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[TENNIS] Wimbledon. Nadal loses to... some guy?
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It was the incrediblest. Those final 3 games were a amazing finish to the tale of the match. The story, the narrative they told was as good as anything that could be invented.
In the 29 shot rally that sealed Murray's fate it looked like Djok was crumbling before our eyes, he was moving sower and slower, stooping to make shots and then he pulled out that gob smacking winner.
Nadal challenged his own serve. It turned out to have been correctly called in, barely clipping the line.
That's how good of a return Djokovic has. His opponents regret getting their serve in.
Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
espn3.com is pretty handy.
The worst thing was that when Djokovic was serving down 5-4 in the final set, and Nadal just floated balls, he's never that passive, it shows Novak is in Rafa's head now much like Rafa is in Federer's head. After that, I had a feeling it would be Novak. I guess at Roland Garros we'll get Nadal's Battle of the Bulge moment, to see if he still holds onto his clay king status. If Novak can do that, that would be something Federer has never done to a healthy Nadal.
As for the Women's final, I was shocked because I expected that same score to happen in the opposite direction. And even the Bryans couldn't win.
Sharapova is just the new Dementieva.
Well, Nadal was up 4-2 in the final set and then promptly got broken twice. Anyone would have taken a mental hit. Still, Nadal had the chance to break him and level the score.
But I agree on the Federer/Safin semifinal. What a game. I miss Safin.
One of the all time great matches. Really made it clear how much Safin's headcaseness kept him from just destroying the men's tour for the first half of the decade.
Sharapova is still fucked up from that shoulder injury. If you notice, she barely even takes balls out of the air with an overhead. She almost always waits for them to drop and hits a forehand.
Yeah but they're in serious denial about it.
That's the difference between the women and the men. At least the men will admit fault.
Quick recap of the big things since the AO to the FO:
-Federer wins Indian Wells against Isner in his first Masters final
-Djokovic wins Miami (Roddick actually beat Federer for only the 3rd time in his career then promptly lost in the next round, bravo Andy)
-Nadal won Monte Carlo against Djokovic easily, snapping his losing streak
-Nadal wins Barcelona
-Federer won Madrid against Berdych
-Nadal won Italy against Djokovic
As for the French Open, it's kind of been a bad week. Roddick, Meltzer, Nalbandian and Hewitt out in the first round, Serena and Venus are out (Serena's too busy doing hella bad rapping), Isner is the only remaining US player of prominence. Even Dolgopolov went out in the first round, and Nishikori had to pull out of the draw because of injury. And it's one of those years where it feels like no one really seems to have captured lightning, as there is now a three way tug of war between Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer, and everyone else is by the wayside. And it's kind of been that way for the whole year, really, no one is stepping up in any significant way, maybe it's because all the European players have this malaise over them, I don't know. Berdych is showing some signs of life, that's about it. Should be an easy 7th clay crown for Nadal.
The clay court season has been awesome if you like Nadal. I didn't mind seeing him go out in Madrid, since both he and Djokovic have claimed they won't be returning to Madrid unless they fix the clay. Apparently it was very slippery and wasn't at all the way they should have been highlighting blue clay. They still need to work out the kinks, I guess, but it wasn't a great showing to have a lot of the players up in arms about it. Personally, I thought the blue clay looked damn cool, but when players are petitioning to wear their grass court shoes, you know something is wrong.
The French Open has been a lot of fun to watch. My girlfriend is there now, actually. We hit the US Open together last year, and she says that Chatrier is way more intimate than Arthur Ashe, so I'm dying of jealousy.
While the US men haven't been doing too great, all of the US women (except Serena) made it through to the second round, and Sloane Stephens took out Bethanie Mattek-Sands today to make it to the third round. Even Oudin won a match, and she hasn't done anything notable in a long, long time.
I watched Venus's match today since she went out to my favorite player, and Venus was just not on. She made something like 30 unforced errors, which explains why she went out 2-3. I love the WTA right now, because it seems like a lot more players have a chance than on the ATP. (Seriously, does anyone doubt Rafa, Nole, or Fed will be winning?) I think that Stosur has a good chance at going all the way this year, and I think Ivanovic has a chance at making a good run as well. It should be fun to watch it all unfold.
Nadal is killing Schwank on Chatrier. It's on ABC or NBC.
It was very, very slippery. (Though, everyone always complained about Madrid's courts anyway...) Apparently they salt the clay, and the salt fucked it all up, because Carlos Moya said it played well before they did that. We'll see what happens next year.
I agree, by the way, that it looks damn cool.
This is probably the worst the french have been, the Hingis portion of this clip:
It's an unwritten rule that you don't do underhand (even Chang got some flak in '89 for it and he was injured), but there is something to be said about booing the hell out of an 18 year old going up against the best female tennis player ever.
Unwritten rules in competitive games are kind of a pet peeve of mine. If they were really something that broke the game, they would be written rules. The only reason for a rule to be unwritten is because people don't know how to deal with it in their game and they want an excuse to get angry when it's used against them.
It's like banning particular special moves or characters (boss characters excluded, obviously) in a fighting game because they're "cheap". No, you just don't know how to deal with it and so you're taking a tool away from someone so they can't use it against you.
The women's final, which will be on Saturday morning, will be between Maria Sharapova and Sara Errani.
Errani took out Stosur today in the semis to get there and has been playing really solid tennis for a while now. She's a clay court specialist and hits with a lot of pace, which may give her a slight advantage over Sharapova.
The men's semis, which are tomorrow, will be David Ferrer vs. Rafael Nadal (best match of the year was them playing in Barcelona), and Novak Djokovic vs. Roger Federer. Will we see another Rafa/Roger final?
I mean, I am a Nadal supporter, but the guy never complains, so when he's kind of not paying full attention to the match because of the rain, maybe you give the guy the benefit of the doubt? I'm not taking away from Djokovic, he clearly worked something out after the first rain delay, but the match should have stopped after the third set.
I think Nadal can still win this either tonight or tomorrow but it has to be where the two know from the beginning it's the final run, no more pauses.
I mean, I'm not a fan of the hawkeye challenge system in general, as I think handing players more tools to interfere with momentum is, in general, not the best policy (though admittedly the existence of the technology and use on broadcasts was leading towards line calls becoming somewhat of an issue), but on clay, the chair ump is climbing down to point at marks anyway, so it'd just be replacing one momentum breaker with another, slightly more accurate one.
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At Queen's Club, Roddick and Murray both lost in the first round, Tsonga got knocked out later, resulting in a final with Nalbandian and Cilic where Nalbandian was disqualified because of this completely asinine move:
And then over in Halle, Hewitt lost right away, Nadal lost in the QF, and then 34 year old Tommy Haas beat Federer in the final, although he's been injured so much he's more like a 32 year old in tennis time. If this keeps up, this will just be a weird Wimbledon season, doubly so since the Olympics will also be there and I wonder if maybe Federer focuses more on winning gold.
What in the hell did I just watch, Nadal?
I was watching too. Usually guys who hit with that much power are lumbering lummoxes who you can outplay if you keep them moving and stay away from their forehands. (*cough* Del Potro *cough*).
A dude with that much racket speed who is also fleet of foot is a godamn oddity.
I still don't know who this Czech guy is, but I'm rooting for him as of today.
What's the deal with Wozniacki? She lost early and I haven't heard much about her this year.
But hey, this might be Roddick's year now! Or Haas, go Haas, pull an Ivanesevic!