Indian Wells Masters 1000 (2016)

[nehmeth]

nono Zverev :nono :nono

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Live and learn...and no matter how unpopular it might be today, practice your volleys every now and then, no?

 

[kskate2]

Meanwhile Isnah is just not a good matchup for Samurai.

 

[Carol]

The kid plays well but obviously takes too much risk with the serve and the shots which means that if his opponent doesn't have a good day he could win but if at the other side of the net there is a Nadal with more confidence and play well all that risk doesn't work so well.
After the lesson of the second set I thought Rafa would win the third easier but he made more errors starting with the first serve and losing a little bit the control of the match but later I think that he realized who he is and how he can win which has decontroled to his opponent completely
Rafa , you are coming back, vamooses!!!!!!!:clap

 

[Fiero425]

Live and learn...and no matter how unpopular it might be today, practice your volleys every now and then, no?

Nadal has to depend on his opponents choking these days! He's done; jumping around like an idiot after winning this atrocious match! Truly pathetic; "act like you've been there before!" Mon Dieu, it's a 4th round match against an unseeded teenager! :cover :eyepop uzzled :nono :speechless:

 

[Carol]

Live and learn...and no matter how unpopular it might be today, practice your volleys every now and then, no?

Nadal has to depend on his opponents choking these days! He's done; jumping around like an idiot after winning this atrocious match! Truly pathetic; "act like you've been there before!" Mon Dieu, it's a 4th round match against an unseeded teenager! :cover :eyepop uzzled :nono :speechless:

:ras::ras::ras::ras::ras::ras::ras::ras::ras::ras::ras:crycry:snicker:snicker:snicker:snicker

 

[Carol]

Feli plays very elegant....yeah....but far to be very effective

 

[the AntiPusher]

Live and learn...and no matter how unpopular it might be today, practice your volleys every now and then, no?

Nadal has to depend on his opponents choking these days! He's done; jumping around like an idiot after winning this atrocious match! Truly pathetic; "act like you've been there before!" Mon Dieu, it's a 4th round match against an unseeded teenager! :cover :eyepop uzzled :nono :speechless:

Man, You and nehmeth are consistently two Debbie downer s when ever Rafa wins :nono

 

[Carol]

Live and learn...and no matter how unpopular it might be today, practice your volleys every now and then, no?

Nadal has to depend on his opponents choking these days! He's done; jumping around like an idiot after winning this atrocious match! Truly pathetic; "act like you've been there before!" Mon Dieu, it's a 4th round match against an unseeded teenager! :cover :eyepop uzzled :nono :speechless:

Man, You and nehmeth are consistently two Debbie downer s when ever Rafa wins :nono

And after the effort that Novak has made today playing against Feli....if I would own this tournament I would send him (Feli) walking to Miami as punishment :laydownlaughing

 

[Puppet Master]

Nadal's forehand has so much pop these days. It's probably just the surface, but stil
. He bashes the ball and hits clean winners. This is something he hasn't done since May 2014. I am impressed. Zverev played like a young Del Potro and would have troubled anyone with this performance, no doubt about it. Zverev is at some parts of the game technically better than Delpo. His serve is just plainly better, as well as the backhand. Forehand not quite, but who can match Juan's forehand anyway lol.
Almost forgot, Wawrinka you clown.

 

[Front242]

I thought you meant pop as in shanks that land outside the court or hideous gunk that flies fifty feet into the air like an amateur

 

[Kieran]

Yeah, Rafa gets no credit at all when he wins. He's obviously a struggling vet, trying to get back his form, but when he wins it's like, "uh of course he shoulda won, his opponent is crap." So he gets slated for not winning better. Even though he's going through the same late career struggles that all great players go through and should be commended for his attitude and effort, and especially when he wins.

If Zverev won, imagine the gloating and high-fiving and screams of pleasure. You's boys obviously been waiting a long time for your heroes tormentor to grow old. But he's not that old just yet and this week is a positive one for him so far. Of course, if he beats Kei it'll be because Kei failed, not because Rafa succeeded. :cover

Heaven knows what rumours will surface if he wins the tournament :cover

 

[Kieran]

I think this kid Zverev has given a great account of himself. He's definitely one of the hungry batch who are eager to make a name for themselves. I'll watch the highlights of this one but I've been told he looked sick after the defeat and this is the attitude we need in youngsters. Hopefully it spurs him on the next time...

 

[Puppet Master]

I thought you meant pop as in shanks that land outside the court or hideous gunk that flies fifty feet into the air like an amateur

Nah front boy, trust me, I'd be the first one to point out if his forehand was that bad. But honestly these few matches have been the best he has played in forever. This high bounce helps him a lot. If he faced this version of Zverev in the same round last year he would have lost 6:3 6:2 but he hung in there and fired plenty top notch forehands. If he could fix his serve right now, he'd be too big of a fish for Novak to catch.

 

[El Dude]

I see good signs for both players, Nadal and Zverev. For Nadal, he fought back and won a hard match. Yes, he is clearly not the player he was in 2013--and likely never will be--when he would have dispatched Zverev quite easily, but he showed his legendary tenacity, and also that he does still want to win. While the match was Zverev's to lose--he was up 5-2 with a match point in the third set before losing the five straight games--Nadal gave him absolutely no room for mistakes and took advantage of every opportunity when it most counted. In other words, he put the pressure on and didn't let up until it was finished. To me this says that Rafa still wants it; whether or not he has what it takes to win another Slam is debatable, but at the very least we shouldn't write him off just yet.

As for Zverev, I do worry that he'll be a bit crushed by this and show some wobbles over the next few months. On the other hand, it is a great learning experience. If he can learn from it, which I think he can, we have a young star on the verge of really breaking through. As I've said before, I think we'll see at least one of either an ATP 250 title and/or a second week Slam result or two this year, and probably a top 30 ranking by year's end. In my mind, he's one of the very best of the "Next Gen" group.

 

[Kieran]

I see good signs for both players, Nadal and Zverev. For Nadal, he fought back and won a hard match. Yes, he is clearly not the player he was in 2013--and likely never will be--when he would have dispatched Zverev quite easily, but he showed his legendary tenacity, and also that he does still want to win. While the match was Zverev's to lose--he was up 5-2 with a match point in the third set before losing the five straight games--Nadal gave him absolutely no room for mistakes and took advantage of every opportunity when it most counted. In other words, he put the pressure on and didn't let up until it was finished. To me this says that Rafa still wants it; whether or not he has what it takes to win another Slam is debatable, but at the very least we shouldn't write him off just yet.

As for Zverev, I do worry that he'll be a bit crushed by this and show some wobbles over the next few months. On the other hand, it is a great learning experience. If he can learn from it, which I think he can, we have a young star on the verge of really breaking through. As I've said before, I think we'll see at least one of either an ATP 250 title and/or a second week Slam result or two this year, and probably a top 30 ranking by year's end. In my mind, he's one of the very best of the "Next Gen" group.

Good post, buddy. I only saw a small highlights reel but what you say agrees with what Rafa said, which is basically that he squeaked out a close one, where he'd been losing them earlier in the year. This is why he was so pleased. As for Zverev, I think his reaction to this will tell us a lot. If he has a good coach, then they'll only draw positives and it'll make him hungrier. At the end of the day, Nadal is still a much bigger animal in the jungle and yet he came close to dispatching him. Also, he obviously recovered well in the third set to take command, and he seemed to have the smarts to let the second set go when it got beyond him...

 

[nehmeth]

Man, You and nehmeth are consistently two Debbie downer s when ever Rafa wins :nono

Thanks Push!

:huh:cover:s

 

[nehmeth]

Woke up this morning to find Jo ended Thiem's run rather quickly 6-3, 6-2 in one hour and seven minutes. He meets Nole who won in an hour and five. Yikes

 

[nehmeth]

I think this kid Zverev has given a great account of himself. He's definitely one of the hungry batch who are eager to make a name for themselves. I'll watch the highlights of this one but I've been told he looked sick after the defeat and this is the attitude we need in youngsters. Hopefully it spurs him on the next time...

He was up 5-2 and had a match point that he netted, he should look sick. Credit to Ralf, he fought to stay in it and pressured Zverev - with good results.

 

[Kieran]

I think this kid Zverev has given a great account of himself. He's definitely one of the hungry batch who are eager to make a name for themselves. I'll watch the highlights of this one but I've been told he looked sick after the defeat and this is the attitude we need in youngsters. Hopefully it spurs him on the next time...

He was up 5-2 and had a match point that he netted, he should look sick. Credit to Ralf, he fought to stay in it and pressured Zverev - with good results.

I saw the miss. He probably missed a few shots through the match, he shouldn't get hung up on this one. It was Novak-esque, as somebody said, but they all have shots like that in their portfolio of horrors. I hope he takes a lot more from the positives then he does from this shot, because it truly is a game of narrow margins and he'd done a great job getting to that position in the first place...