Hi y'all :)

I don't know if many of you saw the match Nadal / Jo-Wilfried Tsonga tnoight but it was very interesting !!! In my opinion it was one of the best matches so far in Indian Wells.

We could why some people call him "Terminadal" hehe :D, Rafa was losing 5-2 in the 3rd set but increased his game level and won 7-5. There were some incredible shots and I really think (it's my opnion) that he deserved to win :) I just hope that he won't be too exhausted for the next match.

PS : Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was impressive too, unfortunately he made too many mistakes at the end

think you'll find a few folks were watching in the IW update thread Fred ;)

hey Fred :hug:

i didn't get to see the match, which was a shame, :( but one thing you've got to always admire with Nadal is his fighting spirit :ok: He's one of those players who you can never say "oh it's all over now, his opponent has won" because you just know that Nadal will keep fighting until the end :)

And if Jo says she admires him for his fighting spirit then you can tell he must have showed a lot of it against Tsonga, because Jo usually admires him for other things :whistle: :whistle:

i didn't see the match though :P



but yes, i do quite like his lovely arms :wub: :wub: :wub:

:blush:

it was certainly a very interesting match. i really thought Tsonga would take it and back up his AO win but i guess inexperiece did the rest!
Go rafa!! :wub:
Great fighter and what a fightback by the spaniard...just reminds me of why i love him so much :P

It was the most tensed match of the year so far i think. I still can't figure out how Rafa from one moment to the another (at the end of the third) began to return that well and started to retrieve as if we were back in 2005.
I'm curious if he can do the same against an opponant like Blake who will at least 2 yards closer to the baseline than Tsonga was yesterday.
Blake aswell Nadal are in great shape this tournament, that's for sure

Lex sorry for posting on the bad forum, I'm learning the organisation of Centre Court, now I won't make this mistake again :ok:

Yes that's why some people call him Terminadal, in reference to the Terminator who "never dies" :tsk: :lol: however he spent so much time and energy that he may not be in great form against Blake ... but on the other end he knows he's coming from nowhere so no doubt that he will give his maximum :) So good luck to him !

Lalitha yes I think everybody expected Jo to win but like you said maybe he had not enough experience of those situations. The good point is that next time he'll know he must never lose his concentration even if he's about to win. Great Tsonga though ! :clap:

Frederic this is the right forum for you to post in, it's fine :ok: The live scoring forum is for following matches - so if you can't watch a match you'll usually find that people in there will give you some sort of commentary :ok: But this is ok for discussing the players themselves :D

and i do love the nickname Terminadal B) I may have to steal it ;) not sure on his prospects against Blake though, but I hope he wins :ok:

you only know that cos I told you in heyupp :P

hey Fred, this is the perfect place for your thread, no worries on that front... and yep, have to agree that Nadals fighting spirit is something to be admired - even if I did want Tsonga to win!

ould have loved that match to be the final as they are my 2 fave players, but im glad Rafa came through. I would love to see him challenge for the number one spot this year and hes gonna have to keep Fed under so much pressure to do that :peek:

:ok:

Of course I don't mind if Fed keeps his number one ranking. :P

But I'd like to see him challenged! :ok:

And Rafa should make number 1 sometime, he deserves it.

Im not sure. Despite Feds recent losses, i still think he will keep his head above and it will probably be down to Djoko to nick the no.1, although not this year for sure, despite my wild Nadal predictions :lol: I do however think Rafa deserves a wimbledon title having pushed Fed there recently where nobody else could. I think its great he has challenged himself and tried to adapt his game (and his accent :lol:) to the green stuff, but i feel his best chance might have been last year :(

It's hard to predict, really, at the moment. Djoko deserves to make it to #1 sometime, too, but I think it would be a real shame if he made it before Rafa. But that's not quite happened yet, either. The fact of the matter is that things are very exciting! :ok:

As regards Wimbledon, no prizes for guessing whom I want to win this year. :D

But I'm sure Rafa will win a Wimbledon title sometime in the near future. He has shown that he can play extremely well on grass. :ok:

With respect to #1, to have a chance Nadal basically needs another stellar claycourt season. On the other hand, the odds of that happening aren't so bad either. So when Wimbledon comes along, it's quite possible that he will be in a position to challenge for #1 seriously, or at least in the months after, when he has more points to gain.

I would absolutely *love* Roger to break Sampras's record of weeks at number 1 in a consecutive streak. That would be quite special, but he would need to stay at number one until past Wimbledon 2009. It would be quite special though. :P Then Nadal can take over, I don't mind ...

Well you are right about the exciting bit!!!! I actually do think Fed is awesome, and a great character, but i always criticise him for making the ATP boring. Maybe not the best of arguaments, but i actually respect him a whole lot more now things are closer because i can see his talent for what it is, rather than how how bad it makes the others look :ok:

:ok:

Even if I'm a big fan of Nadal, I agree that Novak Djokovic seems to be a more "complete" player than Nadal. However, considering the incredible performance Rafa has achieved on clay, and above all the fact that he's stayed for nearly 140 consecutive weeks N°2 (the all time record), I would be really disappointed if he doesn't become n°1, at least for a small week :shrug: It reminds me of Michael Chang, another player I was fan of, who stayed a long time N°2, had the possibility to take Sampras' N°1 ranking if he won Key Biscane but finally never succeeded :yikes:

But Nadal is only 21 so we can stll hope the best for him in the next years :pray:

I agree that Nole is a more complete player frederic but a comparision between rafa and chang just don't seem right enough for me. sampras had far more competitors than federer. sampras could have been overtaken by many other people and besides i never liked chang ;) and I really loved sampras. But nadal has such a realistic chance of taking the no:1 position this year, although he still has to win more tournaments. nadal has shown his prowess on grass too and I'd me the most dissapointed to see that such a great player as Rafa was unable to make it to the no:1 position after the end of his career. I agree with you completely that even if he is no:1 for atleast a week, it would be a great achievement.In any other era he probably would have been the no:1 but for a great guy called federer. I love the way he's challenging him for the spot.Vamos Rafa :yahoo:

Vamos Rafa :ok: this guy is amazing, he surprises year !

PS : I loved Sampras too :yep: it's my all-time favourite player just after Nadal :)

When Nadal first came onto the scene I seriously thought he was going to be a one dimensional clay court specialist, who would just end up not commiting much to grass court events such as Wimbledon, maybe not even turning up to bother playing there as many previous clay court specialists had.

He had proven me so wrong, and is a charismatic warrior. I love to watch him play because he has such an appetite for the game. He has certainly converted me into a fan. Vamos Rafa you are a true warrior and I am glad you proved me wrong :ok: :yep:

Nadal has proved beyond all reasonable doubt, yet again, that he's a great champion.

Hard courts are essentially his weakest surface, and he's got to the semis of yet another Masters. He's nearly won the same amount of Masters than Sampras did in his entire career! Staggering! Admittedly, most of them are on clay - but there is little doubt that the Mighty Mallorcan has proved himself on every surface.

I'd like to see him beat Djokovic. Djokovic is a good tennis player and has shown he can win a Slam. However, the proof is over two or three years...like Nadal has done.

What makes Fed so brilliant is that the more success you have, the harder it is to stay at the top - ditto Nadal, and this is what Djokovic has to prove.

I think that is exactly what is going to make the upcoming spring, summer and autumn a fantastic time for the ATP.

You have one guy who has been on top for what seems like forever, another guy who is trying to challenge him yet also defend a hell of a lot of points coming up and you have Djokovic who wants a piece of the pie too, and wants to stay up there with those guys.

Throw in an in form Nalbandian and you've got one hell of a fight (but I may be hoping more there than being realistic...) :pray: :pray: ...

For me it looks like it could be the most exciting season for some time on the ATP.

Yes Nadal is a fighter, no doubt. In that department he is simply phenomenal. I thought he was out against Tsonga and one brilliant fighting point when JW was serving for the set was enough to spear him on and kill Tsonga spirit who lost 5 games in a row from 5/2 up in the 3rd. Federer paid also the price in Rome and in the FO when he thought he had done enough and Djoko also knows that Nadal is not down untll he is really out. Despite what might transpire from my many comments on "physical" tennis I am really glad we have him back healthy (except for the French if I am honest :pray: , though I think Fed can also beat him on clay). I actually particularly appreciate his game on hard as he has to be a bit more agressive than on clay and as said he has he own brand of tennis like Mc, Borg, Lendl, Agassi had. I do think though that Djoko has the game to counter him, like Tsonga or even Blake but the difference is that Djoko is also a real champion, so I am really looking forward to that one.

Agreed Tenez I'm going to be fascinated by the Djoko Nadal semi as well. It's a repeat of last years final, when Nadal won, and last years quarter final at Miami straight after, where Djoko returned the favour, so it will be interesting to see how these guys fair against each other here.

Their last meeting I believe was a win for Nadal on hardcourt at the YEC's but Djokovic seemed to already have already started his end of season holiday before he turned up at that event and didn't put much into it. It will be very interesting indeed. :ok: :ok:

Yes a great weekends tennis coming up ! :cheers:

Obviously I want Federer to win but whoever it is they will be a deserved winner esp. if its Nadal .

I agree and repsect that. That si indeed his best quality. But other players like Connors and Hewiit did the same and in some ways better, and were there whilst Nadal was in nappies, or not even born. It concerns me that those two do not get the same respect. In fact In many ways they deserve more. :D You can't have it both ways.

Sorry but does he? I just wonder why you might think that?

Thing is we compare him to Fed as worthy of number one, and really - and this is no bias, cos I am a Fed fan but I have had other players I prefer in the past - Fed deserves it more. He's the better all rounder. I think the thing is it is more open on hard besides Fed, so with no clear contender behind Fed on this surface, Nadal manages to be number 2 based on clay and of course his Wimby finals. Don't forget it is not that long ag that we had Agassi in the fina of the USO v Fed; no disgarce to Agassi but I'm just using that as an example. We have also had Tsonga, and unkown inmany ways before that, and of course Djokovic. Nadal has only really truly dominated clay.

I persoanlly would not wish to see Nadal's game win Wimbledon. It might well do, but IMO that would not be right. But fi he doe swin fair play to the boy, I can see he's worked hard to adpt to the surface, but the surface these days does not require so much effort to adapt to as it did in the past. Look at all the Fo winners who failed on grass and look at Mac and Sampras on clay. This is why I have so much respect for Borg as he really did have to be a genius to win both and so many consecutively - 5 Wimby and 6 FOs. He really was king of the diametrically opposing surfaces - and back then they were truly diametrically opposing unlike nowadays where Winby has been changed to suit the likes of Nadal as disfavour the S&V who like a faster surface - Henman wasn't the best S&Ver ever, but the surface changes certainly worked against him.


Please note I am not knocking Nadal for what he does, this is my opinion based on years of tennis watching and my love of grass.

He doesnt really deserve it IMO, unless you want to ignore his results from July to February most years :unsure:

I respect all 3 of those players (and I'd say even those who don't like them would still respect them) and at the moment you would say on slam count and career length possibly Connors deserves that respect the most but I think already Nadal has easily shown he deserves at least as much respect as Hewitt for his fighting qualities.

That's my gut feeling also.

To be completely frank if he gets to number 1 then he deserves it, if he doesn't get there....then he doesn't, regardless of when in the calendar year he gets his points to get him there. Let's not forget he has won Master Series Events on surfaces other than clay and he has beaten Federer on Hard Courts too, AND he has been the closest rival to Fed at SW19.

I can safely say that if he gets to number 1, and even if he wins Wimbledon, he would deserve it. But it's all IF's and BUT's at the moment. He is certainly a worthy World Number 2.

Yes he has proved some wrong, but do you not think that if grass was as it was years back that would never have happened? I tuse dto be that hard courts were the leveller and yet he is not good on those like some :unsure:

Surfaces change, racquets change, styles change. I'd agree Nadal would not have got to the final years ago. But would Federer have won 5 on the trot if the courts played the same as the 90's? It's not Nadal's fault the grass is as it is. He has played and adapted his game to suit and has done really well. He hasn't treated SW19 with the contempt that some of the clay courters from the 90's would and he has got his reward.

EDIT: And for someone who isn't supposed to be that good on hard courts he has won titles (beating Fed in the final in won) and Quarter Finals and Semi Finals at hard court GS Events.

I agree that he probalby does. But in the Hewitt days I remember him not succumbing often in 3 sets, like Nadal did at the AO to Tsonga. I think Hewitt felt more relaible for longer, just my opinion. Connors is clearly the best, but on her eI don't see much support for him ro Hewitt.

Some people may not support Hewitt, but I am sure they respect him. If not, I am not sure what they are doing on a tennis board! If you don't respect a multi slam winner, then surely you can't respect the game of tennis! I am sure most people who don't want Hewitt to win just don't like him, but I am sure they have the utmost respect for what he has done with his tennis career. :ok:

yep - you've gotta respect a multi-slam winner really. In fact, let's be fair i respect every single one of these guys 'cos to get to the top of the tennis world is ridiculously difficult - even those guys who none of us think are relevant have worked damn hard to get where they are. That doesn't mean we have to like every single one of them - it would be weird if we did :unsure:

i have actually grown to like nadal more over the years (and no gav, it's not just 'cos his arms have gotten any bigger :P ) - i think it's actually that his english has improved significantly so that he actually comes off really well in interviews. He's still not one of my faves, but I do think he's matured so much over the last few years :ok:

SB, i'm pretty sure i was still in nappies when connors was playing, but i'll be sure to support him next time he plays ;)

I'm not so sure about that, remember him tamely falling in the first round of his Wimbledon defence, 4 sets and not 3 granted but if I looked around hard enough I could find a few straight set defeats for Lleyton back then. In fact, I'm sure good old Boris took care of Lleyton in straight sets in Wimbledon in 99 when Boris came out of retirement with a wildcard! All players have their off days.

Theres nothing personal against Nadal in my comments, if he gets to No. 1 soon then it will be fair under the current rules and I say well done :) .But in my view he still wont be the best player in the world , which is what the No. 1 ranking is really all about.
And that is about who is the best overall on all surfaces , all year in all conditions, not points on a computer . :)

So someone who is undefeated at RG for 3 years, a runner up at Wimbleon in the last 2 years, an Aussie semi finalist AND a Quarter Finalist at the US Open wouldn't be a worthy number 1 if he got there???

That's not a bad multi surface recent GS record for a world number 1 and best player in the world if he got there.