Wimbledon 2014: MOTD Day 8 Tue 01/07/2014

FedererKing wrote:

Veejay wrote:if federer doesnt make the final now then he has blown a major opportunity

he's 32 now... and it won't be easy to get passed Stan.  For starters.

apart from wawrinka,who else stands in his way to the final?
fed is a far superior grass court player then stan so i expect him to win in 4
the way he played today was crazy,its very clear that his back isnt bothering him and every time that has been the case,he has been virtually unplayable regardless of his age 
still a long way to go but this is a major opportunity

as for nadal,just further proof that he was NEVER  natural grass court player 
i suspect his bad results at wimbledon has to do with him failing a drugs test at wimbledon 2 years ago
i think since then him and his camp have been very very very careful at the all england club taking no risks whatsoever
he will probably disappear from tour to cycle up for the hard court season again like he did last year

At 32, it isn't the same thing (his consistency can drop match to match and we've seen it happen a lot recently).  But Fed is playing quite well.  If he gets to the final, he has a very good chance of doing it.  But the road is hard and long.

Accordng to the posters on 606 forum, it seems that Amri  has created her umpteenth fake id there and been spouting off about the greatness of Nadal the past week---  and of course, promptly disappeared today!! lol

lmao, that place is a zoo.

Veejay wrote:

FedererKing wrote:

Veejay wrote:if federer doesnt make the final now then he has blown a major opportunity

he's 32 now... and it won't be easy to get passed Stan.  For starters.

apart from wawrinka,who else stands in his way to the final?
fed is a far superior grass court player then stan so i expect him to win in 4
the way he played today was crazy,its very clear that his back isnt bothering him and every time that has been the case,he has been virtually unplayable regardless of his age 
still a long way to go but this is a major opportunity

as for nadal,just further proof that he was NEVER  natural grass court player 
i suspect his bad results at wimbledon has to do with him failing a drugs test at wimbledon 2 years ago
i think since then him and his camp have been very very very careful at the all england club taking no risks whatsoever
he will probably disappear from tour to cycle up for the hard court season again like he did last year

He's a definite favourite to reach the final...  it's there for the taking.    I think the final against Djoko would be easier than him than Murray on grass imo.... it's still a tough tough task to win this tourney-  as it should be.

I think Fed will have no trouble dealing with Stan tomorrow. It should be a nice match. Just watch him fly now that Nadal's out of his way...
That's 3/8 SBHs left in the draw.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqh7Tc0Cm5w

Nadal believes he was the better player in set 2 and 3....

Kyrgios, the Legend....

I must say, this has been a fabulous day, Sharapova and Nadal have been knocked out, and we now have three young players making it to the last 8 in Wimbledon.
I reckon Serena tested positive which is why she faked a dizzy spell in her doubles match and retired after 8 DFs in 3 games.
The tournament is really shaping up nicely.

Nadal's out. Nadal's out. Nadal's out.
YESSSSS!!!!!

Fantastic!

When I saw Kyrgios at the AO, I was very impressed.  I knew he had potential to become very very good - more potential than Raonic certainly.  He also has the game that can trouble Rafa, so I knew he could make a match of it today, but I would be lying if I said I was expecting him to win.

Woohoo!!!! The villain is out!       Didn't dare to check on him, even after Kyrgios won the first set. But then it happened, Kyrgios won! Rooting against Nadal is just as gratifying as rooting for someone, it makes my day every time when he loses.  Nadal is so helpless against pace. How did this guy ever win Wimbledon?   

And he is so ill equipped to deal with adversity, he gets this haunted look whenever he sees that he cannot grind his opponent down, as if he were afraid to be exposed as a fraud. I almost feel sorry for him then. Until I think of what he and his game have done to tennis, plus the elation of seeing Nadal lose is such a great feeling that I rather think such a pity he cannot come back after a lost match to lose again the next round.  

I guess, every good story needs a great villain and Nadal fits that role to a T.

Watched parts of the match in safe replay. Moment of the match for me: 3rd set, 2nd game, Kyrgios to serve, Nadal taking his sweet time at the change of end, making Kyrgios wait, wait, wait. Nadal towels off and finally after a seeming eternity has arrived in position to receive. The very moment he raises his head, service bomb incoming. Service winner Kyrgios.  I just loved how Kyrgios made Nadal play to the server's pace. Wish, other players had done the same, instead of carving in to Nadal.   

Very, very impressive tournament by the youngster so far; he is really good for the game. Loved the ease he has when generating power and his mental strength is far beyond his years. He showed that when he saved the 9 MPs against Gasquet and again today vs. Nadal. As a type he is the very guy who will trouble Nadal mightily whenever they'll meet. I still see Raonic as the favourite in the QF. Anyway, we will have at least one young player in the SF and that's a good turn of events.

I expected Fed - Robredo to not be a close match and it wasn't. Fed impeccable, great on serve and netplay, good on returns, beautiful as ever.

I haven't seen anything of Wawrinka - Lopez, but seemed to have been close match in the first two sets with both unable to break the others serve. Lopez maybe overly ambitious with the many matches he played in the lead up to Wimbledon + singles and doubles at Wimbledon. I must admit, Wawrinka's success this year at Wimbledon comes as a surprise to me.

I still see Fed as the clear favourite in the match up with Wawrinka. His ROS, ability to defend and shot variety should trouble Wawrinka a lot more than Lopez', and if Fed's serve is as strong as in the first rounds, Wawrinka shouldn't get too many looks into Fed service games. The only thing that worries me is Fed's tendency to lose focus in the very next match after a Nadal loss, maybe because he feels that he has to seize his chances now and the pressure gets to him a bit.

Happy to see Sharapova out too.

Autumnleaf wrote:

I expected Fed - Robredo to not be a close match and it wasn't. Fed impeccable, great on serve and netplay, good on returns, beautiful as ever.

No I did not. That's another case of the 2 Federers we have seen over the last 3 years. The injured one and the better version.

Today he played terribly and was lucky to go through in 4. Clearly Federer showed he doesn't like to play back to back. Once his body loosened up, he played a bit better...though not great.

Regarding Nadal, it shows once again that beating him on grass doesn't mean much. The guy who beat him, just lost today, like Rosol 2 years ago....and Darcis last year.

Tenez wrote:

Autumnleaf wrote:

I expected Fed - Robredo to not be a close match and it wasn't. Fed impeccable, great on serve and netplay, good on returns, beautiful as ever.

No I did not. That's another case of the 2 Federers we have seen over the last 3 years. The injured one and the better version.

Years ago, I used to think (jokingly of course!) that Federer was actually 2 twins (like "The Prestige"). Why he played so differently in some of his matches, and was so fresh in the others.   Well, there are 3 sets of twins in his immediate family....

Tenez wrote:
Regarding Nadal, it shows once again that beating him on grass doesn't mean much. The guy who beat him, just lost today, like Rosol 2 years ago....and Darcis last year.

I'd disagree with your statement here. The fact the guy who beat him lost the next match means beating him takes a psychological toll on whoever does it... How many times have we seen the person who beat Fed (when not one of the other top 3) lose the next match? The fact he has been losing regularly on grass however, could mean that beating him on grass these recent years can be done by anyone (with aggressive tennis, though).

sphairistike wrote:

Tenez wrote:
Regarding Nadal, it shows once again that beating him on grass doesn't mean much. The guy who beat him, just lost today, like Rosol 2 years ago....and Darcis last year.

I'd disagree with your statement here. The fact the guy who beat him lost the next match means beating him takes a psychological toll on whoever does it... How many times have we seen the person who beat Fed (when not one of the other top 3) lose the next match? The fact he has been losing regularly on grass however, could mean that beating him on grass these recent years can be done by anyone (with aggressive tennis, though).

Not quite. It means that beating someone on grass who stands 5m behind the baseline is not quite the same as beating someone who can send you bomb on serves who can block returning serves. Even when Nadal won his 2 Wimbies, he had very close shaves on his way there while the grass was still fresh. Rosol, Darcis and Krigios would not have done that well had they not Nadal. He just about beat an injured Gasquet and was lucky on quite a few TBs before then. He will be good.....but not this year. Watch him the rest of the season, it will confirm what I say here.

Tenez wrote:Not quite. It means that beating someone on grass who stands 5m behind the baseline is not quite the same as beating someone who can send you bomb on serves who can block returning serves.

It does not mean that.  It happens all the time that a player beats a stronger player only to lose in the next round to a weaker player, or the next week to the same player.

summerblues wrote:

Tenez wrote:Not quite. It means that beating someone on grass who stands 5m behind the baseline is not quite the same as beating someone who can send you bomb on serves who can block returning serves.

It does not mean that.  It happens all the time that a player beats a stronger player only to lose in the next round to a weaker player, or the next week to the same player.

And you might notice that very often that almost always it's due to the strong player having a day off....otherwise he will have beaten that weaker player...unless it is Nadal on a fast surface ! How many times has he be beaten by unknown on fast surface? Kry was never going to beat Raonic...yet!

The fact Kry will struggle this year to reproduce this kind performance against all other top players (including Nadal on HC) will prove I am right. No different than Darcis, Rosol but also Peztchney, Haase, young Querrey, Youzhny, Gulbis, who though did not beat Nadal on grass were very close to do it.