Respect to Nadal

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

I don't value indoor tennis myself, so I don't mind either way who wins the World Tour Finals. A 2nd singles gold medal is what I want to see Nadal win, in 2016 preferably. Also the double-career-grand-slam would be a good idea, with the AO being next.

you are just a seedy git that has been banned from talktennis forums with too much flaming/trolling..and now you are on here.

 

[Moxie]

I don't value indoor tennis myself, so I don't mind either way who wins the World Tour Finals. A 2nd singles gold medal is what I want to see Nadal win, in 2016 preferably. Also the double-career-grand-slam would be a good idea, with the AO being next.

you are just a seedy git that has been banned from talktennis forums with too much flaming/trolling..and now you are on here.

I'm not sure where you get that JLLB, but people are welcome to a fresh start. Nadal2005 has been perfectly genial 'round these parts.

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

:clap rafa/wafa ..he is just one major behing 'pistol petros..

add another 'vamos-log' onto the burning pyre..

 

[JesuslookslikeBorg]

note to self..:idea: must continue daily knee strengthening exercises so I too can win enough majors to have nearly more majors than the mighty pistol petros :laydownlaughing

 

[Moxie]

I don't value indoor tennis myself, so I don't mind either way who wins the World Tour Finals. A 2nd singles gold medal is what I want to see Nadal win, in 2016 preferably. Also the double-career-grand-slam would be a good idea, with the AO being next.

I'm in your camp. I don't think the YEC is everything, and indoor tennis is for, well...those who play indoor tennis well. Not sure about another gold medal for Rafa. (Has anyone figure out what surface they'll play on in Rio? If clay, then, OK, maybe yes.) However, I like your style on the double-career-GS. Nice. Onto AO we roll.

 

[ClayDeath]

The guy keeps proving people wrong...They say he is a dirt devil, he goes ahead and wins a couple of wimbys...They say but he is not that good on hards, he goes and has one of the best hard court seasons ever...after a 6 months break.

This kid is pretty good eh?

I think you are making a major mistake in talking about him strictly in terms of "winning matches" and "results" - as if he is just any other player out there who is going after titles.

The truth is that what separates Nadal is some kind of transcendent mental profile. Kieran picked up on it a while ago and he is right. The consistency, constancy, persistence, intensity, and concentration - combined with infinite stamina - is a bizarre combination. It is weird, but it is in a competitive sense a chunk of idealism.

In terms of stamina and mental persistence, Rafael Nadal is an ideal. In other ways, he isn't. But in those he is.

We all can only learn from it.

How did you get from what I wrote that I am only talking about "winning matches" ? I talked about proving people wrong...and that includes you. Nobody, repeat, nobody achieves what Nadal has achieved so far with just "stamina" and " persistence"...The guy plays tennis...he is a tennis player. He usually has better strategy than his opponents. And , this might come as a surprise to you, he can actually hit the ball really good.

that is a good post.


this stamina thing is slightly overrated.


you do have to have very tennis specific fitness but tennis is not an endurance sport.


because if it was an endurance sport than any damn fool could go out start running marathons or cycling 300 miles a week to develop that endurance.


some people just don't understand how he wins so much.

of course only a fool would have predicted that he would take cincy, montreal, and the u.s. open after taking 7 months off and losing in the first round to darcis. he had also not looked quite his best at RG. we knew he would win there but he was struggling at times.

and don't forget that he lost monte carlo for the first time in a decade.


so that is a bit of a miracle that nadal is sharing with us and the world today.


even at the very height of his powers he never went 22-0 on the hard courts and win montreal, cincy, and the u.s. open in a single sitting.



once the draw came out at flushing meadows, it was pretty damn clear that he was going to have a good shot at the title.

 

[zalvar]

Apparently Rafa is playing Davis Cup? whatttt let the man rest >_<

 

[Moxie]

Apparently Rafa is playing Davis Cup? whatttt let the man rest >_<

I thought Spain was out of DC.

 

[zalvar]

Apparently Rafa is playing Davis Cup? whatttt let the man rest >_<

I thought Spain was out of DC.

It's to get into world groups next year. They play against Ukraine.

http://www.daviscup.com/en/draws-results/tie/details.aspx?tieId=100019832

maybe he'll drop out?

 

[ClayDeath]

he is not dropping out. its in Madrid and its on clay.


clay wont hurt him. its the damn hard courts I am worried about.

it is time to call the dogs off on the hard courts.

let somebody else have the rest of the hard court events and save the knee for longevity in the sport.

I don't really care about the #1 rank. it means nothing in the long run scheme of things.

all history is concerned with is the number of slams, number of davis cup wins, and an Olympic gold medal.

 

[brokenshoelace]

This is why I've never understood why anyone would be a fan of Federer. Federer has no admirable qualities. He has talent and.....nothing.

No wonder Samson invited you here...

 

[brokenshoelace]

The guy keeps proving people wrong...They say he is a dirt devil, he goes ahead and wins a couple of wimbys...They say but he is not that good on hards, he goes and has one of the best hard court seasons ever...after a 6 months break.

This kid is pretty good eh?

I think you are making a major mistake in talking about him strictly in terms of "winning matches" and "results" - as if he is just any other player out there who is going after titles.

The truth is that what separates Nadal is some kind of transcendent mental profile. Kieran picked up on it a while ago and he is right. The consistency, constancy, persistence, intensity, and concentration - combined with infinite stamina - is a bizarre combination. It is weird, but it is in a competitive sense a chunk of idealism.

In terms of stamina and mental persistence, Rafael Nadal is an ideal. In other ways, he isn't. But in those he is.

We all can only learn from it.

How did you get from what I wrote that I am only talking about "winning matches" ? I talked about proving people wrong...and that includes you. Nobody, repeat, nobody achieves what Nadal has achieved so far with just "stamina" and " persistence"...The guy plays tennis...he is a tennis player. He usually has better strategy than his opponents. And , this might come as a surprise to you, he can actually hit the ball really good.

How has he proven me wrong? When have I ever guaranteed that he won't win a match?

I never have. I simply state what should happen if his opponents don't make petty mistakes and/or play to their potential.

If Nadal has proven anyone wrong, it is the so-called tennis "experts" of the board like imjimmy and broken who claim that Nadal is no longer as quick as he once was. They look like such asses for their repeated comments to that effect that it isn't even funny.

As for stamina and persistence: you misunderstand my point. I have never said that that is all Nadal has. Rather, I have maintained that this is what accounts for his H2H success against other top players and the degree of his achievements. His tennis skills don't explain those things nearly as much as the stamina and persistence qualities. That is the point.

As for his ball-striking, I complimented it on the match thread.

:laydownlaughing

PS: The Raonic pick is still a classic. When has he proven you wrong, indeed.

 

[brokenshoelace]

clay wont hurt him. its the damn hard courts I am worried about.

I'm sure that 4-hour match in Madrid against Novak a few years ago did wonders for his knees, just because it was on clay. Gruelling rallies be damned.

 

[Didi]

The way Nadal has turned around the rivarly with Djokovic is simply remarkable. I mean he lost 6 straight finals in 2011 and suffered a truly cruel and heartbreaking loss in Melbourne 2012, one which many greats would have never recovered from. 7 straight finals losses would have left many greats mentally and emotionally broken for the rest of their careers and who can blame them? Eventually everybody finds his match and nemesis, this is just the nature of sports and even more so in tennis. Nothing to be ashamed of.

Not Nadal. This freak simply refuses to accept defeat, he thrives on setbacks, works harder than ever before, is happily willing to dig deeper than anybody else and comes back even more determined like a possessed modern-day version of Spartacus with meticulous planning, precision and willpower unlike anything I've seen before in any sports. I'm not really a fan of these endless Goat debates but one thing is now for sure, Nadal deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Sampras and Federer. They are truly the 3 top dogs of the Open Era. In which order? Can't really care less.

 

[ClayDeath]

he had injured his knee at indian wells that year and it got worse in Miami.


so the damage was done on the hard courts.


nole usually plays him tough anyway. in that match that you are talking about, nadal returned like garbage. that is what happens when you fail to return well and accordingly fail to secure enough break opportunities.


nadal made a massive production out of that match.

 

[NADAL2005RG]

I don't value indoor tennis myself, so I don't mind either way who wins the World Tour Finals. A 2nd singles gold medal is what I want to see Nadal win, in 2016 preferably. Also the double-career-grand-slam would be a good idea, with the AO being next.

you are just a seedy git that has been banned from talktennis forums with too much flaming/trolling..and now you are on here.

You obviously aren't a moderator at talk tennis. I was banned at talk tennis because I used TorBrowser. TorBrowser changes your IP address to one of a select few. It turns out another user of TorBrowser was also a member of Talk Tennis, and I was therefore banned for being a "multiple account" which I obviously was not. That will teach me for using TorBrowser. I only used it once, and that was all it took. Notice they never banned me until that one day that I used TorBrowser instead of Mozilla. I pride myself on always posting about tennis. You won't find many posters on talktennis who only post about tennis. A lot of them unfortunate specialize in personal attacks on fellow posters.

This is why I've never understood why anyone would be a fan of Federer. Federer has no admirable qualities. He has talent and.....nothing.

No wonder Samson invited you here...

Federer's fans that I've seen on the internet are currently criticizing Federer because he relies on talent and is too stubborn to adapt his strategy or improve his fitness (which Agassi did after the age of 28 and ended up winning THREE 5-setter at the US Open at age 35 and also taking a set off Federer in the final). And experts like McEnroe, Courier and Sampras have pointed out the issue of Federer not figuring out his greatest rival Nadal, which can be attributed to a lack of mental toughness when confronted with the ultimate challenge, or again a stubbornness toward strategy and a heavy reliance on natural ability. So the exact aspects that people find inspirational about Nadal are what is lacking in Federer. That is why I can't see anything admirable about him. That's my view, and I won't lie to cover it up. Plenty of harsh words have been said about Nadal online everywhere I've been.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

This is why I've never understood why anyone would be a fan of Federer. Federer has no admirable qualities. He has talent and.....nothing.

No wonder Samson invited you here...

Nadal2005, after that sentence, it makes it nearly impossible to discuss tennis with you...No admirable qualities? Wow...:s

 

[calitennis127]

The guy keeps proving people wrong...They say he is a dirt devil, he goes ahead and wins a couple of wimbys...They say but he is not that good on hards, he goes and has one of the best hard court seasons ever...after a 6 months break.

This kid is pretty good eh?

I think you are making a major mistake in talking about him strictly in terms of "winning matches" and "results" - as if he is just any other player out there who is going after titles.

The truth is that what separates Nadal is some kind of transcendent mental profile. Kieran picked up on it a while ago and he is right. The consistency, constancy, persistence, intensity, and concentration - combined with infinite stamina - is a bizarre combination. It is weird, but it is in a competitive sense a chunk of idealism.

In terms of stamina and mental persistence, Rafael Nadal is an ideal. In other ways, he isn't. But in those he is.

We all can only learn from it.

How did you get from what I wrote that I am only talking about "winning matches" ? I talked about proving people wrong...and that includes you. Nobody, repeat, nobody achieves what Nadal has achieved so far with just "stamina" and " persistence"...The guy plays tennis...he is a tennis player. He usually has better strategy than his opponents. And , this might come as a surprise to you, he can actually hit the ball really good.

How has he proven me wrong? When have I ever guaranteed that he won't win a match?

I never have. I simply state what should happen if his opponents don't make petty mistakes and/or play to their potential.

If Nadal has proven anyone wrong, it is the so-called tennis "experts" of the board like imjimmy and broken who claim that Nadal is no longer as quick as he once was. They look like such asses for their repeated comments to that effect that it isn't even funny.

As for stamina and persistence: you misunderstand my point. I have never said that that is all Nadal has. Rather, I have maintained that this is what accounts for his H2H success against other top players and the degree of his achievements. His tennis skills don't explain those things nearly as much as the stamina and persistence qualities. That is the point.

As for his ball-striking, I complimented it on the match thread.

:laydownlaughing

PS: The Raonic pick is still a classic. When has he proven you wrong, indeed.

It's funny how petty your mode of analysis is. You get so hung up on technicalities, without any psychological considerations or understanding of athletic mentality. It's all just a matter of rally patterns, folks! That's it!

Couple questions:

1) Are you still not sure if Nadal's game is back after 7 months off? I told you it was after 2 matches. I'm wondering if you're still not sure.

2) Is Nadal's amazing forehand better than Djokovic's after seeing the way Djokovic slapped Nadal around and dominated him in rallies in sets 2 and 3? Nadal pulled out set 3 because of his persistence and practicality, not because of better tennis play. Djokovic was making him look like a junior player in a number of those rallies.


I really wish there was a male tennis player who had some Serena in her mentality-wise. It is probably an American sport thing, but there aren't really any male players who have that mentality to ruthlessly dominate an inferior player. Djokovic would have won comfortably yesterday with that mentality change. When the match opened up in set 2, we all saw who had the better shots and who was the better player and yes, indeed, who has the better forehand - notwithstanding all those neutral shots Nadal "keeps in the court" with consistency.

 

[Denis]

Congrats to Nadal on an absolutely amazing comeback and a well deserved US Open title.

I am obviously disappointed that Novak couldn't maintain his second set level, but at least it hasn't disappeared entirely. It was a very exciting match, and if Novak is on he is probably the only one who can challenge Nadal. Here is to more finals between the two, and I hope Novak can take a fair share of wins from those.

 

[calitennis127]

Djokovic gifted this match to Nadal. He had it on his plate in the third set, but the gnat won because of persistence and petty practicality of winning cheap points by being consistent.