I'm Happy And I Know It!

The party is now officially over.


To be continued in Indian Wells

noleisthebest wrote:The party is now officially over.


To be continued in Indian Wells

NOOOOOOOO.. I didn't even join in the party.. how could it get over so soon.

Ok then, just one very last throw of party madness. Nole style.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vMvR0YXQNRU


Thanks everyone for joining the party, (killjoys included), I certainly enjoyed myself a lot yesterday. Still have over half of that bottle of champagne left , so may drink a bit every evening to prolong that special bubbly feeling.

Until the next party, cheers

Tenez wrote:

paulcz wrote:
Disagree, the spirit is mainly a matter of nature and education from his home place and family. Look at the Ferrer, the great stamina but impossible to do a "final" break.

Surprised you think like that Paul...as I believe you are a decent player. Look at Nadal...he was very strong mentally....as long as he knew his fitness was better than his opponents....the day Djoko became as fit, Nadal's mental cracked. DJoko strong mental as you say did not help him to find himself match points down against all those players. Have rewatched that USO11 semi? He cracked in first set TB, versus Fed, he also cracked in that second set after having lost the first set and watch that 5th set game where he is broken...even throwing a double fault. And he played those MPs as someone who finally relaxed cause he had nothing to lose...but when he had everything to lose he was the one who cracked first. Frankly you cannot take the "distance" factor in his wins and as a tremendous effect in his mind. The day he plays against someone who can outlast him...he will crack like everybody else!!! I a afraid Paul but Djoko is the new "morinbundus". One day you will realise.

I do not say that stamina does not support confidence, but a high spirit is quite different. His mentallity is built up mainly from his home place, from Serbia, where lives a few people, life is hard and he experienced a war. That all made him so tough and built up his spirit. Therefore Nole plays for people, wants to entertain them and likes real fights and a thrill in it. It does not mean that he does not lose a focus and concentration, but he plays with sheer enthusiam without no fears. You can say that he plays as if he did not have anything to lose sometimes and then he cracks, but when you do not expect he stands up again and fights.

If I should raise one „positive“ thing about Morybundus, then the fact that he is a real fighter. He surely is not one who cracks mentally. So, he surely does not suffer from great Nole´s stamina, but from the fact that he took a back seat when playing with Nole. Thanks God, that Nole is able to handle with him as nobody else. I rewatched many times these matches. There was no a sign that Morybundus broke mentally, but Nole could dismantle him by his attacking game and Mory scampered from side to side. On the other side Fed´s game is not built to face Morybundus from the reason of „my favorite“ SHBH and Mory´s left hand. What worse Mory had an edge on all GS with Fed. Fed looked like a sad pack when facing to Morybundus and a winner was sure in a dressing room. What is more they became great friends I stopped watching their GS matches, it was absolutely worthless. After one set, everything was the same.

Let us be happy that we have Nole. Without Nole, Mory would have had about 16 GS in his pocket and the biggest Fed ´s admirers would press their tears in next FO. Without Nole, I would have to stop watching tennis neither wrote these sentences. So, thanks God for him

Well said, Paul

As for me, stuff it!
Party still going strong at my desk
Chapagne in hand, it still tastes great, cheers


NOLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

.

paulcz wrote:
I do not say that stamina does not support confidence, but a high spirit is quite different. His mentallity is built up mainly from his home place, from Serbia, where lives a few people, life is hard and he experienced a war. That all made him so tough and built up his spirit.

You see I do not think it works quite like that. Feder has had a pretty normal, comfortable and quiet life young and he is a tougher competitor than Djoko....and even if you do not think so, he is certainly not far off. As Fed says himself, the pressure comes from within and not external factors like wars lived at a younger age. Simply because suffering and hardship is in all of us. We don't need to experience war to get teh feel of it.

Therefore Nole plays for people, wants to entertain them and likes real fights and a thrill in it. It does not mean that he does not lose a focus and concentration, but he plays with sheer enthusiam without no fears. You can say that he plays as if he did not have anything to lose sometimes and then he cracks, but when you do not expect he stands up again and fights.

Yes I agree with this part. That is a trait certainly of a champion. His willpower his pretty big and as said on another thread, his will to succeed was so strong that he certainly gave himself all the means to get to where he is. And that included even a weird behaviour on court when younger (Monfils/Wawrinka incidents) and it is also noted that on some occasions he preferred to w.o or default than face defeat which certainly surprised a few players.

If I should raise one „positive“ thing about Morybundus, then the fact that he is a real fighter. He surely is not one who cracks mentally. So, he surely does not suffer from great Nole´s stamina, but from the fact that he took a back seat when playing with Nole.

Nadal is a great fighter but it is easy fight. When your weapon is power and stamina than fighting is pretty easy, or natural should I say. The difficulty in fighting is when you fight with thin margins, only for those players we can talk about guts...not the ones relying on stamina and power essentially like the 3 physical players. As we saw in all their encounters, they don't take risk but measure themselves on thier fitness. The fittest always wins....not the more courageous. When I say fittest I mean the most energy efficient.

Thanks God, that Nole is able to handle with him as nobody else. I rewatched many times these matches.

Gosh! That's courageous!

There was no a sign that Morybundus broke mentally, but Nole could dismantle him by his attacking game and Mory scampered from side to side.

Not the way I see it at all. Nadal cracked everytime when it mattered as he knew against Djoko his chance of winning the rally diminished as the rally extends (a new phenomenon for Nadal as all the other opponents tire before Nadal).

On the other side Fed´s game is not built to face Morybundus from the reason of „my favorite“ SHBH and Mory´s left hand.

Not quite. Fed has a great record v LHs who hammer his BH. What killed Federer is the power of the Nadal's ball, in particular the CC one of course. But even Nadal got badly crushed by Fed when that power was slightly dropping. Nadal's wins over Federer as simply due to this extra power he coudl get at slams.

Djoko has a better record v Nadal than Federer but Djoko had to battle on every of his battles versus Nadal...whereas teh more talented players like Federer, Davydenko, Nalbandian and Tsonga could make Nadal look really bad and got easy wins v Nadal...Djoko cannot win Nadal or Murray easily. This shows that Djoko is not playing a better tennis...simply a more physical ones. That's my main problem with the likes of Djoko Murray and Nadal is that tennis wise they do nothing for teh game...their team does the physical job for them...and this is why it is now a habit to congrats each others teams!

What worse Mory had an edge on all GS with Fed. Fed looked like a sad pack when facing to Morybundus and a winner was sure in a dressing room. What is more they became great friends I stopped watching their GS matches, it was absolutely worthless. After one set, everything was the same.

Yes it was painful....but you cannot blame Federer who was fighting Rafa and his team, the ATP who turned a blind eye on extra time, fiddled with the draws and slowed all courts to make sure Nadal would get far in tournaments and win everything. Watch now when they speed all the courts to allow more versatile players to win!

Let us be happy that we have Nole. Without Nole, Mory would have had about 16 GS in his pocket and the biggest Fed ´s admirers would press their tears in next FO. Without Nole, I would have to stop watching tennis neither wrote these sentences. So, thanks God for him

Yes I was happy to see Djoko beat Morybundus but now if you are honest Djoko is the new Morybundus, he is asphyxiating all players who try to use talent to beat him.

Watch that Stan match again....and see how much more talented is stan! It's not arguable...it woudl be like saying that Stan is fitter than Djoko!

Tenez talking about tennis talent. He is happy and he knows it

noleisthebest wrote:Tenez talking about tennis talent. He is happy and he knows it

Yep..It's me the killjoy!

Tenez wrote: This shows that Djoko is not playing a better tennis...simply a more physical ones.

Ten, here we have a different view, Nole´s superiority with Nadal on hc is not a matter of stamina. If Nole dominated on clay and lost on hc, then it is arguable, but it is not the case.

There are different things which are in favor of Nole. Here they are: placing balls in corners, especially on BH side, Nole´s positioning in the court, faster and flatter hitting of the ball, dictating rallies, returning positions in the front, more net game, better serve. The result of a comparison of their game is clear, Nole is much more active who takes iniciative in his hands, for sure. If Nole became the more passive one, then Mory would take a lead role on the court and would win, for sure.

The nicest article about their comparison wrote Richard Schönborn who said that Mory can not threaten Nole playing in his top level on hard courts.

Tenez wrote: Watch that Stan match again....and see how much more talented is stan! It's not arguable...it woudl be like saying that Stan is fitter than Djoko!

I wish to Stan many great matches and wins and hope that he will develop his talent to the best level as he is able.

Re talent, you can have an unique talent for some areas in tennis skill, but you need to develop your talent to the highest compact level and eliminate your weakness. Nole is the best example of that. Berd says that he likes playing with Fed, but Nole is a brainteaser. The reason is that he does not have any weaknesses. Nole´s game is the best on the BL, but he improved his volleying and transition to the net and serve as well. He is a player who can win on all surfaces nowadays.

As for taking more risk, that is quite complexity topic. But it is obvious, that on most of the courts it is impossible to win fights with big hitters just at the net. Look at the match Fed with Murray at AO. Fed, when considering his great serve, great volleying and fast and sharp hitting determine him for „winning“ matches at the net, but he was not able to go to the net with Murray. Even limited Fed (by his back) knew that he can not win that match by playing from BL, but he just could not do it. When he can not serve on 90%, he plays rallies with Murray from BL and Murray had him on strings from the beginning of that match as Morybundus does. I stared on it with wide eyes. You see how much important the serve is for him.

I must say that I liked that match much more than watching big servers as Rusedski, Rosset , Ivanisevic, who played practically without the game conception, but just serve and rush to the net. You can say that these guys had talent and guts, but their game was limited from my point of view and it was worthless to watch it.

If looking at Nole, it is absolutely different case. What is more I see his progression to play more actively and aggressively. Yes, sometimes he starts very slowely and stays more on the BL. But gradually, after startup, he gets more control on the ball and forces himself to the net. It is clear that Nole is still in the process for being more active by a margin.

Normally I do not have much time for writing such a long article, but when Nole is mentioned I needed to do an exception.

Interesting thoughts here Paul...but fundamentally we disagree. Murray Nadal and Djoko do not bank on their talent to win. They bank on their fitness and that fitness is there to absorb their opponent's talent. That's simply how it works and this is why they regualrly make the last 4. Federer is the exception. He wins thanks to his amazing talent.

You might say that it is a talent to absorb talent and in theory you are right...except than nowadays we know where that fitness comes from and surely it is not "innate" and therefore not a talent.

If we speed courts and provide harder balls....I frankly doubt that Murray and Djoko will make the last 4...and that will prove the point about talent.

Tenez wrote: If we speed courts and provide harder balls....I frankly doubt that Murray and Djoko will make the last 4...and that will prove the point about talent.

What, even with those "good hands" you were praising the other day...?

Murray will have more chance but the problem with hard balls is that they don't take the spin as much and that would make his grounds shots much worse.

Yet, with his legs he will alaways be a tough cookie to beat.

I don't know....there's something fundamental missing in his game for me.
A player without a naturally struck forehand....

Nole on the other hand, I can visualise survive in your imagined scenario, but he'd have to revert to pure flat hitting forehand which we know he can do very well.

I'm happy for you Nitb. I'm not happy about the state of tennis at the moment though...