Thiem doing his best Federer vs Djokovic impression. 
Tennis 2020
- Thread starter Mrs Smoker
- Start date
feck me Thiem has been superb
Wow Djokovic was up 4-0 in the tiebreak and lost it.
3-3 and the first serve % for each player is 100% for Medvedev and 42% for Nadal. If Rafa wants to win this he needs to improve his serve otherwise he'll be broken sooner rather than later.
Think Nadal will grow and if he wins the first, Medvedev's level will drop. Vital for me that he wins the first.
Yeah, Medvedev will surely start missing some first serves. 42% first serve but Nadal has held serve 4 times.
As if on cue.
Literally didn't make one first serveAs if on cue.
It feels like Nadal loses all of the big tiebreaks these days. 8-8 this year with tiebreak losses against Thiem (x5), Djokovic (x1) and Medvedev (x1).
He used to be so good at them.
Medvedev breaks. He deserves it as he has put pressure on Nadals serve all set and not let Nadal have easy service games.
Agreed, he's been the better player overall.
Weird final set by Nadal.
Disappointed with Nadal. The result is almost inevitable when he struggles on serve like that and it's frustrating to watch.
Likely was the last chance to win WTF and its gone.
Made even more frustrating by the fact that he served for the match and lost yet another tiebreak.
Likely was the last chance to win WTF and its gone.
Made even more frustrating by the fact that he served for the match and lost yet another tiebreak.
Can't quite pin point when it started creeping in to his game, but feel like Nadal has a real mental fragility on pressure points/ games these days. Felt like this for a few years now and admittedly he's managed to win slams during this period too, but never feel confident in him to get through these tight matches. Never thought he'd serve it out in 2nd.
Disgusted with the game Nadal played at 5-4 in the second but not remotely surprised. This is what Rafa has been since 2017. The biggest choker in the Top 5. You can absolutely never trust him to serve out ANY set or match. I don't get the excuse of age contributing to nerves because you don't see Novak and Federer consistently bottle matches like Nadal does. Disappointed today but not remotely surprised. He's done this all tournament, year and the last three years.
He absolutely does and this is why it makes it even more annoying when people and pundits continue to talk about his so called "mental strength"". It's been absent for 3-4 years now.
Did you see Wimbledon 2019? Broken for the first time all match, when serving for the match in the 5th set. Lost the match and chance at cementing GOAT on 3 tiebreaks. Nothing can ever come close in terms of bottling key moments.
Djokvic bottled it today too!
He was 4-0 up in the tie break and in complete control.
Bloody hellWhile I think his thumping at the French was down to Nadal’s brilliance and his underperformance at the ATP Finals is probably just a continuation of the end of season issues he’s had at this tournament and his desire to peak for the Slams over the last 5 years or so, the Aussie Open is starting to look like a really interesting Slam now for Djokovic. If he wins it, suddenly he’s two behind with Wimbledon and the US very winnable for him in the stretch. The French is more Nadal-dependent. But if someone else, Nadal being the worst case scenario, wins it, he’ll be, at best, 3 behind with the Slam he’s least likely to win next up and the lead quote likely to go to 4.
As much as he and Nadal are utterly ridiculous athletes, I suspect they won’t feel comfortable assuming that they’ll be this competitive into their late, late 30s - Federer might be a weird outlier and not a sign that players are going to start playing much, much longer - so they’ll both be racing to pick them up. Add the likes of Thiem to that mix and then players like Tsitsipas and Mednedev looking like they could challenge and suddenly they might start hitting roadblocks a round or two earlier. It’s great. A race against each other and time.
As much as he and Nadal are utterly ridiculous athletes, I suspect they won’t feel comfortable assuming that they’ll be this competitive into their late, late 30s - Federer might be a weird outlier and not a sign that players are going to start playing much, much longer - so they’ll both be racing to pick them up. Add the likes of Thiem to that mix and then players like Tsitsipas and Mednedev looking like they could challenge and suddenly they might start hitting roadblocks a round or two earlier. It’s great. A race against each other and time.
Federer's mental issues seem to only occur when he faces Djokovic though. Nadal's had a huge huge issue for the last few years where (self admittedly) nerves get to him and he just doesn't know how to close sets and matches. Even this week in London, he's played flawless tennis for 95% of the time but against Thiem, Tsitsipas and Medvedev, he got tight in all the moments where he shouldn't have. It's been a worrying pattern for the last few years now. He can play absolutely perfect tennis and be untroubled on serve for an entire set but the minute he comes out to serve for a set or match, his game falls to pieces. He suddenly can't make first serves and misses the simplest of volleys. He's still strong when he's facing break points or he's at the brink of defeat but the nerves he shows when ahead is just mystifying.
I don't know how long they'll be competitive but in the immediate future, I still don't see any of the next Gen apart from maybe Thiem being good enough to beat these guys over 5 sets. At Masters and the ATP Finals, a lot of the younger guys have been beating all of the Top 3 for the last few years but the Slams are a different beast altogether.
Maybe Top 5 was an exaggeration but he's 100% the most nervy player from Federer, Novak and himself and it's particularly surprising given that he used to be the toughest mentally.
You might be/are probably right. This season at least. But I genuinely think we’re not far from the Big 2 getting no more than 2 slams a year. And even that’ll drop off fairly sharply at a point. I dunno. Maybe I’m being naive but right now I think Thiem, for example, is closer to being part of a big 3 than Federer, in terms of likelihood of slams anyway. Playing like this Medvedev will derail big players. Tsitsipas has enormous upside and will get better. Even Zverev, for his faults, can do them damage on a good serving day. I’m probably being dumb. But I suspect Djokovic will start to get a little concerned if he wins, say, one slam next year. Which isn’t exactly beyond the realms if Nadal is in good health.
I think Wimbledon is an absolute lock between Federer and Djoko for another 2-3 years as none of the Next Gen have any clue how to survive on that surface.
The French Open is pretty much Rafa's with Thiem the only one who can really challenge him.
AO seems a lock for Novak as well.
I think it's only the USO which is always extremely competitive and could see just about anyone win.
I can see Thiem and maybe Medvedev hang with these guys over 5 sets but I just don't see any of the others remotely close to being at that level yet. Tsitsipas has one 2nd week in a Slam in the last 2-3 years I think, Zverev has atleast two 5 setters before he makes the second week and will continue to struggle imo. I just don't see anyone beyond Thiem who can even challenge at 2-3 Slams.
Really good by Medvedev. Thiem looked progressively more knackered as the final set went on. And then ate a big chocolate bar in the seconds following defeat.
Good last two tournaments for Medvedev as he has been a bit disappointing in the small amounts of tournaments played this year. In a normal year it would have been interesting if he even made it to the ATP finals as he had a lot of points to defend in America and would be impossible to do that again.
I have hoped Thiem would win it but okay Medvedev was a bit better and he had a great season too.
I think the ATP Finals will miss the O2 Arena so much and to give it to Turin for 5 years will be a mistake.
I think the ATP Finals will miss the O2 Arena so much and to give it to Turin for 5 years will be a mistake.
Good that they are moving in the right direction, but surely aligning the points system would be the logical thing to do.