You have the same feeling and evaluation of Roger as I have, Gillespie! He's a tennis genius. Literally. He can do it all.
Someone was saying that Nadal has the best speed of movement in tennis. I'd surely contest that - Roger moves lightning quick. There's one thing about his moving that makes it so unnoticeable; there's a grace and a facility with which he does his moving - he is as if hovering over the court, floating a few mms above. This can go easily unnoticed compared with the dogged running of Nadal. That movement style, along with his stroke play (inventiveness, craftiness, variety, mastery etc.) make Roger the tennis genius he is.
However, when he is at the French open, I sincerely think that he does not do justice to that talent and there is a mental block of sorts that prevents him being better over a best of 5 against Nadal on clay so far. He started explosively last year and then literally disappeared. This year, he showed only a third of the effort he needed to put in by taking that second set against Nadal. If he had that same attitude throughout three sets, he'd have beaten Nadal, I have no doubts. It's the mental battle he loses against Nadal at Roland Garros (what better testimony to that than the simply phenomenal number of unforced errors he had in this year's final!) Roger is better on clay court than most other clay court specialists (Moya, Ferrero, Kuerten if he were still here, I feel).
I feel that the day he actually wakes up on the day of the French open final and says to himself "I'll simply kill that weird-looking lefty", that's the day he'll beat Nadal at Roland Garros. That's the Nadal attitude - he has no regard whatsoever for his opponent when on the court. His attitude to a winning point against him is "How did that bastard manage to do that to me? How dare he?" That is what is making a difference between him and Roger at the French open. I keep repeating at the French open, because Roger has broken his duck on clay against Nadal this year at Hamburg - one of the reasons why I thought this year's final would have been a different affair.
So, let's hope another clay court victory or two against Nadal next year would give Roger that stronger belief in himself to beat Nadal at the French open. He's the one guy who deserves to win this Grand Slam more than anyone else.
I agree with this post.
Basically Federer has won everything apart from a couple of French open finals. Thats as close to perfection as it gets. And whats even better is that, he actually did get to the finals those two times, not looked like a complete novice on that surface. Hes faced one of the best clay court players probably ever and come off worse.
As for the comparison, Federer is well on his way to being the best ever. Nadal is well on his way to being a clay great who can push for being one of the games greats, he has it in him. Its a fabulous rivalry because its the better player who is catching up head to head. From Federers point of view he needs the French to set his supremacy in the history of the game in stone, which IMO he will do, whereas Nadal needs to build on his early success and tread on Federer's backyard(hard and grass) and make a case for him being the best on that in the next few years.
Just as players, Federer is the best i've seen easily, and i think the best sportsman i'l probably ever witness. Its been a pleasure to watch his brand of tennis the last few years, its a step above the rest. Nadal works hard, has a lot to his game, but he isnt a Federer. Roger needs to win the French, and like the poster above i think he can and probably should have already. IMO at his best, and by that i mean mentally as well as physically, he should be Nadal on clay. It sounds like a huge claim, but thats how good his game is. I do agree that he gave up a couple of times in those finals, but it had more to do with the surface, his mindset etc rather than Nadal. This last final was begging for Federer to take control in the third after he had levelled it, and unleash his top game on the clay of paris, but it didnt happen, he tightened up, he got rattled, his timing went off, hence that fight died down.
Funny thing is, almost the same thing just happened on grass, but in the fifth from somewhere he pulled out his best for 15 mins, got over his mental block and turned everything around. That is true greatness, now needs to bring that on clay, he clearly has it all in him.
