US OPEN FINALS- with match fixtures

gallery play wrote:Nole has now lost 4 of his last 5 gs finals. I wonder how he and his team will respond to this. Better luck next time or back to the drawing board? Dr Igor?
What do you think Nitb?

It sucks cause i really enjoyed how Nole dominated Nadal.

I don't think it will be Dr Igor ever again.

In the first set last night, while Nadal was on his ultimate energy high, Nole looked as obsolete as Federer, and that says a lot.

You know how Nadal jumps like a baboon at the net and then sprints to the baseline for the warm up, well last night, he made an extra effort to be jumpier and spriteier than ever, it was almost caricaturistic, I caught Nole give him the look of: "I got the message", and he showed it with  an ironic and disbelieving "what a moron" kind of look on his face, but with a hint of "you know you are allowed to get away with it - well done for the show!" ...
In my opinion, Nole could have easily won the match last night had he kept the focus. Tenez is spot on when he says about him recovering badly, lack of oxygen is the only explanation for some of the wild Fed-like shanks Nole threw.

So, where to from here?

No magic formula, I reckon, it will be more of the same,  hoping Nole rediscovers his BH and sharpens up his focus.
He hired this Polish guy to move his game more into the court, and I hope it works for him, I am glad it's going in that direction.

noleisthebest wrote:
In my opinion, Nole could have easily won the match last night had he kept the focus. Tenez is spot on when he says about him recovering badly, lack of oxygen is the only explanation for some of the wild Fed-like shanks Nole threw.

I've watched the third set and i was kinda odd how timid Djoko let the set been taken away from him. He was quite a few times in a very good position to win that set but he looked dispirited and didn't even had the urge the celebrate great points. Very unlike Djoko and clearly a sign he was intimidated and yes, never really believed he could win. For us it may have appeared different but he's the one on court and felt Nadals power and got paralized by it.
I think it's the story in the lockerroom atm: all players work their butts off and assume they got a whole lot fitter... until they ran into Nadal.

Contrary to popular belief, I don't think Nole was intimidated in the entire match, esp. not in that third set.
Quite the opposite: he was too relaxed and must have thought he had Nadal (which he did).
You know how it is when you play, things happen fast and one netted volley  for whatever reason - your focus goes  and next thing you know you are broken; had he put that volley away, he would have probably won the match, it was such a sitter, I don't know how  he missed it, but it's the same kind of shock (if not worse) as that time he touched the net in RG.
That is a very old pattern of Nole: he relaxes when he thinks he's got someone and then has to dig himself out, a lot of his matches have the comeback pattern against top players or a bagel set followed by a tiebreak against the easier opponents.
Nadal was there for the taking.
I also think Nadal dislikes playing Nole more than the other way round.

noleisthebest wrote: had he put that volley away, he would have probably won the match,

Yeah, sure he would have...

gallery play wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:
In my opinion, Nole could have easily won the match last night had he kept the focus. Tenez is spot on when he says about him recovering badly, lack of oxygen is the only explanation for some of the wild Fed-like shanks Nole threw.

I've watched the third set and i was kinda odd how timid Djoko let the set been taken away from him. He was quite a few times in a very good position to win that set but he looked dispirited and didn't even had the urge the celebrate great points. Very unlike Djoko and clearly a sign he was intimidated and yes, never really believed he could win. For us it may have appeared different but he's the one on court and felt Nadals power and got paralized by it.
I think it's the story in the lockerroom atm: all players work their butts off and assume they got a whole lot fitter... until they ran into Nadal.

Yes...we think Djoko can run for ever but the fact is he can't. I think he got traumatised by this AO 2011 final. He has not bee the same since. As if he is scared to relive such a gruelling fight....despite winning it.

Wait, so is the latest official excuse for Novak that he doesn't have enough stamina?

Is this genuine or are we having a laugh

Nadal has won 6 out of the last 7 matches against him, and in all 6 of the wins took a one set lead with an early break. Did Djokovic run out of stamina within the first few games every time?
Also, in the final yesterday, I believe it was Djokovic who won the majority of rallies which were 25+ plus points.

Tenez wrote:Yes...we think Djoko can run for ever but the fact is he can't. I think he got traumatised by this AO 2011 final. He has not been the same since.

You mean AO12.
When did Ceevak stop using those egg chambers? Around that period?
Was it around the same time LA was admitting why he had used hyperbaric/oxygen chambers?
Has he had the same degree of stamina/success since?

noleisthebest wrote:Contrary to popular belief, I don't think Nole was intimidated in the entire match, esp. not in that third set.
Quite the opposite: he was too relaxed and must have thought he had Nadal (which he did).

Regardless the score, no one ever feels relaxed against Nadal. Put yourself in Djoko's shoes: was there a reason to feel relaxed? To me he was introvert instead of relaxed.
At first sight this introvertness cost him the match but like i said, he probably got overwhelmed with Nadal's enery and hardly saw a way out. He actually looked a bit like how Federer looks against Nadal

Tenez wrote: I think he got traumatised by this AO 2011 final. He has not bee the same since. As if he is scared to relive such a gruelling fight....despite winning it.

That actually happens more often to athletes. Digging (too) deep can be a scary experience, as it means things are about to get out of control. After an experience like that, one probably never dig as deep again.
Remarkably,  that final was a turning point for Rafa too, he got his belief to beat Djoko back, despite losing it..

I'm sat at the computer waiting for "a" match to start....must be withdrawal symptoms 

Belated congrats to Rafa.  I only saw the last 9 games (from 4:4 in the third), of which Nadal won 8.  So it was mostly one way traffic in the portion I saw and I cannot comment much on the match as a whole, but Nole definitely has his work cut out for him if he wants to turn it around again.