Nadalites – Rafa Nadal Talk

[Carol]

Why are you on this thread if you "...can't stand Nadal?"

I watched his FO final. He was magnificent.

He is one of the biggest haters around but I hope he is going to hate him more and more because you know what I would mean, isn't? and if you read his comments he knows about tennis like me baseball which means nothing. He is too in love with Roger.....

 

[TennisFan101]

He is one of the biggest haters around but I hope he is going to hate him more and more because you know what I would mean, isn't? and if you read his comments he knows about tennis like me baseball which means nothing. He is too in love with Roger.....

LOL Thanks for the info.

Wish he'd move to RF's neighborhood. Just so silly of one to come to Rafa's eponymous thread and announce dislike for Rafa. Am still scratching my head.

 

[TennisFan101]

A question for Nadal fans. Obviously he's had a great year - his best since 2014, possibly 2013 (if he doesn't win anything else, his year will be similar to 2014, although in more playing time). But one worrying thing is that while he was great on clay, he's only been very good everywhere else. Compare:

CLAY: 24-1 (96%), 4 titles (including 1 Slam and two Masters)
HARD/GRASS: 25-8 (76%), no titles but a Slam final and Masters final

Now of course this is par for the course during his career, but on a cursory scan of his record, the main difference between his best years (2008, 2010, 2013, but really 2008-13), is that he upped his non-clay game to true elite levels, not just "very good."

So my question: Is this at all concerning to you? Is he now a clay specialist? Or do you think he'll be able to up his game and win another non-clay Slam, or at least a Masters or two?

Concerning to me? Not at all. I hope he wins more Masters and Slams but if he doesn't I am happy to have been a fan for so many years watching him at his best.
I do hope he can raise his level a lot higher at the USO and for the rest of the season: he will have to in order to win.

 

[TennisFan101]

Nadal returned to #1? I legit didn't know...

I believe officially announced this past Monday, 8/21.

 

[Moxie]

I can't stand Nadal but no way is he better than ever on clay this year. That's wrong on so many levels. His athleticism is clearly not like it was in his prime and his serving is weak. His best clay performance of all time imo was the 2010 Monte Carlo final against Verdasco. Obviously 2008 he was great too. He doesn't hit his forehand down the line anywhere near as well and the banana shots are much more scarce. Only thing I'd say has improved is his backhand. Also the short balls have been a problem on every surface since around 2009. It started around the time of the Soderling loss. If he plays anyone half way decent they'll gobble those up and smack them back with interest.

Yes, Front is one of the biggest haters of Nadal, but it's not an unfair point, and welcome, I say. I agree that 2008, particularly for Nadal, on clay, was incomparable. His stats were great this year, and like Roger on grass this year, it's sort of a different way of playing, for an older player. They're still superior to anyone on the surface, but are they as high-flyingly superior as they were at their peak ages? I'd say no. They're fanatastic, and they're smarter. But I don't think it's controversial to say they're one step down from their best, even if that's still better than everyone else by a large margin.

 

[Moxie]

No offence, Tennisfan101, but I hope the sculpture looks better than the one in your avatar. Is that going to be it?

 

[TennisFan101]

No offence, Tennisfan101, but I hope the sculpture looks better than the one in your avatar. Is that going to be it?

LOL No offense taken.
No, that is the clay statue that Nike had made to honor Rafa. I haven't been able to locate a rendering of what will become the Roland-Garros installation.

 

[Front242]

Thank you, Moxie. Good to see at least some Nadal fans read my post without the need for a childish response. That was point, no one in their right mind could say Nadal this year at RG was greater than ever. Still elite level like Roger on grass and both still much better than the rest of the competition on clay but equally both used to be better. Funny too reading Carol's nonsense that I know nothing about tennis when that whole post was full of tennis knowledge and facts.

And for you, Carol, anyone can post on any thread. My post was in response to the completely untrue post here that 2017 Nadal was better than ever on clay. I stated all the reasons why he was better in 2008 and even 2010 and correctly too so don't post rubbish that I know nothing about tennis. With all the useless retorts you make that have nothing tennis related at all, you're not exactly coming across as a genius here. 2017 Nadal's backhand is much better, that's a definite improvement. See, more tennis knowledge. Last time you posted something knowledgeable about tennis that wasn't just slagging people who actually make factual posts was 1979.

 

[britbox]

Enough of this foolishness.. Its the return of service position that consistently put Rafa in a detriment..Rafa is too damn old and slow to play that far behind the baseline on the return of service. Yeah..it worked for him on clay because the slower surface allows him to be to camp out and strike the ball to his liking but not on hardcourts. It costs him at the Australian Open because he never gave was able to get into Roger's service game unless Roger was off with his serve. What puzzles and battles me to near madness is even when he stands that far back his returns are barely passed the service box lines.. this is totally unacceptable.. Hell, he would've been for lack of a better word "served" to hire Agassi than Novak. Agassi is half as strong as Rafa but probably still can return the ball better than Rafa can today. I think its may be his return of serve grip that may be too extreme, he needs to make adjustments to be more mid range or towards the EAST. Look at Roger, he blocks these lesser serving clowns back with ease because he refuses to surrender excessive space beyond the baseline. I really feels this isn't Toni, Carlos or Frankie R's technical flaw but the stubborn bull from Mallorca. No coach could be so derelict in their technical teaching tactics..

Question to Fed fans...You all have to be laughing your asses off every time you see Nadal trying to return serve from almost six feet beyond the baseline. Its the most ludicrous tactic in all of sports.. I liken it to the Seattle Seahawks trying to pass the ball on the half yard line in the Super Bowl a few years ago.

Roger has taken advantage of Rafa the past few years because of this.. Mueller did too, good Grief Rafa..wake up

Rafa , needs to stay close to the baseline to make his opponents feel the pressure otherwise the Pouille, F3 and Krygios will continue to defeat him on the hardcourts.

If not, Federer will win his 3rd grand slam of the year.

Good post. Rafa's ROS positioning against Kyrgios was like performing Hari Kari on primetime TV.

 

[The Strokes]

Enough of this foolishness.. Its the return of service position that consistently put Rafa in a detriment..Rafa is too damn old and slow to play that far behind the baseline on the return of service. Yeah..it worked for him on clay because the slower surface allows him to be to camp out and strike the ball to his liking but not on hardcourts. It costs him at the Australian Open because he never gave was able to get into Roger's service game unless Roger was off with his serve. What puzzles and battles me to near madness is even when he stands that far back his returns are barely passed the service box lines.. this is totally unacceptable.. Hell, he would've been for lack of a better word "served" to hire Agassi than Novak. Agassi is half as strong as Rafa but probably still can return the ball better than Rafa can today. I think its may be his return of serve grip that may be too extreme, he needs to make adjustments to be more mid range or towards the EAST. Look at Roger, he blocks these lesser serving clowns back with ease because he refuses to surrender excessive space beyond the baseline. I really feels this isn't Toni, Carlos or Frankie R's technical flaw but the stubborn bull from Mallorca. No coach could be so derelict in their technical teaching tactics..

Question to Fed fans...You all have to be laughing your asses off every time you see Nadal trying to return serve from almost six feet beyond the baseline. Its the most ludicrous tactic in all of sports.. I liken it to the Seattle Seahawks trying to pass the ball on the half yard line in the Super Bowl a few years ago.

Roger has taken advantage of Rafa the past few years because of this.. Mueller did too, good Grief Rafa..wake up

Rafa , needs to stay close to the baseline to make his opponents feel the pressure otherwise the Pouille, F3 and Krygios will continue to defeat him on the hardcourts.

If not, Federer will win his 3rd grand slam of the year.

Your reply is nonsense.
No fan is in a position to tell Rafa how to return.
He is actually 3rd in return stat on the atp leaderboard this year.
KYr has a very tough serve to return and rafa couldn't get a read on it, but this general advice telling Rafa how to return is just garbage.
Most of it coming from people who have probably never even held a racquet in their lives, or if they have, would be wearing pro serves in their mouths.
At least that would stem the flow of stupidity that comes out of them.

Rogers has not taken advantatge of Rafa in the past few years at. Just in the last year. Rafa owned Fed for year prior to that, b eat him 3 or 4 times in a row many times.

I'm not going to argue further on any of this. But looking at such nonsense requires a single response.

 

[The Strokes]

Tennis.com forums died toward the end of 2012 and quite a few of us moved to Tennis Digital, which didn't last long before it died too.

Tennis.com forums did not die at all at that time, 2012.
There was enormous traffic on that site--sometimes 1200 comments in a thread.It died this past spring when it changed it's platform to FB.

 

[britbox]

Tennis.com forums did not die at all at that time, 2012.
There was enormous traffic on that site--sometimes 1200 comments in a thread.It died this past spring when it changed it's platform to FB.

Yes they did. You're mixing up the forums with the Livewyre commenting system which was a load of shit and not a forum, something Tennis.com introduced to replace the original forums. The forums were finished being functional around late 2012 and Tennis.com removed the link from their website early 2013 because they were technically broken.

 

[britbox]

Your reply is nonsense.
No fan is in a position to tell Rafa how to return.
He is actually 3rd in return stat on the atp leaderboard this year.
KYr has a very tough serve to return and rafa couldn't get a read on it, but this general advice telling Rafa how to return is just garbage.
Most of it coming from people who have probably never even held a racquet in their lives, or if they have, would be wearing pro serves in their mouths.
At least that would stem the flow of stupidity that comes out of them.

Rogers has not taken advantatge of Rafa in the past few years at. Just in the last year. Rafa owned Fed for year prior to that, b eat him 3 or 4 times in a row many times.

I'm not going to argue further on any of this. But looking at such nonsense requires a single response.

The guy who posted it is pretty well respected on these boards and plays at a higher level than probably around 95% of other posters. If we can't debate tactics or strategy without falling back on the "that guy is a pro, he knows best" then what is the point of discussing it anyway?

 

[Carol]

To each their own. To me and others the Rafa's level in the RG 2017 has been the best in all the ways, the serve, the BH the aggressivity and volleys, everything.
And for you Front, your are a constantly attacking Nadal and all around him which shows that the only thing you are concerned about tennis is Roger Federer but if you would have a minimum knowledge about this sport you wouldn't react the way. I don't care how long you are posting, I don't care how much you are concerned about you idol and how hard you want that he wins, maybe I'm not a genius but at least I try to bring more entertainment to this blog and not like you that the only thing you are doing is to cry about the surfaces, to hate Nadal and to insult to anyone who disagrees with you, you are really BORING and repetitive. Relax, there are a lot more things around the world to be more concerned than this sport, we need to remove all of the hate in this world instead to hate someone that you don't know him personally which is completely ridiculous

 

[the AntiPusher]

Your reply is nonsense.
No fan is in a position to tell Rafa how to return.
He is actually 3rd in return stat on the atp leaderboard this year.
KYr has a very tough serve to return and rafa couldn't get a read on it, but this general advice telling Rafa how to return is just garbage.
Most of it coming from people who have probably never even held a racquet in their lives, or if they have, would be wearing pro serves in their mouths.
At least that would stem the flow of stupidity that comes out of them.

Rogers has not taken advantatge of Rafa in the past few years at. Just in the last year. Rafa owned Fed for year prior to that, b eat him 3 or 4 times in a row many times.

I'm not going to argue further on any of this. But looking at such nonsense requires a single response.

In my recent sabbatical or for the ones with a limited vocabulary absence..what part of cyberspace or other forum spawn this derelict of a Rafa fan..There should be a vetting process such as spending an infinite amount of pages to listening to Fronty Rafa hate or DarthFed's theories that this year's surface at SW19 was playing slower than BN era (before Nadal). Whereas Kieran when he is needed to restore some sanity to a tennis board.

There's no need for me to even try to dignify that post with a rebuttal.

 

[Front242]

Muthaf***a be all like shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

 

[Front242]

To each their own. To me and others the Rafa's level in the RG 2017 has been the best in all the ways, the serve, the BH the aggressivity and volleys, everything.
And for you Front, your are a constantly attacking Nadal and all around him which shows that the only thing you are concerned about tennis is Roger Federer but if you would have a minimum knowledge about this sport you wouldn't react the way. I don't care how long you are posting, I don't care how much you are concerned about you idol and how hard you want that he wins, maybe I'm not a genius but at least I try to bring more entertainment to this blog and not like you that the only thing you are doing is to cry about the surfaces, to hate Nadal and to insult to anyone who disagrees with you, you are really BORING and repetitive. Relax, there are a lot more things around the world to be more concerned than this sport, we need to remove all of the hate in this world instead to hate someone that you don't know him personally which is completely ridiculous

Entertainment? Is that what you call it. Fair enough! Maybe for you. I clearly have a lot of knowledge of tennis and have made a small fortune gambling on matches, which clearly I wouldn't have if I knew nothing about it like you foolishly claim. You keep going on and on about me "crying about the surfaces" when I hardly say anything about them lol. There are tons of people in the tennis community, however, who would all agree having the courts pretty much all playing the same sucks. I also said nothing negative about Nadal at here and merely stated that he was better on clay in 2008 and 2010. You clearly have major issues that you can't withstand even factual posts about Nadal. No he isn't as fast as he was, no he doesn't have the same explosiveness and his forehand makes a lot more errors. As I already said, his backhand is indeed much better this year but that's about it. He's serving quite well by his standards lately but, again, 2010 was his best year in terms of serving at the USO. Saying he used to be better is not a negative comment towards him. You're just way too sensitive to anything that doesn't read "I love Nadal". Like Federer, he's still playing very high level/elite tennis but they're both past their primes and not as good as they were. That is factual information and isn't negative, merely the truth.

You're also posting just as much "hate" about Federer and trying to make out to all the people here that I'm different from you in that respect which we can all see is total bs. Again, my post in this thread was merely to state the obvious, that Nadal is NOT better in any respect in 2017 except his backhand and yet you felt the need to spout some garbage post to your new cyber friend TennisFan101 that I hate Nadal. So? That doesn't mean I can't be objective and make valid and accurate posts on his current level, which IS NOT his best ever on clay by any margin. He was great in the final, yes, but he's played much higher level on clay as I correctly stated in both 2008 and 2010 and I cited the Monte Carlo 2010 final against Verdasco as the best I've ever seen him play on clay. Verdasco won just 1 game. but hey, feel free to keep telling yourself and your new friend that I know nothing about tennis.

 

[Moxie]

A question for Nadal fans. Obviously he's had a great year - his best since 2014, possibly 2013 (if he doesn't win anything else, his year will be similar to 2014, although in more playing time). But one worrying thing is that while he was great on clay, he's only been very good everywhere else. Compare:

CLAY: 24-1 (96%), 4 titles (including 1 Slam and two Masters)
HARD/GRASS: 25-8 (76%), no titles but a Slam final and Masters final

Now of course this is par for the course during his career, but on a cursory scan of his record, the main difference between his best years (2008, 2010, 2013, but really 2008-13), is that he upped his non-clay game to true elite levels, not just "very good."

So my question: Is this at all concerning to you? Is he now a clay specialist? Or do you think he'll be able to up his game and win another non-clay Slam, or at least a Masters or two?

I think this is a slightly insulting post, to suggest that he is a "clay specialist." This is a label that grass lubbers and Fed fans have tried to peg on him for a long time. He worked hard at his all-court game, and has had a great deal of success. Do you just become a "clay specialist" when you've succeeded on all surfaces? Also, he did make the final of the AO, a 500 and a 1000 on HCs, so clearly you're grading on a curve. To your question, I, personally, am not especially concerned that he has no more HC chops. I am concerned that you have a rather short-term memory. :lulz2:

 

[Front242]

I don't think he meant any disrespect with the clay specialist tag but merely stating the tournaments he's actually won as opposed to reaching finals have mostly been clay only for quite some time now.

 

[Moxie]

I don't think he meant any disrespect with the clay specialist tag but merely stating the tournaments he's actually won as opposed to reaching finals have mostly been clay only for quite some time now.

I'll be interested as to what @El Dude has to say about that. But Roger abdicated an entire part of the season, skipping clay, so what does that say about specialization?