2019 Australian Open, Melbourne - ATP GRAND SLAM

[brokenshoelace]

its the best nadal ever hit his forehand.

No. It's not even close.

 

[brokenshoelace]

This was a 2013-ian performance from Roger. The forehand and the return in particular looked very reminiscent of his below par years. Tsitsipas played great though. He's got an exciting game and seemed very much up for the big moment.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Can't be crying over a 4th round win against a grandpa. Come on

Pretty sure he doesn't look at it in isolation like that. And he shouldn't.

 

[Andy22]

Now I not everyone will agree with this but right now better

No. It's not even close.

Yes it is nadal ever hit his forehand.

 

[tented]

Now I not everyone will agree with this but right now better

Yes it is nadal ever hit his forehand.

Huge Nadal fan here. He is absolutely not hitting his forehand better now than ever before, if that’s what you’re implying.

 

[DarthFed]

A testament to his consistency over the years that we consider a quarterfinal and 2 straight 4th round appearances as crappy. It's not. By a long shot. Especially for a 37 year old. But his standards have spoiled us. He's made the quarters without breaking a sweat so often that we take for granted that younger players are still on the other side of the net and you still have to play the match.

Well let's not be silly. Even for 37 a 4th round and QF is not some good result. It is going 3-1 or 4-1 against mostly weak competition.

Roger needs to figure his head out. His opponent won pretty much every big point once Roger was in position to take a 2 set lead. Losing from dominating positions has become his downfall the last year. That and in general we really aren't seeing him play two great matches in a row, let alone 5+. Maybe he puts it all together one more time at Wimbledon. And with that Mallorcan twat in the mix he will need to win more or risk going down as an underachiever.

 

[Horsa]

Huge Nadal fan here. He is absolutely not hitting his forehand better now than ever before, if that’s what you’re implying.

Nadalgoat is a nice person but he likes to wind Federer fans up & his favourite phrase is "Nadal's going to win as he's the champion" or something of that sort.

 

[Andy22]

Huge Nadal fan here. He is absolutely not hitting his forehand better now than ever before, if that’s what you’re implying.

No that would nadal 2008-2010 timeline but it close to hes best forehand I think, I agree its not nadal best ever forehand hitting.

 

[tenisplayrla08]

Well let's not be silly. Even for 37 a 4th round and QF is not some good result. It is going 3-1 or 4-1 against mostly weak competition.

Roger needs to figure his head out. His opponent won pretty much every big point once Roger was in position to take a 2 set lead. Losing from dominating positions has become his downfall the last year. That and in general we really aren't seeing him play two great matches in a row, let alone 5+. Maybe he puts it all together one more time at Wimbledon. And with that Mallorcan twat in the mix he will need to win more or risk going down as an underachiever.

When we spend all this time wondering why the younger players can't break through. Can't consistently make the quarters or even the 4th round some times, you can't go around saying Roger still making 4th rounds and quarters, almost automatically, AT 37, is not a good result. It's not great. It shows he's human and age gets us all. But it's not shabby. He probably does need to figure his head out. But you're severely underestimating the age factor. Everyone does. Because he makes it look easy. But being 37 in any professional sport is not easy.

Fed will NEVER be considered an underachiever. He's the pace setter. And Nadal has matched the pace. If Nadal passes his slam count then he passes his slam count. It is what it is. Nothing we can do about it. There's a 5 year age gap. Sure we could get into all of that. But I honestly don't have the patience. It's been run over too much. We all know the stats and have our views and I'm not going to change your mind with what I think are reasonable arguments. Especially if you're the type of person to run around calling all time greats twats. It's dismissive and quite frankly pathetic.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Well let's not be silly. Even for 37 a 4th round and QF is not some good result. It is going 3-1 or 4-1 against mostly weak competition.

Roger needs to figure his head out. His opponent won pretty much every big point once Roger was in position to take a 2 set lead. Losing from dominating positions has become his downfall the last year. That and in general we really aren't seeing him play two great matches in a row, let alone 5+. Maybe he puts it all together one more time at Wimbledon. And with that Mallorcan twat in the mix he will need to win more or risk going down as an underachiever.

I think it is mental, but shouldn't be taken in isolation. In other words, I think he's losing these big points because he has no confidence that he's playing well enough to play them on his terms, so he's not fully confident with his ground strokes (forehand in particular) which makes him hesitate to pull the trigger or be as aggressive (he's had plenty of DTL forehands perfectly lined up and he hit them more towards the middle rather than go for an outright winner). So yes, that is mental, but the mental block on these points is a result of him just not playing good enough. The return is poor, so he's not having many opportunities to break his opponent's serve, which in turn is making him tentative so he's not really going after the points. It feels very reminiscent of 2013. Also, much like that year, his movement seems off. A clear split step slower and that changes things drastically. The domino effect entails and all of a sudden, he's not confident in his ground strokes, return, etc... which changes his tactics, his approach on the big points, etc...

Where I would agree that the mental block is costing him, is that he's not being a good enough front-runner. He won the first set, as he did against Millman at the US Open, then just failed to ride any wave of momentum. Plus, when he realizes that his opponent isn't going anywhere, that's where he seems resigned to a close match and starts going in "I have to find a way to navigate through this match" mode, rather than "I just have to play my game" mode.

 

[Andy22]

Federer just needs improve hes return game as, nadal+djokovic have always been better in this area than federer. If he can do that federer might win wimbledon.

 

[tenisplayrla08]

Federer just needs improve hes return game as, nadal+djokovic have always been better in this area than federer. If he can do that federer might win wimbledon.

At some point we all have to stop acting like people can completely overhaul their entire game. These guys got where they are by playing their specific game. And their specific games revealed weaknesses that the others had. But against most everyone else, those weaknesses were not great enough to cost them too many wins. Fed is winding down his career. He is actually one of the games great returners. Nadal and Djokovic are just better. Can't really change that at 37.

 

[Fiero425]

At some point we all have to stop acting like people can completely overhaul their entire game. These guys got where they are by playing their specific game. And their specific games revealed weaknesses that the others had. But against most everyone else, those weaknesses were not great enough to cost them too many wins. Fed is winding down his career. He is actually one of the games great returners. Nadal and Djokovic are just better. Can't really change that at 37.

Preach! People need to be more realistic! Fed's obviously playing as well as he can, but the pressures have to be building up with the inevitable decline he's facing approaching 40! I know things got harder for me when I turned 37 and having a big serve wasn't enough to compete against even the most average of players unless I worked harder to win points! It ridiculous for his fans to believe he can do much else at this stage of his career! Fed's approaching "ROSEWALL" territory! "He can't keep it going forever people!" :whistle:

 

[The_Grand_Slam]

At some point we all have to stop acting like people can completely overhaul their entire game. These guys got where they are by playing their specific game. And their specific games revealed weaknesses that the others had. But against most everyone else, those weaknesses were not great enough to cost them too many wins. Fed is winding down his career. He is actually one of the games great returners. Nadal and Djokovic are just better. Can't really change that at 37.

It's not about improvement,it's about missing returns he made 9/10 times before.

 

[DarthFed]

When we spend all this time wondering why the younger players can't break through. Can't consistently make the quarters or even the 4th round some times, you can't go around saying Roger still making 4th rounds and quarters, almost automatically, AT 37, is not a good result. It's not great. It shows he's human and age gets us all. But it's not shabby. He probably does need to figure his head out. But you're severely underestimating the age factor. Everyone does. Because he makes it look easy. But being 37 in any professional sport is not easy.

Fed will NEVER be considered an underachiever. He's the pace setter. And Nadal has matched the pace. If Nadal passes his slam count then he passes his slam count. It is what it is. Nothing we can do about it. There's a 5 year age gap. Sure we could get into all of that. But I honestly don't have the patience. It's been run over too much. We all know the stats and have our views and I'm not going to change your mind with what I think are reasonable arguments. Especially if you're the type of person to run around calling all time greats twats. It's dismissive and quite frankly pathetic.

I'm not underestimating the age factor I'm just not overstating the difficulty of reaching a 4th round or QF. Roger could be doing that 50% of the time or more at age 42 and I doubt in his mind that would be enough to stick around. I don't doubt that the guy can still play well but when you are basically toast as soon as the momentum shifts one time then there are not going to be any good results going forward. Roger is a talented guy still and he's much too talented to have a run like this where he loses to KA, Milkman, and a 20 year old Tsitsipas in the early rounds. Look at each of those matches and they all have a glaring similarity. A heavy underdog rallying from what was shaping up to be a routine beat down. I don't think Roger suddenly got tired at the exact moment he was going to win or take a 2 set lead. Rather he got tight and then never came close to righting the ship.

 

[Nadalfan2013]

Omg so many excuses in this thread about age, bad call, mental problem, return of serves, etc.

How about we shift focus and give full credit to Tsitsipas for the win? He's the one who caused all these problems to Federer due to his unbelievable play.

Dear Tsitsipas, Fed fans may hate you right now but please ignore them and enjoy your moment. I for one love you.

 

[DarthFed]

I think it is mental, but shouldn't be taken in isolation. In other words, I think he's losing these big points because he has no confidence that he's playing well enough to play them on his terms, so he's not fully confident with his ground strokes (forehand in particular) which makes him hesitate to pull the trigger or be as aggressive (he's had plenty of DTL forehands perfectly lined up and he hit them more towards the middle rather than go for an outright winner). So yes, that is mental, but the mental block on these points is a result of him just not playing good enough. The return is poor, so he's not having many opportunities to break his opponent's serve, which in turn is making him tentative so he's not really going after the points. It feels very reminiscent of 2013. Also, much like that year, his movement seems off. A clear split step slower and that changes things drastically. The domino effect entails and all of a sudden, he's not confident in his ground strokes, return, etc... which changes his tactics, his approach on the big points, etc...

Where I would agree that the mental block is costing him, is that he's not being a good enough front-runner. He won the first set, as he did against Millman at the US Open, then just failed to ride any wave of momentum. Plus, when he realizes that his opponent isn't going anywhere, that's where he seems resigned to a close match and starts going in "I have to find a way to navigate through this match" mode, rather than "I just have to play my game" mode.

Good post but the thing is he is starting most of the matches well, including really tight first sets like this one and the match vs. Evans. But then it's as though as soon as something doesn't go his way, like converting set points or break points late in the set, he just kind of slowly collapses. Maybe some of it is fatigue and not just playing well but a lot of it is mental. And surely the guys on tour are well aware of it. These past few major losses are classic cases of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

 

[herios]

This match with Tsitsipas never looked like a beatdown of the underdog .

 

[Andy22]

Nadal is got be the favorite right now because he's playing the best tennis of the first week.

 

[the AntiPusher]

When we spend all this time wondering why the younger players can't break through. Can't consistently make the quarters or even the 4th round some times, you can't go around saying Roger still making 4th rounds and quarters, almost automatically, AT 37, is not a good result. It's not great. It shows he's human and age gets us all. But it's not shabby. He probably does need to figure his head out. But you're severely underestimating the age factor. Everyone does. Because he makes it look easy. But being 37 in any professional sport is not easy.

Fed will NEVER be considered an underachiever. He's the pace setter. And Nadal has matched the pace. If Nadal passes his slam count then he passes his slam count. It is what it is. Nothing we can do about it. There's a 5 year age gap. Sure we could get into all of that. But I honestly don't have the patience. It's been run over too much. We all know the stats and have our views and I'm not going to change your mind with what I think are reasonable arguments. Especially if you're the type of person to run around calling all time greats twats. It's dismissive and quite frankly pathetic.

Darth, you and the rest need to Stop with the 37 year old comments..when he wins nothing is mentioned but when he gets his butt handed to him like Andy Dufrense loosing another battle to the Sisters, Roger is old. Stefanos just out played Roger by controlling the net and staying heavy on Roger's fh. Serena's coach Patrick M has been working with this kid since he was 12 due to his father's Greek Hertiage. Stefanos is a great mover and didn't allow Roger to control the center of the court. The Rafa fans are just simply saying that if he would've defeated Rafa last year , the Fed fans would've place him on the Rafa killers Mt.Rushmore with (Pouille , Borna Coric , F3 , DB and etc).. Well at least Front, GSM and El Dude is giving Stefanos credit but all that 37 year old noise is pathetic..If Roger is too old, there is pretty room on the McEnroe geriatric tour that occasionally features his old prison bitch Roddick. There's nothing wrong with Roger and you guys are correct, you had better be glad it wasn't Rafa..