Would you prefer if there was bad blood between Rafa and Roger?

[scoop]

By Scoop Malinowski

The rivalry of Federer vs Nadal is one of the greatest in tennis and perhaps sports history. These two titans have had dozens of epic duels on all surfaces in just about all of the biggest arenas of tennis.

Yet not once has there ever existed even a hint of any dislike, resentment, personal grudge or anger between the two. Their battles have always been the utmost displays of fine sportsmanship meshed with violent, beautiful tennis pitting a bloodthirsty bull against the greatest matador of all time.



But how much more interesting, more intriguing would this rivalry have been if the two detested each other? What if there was a healthy grudge and tension between these two ultimate champions?

Wouldn’t it have been so cool to see Federer try to lecture Nadal on the court about taking too much time or grunting too loud, pointing his finger inches from his face?

Wouldn’t it have been thrilling to hear Federer call Nadal a pusher with a bunt backhand?

But no, there has been no psychological drama at all between Roger and Rafa.

They will both try to meet each other again this week in London at the World Tour Finals, and Nadal once again spoke kindly about his friendly nemesis. “No I don’t need to beat Roger for good confidence,” Nadal said. “I’ve won enough to be confident. If I play him here it would be great to finish the year playing him again to give me another chance (to win the WTF for the first time).”

“We cannot forget that we played all the times (in 2017) on surfaces that he likes more than me. I just accept that and find different ways to approach the match and if that happens (in London), I’m healthy enough so I hope I have my chances.”

It all makes you wonder how different tennis would have been in the previous era if McEnroe, Connors and Lendl all adored each other like Fed and Rafa.

Borg and McEnroe was a superb rivalry based on clash of styles and deep mutual respect. We can only wonder when, of if, there ever will be another era where the top guns dislike each other to the point that it makes the matches additionally fascinating to watch.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

I like the rivalry the way it is but it would be an added bonus if they did have a spat or a verbal clash every now and then, and then patched up their differences.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Nice points. Tennis greats today show the world how to be.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

I remember when Billie Jean King didn't want her Fed Cup players to have their personal coaches around and it caused a big commotion with Capriati and her dad and Jennifer had a big fued with King that weak and spoke some very harsh words at King. Times have apparently changed.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

She said F u to BJK. Major feud. Just read it in an old Tennis Week issue.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Hartt; Harrison also has a future in singles! He won Memphis this year and got his ranking back up to the top 50. He can go higher next year.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Nope, I like the Roger-Rafa rivalry as is. There is no need for trash talking and bad mouthing. We have too many few examples of that. Having it the other way is rarer and so I like it, not to mention it sets a good example.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Duke, everybody does not hate each other here in USA but the media is constantly inciting racial division and hatred, constantly. It's their agenda. But there actually are nice stories like this one: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4627034/Touching-moment-man-helps-83-year-old-escalator.html Though the US media will probably ignore this in favor of trying to find and blow up another cop killing a thug story to incite more racial division. It is nice to see how tennis is so fair and cleanly contested nowadays and for my Facing Sampras book one player said he felt Pete was the one who changed the image of tennis and then Fed and Rafa follow Pete and Andre's example. I thought it was a very good point. The player who said this was Sammy Giammalva Jr, who played Pete in his very first pro match in Philadelphia in 1988.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Sloane looked heavy in the pre match photos I saw, as if she has not been training hard. Didn't see any video of her two Fed Cup losses though.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Andre was badmouthing about Pete (specifically his tipping habits) with mike on while playing exho. Pete and Ande cannot be called setting an example.

Further, not trash talking is one thing and not talking anything meaningful at all is another thing. Pete is very boring and stoic personality.
Rafa and Roger both talk to the press in an interesting manner, but without trash talking each other. That is why they are the new breed
and not following the example of Pete/Andre.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Gamesetmath; Pete and Andre had no issues when playing and they did not take cheap shots at each other in the media, That exo incident at Indian Wells was an isolated incident, for the most part their entire rivalry was very clean. I disagree with the notion of saying Pete was boring. Greatness is never boring. Pete was low-key but he gave us some of the most incredible matches in history - the Corretja thriller at US Open, the Courier clash night match in Australia QF, the heroic Davis Cup weekend in Moscow where Pete won three matches and was struggling physically (unless he was faking those cramps?). McEnroe also said Pete said I love you to him during their Davis Cup doubles match vs Switzlerland in Texas in the Final. Pete was not boring at all, that is a myth. Borg, Laver, Federer, Evert are not smeared as "boring" today so it's unfair to call Pete boring. Pete did it his way and he was one of the greatest champs in history. I even got some quotes this past week from Lennox Lewis who had huge respect for Pete, they both ruled their sports at the same time, and said he followed Pete's career and "took notes." Some called Lennox boring too but that was just nonsense. Like I said, GREATNESS is never boring. BTW you will love my Facing Sampras book which will be published within weeks.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

I saw Peliwo matches this week on the Livestream vs Fritz and an earlier round and he looked better than I expected, hitting hard, returning hard, more power than I expected from a smaller guy (has to be under 5-11). Definitely a huge, career changing win by Peliwo to win Knoxville unseeded out of nowhere.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Pete's game is not boring. It is just his personality (assuming we can claim he has one) that is boring.

 

[Ricardo]

Fedal simply don't have the personality to insult each other. The harshest it has ever been is when Rafa publicly criticised Federer for not backing him up about the ranking system changes or something when they were both at the players council. Aside from that, nothing bad verbally ever came out no matter how heated their matches got.

btw Sampras was low key but he did have a go at players other than the Agassi incident, like when asked by media about difference between him and Rafter and he said the difference was '10 majors'......Pat Rafter was the classiest of them all and never trashed anybody, in fact coming from poor family he donated all his USO prize money to charity, that is an unbelievable level of generosity.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Pete avoided controversy. His whole career is class. I have read a lot of his old transcripts of interviews through his career and he was not boring, he told it like it was. Like he said, he was there to play tennis on the court, "not be a stand up comedian."

 

[Ricardo]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

Pete avoided controversy. His whole career is class. I have read a lot of his old transcripts of interviews through his career and he was not boring, he told it like it was. Like he said, he was there to play tennis on the court, "not be a stand up comedian."

well it isn't classy to insult Rafter, who is a real class.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Rafter was a class act too but I learned some inside info that he would pester Pete in the locker room trying to force him to talk when he didn't want to. Literally getting in his face. A top player told me this. It will be in Facing Sampras. So Pete had some hot words for Rafter, they had a good rivalry going there for a while. Thought Pete was too boring to say anything offensive? Fed yelled at Djokovic's parents to "SHUT UP" and he also yelled once at Uncle Toni "Is that good enough for you?" Fed was also a major racquet thrower.

 

[Ricardo]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

Rafter was a class act too but I learned some inside info that he would pester Pete in the locker room trying to force him to talk when he didn't want to. Literally getting in his face. A top player told me this. It will be in Facing Sampras. So Pete had some hot words for Rafter, they had a good rivalry going there for a while. Thought Pete was too boring to say anything offensive? Fed yelled at Djokovic's parents to "SHUT UP" and he also yelled once at Uncle Toni "Is that good enough for you?" Fed was also a major racquet thrower.

The unspoken rule, what happens in the locker room stays in the locker room. There is no way one can justify that as classy when you insult in public. Fed yelled at Djokovic's parents for a reason, maybe they yelled too loud or whatever, but it's fair and square as it's all on court. Racquet thrower he was, long time ago, but i can't see that it's really unclassy as it's not the least bit mean-spiriited. But to directly trash another's career with such verbal venom is very mean spirited, simple as that.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Pete was no more boring in interviews than Rafa, Fed, Murray or anyone really. He just came in and gave you straight answers. On the court he played to win. How could anyone be bored by the courage of his incredible serving under pressure, relentless forward thrusts, and his natural elegance? Pete had the will and the game to win seven Wimbledons. How could anybody even dare to call that boring? If I was police I'd give you a summons for slander!

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Thanks Thomas, pretty sure you will enjoy Facing Sampras, hope you got Facing Federer in mail for winning that contest. Kafelnikov was a great player who I felt should have done better and won more majors. I guess winning two was quite impressive in the era he did but with a little more burning desire like Nadal or Hewitt I think Kafelnikov could have won a lot more. But there was always a sense he didn't always care about winning the big tiles, with the Russians you wonder if $ is/was the higher priority?