Tennis 2019

Didn't even know play had resumed only to realise Federer had won!

Him making the semis here is a good result. If he can take a set off Nadal and put up a solid fight, he should be well pleased. Negative of course is that it will hurt his H2H record.
 
InfiniteBoredom said:
@wr8_utd is just doing his usual jinxing ritual when it comes to Nadal.

No one is beating Nadal, especially on clay, without a forehand, and 2019’s Fed forehand is nonexistent. If he couldn’t even keep pace with Wawrinka whenever it went past 10 shots in a rally then what chance against Nadal?
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I'm not jinxing. I know Rafa is huge favorite at RG but 2017 has just left mental scars :lol:
And yes if the game descends into a baseline battle Rafa will win this but Federer is smarter than to let it become that. We saw how well he switched it up today in the final two sets to avoid any sort of rally. With the conditions being cold, cloudy and damp , it will be a pretty competitive match.
 
wr8_utd said:
I'm not jinxing. I know Rafa is huge favorite at RG but 2017 has just left mental scars :lol:
And yes if the game descends into a baseline battle Rafa will win this but Federer is smarter than to let it become that. We saw how well he switched it up today in the final two sets to avoid any sort of rally. With the conditions being cold, cloudy and damp , it will be a pretty competitive match.
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He could switch it up today ffs. Wawrinka was on his last legs and probably wanted the rallies ended early too. No way playing long rallies benefited Wawrinka today as people seem to forget Federer isn’t the only 30 plus player playing. If Tsitsipas had won that marathon then the rallies would have been longer.
 
Surprised to see people criticizing Wawrinka (Nadal fans?) I thought he played a quality tennis match and had Federer troubled for the entirety of match save for few early games in 1st Set. Fed banked on his serves to bail him out again, both TBs were close where Fed slightly upped his level.

I see nothing but a Nadal W on Friday. Fed's neo backhand from 2017 is dead and his chip FH is pretty much useless these days. I just hope Fed can go out there and play a fearless nothing to lose match, even if it means more UE then so be it!
 
Kush said:
Surprised to see people criticizing Wawrinka (Nadal fans?) I thought he played a quality tennis match and had Federer troubled for the entirety of match save for few early games in 1st Set. Fed banked on his serves to bail him out again, both TBs were close where Fed slightly upped his level.

I see nothing but a Nadal W on Friday. Fed's neo backhand from 2017 is dead and his chip FH is pretty much useless these days. I just hope Fed can go out there and play a fearless nothing to lose match, even if it means more UE then so be it!
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My only criticism of Stan is his return game. Been noticing it since his match vs Dimitrov and hence I didn't have much hope of him returning well enough against Federer to stand a chance really.
 
wr8_utd said:
My only criticism of Stan is his return game. Been noticing it since his match vs Dimitrov and hence I didn't have much hope of him returning well enough against Federer to stand a chance really.
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He stood a chance though. Really threatened in that 3rd set. Some superb hitting and return around that time.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
He stood a chance though. Really threatened in that 3rd set. Some superb hitting and return around that time.
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Yeah Federer was pretty average himself. That second set was poor tennis from the both of them. Stan just needed a bit more read on Feds serve though to really win this. All he was doing all match was saving BP's on his own (except for a bit of that third set)
 
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Odds on Federer getting injured before the match are higher than him winning it. As good as he still is, he’s not beating Nadal at Roland Garros. Would be a huge upset and the biggest win of his career. Might win a set which would be a good result.

Great tournament for him regardless, perfect set up for Wimbledon.
 
I think Federer's best chance is heavy and damp conditions. Diego had Rafa in major major trouble last year in those conditions. If it's sunny, it makes Federer's task that much harder.
 
wr8_utd said:
Yeah Federer was pretty average himself. That second set was poor tennis from the both of them. Stan just needed a bit more read on Feds serve though to really win this. All he was doing all match was saving BP's on his own (except for a bit of that third set)
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I thought both played. It was a good match of tennis, break point conversion aside.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
I thought both played. It was a good match of tennis, break point conversion aside.
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I enjoyed the first set and it was pretty high quality at that point. I found set 2 and beyond quite the scrappy affair bereft of the type of quality the Tsitsi Stan match had.
 
Not sure why, but I've got a feeling Zverev will trouble Djokovic today
 
Play cancelled for today.

Looking at the forecast in Paris and tomorrow will be fine. Friday some rain but not as much as today. Saturday and Sunday looks fine.
 
The rain hasn’t done any favours to Djokovic et al on today’s side of the draw. Though, tbf to Djokovic, if there was one player you could see efficiently cutting his way through two matches in two days in straight sets it’s Djokovic. Thar said, unless the weather acts up again I imagine Nadal’s odds of winning it are pretty good now.
 
Zverev about to serhe for the first set vs Djoko. He's been far far better than Novak so far.
 
Djokovic steals it. He was awful at the start of the set but went up a level
 
Peyroteo said:
Djokovic steals it. He was awful at the start of the set but went up a level
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Steals it? You mean Zverev totally choked that away and gave Djokovic gifts. Djokovic didn’t steal anything he just put a bit of pressure which all the top guys will do when behind and Zverev couldn’t handle it.
 
Zverev now a break down in the second set. He is mentally weak forget about the other aspects. This why I think Tsitsipas will have the better career.
 
Peyroteo said:
Djokovic steals it. He was awful at the start of the set but went up a level
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What level did he go up? Zverev absolutely threw it away. Poor drop shots, double faults and missing overheards. It was so obvious he'd get broken again at 5-6.
 
Bojan11 said:
Zverev now a break down in the second set. He is mentally weak forget about the other aspects. This why I think Tsitsipas will have the better career.
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I've never fancied Zverev. His performances in Slams speak for themselves. Another absolutely overrated Next Gen kid.
 
Thiem serving for the set too. Djokovic and Thiem could be a classic tomorrow.
 
wr8_utd said:
What level did he go up? Zverev absolutely threw it away. Poor drop shots, double faults and missing overheards. It was so obvious he'd get broken again at 5-6.
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He’s playing a lot better since the 10th game. He was playing like crap and moving very poorly at the start of this.

His returning in the games he broke was incredible.
 
Peyroteo said:
He’s playing a lot better since the 10th game. He was playing like crap and moving very poorly at the start of this.

His returning in the games he broke was incredible.
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Whatever Djokovic did, it was a direct consequence of Zverev having complete brain farts. He totally and completely threw away both his service games and Novak didn't even need to do all that much.
 
All these generations of news kids coming after them really show how insanely good Federer, Nadel and Djokovic are. We've seen quite a few new kid's lauded as the new Federer, Nadal, Sampras etc, but none of them manage to really make a mark.

Come Sunday it will be the same vets playing in the final while the Zverevs and Thiems of the world sit at home in front of the TV.
 
KirkDuyt said:
All these generations of news kids coming after them really show how insanely good Federer, Nadel and Djokovic are. We've seen quite a few new kid's lauded as the new Federer, Nadal, Sampras etc, but none of them manage to really make a mark.

Come Sunday it will be the same vets playing in the final while the Zverevs and Thiems of the world sit at home in front of the TV.
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It’s so hard to properly assess how good or otherwise they are when they’re playing in an era against arguably the three best players of all time. That said, I so often find Zverev underwhelming. He seems to just drift out of slams at the first sign of resistance.
 
Tsitsipas is honestly the only one from the new Gen who seems like he'll be good enough across surfaces. Theim is brilliant on clay but he's a total non entity away from it and the lesser said about jokers like Zverev the better.
 
I think Zverev has the ability but for whatever reason, probably mentally, he's not done it in the slams.

To his credit he's won 3 Masters 1000 titles and the ATP tour finals already.
 
saivet said:
I think Zverev has the ability but for whatever reason, probably mentally, he's not done it in the slams.

To his credit he's won 3 Masters 1000 titles and the ATP tour finals already.
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He'll probably win a Slam or two once the Big 3 are gone but while they're around and competent, he just isn't big enough mentally to do damage imo. The way he totally and utterly collapsed today said a lot.
 
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