CANADIAN MASTERS 2013 MONTREAL 2-11 August

[kskate2]

Nadal making light work of his frist match,that's 5 games in a row.

Just turned it back on and it's over. A bagel in the 2nd set.

 

[kskate2]

Anybody see what happened to Tommy? Matsovic advances on a retirement.

 

[sid]

Anybody see what happened to Tommy? Matsovic advances on a retirement.

I was watching the Nadal match,5-0 & a retirement is all i know 2.

 

[tented]

Nadal making light work of his frist match,that's 5 games in a row.

Just turned it back on and it's over. A bagel in the 2nd set.

Rafa is on a one-match winning streak. Yay! Finally took someone down ranked over 100.

[Sorry, herios. Maybe Peliwo can pull out the win, but it's not looking good right now.]

 

[kskate2]

Jan and Dan are in a first set breaker. Tight match so far.

 

[kskate2]

Janowiscz takes it 7-5 in the breaker.

 

[ftan]

Who are the Fed fans rooting for here? I'd like to see my fellow brit Andy Murray take home the title.

Logically speaking Fed Fans should not root for anyone other than
top four (ND, AM, DF, RN) as it would hurt Fed's chances of making
it to WTF.

However, I myself did not follow that logic, and am rooting for
JMDP. Being a fan does not mean, one should be fanatic.

Delpo always if Fed is not around

 

[DarthFed]

By coincidence, so do I. Baron Britbox asked the Fed fans who they liked, since Roger wasn't playing. All hearts and flowers for Murray, Djokovic and Juan Martín. You just happened to mention "he who should not be named." :heart:

I am a huge Fed fan, but one that likes Rafa too... I realize it is weird...

To some, it's weird, but that's unfortunate. I love them both. One wouldn't exist without the other. They pushed each other to become better players, and we're now lucky enough to be witnessing two of the all-time greats playing each other in the same era.

People talk about, "Wouldn't it have been great to see Federer play Laver? Or Nadal play Borg?" -- the underlying idea being imagine how great it would have been to have seen two of the greatest players ever to pick up a racquet go up against each other, at their peaks. We don't have to imagine one of those possible match-ups. We're seeing it right now with Federer and Nadal.

If all potential rivalries were as lopsided and uninteresting as this one I wouldn't care to see them. Rafa never made Fed a better player, he made him a much worse one in fact.

That just sounds like sour grapes. Well, I beg to differ, and I'm not the only one.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/usopen09/columns/story?columnist=garber_greg&id=4462264

And even Roger credited Rafa in that McEnroe interview a few years ago for helping to improve his backhand.

Roger's best tennis came a long time ago. Thinking that his best tennis has come from 09 on is just not backed up by anything. And it goes without saying Roger's attempts to beat Nadal haven't gone so well right? Rosol and Darcis have been bigger rivals to Nadal in the past 5 years...

 

[sid]

Dancevic v Janowiscz a set each,looks like going to wire in this one.
ps 3-3 in 3rd set.

 

[tented]

Rosol and Darcis have been bigger rivals to Nadal in the past 5 years...

:laydownlaughing I walked right into that.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Darth, I do believe Nadal made Roger work harder and made him improve on certain things and those things helped him against other players, just not Nadal...

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Out of realistic choices DP would be my 2nd pick to win it. That would certainly spice things up real good heading into USO. But how about anyone except "he who should not be named."

So who's your first pick? (Maybe you already said, but I'm not going back.) It is funny to me that the last choice of everyone is Rafa, and not because of odds, but because of prejudice. Clearly, most just don't want him to. Obviously, Rafa is SOOO not going to win Montreal. But, hey...he was SOOO not going to win IW. Stranger things have happened.

It is not due to prejudice.

Actually, based on past history, Rafa has won Canadian Masters three
times, whereas even Fed has won only two times. Also, both Murray and
Djokovic have also won it only two times. So, he has won it more times
than any other member of the top 4. Why would a rational person want
to underestimate his chances?

It is because of the concern over the perennial Knee problem
and because we don't know how he will show up after the Wimbledon
match back into the circuit.

Whafa has won it twice. Don't make it worse than it already is

I stand corrected. It is Novak 3, Murray 2, Fed 2 and Rafa 2.

 

[ftan]

And JJ is through!!

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Milos-Youzhny about to start. Not an easy one for Milos by any means but he has to start winning some of these at some point. Just follow Popsicle.

 

[DarthFed]

Darth, I do believe Nadal made Roger work harder and made him improve on certain things and those things helped him against other players, just not Nadal...

I'd be interested to hear your take on it. To my mind Roger tried to change his game a lot on clay and added the dropshot in his arsenal and it is a very good dropshot at that. But aside from that Rafa sucked up Roger's confidence (always an enormous thing in tennis) and the changes he made to try to get over the hump on clay may have hurt him on other surfaces.

 

[kskate2]

Mad Doctor down a break to Milos 2-4

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Darth, I do believe Nadal made Roger work harder and made him improve on certain things and those things helped him against other players, just not Nadal...

I'd be interested to hear your take on it. To my mind Roger tried to change his game a lot on clay and added the dropshot in his arsenal and it is a very good dropshot at that. But aside from that Rafa sucked up Roger's confidence (always an enormous thing in tennis) and the changes he made to try to get over the hump on clay may have hurt him on other surfaces.

One thing I can say with confidence is the fitness thing. Putting the last 2-3 years aside, Roger was one of the fittest guy out there and his movement was easily the best. Guys like Novak and Murray were holding their knees trying to catch a breath after long rallies, Roger was just waiting on the service line, ready to get going. I think Roger realized he had to be as fit as Rafa to beat him. Not always worked against Rafa, but surely worked against most of the field.
The backhand...not that it was not a solid shot, but I think he worked on it enough that it became a huge weapon for him. It was not enough to counter the high bouncing Rafa forehand, but he became really good at dealing with those balls and nobody else could exploit it. These days people say it is a weakness to exploit but I totally disagree. His weakness is not the shot, it is getting there to hit it properly.
Like you said, the dropper. It might be a direct result of Rafa playing from a different area code. I am not sure, but I think Rafa has something to do with Roger embracing a shot that he pretty much ridiculed before.
I agree with the confidence issue though, that some of his losses to Rafa came at bad times but he really managed it as best as he could and took it out of everyone else. Sure he could have done without them, but hey...

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

I am liking Milos' performance today. Positive tennis.

 

[kskate2]

He's serving very well right now. Attacking the net and trying to take the initiative. Good stuff so far from Milos. Takes the opening set 6-4. On serve 1-1 in the 2nd.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c9r15O1JVw[/video]