As reported by ESPN here http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/columns/story?columnist=ubha_ravi&id=3518225 I've been watching tennis for decades, and I've never seen a man completely raise the bar the way he did. Since Sampras' decline, tennis had been slowly turning into an all-or-nothing power game with the likes of Safin, Roddick, Blake, Gonzalez, and Ferrerro stepping into the limelight. Even scrappy counter-punchers like Lleyton Hewitt and Guillermo Coria who couldn't generate much of their own power relied almost exclusively on reflecting the pace of their opponents' balls. It wasn't until Federer emerged with his all-around game that spectators were treated to tennis matches with more than just light-speed serves and go-for-broke forehands. Naturally, the players who have slowly begun to supplant Federer at the top of the game are a younger generation armed with the all-around, all-court game that Federer helped inspire: Djokovic, Murray, Gasquet. Even Nadal has begun playing significantly more offensive tennis...a far cry from his clay-court specialist origins. I'm a huge Federer fan, and while I'm disappointed, I suppose it was inevitable. You can only dominate a sport for so long before the bulls-eye on your back grows so big that everybody wants to hunt you down. Although he's past his physical prime at the age of 27, the man definitely has enough talent and experience to reclaim the top spot at some point in the future (though the window is closing rapidly) Incidentally, I'd like to take this opportunity to call out arno_ed. We made a little tipjar bet over a year ago about the possibility of Federer losing his #1 ranking by the end of 2008. Granted, his drop to #2 isn't official yet, but it will be in a few weeks. The terms of this bet are located in this thread for those who are interested: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?p=2974288#post2974288
I'm pretty disappointed to. Nadal is a great player don't get me wrong but I'm just not fond of his style of play. I think it's all mental at this point for Federer. Losing wimbledon really has broken his psyche that he can lose to players like Simon and Karlovic. His service game is still there but at the moment his returns and ground game isn't up to par to break serve often like he usually does. I think he's trying to finish points off too quickly at the moment and not setting it up. Plus his defense has weakened. His defense to offense used to be the best but he's making errors of shots he used to hit winners off of. Has he lost a step? I dunno he does look slower out there but part of me thinks it's mental more than physical. he was still whupping up on everyone else NOT named Nadal but after wimbledon it seriously took a huge dive.
It's amazing what this guy has done...Definitely a great player and sad to see this happen...But, Nadal, say what you will, can ball...
It seems that he looks unusually skinny since the Aussie open. The control and movement are still there but he looks kinda thin especially at the arms, which may cause some lack of power. I'm a big Fed fan and hopefully he gets it back into gear for the U.S. Open.. or at least tell Mirka to start feeding him better!
I actually love the way Nadal plays and it will be a good thing for tennis if Fed and Rafa continue to go at it over the coming years. All praise has to go to Rafa though, to be the first man from Spain to ever win Wimbledon and to be arguably the best grass court player ever, just wow. Federer really has to swallow his pride and get back to having a full time coach, it's no surprise that his "mini decline" has coincided with him letting Tony Roche go.
nadal has a chance but the one thing that I believe that he has a problem on hardcourt is that he plays it as if he's on clay. The boy has impeccable timing and coordination. That is proven by his success on grass where he is forced to play closer to the baseline and play a more attacking game because of the low bounces. How he can change his style so easily in such a short time is just pure talent. On hardcourt though he's content to stay further behind the baseline as if he's on clay which allows his opponent to attack him on a faster surface. Add to that the fact that the other players other than federer are just more comfortable on hardcourt and it usually spells an upset of Nadal before he gets to the final. He has some hardcourt titles but I notice it's usually early in the hardcourt season where his knees have also haven't taken the pounding of the grueling US Open series.
I agree. Fed is the greatest ever. As soon as Federer gets his head back in the game he will be #1 for another 5 years in a row. I think he lost some of that desire after being undefeated for so long. Now will be a good wake up call for Fed.
