after the disappointing loss to federer, murray had to undergo further pain by answering qns such as "do you think federer will overtake sampras record?", "is federer the greatest player?" and rubbish things like that. Honestly why should murray think or care about how federer will perform in future? when will the media stop the excess hero worship and give credit due to the other performers
What a very good `bad' year Federer has had! Semis of Australian Open, Finals of French and Wimbledon and Champion at US Open. In between, he lost to all and sundry and repeatedly to Nadal. Past champions wrote him off, Tennis Correspondents wrote him off, Nadal fans wrote him off and everyone was looking forward to seeing Federer lose further ground as a Champion. In the past players have held the number 1 ranking without even winning a Grandslam or just one Grandslam in a year and doing next nothing in the other Grandslams. Federer came along and dominated like none other before him! Look at the statistics - 13 Grandslams (next only to 14 of Sampras), 17 Grandslam finals (just 2 shy off the record 19 of Lendl), 10 consecutive Grandslam finals (13 finals of the last 14 Grandslams), 18 consecutive Grandslam Semi-finals, only player ever to win five consecutive titles in two Grandslams - well one could go on and on. Nadal dominated this year without doubt, and everyone said after he won the Olympic Gold that once Nadal takes the US Open, he would surpass Federer in terms of performance in a single year. Well, Nadal did not win the US Open and any Tennis player will admit that winning three Grandslams in a single year (Federer has done it thrice) is any day greater than 2 Grandslams and an Olympic Gold. Critics wrote negatively about Federer's game. Through it all he maintained his dignity and has proved that he is the best after Rod Laver!
Re: Federer is the best after Rod Laver!
by dinesh sharma on Sep 09, 2008 09:42 AM
Thats a great coverage of Federer's Track Record.....Indeed, Fedex is gonna bounce back to the Numero Uno spot and in real style....Dinesh
Re: Federer is the best after Rod Laver!
by Tughlak on Sep 09, 2008 09:45 AM
Number 1,2,3 are just number games. Federer is once in a generation player. He above of the number games.
Re: Federer is the best after Rod Laver!
by PRASHANT CHOPRA on Sep 09, 2008 10:07 AM
Absolutely true. Some players are so great that they go beyond no. race. Their presence in the game itself is glorious. Federer is one of them.
In early part of this decade there was top youngsters who would try to rule mens tennis Marat Safin Lleyton Hewitt Andy Roddick David Nalbandhian Roger Federer Each of them except David won a slam but Roger dominated the pack. Then a new set of youngsters emerged. Rafael Nadal (5 Slams) Novak Djokovic (1 Slam) Andy Murray (1 Slam final) Richard Gasquet (Nothing so far) Another pack is emerging DEL Porto Cilic Gulbis It remains to be seen whether Roger Federer can compete and dominate with these much younger pack.These new faces will be the challenges he will facing in the coming years....
Re: New Challenges
by Anselm Pinheiro on Sep 09, 2008 10:24 AM
Sant Thomas go and chk ur stats Safin has won 2wice 1Austrlian open in 2005 by beating Hewitt in final and beating Sampras in US Open in 2000 he was also world No.1 in 2000.
Re: Nadal is a clay courter
by malakalapalli kishore on Sep 09, 2008 09:49 AM
Who said he is cool. Tell me a single match in which he is cool all the time.
Re: Nadal is a clay courter
by parthasarathy sarathy on Sep 09, 2008 10:37 AM
Dear Sameer,
In three Wimbledon Finals, Nadal lost in four sets in the first, lost in five sets in the second and he could have certainly won Wimbledon 2007 had a couple of points gone his way and then beat him in Wimbledon itself in 2008, dominating the match for the most part, especially after he set up a 2 sets to nil lead. That is, with each year, he was closing the gap on Federer on grass. On the contrary, Federer is yet to dominate Nadal on clay and every time in the last three years, it was only a question of time before Federer shook hands with Nadal and took the runner's plate. Federer is indisputably great, along the likes of Laver, Borg, Sampras in Tennis history, but to ridicule Nadal to praise Federer shows either bias or lack of Tennis knowledge
Re: Nadal is a clay courter
by raj on Sep 09, 2008 08:26 AM
somehow nadal isnt a convincing all rounder, but he sure is a hard worker when it comes to tennis. fed showed his class.
Re: Nadal is a clay courter
by manish rastogi on Sep 09, 2008 08:35 AM
Fedex is best no doubt however nadal is the most hard working player with great mental strength.
Re: federrer -nadal rivalry
by Singh on Sep 09, 2008 08:05 AM
YES!! Its great to witness these 2battle it out... only if Federer can remove the slight fear of Nadal from his mind the games will be even more interesting
This is a flash in the pan.a FADING cHAMPION. As rightly said by someone,Had Nadal been in the final Federer would have been swept off court. Nadal will be back
Re: Re: Federer will become past champion next year
by Rajendra Vidwans on Sep 09, 2008 09:03 AM
Had Borg and Mackanro been there, they would have beaten both federer and Nadal and final after 24 years would be between them. But if Rod laver was also there, he would be the champion.
Re: Federer will become past champion next year
by satish kantarao tadinada on Sep 09, 2008 09:45 AM
Borg, McEnroe, Connors and Lendl competed at the same time. We keep forgetting numbers 3 and 4. To say that Borg and McEnroe would have beaten all is a very bold statement I hope you have your evidence to prove an argument like that. Coming back to the present day situation. Over here we forget Djokovic (1 Aus open-08), Hewitt (1 Wimbledon-02 and 1 US Open-01)and Roddick (1 US Open-03). We can add Murray and Nalbandian to that list because these guys will surely have their say some day. No one is indispensable, Nadal proved it to Federer and Federer is back with a vengeance. The fact that we feel these two musketeers keep rolling against an incompetitive lot is because they sweep everything and everyone in front of them. Rafa's won 4 French Opens on a trot, great. Federer's won 5 Wimbledon's and 5 US Open's on a trot, much greater. We can't compare champions from different eras unless we draw analogies, but sadly tennis doesn't leave us with a lot of scope to do that.
Re: Federer will become past champion next year
by ramabhadranS on Sep 09, 2008 09:16 AM
To all gentlemen who post their views in this forum: The first ten players in today's tennis are almost equally talented. On their day anyone can beat anyone. But Federer and nadal stand a centimeter above the others. federer will win atleast a couple of grandslams in the future and nadal will win some more Grand Slams as age in on his side.
Re: Federer will become past champion next year
by ranya sudhakar ravindra on Sep 09, 2008 08:04 AM
Now, this is the most absurd thing i ever hear... Please learn to give credit to the victor whoever it is. And, by the way what do you mean by saying 'Had Nadal been in the final Federer would have been swept off court' ?? Did he even make it to the final (He made it to SF because of his good recent form, otherwise that was also a tough call for him). And also, i saw the entire final match; so presuming you might also have seen it, do you really think Nadal would have even clinched a set with Federer playing like he was 2 years ago ?? His aggressive shots and crisp volleys were very soothing to the eyes after a long long time... And, it wasn't that Murray's game faltered. It was just that Roger was at his belligerent best.. Hail Federer
Re: Federer will become past champion next year
by karthik ram on Sep 09, 2008 09:24 AM
fading champion is nadal ....roger federer is all time tennis best player world ever seen...roger federer is far better than borg, mcnroe,....only pete sampras must b some wat equal to roger federer...but nadal really is a waste in hard courts..never reached in final...semifinal itself first tym this yr...but murray gave him the nose cut.....federer will crush nadal if he faces again in hard court or grass court....nadal is a school boy when comparin to federer class
Re: Federer will become past champion next year
by PC Madupu on Sep 09, 2008 07:20 AM
the jungle boy nadal is not as versatile as the suave urbane federer.. way to go fedex..
Re: Re: Federer will become past champion next year
by Truth Be Told on Sep 09, 2008 07:02 AM
Go check out Nadal's track record in Grand Slams played on Hard Courts like the Australian & U.S. Opens. It does not inspire any confidence. He has never ever made the finals even in any of these two slams.
Re: Federer will become past champion next year
by jignesh patel on Sep 09, 2008 08:28 AM
lol...raghavan...like you care... first of ..nadal didnt even make it to finals...had it been that way..still fedex would have got the best of nadal.. .. us open is the hardest court of them all..and nadal last year injured both his knees on these courts..and definately against the fading champion he would have fallen down on his knees and showed respect .. .. but nadal just has been on the topsot for less than a month and completely drained out at the moment ..lol..federer once didnt complain at how difficult it was to be on the top...instead he talked bout the MONSTER he created... and lets see if he is at the top spot even for half the time (2 yrs..) federer had been... .. and nadal already a fading champion!!!..not even 2 months on the top and 6th seed 21 yo murray gets him knocked out ...and when murray loses to federer..goes on to say he lost to the greatest player in tennis...
Re: well done sir
by ranya sudhakar ravindra on Sep 09, 2008 08:06 AM
Now, this is the most absurd thing i ever hear... Please learn to give credit to the victor whoever it is. And, by the way what do you mean by saying 'Had Nadal been in the final Federer would have been swept off court' ?? Did he even make it to the final (He made it to SF because of his good recent form, otherwise that was also a tough call for him). And also, i saw the entire final match; so presuming you might also have seen it, do you really think Nadal would have even clinched a set with Federer playing like he was 2 years ago ?? His aggressive shots and crisp volleys were very soothing to the eyes after a long long time... And, it wasn't that Murray's game faltered. It was just that Roger was at his belligerent best.. Hail Federer
Re: Re: well done sir
by Joy on Sep 09, 2008 09:17 AM
s u r right, there cannot be presumption that if Nadal was there, Federer had not asked Nadal to not to play in the final
Re: well done sir
by Arun Premraj on Sep 09, 2008 08:03 AM
yes.. definitely.. nadal would have probably beaten fedex due to the recent wins n his own confidence..n the chance to create history... he would have gone all out.. it would have been an amazing final to see fedex n rafa go all out to prove their point..
Re: well done sir
by karthik ram on Sep 09, 2008 09:31 AM
ya currently federer now trash murray for 6-2,7-5,6-2 .. if nadal reached the final.. federer will crush nadal for 6-0 6-2,6-0 ..luckily nadal escapes ...here after nadal cant beat federer in hard courts or either grass...federer is no:2 in atp ...but how far he will b quickly back to its orginal slot as world no:1..he is a legend as well as god of tennis
