Australian Open thread

[Coxy]

Congrats to Nadal. He was mentally stronger on the night. Federer had more than his fair share of chances and he bombed too many. Notably the 0-40 opportunity in the 3rd set on Nadal's serve. Break there, he wins the 3rd set, and he won the 4th.

As for Nadal's record chances, I personally don't think he'll go close. Why? Say what you like about his skills, but his game is all built on strength, speed and power. Lleyton Hewitt built his success on speed at returning balls, and as soon as he got some injuries he went to shit.

Nadal just needs one relatively serious injury and his career is toast.

 

[gUt]

Also, with six grand slam titles under his belt at the age of 22, there has been media reports speculating that Nadal could indeed retire with the highest number of gongs when his time comes. Injury and everything else pending, I've got to say it's a damn good point to make. Read that Federer had won just one grand slam at the same age...

Most of these titles taken in the final against Federer?

 

[Flutterby]

Yes, but it's far more obvious in the WTA, and more frequent IMO. Tonight was I believe the 10th consecutive Slam final to be decided in 2 sets. Overall the ATP is of a much higher quality IMO. Get anybody to list the best 3-4 matches they can remember and I'm pretty sure most of them would be men's matches.

I'm pretty sure if they went to best of 5 for women (as I also think they should) you wouldn't see such one-sided straight sets wins as often.

But to the original point of why the men and women get the same prizemoney, well it's all to do with how much money they bring in to the tournament not how much time they spend on court and now both the mens and the womens side get the same amount from sponsors. Kia is the overall event sponsor, GE Money sponsors the men's side and Garnier sponsors the women's side (though they don't publicly state it like that). Both GE Money and Garnier pay the exact same amount of money - therefore the men and women are bringing in the same income, therefore they deserve an equal share of the profits (to put it in business terms).

 

[Bucking Beads]

Why did Federer cry?? Did someone steal his lunch... Grow up Roger nobody spilt milk you were beaten you big baby..

 

[fenomeno]

He probably cried because he heard the crowd cheer for him, even though he got beaten, he's an emotional guy.

 

[Flutterby]

Agree with others - what a great match!!! It didn't bother me really who won, but I did want Federer to win because I really want him to get to the 15 Grand Slam titles. But maybe he is starting his downward slide - I hope not, but he just hasn't looked the same player for all of 2008 and again this Open. I know he still won the US last year, but he wasn't as dominant as he once was and he made some very simple mistakes last night and to simply not convert the plethora of break points he had on Raffa's serve was previously unthinkable. I think he needs to get himself a coach again - no coincidence his worst year has been since he decided he didn't need one. Regardless of how long he continues on he will always be right up there with the greatest champions of all time in my eyes.

As for Nadal. Well I disagree with Coxy that he is all power and strength. Yes that is his default setting, but he has worked hard over the past few years at developing the other areas of his game and showed some amazing touch last night and at Wimbledon last year (and as I mentioned to Coxy last night) you simply can't win Wimbledon on strength and power alone. How long will he stay at the top? Who knows? It's true that one major injury might be something he will never recover from. It might be that with so much success at such a young age he might lose some motivation/enthusiasm/drive. He might decided he has achieved enough and retire young. He is definitely going to become the hunted even more so now, everyone will be absolutely gunning for him - how he handles that will be a big factor. Personally I never used to like Nadal, but he has grown on me and now I cheer him on against MOST opponents. Whatever happens it will be interesting to watch his career.

 

[Coxy]

I disagree that Wimbledon can't be won on strength and power alone. Goran Ivanisevic stole Wimbledon from our Pat with a big serve and not much else.

 

[Flutterby]

Ahh you don't give Goran enough credit - he had a pretty good 'touch' game when he wanted to use it - which I believe he did when he beat Rafter.

 

[Emma]

I disagree that Wimbledon can't be won on strength and power alone. Goran Ivanisevic stole Wimbledon from our Pat with a big serve and not much else.

Perhaps what would have been better to say was that Wimbledon cannot be won on power and strength alone....against Roger Federer. Seriously Coxy, if all Nadal has is that, given how freakishly talented Federer is, Nadal wouldn't be able to beat him with that alone.

 

[Coxy]

No. All I saw was serve, serve, serve, serve...

At least, that's what I've chosen to remember...I was distraught that night...

 

[Flutterby]

I remember he wasn't all serve serve serve, cause it shocked me no end

And Emma - Coxy has just chosen to hate Nadal and will not see past his anti-spanish racism. Personally I think Nadal will be the next one to complete a Grand Slam.

 

[BroncoMatt]

Ahh you don't give Goran enough credit - he had a pretty good 'touch' game when he wanted to use it - which I believe he did when he beat Rafter.

Yeah I agree,Big Goran was a very talented player, but he got pegged as a power player becuase his serve was so good. Had he been more mentally stable I think he would of been one of the greats

 

[Emma]

I remember he wasn't all serve serve serve, cause it shocked me no end

And Emma - Coxy has just chosen to hate Nadal and will not see past his anti-spanish racism. Personally I think Nadal will be the next one to complete a Grand Slam.

Don't get me wrong Flutterby, I'm fully aware of his strange fascination with hating Nadal!

 

[Coxy]

Let me put it on the record now. I do not hate Nadal. I just REALLY admire Federer and want him to achieve all he wants to achieve. Nadal's got plenty of years. He should show some respect to his elders and have a year off, let Federer win his grand slam and then come and do it :P

/joking

I do strongly believe however that Nadal depends a LOT on physical strength and fitness. Sure he has skills, you can't be world number 1 without skill. But look at some of the points he won last night - full speed, full stretch and full swing to drag a ball across court or down the line to pass Federer at the net etc.

If Nadal so much as gets a minor knee injury that takes just a fraction of a second off his agility I think he comes WAY back to the field. The reason he's so bloody hard to play is that it's so hard to get a winner against him.

Lleyton Hewitt was similar at his peak (also about 22 years of age). Didn't matter where you hit it, Hewitt was almost always able to chase it down and get it back.

I don't believe Nadal's skills are good enough to cater for any loss of speed or strength he might suffer as he ages. However, he is capable of developing them. Much like Agassi did after several years in the wilderness after his youthful exuberance and power evaded him.

 

[Flutterby]

I think it's because he's jealous Raffa can pull off the sleeveless look so well, whereas he (Coxy) would look like rubbish

(I miss Nadal's sleeveless tops - wish he'd bring them back)

And Coxy - Nadal did suffer a knee injury at the end of last year, to the point where they didn't think he would even play the Aus Open - hasn't seemed to have affected him too much.

 

[Coxy]

Well let's see shall we. Assuming it's just a minor cartilage thing he had, whether it's been cleaned out or not, let's see what a year of pro tour tennis will do to it. There's pretty much no rest for him.

I still believe he has a lot of work to do to develop a game that will stand the test of time.

 

[Emma]

The Hewitt and Nadal game is similar, but also very, very different imo. Hewitt relied on getting the ball back, hitting winners a bit, but also relying a LOT on his opponent to hit an unforced error after the point had gone on for ages if you ask me. It's almost impossible to hit a winner past Nadal, but the amount of winners he hits (and the actual shot itself) is unbelievable.

 

[Coxy]

Oh, and there are 2 pet peeves of mine about him.

1. Grunting. Seriously, it's bad enough that the women do it, but the number of blokes that are starting to grunt is ridiculous. I can almost excuse it on serve, but on every shot? Grrrrrr!

2. Two handed back hand. Someone tried to tell me that he has to do that because he's left handed. L. O. L. Z. It's another trait that blokes are picking up from the chicks. Give me a traditional one handed stroke range any day. Take that however you like