Well I see that there isnt a thread about how he lost to some ranked outside the top 100 on grass.This from a Wimbledon finalist and as people have hailed him as Federers successor to his thrown not only at number 1 but as Grass court King!

Is his season going to be a replica of last year?Im a bit curious to know.Im over the parade about him dying out due to fitness I admit on that front I may be wrong but Im not over the fact that he is a 1 surface pony.How does everyone see his season develop for the rest of the year?

nadal will struggle to keep the 'clay court specialist' tag at bay.

I think he may gain points overall but not make the Wimbledon finals again.

But he won't take the no.1 ranking. He does actually having a slam final and QF to defend on his worst surfaces.

I somewhat cant see him repeating his Wimbledon run this year.I also seem to think that he will gain points but its all dependant on how he plays.Whether its 10 miles behind the baseline or whether he adapts his game for the faster conditions!

I just have this feeling that he will do better than a lot of folk think at Wimbledon. He is still learning how to play properly on grass, but will do well to reach the final again. I think he will come up against a slightly tougher draw than last year.

Regarding the rest of the year, I hope to see his hard court game improve so he can pick up a couple more tournaments. I still think Roger will finish the year as World No.1 but I hope Rafa is a lot closer than last year.

I think that theres a bit of hope and optimism in your post Gav.I doubt he will reach the Wimbledon final and the hardcourts are all about how aggresive he is willing to play and not miles behind the baseline.
Its gonna be tough for him!

I shouldn't really respond to this, since the premise is both facile and reflects scant knowledge of the circumstances, and is probably more about gloating than anything else. :rolleyes:

There was actually a fair amount of discussion about it in one Queen's live scoring thread or another. It was hardly ignored. I expressed some disappointment about it, in particular missed opportunities for Nadal in terms of numerous missed break point chances, including at 5-all in the second which would let him serve for the set to level things, and scoring zero points in the tiebreaker that resulted wasn't exactly the most edifying way to crash out. It may well signal the same burn-out in the second half of the season that the RG champ experienced last year after winning the title.

But to crow about the loss to 'someone outside the Top 100' doesn't take into account that: a) Mahut started the first several months of the year ranked in the sixties, and this result has seen him nearly return to that mark at No 76; b ) Mahut was a junior Wimbledon champ and has a game well-suited to grass, as witnessed by the oohs and ahs over his stellar S&V play by several posters here; c) Wimbledon semifinalist Bjorkman, recent Top 10 player Ljubicic, and Djokovic conqueror Clement also succumbed to Mahut to join Nadal in that streak of Top 40 upsets; and d) he held championship point against three-time (now four-time) Queen's titlist and twice Wimbledon finalist Roddick, which would have been a second Top 5 upset. Point D in particular should make it tough to slate once-Wimbledon finalist Nadal for having lost to the Frenchman, in particular only days removed from his successful Paris campaign. It's true that the title here would have done much to enhance his credibility on other surfaces, although I think he has plenty already, if for some reason the finalist finish did not manage it.

For all that, I agree that the No 2 is unlikely to make much of a mark for the remainder of the season, at least in terms of big titles, let alone dethrone Federer from the No 1 spot. But I must have missed the serious posters who were calling him a 'grass court king', although several do rate him to profit if the unthinkable occurs (a Federer upset at the All England Club). Not sure why you have to take the tone you do, however. It's not pretty to witness an insecure Federer supporter. :P

Its actually plain curiosity...A bit presumptious from you Manzikert!

Oh and with regards to this..you couldnt be more wrong if you tried.Im by far the least insecure about Federer or for that matter any tennis player that I support.I mean its not like they are paying me to support them.I do it coz I like what I see and when I dont like what I see I call it as it is...CRAP.Be it from Federer or anyone else.

Im curious as what Nadals season will look like from here on out to the end.Thats all.No hidden undertones or agenda to discredit him!

Cheers, Dark. No harm meant! It's all in the spirit of healthy debate, I assure you. B)

Perhaps like you, some of the overheated rhetoric I see elsewhere leads me to be automatically suspicious of motives when it comes to the third rail of Federer v Nadal discussion, which I try to avoid where I can. Now that you've clarified I apologise for not giving you enough credit!

Cool Manzikert and I also know wher you are coming from with the Nadal Federer debates.I enjoy what they do for the game but I do tend to favour my favourites but not blindly!

I also wonder what Federer is going to do for the rest of the season.Is it going to be up or down?

to paraphrase venus...the rest of roger's year is going to go up up up and not down down down :D :D :D

To be honest I am very interested in how Roger's year will go from here. To be 100% honest it will be tough for him to defend all the points he got from Wimbledon onwards last year. Rafa has next to none to defend (after Wimbledon). All of that might add spice to the rest of the year.

I hope, for the sake of competition, Rafa gets some hard court titles and is a close number 2 to Roger. Heck, even though I like Roger and his game, it would be refreshing to see Nadal (or someone else) perhaps become the number 1 at some point in the future?

I don't know if it's to early,but there's something about Djokovic that might throw a spanner into the works.He's hot and depending on how he does at Wimbledon I could see him raining on Rfa's parade.

He hits right through the ball and I fancy that his victory against Nadal earlier is no fluke.Beating Roger,well that's another story,but I reckon the Hardcourt season could really be exciting with a number of players jockeying behind Federer.

Nadal will have his hands full countering flatter hitters.Djokovic,Roddick,Gonzalez,Davydenko,and Murray all have big enough weapons to make Nadal more vunerable than Federer.

I still see him having a mixed bag with Federer probably close to emulating his very best.Come the end of the year I suspect it will be as you were.
Federer should start worrying in 2008 when things could get a whole more interesting.I think Rafa will take the No1 spot at some point.

Very interesting points to think about Brakkus...

I hope Nadal has a good run at Wimbledon and I can honestly see him doing well again, after that though... I cant help but feel burnout has to be setting in... the guy has played his socks off!

As for Fed, well, with confidence fully restored after his latest Wimbledon win :P he'll just go along raking in the titles surely?

Very good points Brakkus...Djoko and others (young or not so young but maturing at the right time) will certainly spice up the chase to the number one spot.

I can easily envisage Federer losing that top spot in 2008 or 2009, but by then, he will be more focused on the Slam titles than anything else...

Hi Brakkus..Great points...In particular concerning Djoko..It is not a mystery this guy is definitely my second favourite player on the tour and I was one of the first ( at least, I like to think that,) who have spotted on Djoko on this board:
From my perspective this guy has a great future in front of him, he is very complete player (even if he has still to improve some part of his "at the net game", IMO, from that side, Gasquet is even more complete..But he does not have the right mentality when Djoko has this very important aspect)...I really see him starting to impose his law this year on the second part of the season and at the USO he will be a big thread for the two big bosses, i.e. even for FED... :rolleyes:

We will see..And I already hope he can do a great wimbledon for the start..Let's dream a nice semi between him and Berdy :pray: :pray: ..another guy who will, IMO, emerge in the second part of the season.. B)

Hi TV, I must admit that, although I doubted him, I've been pretty much converted. :D :P

I would still like to see how Djokovic reacts when he struggles a bit in the rankings after his recent high. However, it seems to me that he's done a lot of growing up in the last year, and his battle against Hewitt was a great success, as well as all his good play this year so far.

He has led the way; now I hope that Andy Murray can follow him to the top. However, I'm not sure he's quite ready yet. Having missed Wimbledon, he will need a good run to end the year in the top 8 (which I think otherwise he would have had a good chance for), but it might take another year or so for him to reach the point where he can consistently challenge for the top 5.

Anyway, well done for your man --- the only thing I'll say is he needs a different haircut!!!!