What Nadal has proved in the final is that mere genius is not enough. You must have the stamina of a horse and treat every point as a match point which is exactly what Nadal did every match he played this tournament. Even Djokovic with his youthful energy could not match Nadal's onslaught of power, stamina, accuracy.
RE:King of clay
by PUNEESH on Jun 09, 2008 10:26 PM
u are absolutely right my friend...but remember horse like stamina is required only at french....not othyer slams..where u got to have an attacking and fast game....just hanging around in game might not win you the match...u have to serve and volley and go for the winners..
RE:6- 0 ??
by Abhijit on Jun 09, 2008 03:16 PM
You already had given numerous examples of Sachin's greatness in earlier forums. Dont compare him with Federer
RE:6- 0 ??
by ganesh jayaraman on Jun 09, 2008 02:04 PM
Do not draw lines between the great Federrer and Tendulkar. how often can you tame Federrer like this and how many times does your Tendulkar becomes duck out!!! Stop idolizing undeserving ppl
RE:6- 0 ??
by vimalan sadhasivam on Jun 09, 2008 06:36 PM
Tendulkar is far more superior than Federar because he plays in a team sport and outshining other 10 players in a team sport is far more greater achievement than winning individual matches though Federar is a genius of his own
RE:6- 0 ??
by ruby on Jun 10, 2008 09:20 AM
we Indians are great only for commenting. we will never giver our performance on the field & let other smake comment. in billions people country we cannot even bring one olympic gold medal.
Though I am a HUGE Roger fan, Rafa is due for the congrats for winning the final. Even more do I respect his humility towards Roger who was not in the best of his form. That truly makes a winner.
It seems NADAL didn't win but FEDERER lost it. The unforced error report would tell the real story. I never saw Federer play that way, it seems his mind wasn't with him at the court in the French open final. With due respect to NADAL, he was purely lucky that Federer had a bad day at office.
RE:Federer lost it
by Praveen on Jun 09, 2008 01:17 PM
defeat sounds very sour dear... as nadal said it was perfect display of tennis by him. he sumed up well for his big occasion. he prompted fedex to commit mistake. though nadal was very defesive in his approach, whatever opportunity he got to show his talent, he delivered at right time. clay court demands lot of patience, strength & perfection & nadal did it with easy. well done naal. there must be always a villain for a hero & nadal is doing a great job by playing the role of villain. Now i am a big fan of nadal. wont be far when he domiantes wimbeldon.
RE:Federer lost it
by amar bhansali on Jun 10, 2008 11:22 AM
Dude To have 7 unforced errors for the "Raging Bull" Nadal in 1 hr 48 mins id having 1 unforced error in 15 mins.........yes you heard it right...let it sink in....one more fact 1 unforced error in 3 games on an average as there were 22 in total....and that too when he goes for his shots and doesnt play safe.......boss agree to it "the Best" Federer couldnt have beaten nadal in that match..
RE:Federer lost it
by Hari on Jun 09, 2008 01:14 PM
you are not in finals for showing unforced error show. this is lame excuse. federer was rattled to face nadal again. federer is also on downhill as far as form is concerned.
The problem for Fedex is not Clay. The mere sight of Nadal with his sleeveless top and big bulging left arm sends shivers down the spine of Roger, who has to watch out for this "Terminator" on the Wimbledon courts. It was toch and go in the last year
Nadal is certainly the King of Clay Courts. It is not merely his record at Roland Garros, but his consistency throughout the Clay Court season over the last three years that makes him the King of Clay Courts. And, without doubt, Roger Federer is the second best on Clay. Everyone knows that Roger is struggling a bit this year and, in spite of that, he reached the finals of Monte Carlo, Hamburg and French Open this year on Clay, the least favourite of his surface. There is no doubt that Nadal and Djokovic are snapping at the heels of Roger and one only hopes that Roger gets back his supreme form of the last three years to make it much more interesting at the top. Last year also, in spite of winning at Hamburg and reaching the finals of French Open, the real season for Roger started from Wimbledon onwards. The same is the case this year also. Finally, when comparing Roger to Sampras, please remember that the best showing of Sampras at the French Open was a single Semi Final appearance. This certainly makes Roger a much better all round player than Sampras. It is unfortunate for Roger the Emperor of Tennis, that Nadal the King of Clay is ruling the roost on the dust bowls of Europe, making it difficult for Roger to nudge to greatness by winning the French Open. All the best Roger and Nadal for the forthcoming battles.
RE:King of Clay Court!
by Aditya Ghosh on Jun 09, 2008 12:46 PM
Very well put Vasu!!! In all fairness, Federer was not on top of his own game yesterday which led to the 6-3 6-1 6-0 scoreline. Some of his unforced errors looked more like the handiwork of a rank amateur than that of a champion No1. Or it might have been that Rafa's bulldozing game just blew away Fedex's plans. Federer was looking to come back in the second set , with a sudden sharpness about his game. But after he trailed 3-4, it was all over. His famed 'Service Game', full of blistering aces, also deserted him yesterday, which has so often bailed him out on grass courts in adversity. Clay saps every ounce of the player's stamina and strength. Don't forget that in last year's Wimbledon final, where Rafa gave the Emperor a scare and a serious run for his money, the two sets which Federer took before the fifth set were 7-6 7-6, centered on tie-breakers, where Federer capitalised on perhaps the only chink in Nadal's armor -- absence of a great first serve. In that final, Federer had around 17 aces to Nadal's 2 : nearly 75% of these were winners........... it tells the story....If Rafa can come up with a way to dismantle FedEx's service game, it won't be surprising if we find Nadal chasing a Grand Slam of his own. He's shown that, apart from being the unchallenged King of Clay, he can be a fearsome opponent on grass too...........
RE:King of Clay Court!
by swetha srinivasan on Jun 09, 2008 01:42 PM
Vasudevan, I can bet that pete would not have lost like that against any player in the FINALS. Till yesterday, i was also thinking that Roger can never lose like this ! But it happens in tennis it seems.
But as a overall player, Roger is pretty good but i still do not think Roger overshadows pete by a larger extent. They both are equal and i would give sampras a little bit because of his service and volleying skills and federer for his baseline game.
RE:King of Clay Court!
by VASUDEVAN V on Jun 09, 2008 02:29 PM
Dear Swetha: Sampras did lose very badly twice in US Open finals, once to Edberg and once to Safin. Even great players have their off days and there is no gainsaying the fact that yesterday Nadal was at his crushing best. To nudge your memory a bit, last year Federer won a set against Nadal 6-0 at Hamburg on Clay. Which is greater - Federer winning a set 6-0 on Clay against a clay court specialist or Nadal repeating the feat against the same opponent on his favourite surface - I leave the judgement to you. As for Sampras reign at Wimbledon, Sampras was a great server, one of the greatest because even his second serve used to boom. Hence, Wimbledon was easy for Sampras. But, with the same serve Sampras could do nothing on Clay. This is because, on grass the fast serve skids and on clay, irrespective of the speed of the serve, the ball bounces and sits up. I am sure Nadal would have meted out the same treatment to Sampras and, may be even worse treatment, because Sampras could do nothing on Clay even when there was no dominating clay court specialist during his period. There were few good players like Courier, Brugeura, Muster (he did dominate for a brief period, though came up cropper at French Open, winning just once) I would certainly put Federer above Sampras because of his all round ability without the overpowering service of a Sampras!
RE:King of Clay Court!
by Khaja Mohideen on Jun 09, 2008 01:52 PM
comparing sampras to roger i still think sampras is the greatest, with due respect to federer i think he is very lucky to play in this era where there are hardly any grass court players around compare it with sampras era when there are players like mcenroe (though at the twilight of his career), becker, edberg, rafter, ivanisevic, krajijek, stitch.. etc. of course all those named are considered grass court greats...
RE:GREAT WIN!!
by cheerful on Jun 09, 2008 01:13 PM
Very correctly said... the humility of champions like these amazes us...Fedex is known to be grace personified whether he wins or loses...but when a worthy champion like Rafa says he didnt celebrate too much out of respect for his opponent,we can only salute him for his humility and wish him all the best for the future...
