Roland Garros - 2020

What record will be broken if Nadal wins?

I don't like this drop shoting tactic from Djoko. It betrays a physical fatigue.

13hours and 13 min spent on the court by Nadal for his 13th FO final.

Nadal won't last running like this for 3 sets....

Meh

Nadal Schwartzman was the real final.

Nadal never gets old. Like Michael Myers in Halloween. Nope not suspicious at all...

Djoko is dead on his leg but Nadal won;t last like that....and as soon as his shots will tire, he is going be running a lot more and that will be the end.

Djoko must keep plugging and forget those drop shots. He knows it but maybe Djoko is particularly tired.

Nadal is 35 with the energy of a 25 year old.

Atleast Thiem would win games off Nadal and most likely a set...

It's clearly a very tired Djokovic. He only serves 2nd serves....and cannot run.

It's very unlike him to shorten the points like that, knowing that the best way to beat Nadal is to keep rallying.

I can only scoreboard watch today, but oh my - bagel first set.  Rafa yet to drop a set this tournament.

Scoreboard watching - looks like Nadal may equal Fed's record today and hand out a bigger beatdown than he did to Fed in the RG 2008 final, which was 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 as you no doubt recall.

Tenez wrote:

naxroy wrote:Ivanisevic thinks Rafa has no option. Is that you Tenez?

And he is right. Only an injured Djoko will lose Rafa. typically I know that being so confident can in itself create an upset....but frankly I cannot see how. Nadal wil be dead after 4 games. Exactly what he used to do others.....except that Djoko can make him run .....and Federer can too nowadays btw...soon Sinner. .

I can only presume at this stage that Tenez is secretly the biggest Nadal fan in the world and that this is just his way of anti-jinxing. Otherwise, I’m sure at some point in the last 15 years any normal person would have given up making these type of bizarre predictions. Nadal going to be dead after 4 games in a tournament where he hasn’t dropped a set?? I haven’t caught up with today’s comments yet but, if he has posted at all, I bet he’s now saying that Djokovic must be injured.

Look upwards 3 posts.

If I were Fed, right around now I would feel pretty crummy about those two MPs at W last year.

I feel rather crummy about it all myself.   

bogbrush wrote:Look upwards 3 posts.

Are you Vamos-ing now as you said you would?

We are to witness mother of all comebacks.

summerblues wrote:

bogbrush wrote:Look upwards 3 posts.

Are you Vamos-ing now as you said you would?

No, I can’t do it.

summerblues wrote:If I were Fed, right around now I would feel pretty crummy about those two MPs at W last year.

I feel rather crummy about it all myself.   

That never happened. It’s been erased from this reality.

Nadal appears to be coming off the peak. This 3rd set might be rather important.

bogbrush wrote:

summerblues wrote:

bogbrush wrote:Look upwards 3 posts.

Are you Vamos-ing now as you said you would?

No, I can’t do it.

I am glad to hear that.

Ladies and gents, for the next hour or so I will not be able to check the scores. Please make sure that when I return, we are just starting the 5th set. Thank you for your kindness.

summerblues wrote:If I were Fed, right around now I would feel pretty crummy about those two MPs at W last year.

I feel rather crummy about it all myself.   

Aye - but he could be philosophical and recognise that he had the joy, which Sampras never had, and neither Nadal nor Djokovic will have, of being the record holder each time he stepped onto the Court for 10 years of his active career whilst he was still winning slams.  That sort of adulation and recognition is, I suggest, worth far more than holding the record after you've hung up your racquet and everyone has moved on.

Credit to Nadal, I’ve never seen anyone make better use of Djokovic’s dreadful net game.

Was too nervous to watch 

Got my friend to message me score after the match was over. Can't believe what I'm looking ie the scoreline

Still hasn't sunk in, slightly delirious

Jahu wrote:Nadal in 4 tomorrow.

Well a set less then I predicted, but the right winner I guessed it !!

BEL19VE wrote:Still hasn't sunk in, slightly delirious

You are one faith-less fan of Nadal 

Congrats.

Jahu wrote:

BEL19VE wrote:Still hasn't sunk in, slightly delirious

You are one faith-less fan of Nadal 

Congrats.

Thank you Jahu 

bogbrush wrote:

summerblues wrote:If I were Fed, right around now I would feel pretty crummy about those two MPs at W last year.

I feel rather crummy about it all myself.   

That never happened. It’s been erased from this reality.

All fair minded tennis fans would say Federer completely deserved to win that match. He was the best player in all 5 sets. Sometimes it's not about winning every match, as everyone can appreciate at age 38 that was a glorious exhibition of near perfection from Roger. 
No reason to write him off for next year, especially at Wimbledon.

History over history.

Really classy tweet from Roger 

https://twitter.com/rogerfederer/status/1315330172221116418

Pretty obvious who he was supporting today

So what do we do now tennis aficionado's? How do we get another GS for Fed?

Maybe BEL19VE is right, Fed to win W 2021? 

BEL20VE name change now??? 

BEL19VE wrote:Really classy tweet from Roger 

https://twitter.com/rogerfederer/status/1315330172221116418

Pretty obvious who he was supporting today

Nice one, guess Djocovid back to his Monaco flat, beating the shit out of Vajda and his wife.

So them 2 have 40 GS combined, ffs that's intergalactic stuff.

Djocovid will not win another 3 GS, neverrrr

Jahu wrote:So them 2 have 40 GS combined, ffs that's intergalactic stuff.

Djocovid will not win another 3 GS, neverrrr

I'm going to watch the replay of the match this evening to see what happened. 

This is definitely a big blow for Djokovic, especially after his DQ at the US Open. 
As we mentioned earlier, his coach Goran Ivanesevic, told the media that Nadal has 'no chance' against Djokovic because the conditions suited the Serb this year. No class, but also may have put extra pressure on Djokovic by accident.

Oh well, it is what it is

Congrats to Rafa, amazing stuff.  20 slams, and 13 at RG.  I used to see great clay courters barely reaching 3 RG titles and thinking how phenomenal Borg must have been to double that.  And here comes Rafa, doubles that once more, now adds an extra title on top of that, and who knows how many more to follow?

There is no reason to think he cannot be at 21 (or 22) after RG next year.

Well I don't blame Goran, he is on Djoko's payroll so fair enough, bit tasteless but within Djoko peasant team mentality. 

Djoko seemed lost or was praying for Nadal to have a bad day so got totally trashed instead.

Maybe in Serbia they make titanium out of jell-o.

summerblues wrote:Maybe in Serbia they make titanium out of jell-o.

Err...no they don't. they can barely feed themselves on 100 euro a month gov subsidy, that's why he ran away to Monaco 

Jell-o is a far away dream

@Tenez what is your honest analysis of the match. Haven't seen it yet so can't comment. 

One thing though, Djokovic using drop shots isn't necessarily a sign of fatigue, because he was using drop shots loads all tournament, and it was extremely effective. (also Djokovic's SF was only 40 minutes longer than Nadal's which is not that much). 

Nadal during practice yesterday was specifically doing drills to deal with the drop shot and lob combination, which is what Nole had used so well against Tsitsi.

It seems like Nole is cracking under pressure a little bit.  The stupidity at the USO and by all accounts an underwhelming performance today.

He must have been coming to this USO-RG combo with great expectations.  He knows he will overtake Fed at weeks at #1 (almost sure, if not sure already?), he must have felt USO was going to be his #18 slam, and RG could have brought it oh so close.  On one hand, he could see the goals within his grasp, but on the other hand he also has to realize that time is running short, so he also needed to score at least one of the USO/RG.

Maybe all these factors were too much? Though apart from the Tsi match, this RG did not give him any tough matches.

Well I don't care for Djocovid's reasons of loss, f*ck him, glad he lost, don't care for the rest 

Important is he got crushed properly hahaha

Having watched the match I thought it was going to be straightforward for Djokovid and it looked that way for 4 points. Then he got a bit sloppy, overdid the drops and it ran away. 

Then he looked clueless, really adrift. Just as Federer did for Nadal with the larger racquet/tougher backhand, so did Nadal do for Djokovid with an obsession for depth. Instead of hitting his mega bounce he concentrated on keeping it within a metre or so of the baseline, even if it meant a moonball, and Djokovid had no answer.

It was a beat-down, no question.

HIS20RY wrote:@Tenez what is your honest analysis of the match. Haven't seen it yet so can't comment.

I jinxed it. My view is clear, Djokovic was not faking his injury in his 1/4F. One doesn't throw sets just to fake injuries. He clearly played way below his form today and it was there for everybody to see. You don't start and expect to win a match with Nadal throwing drop shots at every point. Djokovic knows better than anyone how to beat Nadal and noone was going to beat Nadal by lining 120 drop shot winners. However to be honest I always felt he could win against Nadal even on one leg but clearly he was not up to the task and knew it.. Very much like Federer in 2008 who ran like a headless chicken to the net cause he knew he was not fit to run a bo5 v Nadal. Djoko not being that good at Sving, chose the drop shot instead..but roughly same hopeless tactic. We saw at the end of teh 3rd set that he knew by extending rallies he coud hurt Nadal....aexcept that he himself was not fit to do so.[/quote]

One thing though, Djokovic using drop shots isn't necessarily a sign of fatigue, because he was using drop shots loads all tournament, and it was extremely effective. (also Djokovic's SF was only 40 minutes longer than Nadal's which is not that much). 

Well if you don;t want to see it, I can't really help.

Nadal during practice yesterday was specifically doing drills to deal with the drop shot and lob combination, which is what Nole had used so well against Tsitsi.

As I said Djokovic knows how to beat Nadal. We have seen it 29 times and that is by exhausting Nadal with a few long rallies and then you can throw winners and drop shots....not the other way around.

If Djokovic was playing from the baseline all tournament, but suddenly when he had injury issue started drop-shotting, your analysis would make sense. 
But he's been using the drop shot a lot all tournament. Against Tsitsipas he said in the post match interview there was no physical issues and he was extremely calm heading into the 5th set, as he felt his fitness level was better than Tsitsipas (that's pretty much a direct quote). 
So the fact he continues in the final playing how he has played all tournament, isn't a particularly convincing reason to think he wasn't fully fit. 

Also for the brief period he did have a minor injury issue vs Busta, he had a tape on his neck. When his neck felt better, he took the tape off (during the Busta match). He didn't have his tape on at all during the SF or F, and didn't call for a MTO or trainer at any point.

We all watched the match. If you think Djoko was simply outdone..fine, as I said you are a fan and that is clearly what you want to see, But I have seen Djokovic play much much better and the commentator on my TV were praising Nadal but also saying that Djokovic did not turn up, and playing well under his level.

Tsi made the most as well of his drop of form...except that at the end he was even in a worse shape than Djokovic.

Tenez wrote:We all watched the match.

Not yet actually, will soon.

Tenez wrote:
But I have seen Djokovic play much much better and the commentator on my TV were praising Nadal but also saying that Djokovic did not turn up, and playing well under his level.

Yeah from the sounds of it Nadal played great while Djokovic was below par (maybe due to pressure?). Not contesting that. Just specifically saying that him using drop shots isn't a sign of injury given he's done it for 2 weeks and it's worked well.

Tenez wrote:
Tsi made the most as well of his drop of form...except that at the end he was even in a worse shape than Djokovic.

The Tsi match was an interesting one. In the 3rd set Djokovic was serving for it at 5-4 and choked, and had a dip for a few games. But in the 4th set he dominated, and Tsi managed to steal it by saving 10 break points, and converting his only one at 5-4. For the 5th set, Djokovic said he was confident and calm as he felt he was the fitter of the two.

It was interesting to see Djokovic’s tragic net game exposed. How many times did he blow decent positions because he dare not go there’s except to put a simple one away.

And the smash!