ATP 1000: Monte Carlo

Yes, Djoko has often blips of form when you don't expect them, like in teh set he lost in the Wimby or USO 11 but you know that against Nadal like against everybody else almost, he recovers and comes back...if not within the set, certainly within the match.

That is what makes him so tough to beat.

His great advantage over Nadal is not so much his stamina but the mouvement. He can be relatively well placed and pull decent shots in all position.

It also shows how poor was Djoko last year as opposed to 2011.

Nadal doesn't look too sad, smiling. Good gesture

I must admit, it would have been hugely depressing if Nadal had won this.
Well-done Nole for keeping the Beast in its place: on a short chain!

Cowan and Ruds making very good point..in particular the stat showing that Djoko wins twice as many points over the 10+ shot rallies.

...which I am afraid supports very much the point I was making in my discussion with Paul when talking about those 2!

I'll ltet you into a secret now: NOle has been living to hear Serbian National anthem played for him all these years. That's why he cried twice at the Olympics and wants RG so badly.
Now, that last thing is out of the system for Nole, watch him rip!

Tenez wrote:Cowan and Ruds making very good point..in particular the stat showing that Djoko wins twice as many points over the 10+ shot rallies.

Yes, I liked that analysis. A breath of fresh air, shame they were so biased DURING the match....

Nadal seems to have had some English lessons during his 7 month hiatus, good on him

How's Nole's French, T?

noleisthebest wrote:Nadal seems to have had some English lessons during his 7 month hiatus, good on him

How's Nole's French, T?

Sorry have not listened to it. My link was a bit of a pain.

What a nice and classy speech from the one and only Nole, very proud of him

That was some happy viewing.

It was dsapointing for Tsonga to have to play Nadal in a strong wind cause I think he coudl have done much better.

I do not expect Nadal to win nearly sa much on clay as last year. If he plays Barcelona I think he will be completely wor out for the rest of the clay season. He is in a bad position now.

summerblues wrote:That was some happy viewing.

But very similar to 2011. Nothing new really.

Tenez wrote:

summerblues wrote:That was some happy viewing.

But very similar to 2011. Nothing new really.

Agree.

Tenez wrote:It was dsapointing for Tsonga to have to play Nadal in a strong wind cause I think he coudl have done much better.

But disagree here.

Tenez wrote:

summerblues wrote:That was some happy viewing.

But very similar to 2011. Nothing new really.

There is something new. I wasn't hiding behind the sofa

Does this mean Nadal has lost even the theoretical chance to be in top 4 for RG?

summerblues wrote:

Tenez wrote:It was dsapointing for Tsonga to have to play Nadal in a strong wind cause I think he coudl have done much better.

But disagree here.

Tsonga had not much chance against Nadal on clay. In the end he started to play with nothing to lose and Nadal looked eagar to finish the game and made some serious errors. Crowd also backing Tsonga as they wanted some match. Still the TB decided the right winner of the match. Even if Tsonga had won the 2nd set, Nadal definitely would have won the 3rd.

So I don't see wind playing a role in deciding the winner.

noleisthebest wrote:Does this mean Nadal has lost even the theoretical chance to be in top 4 for RG?

SB, over to you.

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:

summerblues wrote:

Tenez wrote:It was dsapointing for Tsonga to have to play Nadal in a strong wind cause I think he coudl have done much better.

But disagree here.

Tsonga had not much chance against Nadal on clay. In the end he started to play with nothing to lose and Nadal looked eagar to finish the game and made some serious errors. Crowd also backing Tsonga as they wanted some match. Still the TB decided the right winner of the match. Even if Tsonga had won the 2nd set, Nadal definitely would have won the 3rd.

So I don't see wind playing a role in deciding the winner.

But that's how Tsonga plays his best tennis anyway, that IS his style. Get the big first serve in and go for it. He's never been the calculating type.

Tenez wrote:Cowan and Ruds making very good point..in particular the stat showing that Djoko wins twice as many points over the 10+ shot rallies.

...which I am afraid supports very much the point I was making in my discussion with Paul when talking about those 2!

What it is important is how many out of these 10+ shots rallies were winners and I am convinced that surely more than 60% and it shows that Nole outplays Nadal by great shots and not enduring in rallies. That is also Rusedski pointed out, being gutsy in longer rallies. You need to have both, stamina and also hitting. These two Nole owns, and necessary to say in the blessed way

Fed moves back to #2. Well played

Couldn't help myself, directly from Wooffie's blog (written after Nadal's match with Tsonga)

"Am I worried? Of course I am, and I have reason to be. But I hope all those girls out there, those who gather in their numbers every single year to support Rafa the loudest, well I hope they do their very best to scream, and shout, and let it all out. VAMOS IRRESPONSIBLY people!!! Let's cheer Rafa on to Number 9. VAM9S !!!"

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:Fed moves back to #2. Well played

and also a bit deservedly

I think one should not underestimate the challenge that is playing Nadal in the wind on clay.

I am pretty that Djoko could have easily lost the final today had it been windy too.

From what I saw Tsonga had pretty good chances in that first set despite the difficulty to time the ball.

paulcz wrote:

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:Fed moves back to #2. Well played

and also a bit deservedly

Yes but he has Madrid to defend and a semi in Rome....I cannot see that happening.

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:Good win for Djoko. Its over but 8 years in a row is one hell of court dominance. Its would perhaps be impossible to win 8 ATP250s in a row.

Yes I wonder how me managed to do it....

Tenez wrote:

paulcz wrote:

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:Fed moves back to #2. Well played

and also a bit deservedly

Yes but he has Madrid to defend and a semi in Rome....I cannot see that happening.

I know it. Here we just need to say, that it is not so important for Roger these days. The important thing is his health, hopefully that is going in a good way.

Veejay wrote:

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:Good win for Djoko. Its over but 8 years in a row is one hell of court dominance. Its would perhaps be impossible to win 8 ATP250s in a row.

Yes I wonder how me managed to do it....

It is easy Vee, because he is simply brilliant player

Excellent tennis from Nole today, was not easy to keep Nadal suppressed at times, I didn't expect him to play so well and so aggressively, that was a very nice surprise.
Good tactics, but so hard to pull off, and he managed to do it in style.
For me, his BH was the key and seeing it was back to his best against Nieminen and Fogini yesterday gave me the confidence to believe in the win.

He actually played his BH better today and even with that it was a tight affair at times.
He felt so confident he even took the chance to try out some other tactics, but that only gave Nadal back some breathing space and recovery which is why he was able to claw his way back temporarily.
But in cold day reality, he just had little to trouble Novak with in order to win a match.
There's only so many times that super-blasted forehand could've hit the line on a ridiculous wide angle....
He will be in the state of serious panic now and I am not feeling sorry for him in the least.

noleisthebest wrote:Does this mean Nadal has lost even the theoretical chance to be in top 4 for RG?

No. In theory he can definitely still be there, and even has a tiny amount of wiggle room around it. However, in practice it will be hard. It gets complicated with countables and non-countables so I may be off, but some observations:

1. If Ferrer gets zero points between now and Roland Garros, I think he will be at 6,380 (but 250 from that will be coming from a currently non-countable tournament).

2. If Rafa wins all of Barcelona, Rome and Madrid, he will be at 6,895.

3. So there is 515 points to play with. It does not give Rafa much room to lose points, especially assuming David does well on clay. And even if Rafa sweeps all three tournaments, David could still end up in front of him.

Tenez wrote:

paulcz wrote:

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:Fed moves back to #2. Well played

and also a bit deservedly

Yes but he has Madrid to defend and a semi in Rome....I cannot see that happening.

I'm not looking for anything other than Slams for Fed. He is now at the stage where seeing him play itself is a bonus. Most of his generation of players have retired or spend most of the time nursing injuries. Rankings don't matter any more, its only important to say in top-4 because it makes the draw less troublesome.

So regarding Fed, I'm only concerned about RG.

I must say I'd love to see a backache-free Fed in another Wimbledon and USO final....

noleisthebest wrote:I must say I'd love to see a backache-free Fed in another Wimbledon and USO final....

I second that!

Nole, this fan salutes you

And for one final time, the song that will always stay with me to remind me of this week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl9pK8VBG60

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:

Tenez wrote:

paulcz wrote:

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:Fed moves back to #2. Well played

and also a bit deservedly

Yes but he has Madrid to defend and a semi in Rome....I cannot see that happening.

I'm not looking for anything other than Slams for Fed. He is now at the stage where seeing him play itself is a bonus. Most of his generation of players have retired or spend most of the time nursing injuries. Rankings don't matter any more, its only important to say in top-4 because it makes the draw less troublesome.

So regarding Fed, I'm only concerned about RG.

Me too but that is the very point. Being number 2 in a slam is much much better than being number nowadays. It did not matter that much in teh past but nowadays it does, so my concern about number is solely slam related....even if I don;t hold much hope for slams either.

noleisthebest wrote:He actually played his BH better today and even with that it was a tight affair at times.

That's spot on. I felt last year his BH during the whole spring/summer was very average. He could not hurt Nadal with it.

Babolat is going to work hard on providing the best balls to Nadal at the French.

Tenez wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:He actually played his BH better today and even with that it was a tight affair at times.

That's spot on. I felt last year his BH during the whole spring/summer was very average. He could not hurt Nadal with it.

Babolat is going to work hard on providing the best balls to Nadal at the French.

I hope not.
They were pretty difficult last two years with the scheduling as well.

I mean, when is it going to be enough for them to stop pushing Nadal....I have a feeling he won't even make it to the final this year.

Djokovic. Well played.