ATP World Tour Finals 2017, London, UK

[shawnbm]

i say Federer plays Monte Carlo, Rome and Paris at least one more time before he retires. I believe he will play Paris next year.

 

[shawnbm]

The fuck did I just read?

I laughed right out loud upon reading this Broken

 

[brokenshoelace]

My fantasy is Roger plays Roland Garros - and beats Nadal in the final...and then Nadal has nothing else to hide behind in saying Roger's winning their matches these days because they're not on clay...never mind the fact he was beating Roger on other surfaces before this year. Poor old Nadal fans would lose their caca if they no longer had their "but they didn't play on clay" talking point... And really...Roger with 2 FOs, 8 Wimbledon, 5 USO and 5 AOs? A double career slam accomplished at nearly 37? The GOAT debate would be over forever. Even if Nadal tied him with 20 Slams the argument would be - Nadal dominated their matchup early in their careers but Roger owned him at the end of his career...

My fantasy is Nadal wins 25 more slams. Not 25 slams total. 25 MORE slams. Leaving him with 41 slams. The GOAT debate would be over. His hair would be fully restored. All his injuries would finally be behind him. And not only would he have beaten Roger, but Roger's twins as well.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Here's a question. Which is more like to happen?

*Roger beats Rafa at Roland Garros
*Rafa beats Roger at Wimbledon

That's a good question. If Federer plays RG again I'd say the former although it's still very unlikely.

 

[10isfan]

Is Goffin injured? If so, who is the alternate?

I’ve decided I don’t enjoy watching AZ play. He is solid all around except for the FH. At the age of 20, being ranked 3 is a great accomplishment. However, I rarely find myself amazed by his play. He will be number one, barring injury. But I much rather watch Dolgo, Fog, Monfils, and others who hit stunning shots.

 

[El Dude]

That's a good question. If Federer plays RG again I'd say the former although it's still very unlikely.

I tend to agree with you, if only because I think Roger's chances of reaching a RG final are greater than Rafa's of reaching a Wimbledon final.

LOL @Roger's twins. Add in, playing them solo while they play him double and he clinches GOAT to me.

 

[DarthFed]

i say Federer plays Monte Carlo, Rome and Paris at least one more time before he retires. I believe he will play Paris next year.

I can see him be stupid and want to play the warmup before RG. If he ever plays RG again I think he will skip all warmups and just come in fresh after a couple months off after IW or Miami. Yes it'd be tough to have no match practice on clay but he could use the first few rounds against weaker competition for that. I think that scenario, vs. playing 1 or 2 clay warmups, would give him the best chance to do well at RG and would also help keep him fresh for grass afterwards. But I really don't think he should do it unless next year's field is as hapless as this year. And if it's true that his knees now "feel weird" on clay after the injury last year then just forget about it altogether. I know some Rafanuts think him skipping clay was about avoiding Nadal but he has said multiple times his knees don't feel good on clay now.

 

[Carol]

The poor Goffin is going through his worst times, two days ego he almost lost vs a completely lame Nadal and today he almost couldn’t do a game...

 

[Fiero425]

I can see him be stupid and want to play the warmup before RG. If he ever plays RG again I think he will skip all warmups and just come in fresh after a couple months off after IW or Miami. Yes it'd be tough to have no match practice on clay but he could use the first few rounds against weaker competition for that. I think that scenario, vs. playing 1 or 2 clay warmups, would give him the best chance to do well at RG and would also help keep him fresh for grass afterwards. But I really don't think he should do it unless next year's field is as hapless as this year. And if it's true that his knees now "feel weird" on clay after the injury last year then just forget about it altogether. I know some Rafanuts think him skipping clay was about avoiding Nadal but he has said multiple times his knees don't feel good on clay now.

Players from past eras all thought the same thing; "I'll use the early rounds to warm up," and they never make it out of their openers like Becker and Edberg on "Black Monday" back in 1990! Sampras only made one true legit run and that was in '96 when he got to the SF! The rest of the time it was a waste of a trip to hit Paris! Same with Connors, McEnroe, Ashe, Hewitt, & many other top ranked players! We're assuming Roger doesn't get a clay court specialist who'll outlast him since he's a senior player with a lot of miles on him! :whistle:

 

[the AntiPusher]

I saw this quote nearly a week ago and it was the same week that Djokovic told Forget at the Paris Open that he could still only play left-handed. Sooooo....not saying Agassi's lying...just saying I never saw a legit source for the Agassi quote...

Very true Busted..Agassi may still be on the party train with his buddy Slim.

 

[the AntiPusher]

You want some cheese to go with your whine? Nobody makes Rafa play hard court events. As I pointed out the other day - the first clay event is the first week of Feb. The last clay event is the last week of July. Except for the 6 weeks that are IW , Miami and Wimbledon when no other tournaments are scheduled - there are clay court tournaments somewhere in the world nearly every damned week. Nadal can go play on clay until he's permanently caked in red dirt. Nobody's stopping him. At this point, due to his past #1 status, he can pick and choose the tournaments he plays and skip hard court Masters events. BUT...he doesn't. So why should Federer be faulted for NOT playing clay if he doesn't want to? With the career he's had - he's EARNED the right to NOT play any event he doesn't want to. He's 36 and playing a schedule that puts his health and family first. Nadal is 31 and been injured more than Federer who's 5 years older - and is once again injured. So instead of whining about Roger "taking it easy" maybe you should suggest Nadal do the same to save his creaky knees. Otherwise Roger will still be playing at 38 and Nadal will have retired already.

Just being brutally honest, A lot of others feel the same but will not have the cojones to say it.

 

[DarthFed]

Players from past eras all thought the same thing; "I'll use the early rounds to warm up," and they never make it out of their openers like Becker and Edberg on "Black Monday" back in 1990! Sampras only made one true legit run and that was in '96 when he got to the SF! The rest of the time it was a waste of a trip to hit Paris! Same with Connors, McEnroe, Ashe, Hewitt, & many other top ranked players! We're assuming Roger doesn't get a clay court specialist who'll outlast him since he's a senior player with a lot of miles on him! :whistle:

Those guys were all garbage on clay. Fed could probably still blast his way through most of the grinders on tour.

 

[Busted]

Here's a question. Which is more like to happen?

*Roger beats Rafa at Roland Garros
*Rafa beats Roger at Wimbledon

Let's see...Nadal can't get to the 2nd week at Wimbledon...but Roger hasn't played RG in 2 years and COULD skip it again in 2018. Sooooo...hell...guess I"m going to have to go with Nadal beating Roger at Wimbledon...cuz at least we know Roger will be playing Wimbledon.

 

[Busted]

The same Agassi who made up a bs story that his son had been kidnapped and had to suddenly leave the Australian Open when a random drug tester happened to show up. A truly trustworthy guy alright.

Huh? When was this? I've never heard this story and I thought I'd heard a lot of tennis dirt back in the day...

 

[Fiero425]

Those guys were all garbage on clay. Fed could probably still blast his way through most of the grinders on tour.

The court's also been homogenized & sped up some! It's nowhere as slow as it was during the BORG years! :whistle:

 

[Fiero425]

Huh? When was this? I've never heard this story and I thought I'd heard a lot of tennis dirt back in the day...

As much as I kept up with the ins & outs of tennis, I didn't know for sure about Agassi's drug use until he confessed in a book! :sleep:

 

[Busted]

We will agree to disagree, I thought he was pretty putrid for the first two sets and I didn't see the third one. Roger was slicing half of his backhands because for whatever reason he wasn't confident hitting through it like he has this entire year. Then late in the 2nd set everything was misfiring badly and that was after the total donation to give Zverev the break back. A big part of the issue is the serve and ROS sucked yesterday and when that happens to a player they usually struggle finding any rhythm from the baseline too. That may explain yesterday.

I think Sock-Zverev will go 3 sets and I kind of think Sock will take it. Confidence does weird things. And if we are going off what we've seen so far I'd say Sock played a lot better vs Roger than Zverev did even if the first match was a straight setter

I do think the match should have been a straight setter but you know Roger's mind had always wandered during matches. LOL!

Also, I was at the ATP site earlier today and they had a story about why Roger was slicing the return so much - that it was his game plan not to give Zverev any pace on the returns - basically make him have to generate his own pace on his 2nd shot, have to bend low to dig the ball out of the court - and that Roger played a lot of the slice to Zverev's forehand for the same reason. The explanation makes a lot of sense...but I do worry about the mental health of people who spend all night analyzing tennis matches to this degree....

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/brain-game-federer-zverev-nitto-atp-finals-2017-tuesday

ITA with you about the Sock/Zverev match. I think Sock is smart enough to have watched Roger's match with Zverev try some of the same things.

 

[Busted]

As much as I kept up with the ins & outs of tennis, I didn't know for sure about Agassi's drug use until he confessed in a book! :sleep:

The crystal meth and coke I thought everybody knew about at the time. I remember that there were rumors that he'd failed a drug test and the ATP kept the results quiet and made him do rehab - and that that's why he was out of the game for those 6-7 months and then went back to the qualies.. The story he told in his book was different, but did confirm the drug use.

 

[Busted]

I think it's a fantasy that Roger ever plays RG again. After this year I think he will stick with what worked scheduling-wise and ditch the one thing which was an obvious mistake.

But if he plays RG and that's the final and he still has a big win streak vs. Nadal? Well I'd say his chances of winning would be considerably higher than the previous matches there. The reverse happened at Wimbledon when Roger was mentally spooked which made things peachy for Rafa in that 08 match. But seriously I doubt Roger plays RG again and I don't think he'd make the final if he did unless something like this year happens again. Roger this year would've been #2 clay courter by default given the very underwhelming Thiem was.

Sadly...I concur about RG 100%. I don't think he'll play it in 2018 - and if he plays it in 2019 then it'll only because he's doing a farewell tour and playing it one last time before he retires. If he does play - he won't make it to the finals...not unless they suddenly find a way to speed up mud.

 

[Busted]

My fantasy is Nadal wins 25 more slams. Not 25 slams total. 25 MORE slams. Leaving him with 41 slams. The GOAT debate would be over. His hair would be fully restored. All his injuries would finally be behind him. And not only would he have beaten Roger, but Roger's twins as well.

LOL! Okay...there's fantasies...and then there's crack talk...and this, my friend...is crack talk.