Tennis: French Open 2019

[tony d]

Congrats to Rafa on the win. Federer's the men's GOAT but I think Nadal getting up there as well.

 

[Maestro84]

Congrats to Rafa on the win. Federer's the men's GOAT but I think Nadal getting up there as well.

He’s comfortably at #2 all time right now behind Fed imo. If he can get to 20/21 slams I’d probably have to call him the GOAT.

 

[MsMeow]

He’s comfortably at #2 all time right now behind Fed imo. If he can get to 20/21 slams I’d probably have to call him the GOAT.

If he wins one more hard court or grass major he will catch Roger and probably surpass him. Time isn't on his side either but he's 5 years younger than Roger and the next gen guys are stalling. Djokovic and maybe Stan are really the only threats although Stan's record against Rafa is abysmal.

 

[Beau Knows]

I could see each member of the big 3 ending up with 20 slams, that would be fitting.

 

[Maestro84]

If he wins one more hard court or grass major he will catch Roger and probably surpass him. Time isn't on his side either but he's 5 years younger than Roger and the next gen guys are stalling. Djokovic and maybe Stan are really the only threats although Stan's record against Rafa is abysmal.

If he wins 1 of the next 3 majors before it heads back to RG 12 months from now, then he'll at least equal Roger. 33 isn't extremely old but Rafa's injury history is pretty lengthy, so his health will have to co-operate for another 2 years or so if he wants to eclipse Federer. Djokovic will obviously be his toughest competitor everywhere as Nole himself is trying to make more history as well, although this isn't the Novak that owned tennis 3-5 years ago either. I'd also add a healthy Del Potro onto the list as him and Rafa always play incredibly tight matches, but sadly Delpo is barely ever at 100% (when he is though, he can legit blow anyone off the court).

As much as I like Fed, he's gonna be 38 this year and he's clearly gonna have less chances at winning (and adding on slams in his case), in comparison to Rafa/Nole who are in their early 30s. Additionally, he can't beat Rafa at majors anymore and that's honestly been evident since way back in 2008 (what happened at the AO finals in 2017 was a damn near miracle looking back).

 

[Beau Knows]

As much as I like Fed, he's gonna be 38 this year and he's clearly gonna have less chances at winning (and adding on slams in his case), in comparison to Rafa/Nole who are in their early 30s. Additionally, he can't beat Rafa at majors anymore and that's honestly been evident since way back in 2008 (what happened at the AO finals in 2017 was a damn near miracle looking back).

I don't think that's true.

Before their French Open match he'd beaten Nadal 6 times in a row. Sure only one of those was a slam but he also blew Rafa off the court in one of their matches following that Australian Open showing that his victory there was no fluke. He even made their FO SF fairly competitive until the 3rd set. If Federer can hang with Nadal there for a couple sets I don't see why he couldn't beat him at Wimbledon.

There's still time for things to change before Wimbledon, but I'd have Federer as the 2nd favourite to win behind Djokovic - who I actually don't think Federer could beat in a slam anymore.

 

[Maestro84]

I don't think that's true.

Before their French Open match he'd beaten Nadal 6 times in a row. Sure only one of those was a slam but he also blew Rafa off the court in one of their matches following that Australian Open showing that his victory there was no fluke. He even made their FO SF fairly competitive until the 3rd set. If Federer can hang with Nadal there for a couple sets I don't see why he couldn't beat him at Wimbledon.

There's still time for things to change before Wimbledon, but I'd have Federer as the 2nd favourite to win behind Djokovic - who I actually don't think Federer could beat in a slam anymore.

I mean Fed can obviously hang with him and make it an incredibly tight contest but it's still gonna be a tall order for a soon to be 38 year old man. He's gotten the better of Rafa in BO3's in recent years but BO3's are pretty much equal to the regular season while Bo5's are the playoffs equivalent, hence it's much tougher to win BO5 matches. I want Roger to keep playing and winning of course, but realistically, Nadal and Djoker are gonna be the favs at the big tourneys

 

[Beau Knows]

I mean Fed can obviously hang with him and make it an incredibly tight contest but it's still gonna be a tall order for a soon to be 38 year old man. He's gotten the better of Rafa in BO3's but BO3's are pretty much equal to the regular season while Bo5's are the playoffs equivalent, hence it's much tougher to win BO5 matches

For sure, and I think the longer a match goes on the less likely Federer is to win it against Nadal. Federer is 37, but Nadal isn't the youngest player on tour either and has had a lot of issues staying healthy off of clay recently.

Federer certainly isn't as good as he was in 2017 when he beat Nadal in a slam final, but he's still the 3rd best player in the world and he's won Wimbledon much more recently than Nadal has. I think he would absolutely have a chance to beat him if they faced each other there.

I hope we get to find out though, it would be a bit of a shame if their last grand slam match-up ending up being their Roland-Garros SF instead of an epic match like the 2017 Austrailian Open final.

 

[kihei]

kihei crying on his roadtrip

Nary a teardrop. Just another incredibly great performance from Rafa who may end up with as many French Open titles as Sampras has GS championships in total.

 

[Asheville]

Nary a teardrop. Just another incredibly great performance from Rafa who may end up with as many French Open titles as Sampras has GS championships in total.

All of which you say grittingly. You seem to watch lots of tennis, evidenced by your point by point commentary, yet you picked against Rafa in the FO final. Possibly the most foolish bet in any sport at any time in history, which makes me wonder if you were just hoping he'd stay at 17 instead of leap forward to 18. Nothing screams "sore loser" quite like rooting against another player simple because they could gain on a fellow legend's GS total. I'm an unabashed Nadal fan who, over time, not only stopped rooting against Federer & Djokovic, but actively root for them when they aren't facing Nadal as I long ago accepted and embraced that the continued absurd success of each member of the Big 3 only amplifies the legacy of the other 2. I'm not sure that you, an unabashed Federer fan, will ever reach that level of clarity.

 

[CupofOil]

This outcome was entirely predictable. Congrats to Rafa for an amazing achievement but it sucks all the drama from the tourney when you know who's going to win before it begins every year. It's a major upset when somebody even takes a set from him.

This is the most dominant an individual or team for that matter at a specific tournament has been in sports history and I don't think it's remotely close.

Wimbledon should be interesting. I think this will be Federer's last legit shot at a major (although you never know with him) but my money is on Djokovic to reassert his dominance. It would be nice if a Next Gen guy stepped up but we'll probably have to wait another 5 years or so for that to happen.

 

[Beau Knows]

All of which you say grittingly. You seem to watch lots of tennis, evidenced by your point by point commentary, yet you picked against Rafa in the FO final. Possibly the most foolish bet in any sport at any time in history, which makes me wonder if you were just hoping he'd stay at 17 instead of leap forward to 18. Nothing screams "sore loser" quite like rooting against another player simple because they could gain on a fellow legend's GS total. I'm an unabashed Nadal fan who, over time, not only stopped rooting against Federer & Djokovic, but actively root for them when they aren't facing Nadal as I long ago accepted and embraced that the continued absurd success of each member of the Big 3 only amplifies the legacy of the other 2. I'm not sure that you, an unabashed Federer fan, will ever reach that level of clarity.

Yikes.

kihei is a big fan of Nadal

 

[Hadoop]

Switching topics: Congrats to Canadian Leylah Annie Fernandez on winning the Junior FO crown. From the interviews she seems to love the game and have a good head on her shoulders, so here's hoping continued success for her in the future.

 

[Asheville]

Yikes.

kihei is a big fan of Nadal

Lol absolutely not

 

[kihei]

All of which you say grittingly. You seem to watch lots of tennis, evidenced by your point by point commentary, yet you picked against Rafa in the FO final. Possibly the most foolish bet in any sport at any time in history, which makes me wonder if you were just hoping he'd stay at 17 instead of leap forward to 18. Nothing screams "sore loser" quite like rooting against another player simple because they could gain on a fellow legend's GS total. I'm an unabashed Nadal fan who, over time, not only stopped rooting against Federer & Djokovic, but actively root for them when they aren't facing Nadal as I long ago accepted and embraced that the continued absurd success of each member of the Big 3 only amplifies the legacy of the other 2. I'm not sure that you, an unabashed Federer fan, will ever reach that level of clarity.

Man, you are taking whom I bet on way more seriously than I do. If you look at my history on this thread, you will notice that I am an unabashed Rafa fan, too, who is easily my second favourite player all time, and want him to tie Roger for Grand Slam titles (and then stop). I then wouldn't mind if Nole tied both of them. I did not have to grit my teeth to see him win the title. Rather I was delighted to see Rafa play superbly and take his 12th championship. I simply felt at the beginning of the tournament that Thiem's time had come. That at some point one of the Next Gens was due to make a breakthrough and now that time had arrived (lest another generation be "lost" to the Big Three, which looks like it could happen). Watching Rafa play throughout the clay court season, I thought he was definitely vulnerable this year. But he proved me wrong when it came to the big crunch, so mad respect to him for raising his game to wondrous heights in the final here.

I do agree with you that anyone of the Big Three's successes amplify the glory of the group. Usually such dominance, if you can find it and that might be a trick onto itself, is dull, predictable and unappealing, but with these guys it is a thing of rare beauty.

 

[kihei]

Lol absolutely not

You must be new around here. Here's my response on Saturday to one of Wrigley's posts on the all-purpose tennis thread:

Top Ten Fave Male Tennis Players

Roger Federer--he's like a work of art
Rafa Nadal--he's like a force of nature
Ilie Nastase--best hands and worst head in tennis history
Bjorn Borg--managed to keep an icy distance while remaining thoroughly charismatic
Ernests Gulbis--sort of a personal curse for me, but such fun to watch in his brief prime
Rod Laver--nobody did it better for a very long time
Marat Safin--great player and some of the best interviews ever
John Newcombe--classic Aussie super nova but blessed with charm to burn
Arthur Ashe--a hero on and off the court and a wonderful analyst of all things tennis and beyond
John McEnroe--too often an ******* but an artist on court nonetheless

Honourable mention: Novak Djokovic, Ken Rosewall, Pancho Gonzalez, and Adriano Panatta

Top Ten Fave Female Tennis Players

Aranxa Sanchex Vicario
Billy Jean King
Evonne Goolagong
Maria Bueno
Martina Navratilova
Maria Sharapova
Steffi Graf
Althea Gibson
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Hsieh Su-wei

Honourable Mention: Suzanne Lenglen, Kim Clijsters, Monica Seles, and Virginia Wade

If you want to skim through previous tennis threads on here, you can quickly disabuse yourself of the notion that I am not a huge fan of Rafa. However, if you had doubts about your biases, you would have done that already. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

 

[Maestro84]

For sure, and I think the longer a match goes on the less likely Federer is to win it against Nadal. Federer is 37, but Nadal isn't the youngest player on tour either and has had a lot of issues staying healthy off of clay recently.

Federer certainly isn't as good as he was in 2017 when he beat Nadal in a slam final, but he's still the 3rd best player in the world and he's won Wimbledon much more recently than Nadal has. I think he would absolutely have a chance to beat him if they faced each other there.

I hope we get to find out though, it would be a bit of a shame if their last grand slam match-up ending up being their Roland-Garros SF instead of an epic match like the 2017 Austrailian Open final.

Yea that’s a fair assessment. Nadal’s record on grass in recent years has been pretty terrible by his standards. If he stays healthy though I can see him making another deep run but winning it all will be tough. If Fed is gonna win 21, it’ll have to come next month as I’m not sure he can outlast his opponents at the other three slams anymore.

 

[kihei]

Before he can catch Roger, Nole has to catch Rafa who just went one more GS up on him. As a result, I think Djokovic will be highly motivated to win Wimbledon, and I think he has to be a solid favourite to do so at this point.

 

[Asheville]

You must be new around here. Here's my response on Saturday to one of Wrigley's posts on the all-purpose tennis thread:


If you want to skim through previous tennis threads on here, you can quickly disabuse yourself of the notion that I am not a huge fan of Rafa. However, if you had doubts about your biases, you would have done that already. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

So Nadal is among your favorites. Cool story. You still prefer Federer and your predictions/assessments reflect as much. Quit tap dancing around the obvious.

 

[kihei]

So Nadal is among your favorites. Cool story. You still prefer Federer and your predictions/assessments reflect as much. Quit tap dancing around the obvious.

I'll tell you what, huckleberry--you stick with your "clarity" and I'll stick with mine.

 

[Elvis P]

...It would be nice if a Next Gen guy stepped up but we'll probably have to wait another 5 years or so for that to happen.

I don't think the Big 3 will be winning every major 5 years from now.

 

[Novak Djokovic]

I support kihei in this "argument". Haha.

Anyways, Wimbledon will be very interesting. Biggest threat to Novak are big servers who go insane for a match. While I think Roger is a top calibre contender, I don't think Novak minds the match-up at all. Always tough to predict Rafa on grass. Maybe the Next Gen finally does do something, but I'm not betting on it.

 

[kihei]

I don't think the Big 3 will be winning every major 5 years from now.

I'm pretty sure I said that five years ago, ha, ha.

 

[Panteras]

I've seen kihei support Rafa a bunch here in the past, he just predicted the winner of Thiem/Djoko would beat Rafa in the final. He was wrong. Doesn't mean he hates Nadal, move on.

 

[Panteras]

I support kihei in this "argument". Haha.

Anyways, Wimbledon will be very interesting. Biggest threat to Novak are big servers who go insane for a match. While I think Roger is a top calibre contender, I don't think Novak minds the match-up at all. Always tough to predict Rafa on grass. Maybe the Next Gen finally does do something, but I'm not betting on it.

I'm a big Rafa fan, but it would take an amazing tournament for him to get Wimbledon. Nole and Roger have better chances. But then again, every time I've doubted Nadal he's proven me wrong. I'm sure most people can say the same. But yeah, I give him more chances of USO.