposed to win (vs. Ljuby in IW)...and when he finally won his first title in MC in what 8 months or so, Rafa was crying like a baby...I am telling you, we have been here before...

natashao, Rafa is basically a clay courter who now improves his game to win on grass and hard courts. He, unlike Fed, Nole or Murray(who are all better on hard courts than on other surfaces), would always need to make adjustments to his game and court positioning when playing on surfaces other than clay. Can he do it? Yes of course, as his wins at Wimbledon, the AO and USO had shown us. He does have the game to win on surfaces other than clay. He has his flat shots, his slices, and one thing very important, he has the best movement among all active players on ALL surfaces. Yes, all surfaces! He moves better than all others on clay (maybe this year he's not moving that well on clay I must say though I think its not a long term problem as his DC matches shown), as well as Fed and Murray on grass (to me they're still better mover on grass than Nole, especially when moving up and down the court, not along the baseline only) and as good as the three of them on hard courts. He just have to remind himself to play closer to the baseline and to be aggressive all the time or at least most of the time on these other surfaces. I also feel that his serve problem now is due mainly to his confidence issue, when he's calm he can serve well, but when he's tensed up, he lose his confidence and starts netting his serves. I'm also wondering can he revert back to his old serving pattern, ie concentrate on placement and varieties instead of on pace. I noticed also his serves out wide today weren't very effective because he didn't hit them close to or on the sideline, allowing a good returner of serve like Murray to return many of them. Nerve maybe?

His problem now is not any worse than his 2009, just has to make some adjustments to the way he plays. He needs time to improve his game and that's why he's complaining about not having enough break time at the end of the year to work on his game. You see, its a chain effect, if he doesn't have confidence in his game, it will in turn affect his confidence when facing Nole. Without confidence, he'll most probably lose to Nole again and again and that will affect his confidence even more! In conclusion, he needs to improve his game, win some titles against anyone, gets his confidence in his game back, before he can face Nole confidently with the belief that he can beat Nole.

In a way, this loss today serves as an enlightenment to him, that he really needs to look into his game and sees where he goes wrong. Had he won today, I'm afraid he might think that he's doing OK and continued to play this more grinding style, standing so far behind the baseline, running all the time, playing physically exhausting tennis.

PS. I refer to the recent three or four times when Davy beat Rafa on the hard courts, do note that the most recent one at Doha this year, Rafa was clearly ill, suffering from some virus infection. At the same tournament last year, Rafa was close to beating Davy, having bagel Davy in the first set but he tightened up in the second set and ended up losing the match. The two losses in 2009, well those were after he was back from injury and he had lost confidence in himself and was basically playing his clay court game then, especially that Shanghai final. Davy was very hard to beat on the hard courts back then, even giving Nole all sorts of problems each time they met; its worse for Rafa when he was playing the clay court game on the hard courts.

told you!

Smug heh, Ricky? Kelli got it right by saying it would be a tight three sets match won by Berdych. Yes it was a tight match, at least for the first two sets. Cilic went away mentally in the third set after losing his serve.

Well good for Berdych to win a title this year, after a long drought since 2009. At least for Cilic it's still not too long ago that he won his last title, in Feb last year at Zagreb, though it's still a bit disappointing making three finals but winning none.

lucky,

I sincerely hope that you will continue to give your thoughts about Rafa and his game. I understand where you are coming from and it's about wanting Rafa to be the best he can be, play like we know he can and have more success.

Maybe both you and natashao are right when all is said and done. It's mental and it's Rafa not playing his aggressive hard court game You both made some excellent points. It is true that all too often Rafa retreats back behind the baseline in his hard court matches. This is not the game that he and Uncle Toni came out with in the beginning of 2010. The whole point of coming out with a more aggressive game on hard court was to save Rafa's body and protect his knees, and to give him more chances to win on hard court. It worked. He had his best year in 2010. We saw him play brilliant aggressive tennis in the 2010 USO final. I think that was his best match ever played on hard court. At that point in time, he was standing at the baseline or inside the baseline, moving to net to close out points quickly, taking the ball early and going for winners.

The mental belief and confidence is a big part of Rafa's game also. That confidence has been badly compromised by all those losses to Nole. Rafa even said after the Giraldo match, that he was not playing with calm. My question is why? Someone like that should not make Rafa feel uncomfortable. It was good to see Rafa playing more aggressive tennis against Fish. However, as the final went on Rafa went back to playing behind the baseline. Murray was dictating the rallies and imposing his game. He is the one who played aggressive tennis and it paid off.

Hopefully, Rafa and Uncle Toni can have some time at the end of this year to reassess Rafa's game and try to work on his serve and his shots to make him play more efficiently. I worry for him seeing him doing all the running he did in the final. He cannot afford to keep playing like that. Uncle Toni and Carlos Costa told Rafa that in the first week of RG when he was playing so defensively and having trouble beating players that he would usually beat easily on his best surface.

I said it on the other topic thread and will say it again. I think both of you are coming from a place of love and concern for Rafa. We may have differences in how we see Rafa's problems now, but it's all about wanting him to be healthy, play well and enjoy himself out there.

native, you are such an emotional human being...thank you for your kind words...yes, lucky and I tend to see things from slightly different perspective but what it all comes to is love and admiration for Rafa...I was looking at the photos from the ceremony yesterday...Rafa is so gracious in defeat...he is such a wonderful human being. Here is some nice wording and true indeed taken from the VAMOS RAFA site:

"I refuse to dwell on the final. But at least it provided us with another opportunity to witness how wonderful Rafa is in defeat. That is a brilliant sight to see and one of the many reasons why we continue to adore this man."

VAMOS RAFA!!!

I kinda like cilic. Sad to seem him imploding in the 3rd set. He has to sort his head out.

natashao,

I am so glad you saw what I wrote. I hope that lucky star sees it, too. I really do believe that everyone should have their opinions and be free to express them. I do totally understand where you and luckystar are coming from. I like people for the most part and love to see people thinking for themselves and having a decent discussion with respect and civility.

I always wonder if I should even come here after Rafa loses, because the usual suspects are spreading their hate. I am so proud of Rafa for being gracious and classy in defeat.

That was a beautiful quote and thank you for posting it! :)

Yes NNY, I've read what you've posted, thanks. I don't think we should worry too much about Rafa's loss in Tokyo, after all he never really done well during this part of the season. What I saw in yesterday's match was one player playing one of his best tennis vs another not playing that well. Rafa looked gassed in the third set, probably due to all the running he did( could have cut down on the running had he played more inside the court and more aggressively). Rafa's fitness not as good as before (ie prior to 2011), getting older perhaps, or injury and illness affected maybe. To me he should look to play like at IW/Miami, more inside the court, more aggressive and more all court game, even learning to play that way on all surfaces, yes clay included. He should look to play more offensively on all surfaces. In fact he's an offensive player when he started out in the tour, the way he played against Fed and against Hewitt in 2004 and early 2005 on the hard courts told the story. It's just that he also had good retrieving skills that led to people thinking that he's a defensive player. Having an offensive game that can work on all surfaces would certainly help Rafa cut down on the confusion of having to play differently on different surfaces.