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

[scoop]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

EquineAnn; It's about the long term big picture for Rafa. London WTF is a low priority for him. He's got No. 1 wrapped up for 2017. He did tennis a giant favor by even showing up and playing three tough sets when he had nothing to gain. Class act as always. Looking forward to seeing Rafa rip it up in 2018 already.

 

[Ricardo]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

You don't know what Laver said, he might have expressed flashes of arrogance. If you were around Laver for his whole career and heard everything he said then you can refute this, if not, you can't The best in the world always show traces of their arrogance. It's only human. Pete expressed the perfect reply when some people started anointing Rafter with too much credit too early. He put Rafter right in his place with one sentence. Very sharp, well timed, direct strike by Pete. If you were offended by it, it's your misfortune.

I would refute this, as I have never heard Laver say such mean spirited things....unless you can prove it, but you can't. What Sampras said was down right ugly, it was an insult no matter how its spun. It's not about arrogance, you may like it but it's not about that either. He mouthed off with insult unnecessarily, against a classy player. Its not about me being offended by it either, it's not about what i feel if you get it.

 

[DarthFed]

I liked both Sampras and Rafter and remember that feud pretty well. It was actually Rafter who was talking trash first:

http://articles.latimes.com/2000/jul/09/sports/sp-50252

 

[Horsa]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

EquineAnn; It's about the long term big picture for Rafa. London WTF is a low priority for him. He's got No. 1 wrapped up for 2017. He did tennis a giant favor by even showing up and playing three tough sets when he had nothing to gain. Class act as always. Looking forward to seeing Rafa rip it up in 2018 already.

Definitely. It's important for everybody to see the big picture instead of little gains & put everything into perspective & prioritise. I'd love to see more British wins but realistically Rafa or Nadal will win.

 

[scoop]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

Darth Fed; Good find. Yes it's unfair to put all the blame on Pete for the feud. It was a very good rivalry there for a while. Good to see that they put the feud behind them and became friendly. I have a photo of them chatting together at Madison Square Garden five years ago. Rafter said for Facing Sampras that he felt it was very ugly tennis, himself vs Pete. He thought he had a more interesting rivalry/clash of styles with Agassi.

 

[scoop]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

This is another excellent come back win by Sock, like the win in Paris from far behind in the third set. Sock was not known for his big comeback wins before the past month, further evidence he is taking his game and his mindset to a new higher level.

 

[scoop]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

Clearly Rafter and Pete had a good battle going. You have to be sure they had some locker room encounters too. After the heat of battle to be slapped with ridiculous questions only adds fuel to the fire.