Rafa Nadal is certain to win the calender grand slam next year. Although many of you will say that the candidate must be the transitional no.1 and arrogant swiss, every surface barring the hard courts of the US is suited for Nadal.

Australian Open: Slow high bouncing reboundace, the "harder" clay court. If Federer manages to squeak to the final to face the mighty Rafa, he would get mauled. Rafa's whipping forehand shots to Federer's backnahd will be enough for a routine 2,2&2 victory for the spaniard

Rolland Garros: Not much doubt here. Rafa to win it losing just one set to Richard Gasquet in the final

Wimbledon: Enter day 1 wimby 2006. Rafa doesn't know how to play on grass. Enter day 14 wimby 2006. Rafa learns faster than a supercomputer how to play on grass and do to extreme unfortune of getting bad bounces on crucial points, loses a very very close match. Imagine what an expert on grass Rafa would be in 2007. He would win it losing just one set to Andy Roddick

USOpen: This will be the hardest oone with the likes of Gasquet & Roddick breathing down his neck. But he'll win it in a fifth set tie-break against Gasquet.

[QUOTE]

Roughly translated --- sheep i like

think you mean 'Can Rafa stop the Fed slam!' :D

Crystal bollox spring to mind ;)

Oh no not Saviour again. You are the message board numbskull GOAT.

Dont know where you get those crystal balls from . But they must be HUGE ;)

I doubt Federer will be able to stop it. I expect someone else to stop the "Rafa Slam" before Federer gets a chance to.

The courts at the AO do suit his style a bit more than some of the other hard courts, though, so perhaps he'll finally get past his hard court nemeses and make the final.

roflmao

Ok - I feel home already.

Mmmhh... Dunno if that's a good thing. Let's hope the mods don't allow too much of this merde ;)

I'll allow the opinion, as long as no one tries to spam it down our throats. If they do, we'll put a stop to it.

:ok:

Good to hear. Also good to hear you're not dictators like Kings of Clay...

Thanks, but let's try to stay away from the "Board Wars", too. I've had my issues with the founder of Kings of Clay in the past, but we've got several good folks here who like to post on both boards.

Not this crap again :doh:

How to bring down a board? Just let Chet and his 24 aliases post on here.

How come his other aliases haven't posted on here? Oh yeh, you can only use 1 IP address on this board that's why.

And now CC will start to deteriorate :angry:

nah, dont you fret mon cherie :hug:

Hi chet, good post. I certainly can't look past Nadal for the Australian and French Open, but once Wimbledon approaches I'm not so sure. His improvement last year was amazing as you say, but I'm not certain he's yet ready to go the whole hog and win it. Sampras is the huge favourite here if he does make a comeback, otherwise Nadal will be competing with Gasquet and Roddick, and possibly Ancic or Federer.

As for the US Open, Nadal's not really shown much potential on this surface and I wouldn't back him to win it. Gasquet, Berdych, Murray and Djokovic could all have reahced their full potential by then, throw in Roddick and Blake on their home surface and this should be the most exciting Slam of the year.

Reported this post, but strangely it hasn't been removed.

Hey Yorkshire.. :)

Might be worth reading Nick's post in the welcome and introductions section..

I trust the judgement of the mod's so will abide by their actions. I think that what they want to avoid is spamming of the board, and am sure that they will act if need be.

And in response to the thread, Rafa will actually need to start a Grand Slam. something that he has never done before.. so is a moot point really.

And the Oz Open courts have been relaid recently. They will be faster than ever before, so they might play more like standard hard courts..

Due (party) to complaints by Hewitt about the court apparently. I can't help the feeling that the Aussies are hoping for Hewitt to create an upset. Fat chance :rolleyes:

Agreed..

If you read the post by Brakkus re: men's tennis in 2006, the stats for Hewitt are not promising, esp his performance against top 10 players..

And we all know who really likes the fast courts and is even more difficult to beat on them ;)

Stepanek??

Nope. Nadal of yourse :D
Seriously though. Bar Fed and Nadal, who seems likely to win the AO? Can't think of anyone much except Nalby...

Could be a surprise - I mean look at Baggy last year, no one would have named him as a challenger would they??? Could be one of the newer challengers - Murray, Berdych??? Although I can't see many people challenging Fed much, but I do think it could be a surprise again...

Of course.. ! Could I have meant anyone else?? :shrug:

How dare you try and take over my territory trolls? Troublemaking is my job on CC, hence my group name B)

I'd like to see Blake win one, but the way he seems to crumble against Fed . . . :unsure:

You might end up with some company in that member group. ;)

Given the right draw, Blake could make it all the way to the final.. certainly has it in him.. just as long as he's in the other half of the draw of fed, of course.. :)

yeah but even IF he reaches the final, i can't currently envisage any other scenario than Shanghai....

As a Fed fan, I have no problems with that..!! :lol:

Absolutely agreed. However, it would be nice to think that the final wasn't a walk in the park. Light jog around the block would be just fine for me :D

Oh, officially, I'd want to see a contest, of course.. would want to see Fed bring out his best tennis.. I mean, the Blake v Fed match in the USO was a great match, even though the Fedster prevailed again :ok:

Marat Safin has also been showing signs of recovery recently, although I was surprised he lost in straight sets to Nalbandian in the Davis Cup. Both of these players could give Nadal some competition in Melbourne, and I also see a slightly unexpected run from one of the youngsters, Murray or Djokovic perhaps.

The Australian Open can be very unpredictable, simply because all of the palyers are just coming back from time off, and is probably the slam where surprises are most liekly to happen..

I mean, Baggy made the final last year.. no-one saw that coming..
Thomas Johanssen won the thing in 2003! And Rainer Schuettler made the final then too..

So, yes, Safin has a good record there.. and definitely a chance for someone to make a big impact in some shape or form.

Safin's H2H with Fed at the AO is 1-1. Interestingly him and Nadal have never met at all. That would certainly make for good viewing.

And Nalbandian and Rafa have been studiously avoiding each other too.. :rolleyes:

The battle of Fed nemesis against Fed ex-nemesis then. Definately give Nadal the edge. Against Safin I'm not so sure....

It would be great to see Nalby v Rafa and Safin v Rafa.. :ok: they can't keep on avoiding each other (well, they can if they don't get their acts together, esp Safin.. :rolleyes: )

roflmao just been reading Safin's blog on the ATP.

Maybe his inconsistency is more stomach- than head-related

nooooooooooooooo :(

Can my group now be 'London Mafia' please? :D

Not gonna form an opinion on the rest of the slams yet but, I really don't think Rafa will pull off the French this year. I reckon Fed will do it. I predict a mid tournament shock exit for Rafa, leaving the door open for Fed to beat that player in the final. I presume Fed and Rafa will be 1 & 2 respectively at that time. I'd like to say potential conquerors of Rafa but... let me think about it.