Rogers Cup Final - Nadal v. Raonic

[brokenshoelace]

Worst final since...?

The 2013 Rome final.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Nadal's not far behind Murray points wise now with this win. Still looking forward to seeing them play each other again. Way more entertaining than Djokovic v Murray.

I always thought their matches (Nadal vs. Murray) had the most variety out of any combination of the top 4 (with the exception of maybe Fed/Novak, since Fed uses the slice and attacks the net a lot against him). That's not to say that they are the best matches per se, but they have produced some cracking ones. I think their semi at the 2010 WTF is one of the most underrated in recent memory.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Well today I was given vindication for my original intuition about Raonic. Good grief is he terrible from the baseline.

Not a whole lot of vindication for your "enough game to beat Nadal" assessment though. Agreed with the above sentiment, nevertheless.

 

[Kieran]

Worst final since...?

The 2013 Rome final.

I was thinking the WTA would give more obvious examples but that's a good one too!

 

[tented]

Nadal's not far behind Murray points wise now with this win. Still looking forward to seeing them play each other again. Way more entertaining than Djokovic v Murray.

I always thought their matches (Nadal vs. Murray) had the most variety out of any combination of the top 4 (with the exception of maybe Fed/Novak, since Fed uses the slice and attacks the net a lot against him). That's not to say that they are the best matches per se, but they have produced some cracking ones. I think their semi at the 2010 WTF is one of the most underrated in recent memory.

Nadal/Murray is an interesting combination. I feel like I haven't seen them play in a decade, but my impression is always that Murray is much more aggressive when he plays Rafa than he is with just about anyone else. I end up thinking, "If only Murray would play like this against ..."

 

[shawnbm]

After Montreal and IW, how can anyone not think of Nadal as a serious contender in New York? I know this time of the year has typically been his worst and in some years he has won nothing, but perhaps the rest is helping him get through it better?

 

[Kieran]

Actually, this time of the year, Rafa isn't so bad. Obviously, he was absent last year and in 2009 he was returning from injury and wasn't his best, but in 2008 he won Canada and the Olympics, in 2010, he won the US Open, in 2011 he reached the final of the US Open. He's been in 2 semis and 2 finals (with one win) at the US Open in his last 4 visits.

In 2005-2007 he was still a kid, basically learning the HC game, though this gets held against him.

The time of the year where he doesn't seem too bothered in post-US Open, when he sojourns to China for the mega-bucks, and so forth, but rarely plays with as much intensity or urgency as he brings to his main bread and butter part of the year.

He tends to decelerate through the last couple of months, which is wise, given his intensity levels and knees...

 

[brokenshoelace]

Rafa beat them. End of story. He was immense this week.

But whatever about Novak, it's just prejudice to claim that JJ is better on hards than Rafa. It's ridiculous, actually, given everything we know. JJ is starting out, so you have nothing to base this opinion upon.

Nothing!

Do shots mean anything to you at all?

Anything?

Considering that you think Janowicz has better shots than Nadal, they don't seem to mean anything to you either.

 

[ClayDeath]

After Montreal and IW, how can anyone not think of Nadal as a serious contender in New York? I know this time of the year has typically been his worst and in some years he has won nothing, but perhaps the rest is helping him get through it better?

it is starting to look like he is on a quest again.