2019 Men's US Open Final: Rafael Nadal vs. Daniil Medvedev

[Bonaca]

If I was a ball boy and Medvedev snatched the towel like this from me I would throw it on the floor the next time. People booed him for his overall behaviour. Go get some help and stop defending animals like Kyrgios and Medvedev. We can have different personalities but without losing basic values like respect.

Me too , I would do more than throw the towel on the floor, agree with that. But animal is far over the line to describe the kid.
What I like is the mentality to raise energy and motivation, when seemingly everyone is against you. Reminds me a bit of Novak, what I didn’t like is his try to be everybody’s darling. They have to accept they will never have the standing of Roger.
I never defended the Greek idiot, if I were his father he wouldn’t do this bullshit over and over again.
But man , honestly, the fucking crowd don’t booed him because of this incident.

 

[Double Bagel]

Nadal in 3 sets.

 

[Front242]

I would advise him to watch Nadal and learn some “class” and “professionalism”. Medvedev’s behaviour this whole tournament was cringe worthy.

Class and professionalism haha. Hilarious. Not even gonna waste my time replying to that but suffice to say you could write a book on exactly why Nadal doesn't possess either of those qualities.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

I think Rafa has this in straights. I am more interested in seeing how Medvedev will problem solve on the court, if he can at all.

 

[Double Bagel]

Class and professionalism haha. Hilarious. Not even gonna waste my time replying to that but suffice to say you could write a book on exactly why Nadal doesn't possess either of those qualities.

I would say and agree with you somewhat that every player on the tour is not perfect on the court in the heat of the battle. Every player lets their emotions get the best of them at some point when they are down. It is the nature of being a human. That being said though there are many players that handle it much better than others and I would say Nadal handles it better than Medvedev.

 

[Front242]

I would say and agree with you somewhat that every player on the tour is not perfect on the court in the heat of the battle. Every player lets their emotions get the best of them at some point when they are down. It is the nature of being a human. That being said though there are many players that handle it much better than others and I would say Nadal handles it better than Medvedev.

100% none of the players are perfect I agree. They're humans are you said. I still don't think Nadal should be classed as someone to look up to for class and professionalism though based on his antics on court. The silly politically correct saints here are judging Medvedev based on him grabbing a towel.

 

[atttomole]

Medvedev is a completely different player to Berrettini, like not even in the same universe. Berrettini is a power player whose bread and butter is attack. Medvedev is a pure counterpuncher who mostly counterpunches and attacks in spurts. Medvedev doesn't have the power or attacking style of Berrettini so the two cannot be compared. I view Medvedev as a taller version of Hewitt, somewhere between hewitt and murray but not quite as versatile as Murray. He has a big serve but his baseline is not power tennis at all, it's the rawest version of counterpunching you will ever see. He may be better than Berrettini but they two play completely different type of tennis. Medvedev is a smart player so curious to see how he plays Nadal, his style of playing back and counterpunching is difficult to pull off against Nadal.

Not sure if I can say he is a taller version of Hewitt. If you watched his win in Cincinnati, you would have seen that Medvedev can play attacking tennis too. Maybe the surface allowed him to do so. Sometimes he likes to play tennis like chess, trying to outfox his opponent. I don’t think it will work with Nadal. I think he is a versatile player who tries to adapt to the surface. If his e can serve well, he will try to attack, in order to shorten points. The problem is that he has been double faulting a lot in recent matches.

 

[Double Bagel]

100% none of the players are perfect I agree. They're humans are you said. I still don't think Nadal should be classed as someone to look up to for class and professionalism though based on his antics on court. The silly politically correct saints here are judging Medvedev based on him grabbing a towel.

I agree, each player has their faults. Some worse than others. The grabbing of the towel by Daniil the other day was really bad and that will stick with him for quite some time unfortunately. Just like if a player threw a racquet and it accidentally hit a ballboy. I don't know how a player would live that down. I think like with every sport people think these players should be like angels because the kids look up them. People have to remember though these players are human. They have faults of there own. When I was young and playing tennis I looked up to Chrissy Evert. She was kind of the clean cut good girl while Martina came along and was kind of the bad girl. I also really liked when I was younger Carling Bassett. I later realized she had many issues in her life and her life wasn't all peachy and clean cut.

 

[MikeOne]

Not sure if I can say he is a taller version of Hewitt. If you watched his win in Cincinnati, you would have seen that Medvedev can play attacking tennis too. Maybe the surface allowed him to do so. Sometimes he likes to play tennis like chess, trying to outfox his opponent. I don’t think it will work with Nadal. I think he is a versatile player who tries to adapt to the surface. If his e can serve well, he will try to attack, in order to shorten points. The problem is that he has been double faulting a lot in recent matches.

Hewitt could hit winners too, in fact, on some days, he hit many winnners. Like Hewitt, medvedev likes to just put ball in play, defend, just not miss. He somehow wins a lot of those points, it was perplexing to see medvedev win so many points vs dimitrov where medvedev was jus putting balls back in play, with little pace and depth... baiting dimitrov to go for more. Somehow it works.. and only he pulls it off regularly. He gets to everthing and i think his shots are super flat, like connors so they must give opponents issues. i just was bit surprised how many times he won points vs dimitrov just putting ball in play, doing nothing with the ball, was strange.

Of course, like hewitt, he can attack in spurts but he doesn’t have much power.. he picks his spots, uses smart tactics. He is like a combination of murray and hewitt to me, maybe closer to murray but murray is more versatile.

 

[monfed]

dull in 3 unfortunately

 

[brokenshoelace]

It is playing slow.

And how does this make Nadal uncomfortable?

 

[atttomole]

And how does this make Nadal uncomfortable?

I didn’t say that reason why he is uncomfortable is the slowing down of the playing conditions. It has actually helped him. However, you can see that when he plays against big servers, he looks vulnerable and it’s noticeable that he is nervous. He knows that if they serve well, they can take him to a tie break, which is a lottery, even on the slow surfaces.

The slowing down of surfaces negates big servers and allows him to play his grinding style, wearing down opponents.

 

[brokenshoelace]

I didn’t say that reason why he is uncomfortable is the slowing down of the playing conditions. It has actually helped him. However, you can see that when he plays against big servers, he looks vulnerable and it’s noticeable that he is nervous. He knows that if they serve well, they can take him to a tie break, which is a lottery, even on the this slow surface.

The slowing down of surfaces negates big servers and allows him to play his grinding style, wearing down opponent’s.

Honestly, he looks pretty good to me. I'm one of the pessimistic Nadal fans usually but he looks on top of his game to me. I think last night's match is being made out to be much more difficult than it actually is. It was a straight set victory that would have been far easier if he didn't miss out on a thousand break points.

 

[Moxie]

I think the only thing that can get in Rafa's way is, like Serena today, nerves. But luckily he's got 5 sets. Medvedev is tired, strapped up like a mummy and a newbie. If he wins the first set, I won't be nervous. If he wins more than 1, I'd be shocked.

 

[Double Bagel]

I think the only thing that can get in Rafa's way is, like Serena today, nerves. But luckily he's got 5 sets. Medvedev is tired, strapped up like a mummy and a newbie. If he wins the first set, I won't be nervous. If he wins more than 1, I'd be shocked.

The only way I'd feel Rafa would be in trouble is if Daniil win the first two sets and the likelihood of that happening is slim to none.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

I think the only thing that can get in Rafa's way is, like Serena today, nerves. But luckily he's got 5 sets. Medvedev is tired, strapped up like a mummy and a newbie. If he wins the first set, I won't be nervous. If he wins more than 1, I'd be shocked.

Please I am out of drugs,that thought did cross my mind with Serena going out,still I am 'with colm' after watching Rafa's s/final.I am going to enjoy the rest of my Sunday and will probably get out my 'good luck rosary beads the exact pair I used in the Wimbledon 08 final' they worked,finally.....lol! Bye.

Remember The Power of Prayer lol!

 

[don_fabio]

I really hope this will be a competitive match. Medvedev needs to find a sweet spot from the baseline. If he becomes too defensive, he has no chance. If he loses patience like in the 2nd set of their last meeting and rushes for winners, he has no chance. Huge serving is absolutely crucial for him to back his baseline game and gain confidence as the match goes.

Still low chances for him to win his first GS final against Nadal. Positive thing is that he didn't need to beat any of the Fed/Novak before this final, so mentally he should not be spent and phisically too, relatively easy SF and good amout of rest in last several days.

 

[Moxie]

100% none of the players are perfect I agree. They're humans are you said. I still don't think Nadal should be classed as someone to look up to for class and professionalism though based on his antics on court. The silly politically correct saints here are judging Medvedev based on him grabbing a towel.

You think Nadal is a douche because you want to. Other "douche-like" behavior only falls in the category of "politically correct nonsense," I guess. Hard to square that though.

Oh, and Nadal shouldn't be classed as someone to look up to?

 

[Moxie]

Please I am out of drugs,that thought did cross my mind with Serena going out,still I am 'with colm' after watching Rafa's s/final.I am going to enjoy the rest of my Sunday and will probably get out my 'good luck rosary beads the exact pair I used in the Wimbledon 08 final' they worked,finally.....lol! Bye.

Remember The Power of Prayer lol!

I got a lucky shirt, and great candle, rosary beads...and most importantly, Rafa, on my side. Don't worry, Margaret, it's in the bag.

 

[mrzz]

I already did my fair share of wrong predictions lately, so I won't even try to make one. I will just say two things:

I wash checking the highlights of their Toronto match, boy that was slow. Comparing with what we are seeing here, it looks slow motion. And I found particularly noteworthy that Medvedev barely celebrated the semi-final win. You could say that that was a first round win of an ATP 250. He seems to be in for the big prize.