USO - ATP FINAL ...live commentarty and vote while we have a bit of time...

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Starts at 9pm BST....I believe.

Jahu wrote:Whats the name of the guy who massaged Djoko? He's got wonder hands & cream.

I suspect he's the same guy who taped up Nadal's foot at Wimbledon when he was playing Del Potro no?

If Djoko hadn't got tired this would have been over in str8 sets.

Gosh. And to think how close he was to going out of the tournament to Fed. 4 slams.

Wikipedia is updated already.

Rafa can cry now
As to say what else can I do now

Djoko sporting the FDNY cap, playing it nicely.

COme on cry, cry, go on.

Ooh Rafa doesn't seem very gracious now.

Yes he was gracious, he sad what Djoko has done this years its unrepetable.

Actually I kind of like Rafa's speech. Very gracious in defeat

Rafa might feel like hitting fed now as how dare he lost those 2 match points

Rafa is always a good loser after a match, I think what happens on court is more important, but it would be churlish not to recognise the way he conducts himself in his disappointment .

Fed has the Barclays tour in his bag. These 2 are knackered for the rest of the year. Unless magic cream is rubbed again.

I'm still not sure what happened in the 4th set, it went by so fast. Going by the scoreline the match was indeed a whooping.

What a hopeless last set by Rafa - should have been running Djoko around the court testing out that back, but seemed to afraid to hit out, even on Djoko's slowed down serve.
Djoko played that set beautifully, taking a bit of pace off the ball and hitting with great accuracy - exactly how you should do it if you're not physically at full strength.

Rafa will stay the best no. 2 play ever to play tennis (in terms of ranking only).

Great match, scoreline kind of similar to the french open one this year. So much drama and at stages in the third the result did look in doubt. What a year for Novak has to be the best in the open era.

I think that's Djoko's most impressive slam win yet - there is every indication he can pick up a couple more in the next few years.

I will be interested to see if he can win at RG in the next year or so - that's really the final frontier for him.

Yeah I suppose a career slam for Djokovic would elevate his status close to the top.

I think the way this is going another slam for Fed looks very much like reality. Because he is the only one who can beat Novak.

Yeah didn't want to take the shine off the final straight away by saying what federer managed on saturday was immense given what we just saw and I'm on of those who believes he had Novak beaten.

break_in_the_fifth wrote:Yeah I suppose a career slam for Djokovic would elevate his status close to the top.

An Olympic Gold could be a bonus given his obvious pride when turning out for Serbia. If one week is going to add to the prestige of the Olympic Tournament, it will be the event played at Wimbledon.

He's also still got to finish strongly for this year to end up undoubtedly better than Fed's 2006 - the fact taht Djoko has had to beat Federer Nadal and Murray consistently is significant whereas Fed had a losing record against Nadal, but Fed made 4 slam finals and 90+ wins that year which is pretty good by any standards, as well as picking up the TMC.

Anybody seen Simple Analyst around?

That Olympic Gold is for federer I guess he still has some work to do. I don't think he'll win the tour finals this year. How many masters did fed win in 2006 must have been less than 5.

Wasn't simple_analyst resigned to a Djokovic victory anyway?

I'd love to hear the explanation for Rafa's performance by Captain Simpleton....

And 15 people believed that Rafa will win. Inexplicable!

for simpleton- Is Rafa mentally weaker?

My children,

it was never in doubt,

As it was foretold, so it has come to pass.

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalleluuuuuuuuuuuuuujah

Simpleton is reading these comments while beating his pillow; eagerly developing chapter 8 on his next "mentally weak Federer" articles.. I feel he will not be on here writing for a few days!

JuliusHMarx wrote:What a hopeless last set by Rafa - should have been running Djoko around the court testing out that back, but seemed to afraid to hit out, even on Djoko's slowed down serve.
Djoko played that set beautifully, taking a bit of pace off the ball and hitting with great accuracy - exactly how you should do it if you're not physically at full strength.

Rafa was completely gone physially in the 4th too. He could not move. And when Nadal lose mouvement, he becomes the easiest player in the top 100. An injured djoko had no problem putting the ball away from him.

Yes, the 3rd was the last hurrah. I don't like Nadals game but I can't fault his determination.

Yeah, Rafa also looked tired in the 4th, although he looked pretty fresh at the end of the 3rd. Maybe he just mentally went when he still couldn't figure out how to beat an injured Djoko and the fatigue then quicky set in.

Djoko adapted really well to his own fatigue and I was impressed by his tennis brain and the court craft that came into play. Rafa was simply unable to adapt and just carried on with what appears to be the only game he can play, despite the fact that it had got him nowhere for the last 6 matches against Djoko.
I actually thought Rafa would press Djoko more with more aggressive play after the MTO - 'cos that's what you're supposed to do when your opponent is struggling - go for the kill. Silly of me really. Instead he was almost Murray-like in his reluctance to break out of defensive mode.

I think he started to cramp badly and could not control his footwork. It was pretty obvious I thought.

One of the best tennis matches I have ever seen. Fantastic rallies packed full of great shots, drama and many twists in a four hour marathon played by two modern day legends of the game. Well done to Novak Djokovic who, depending on the next two or three years, could go on to become a legend of the sport. For Rafael Nadal he needs to find a gameplan (similar to the one he used in the third set) and stick to it in order to be competitive again with Djokovic. A classic match though.

CaledonianCraig wrote:One of the best tennis matches I have ever seen. Fantastic rallies packed full of great shots, drama and many twists in a four hour marathon played by two modern day legends of the game. Well done to Novak Djokovic who, depending on the next two or three years, could go on to become a legend of the sport. For Rafael Nadal he needs to find a gameplan (similar to the one he used in the third set) and stick to it in order to be competitive again with Djokovic. A classic match though.

I also like the the intensity of the baseline exchanges between these two players, it is like in the old pirate movies when two man of wars would pull up next each other and exchange fire from a 200 yards until one or the other is blasted to smithreens. Novak out hit Roger in the semi and out fought Rafa in the final. I disagree with you, if the guy doesn't play another match he is already among the top 10 or 15 guys of the open era and a legend. But that is my opinion and i think it will become crystal clear for everyone in the next couple of years.

CaledonianCraig wrote:One of the best tennis matches I have ever seen.

I guess this is why they keep slowing the courts. People are more impressed by the running around and see the ball coming back when everybody thought it would not than seeing a well executed, skillful technical gem.

I take stick on here for being a Murray devotee but at least I can recognise a wonderful tennis match when I see one - and yes even if Andy Murray is not involved. That seems beyond some here if their man isn't involved. Can someone tell me what was so different in this match to say the Rafa V Fed Wimbledon epic? I watched late last night in admiration of the shots and rallies I saw and stand by what I said it was one of the best tennis matches I have ever seen and guess what I think you'll find true tennis fans around the world will agree with me. Only gripe the distasteful crowd.

Tenez wrote:I think he started to cramp badly and could not control his footwork. It was pretty obvious I thought.

To be fair, it's very hard to distinguish between a Nadal cramp and a heart attack or seizure.

CaledonianCraig wrote:I take stick on here for being a Murray devotee but at least I can recognise a wonderful tennis match when I see one - and yes even if Andy Murray is not involved. That seems beyond some here if their man isn't involved. Can someone tell me what was so different in this match to say the Rafa V Fed Wimbledon epic? I watched late last night in admiration of the shots and rallies I saw and stand by what I said it was one of the best tennis matches I have ever seen and guess what I think you'll find true tennis fans around the world will agree with me. Only gripe the distasteful crowd.

Have to agree with all this. A brilliant match. I wasn’t even going to watch it because of being so depressed after Fed not winning when he should have in the semis. But compared to that performance Novak here upped his game and intensity, finding length consistently, seemingly hitting the corners at will. He also dealt with the over-exuberant crowd better than Rafa.

It’s a pity some of the more vocal posters seem to be fans of their own agendas more than tennis itself. Yes it was a slug-fest, but also a wonderful exhibition of skill and athleticism. How many other sports events do we see that cause the audience to gasp as much as this one did? It was an incredibly exciting, emotional tennis match. Loved it!

I didn't see the first 5 games of the 4th set due to internet connection, I was surprised to see that those games went so quick and not sure if any of them went to deuce... so did Nadal get a bit knackered??

Yes, but they were out on the feet after the 3rd set tiebreak so no surprise the energy levels dropped. It was like the 12th round of a boxing match by the end - a real gladatorial contest - with nole balboa last man standing. (Hardly surprising having dictated most of the points.)

I also like the the intensity of the baseline exchanges between these two players, it is like in the old pirate movies when two man of wars would pull up next each other and exchange fire from a 200 yards until one or the other is blasted to smithreens.

Nice analogy, Socal! I think this is also emphasises how stupid Super Saturday is. There is no way that either of those guys could have produced a final of that intensity if they had played the day before. The US Open seems very pleased that their tournament ended with such an onslaught but it was by accident (or weather!) rather than design.

Epic? One of the best?

There was only one player playing tennis and having match points. How can people call this Epic?
Rafa was clueless for majority of the match. 100mph first serves, 80mph second serves, how many drop shots or vaolleys by rafa. If basline exchanges contribute to epic match then also this should have gone to 5th set to become one.

IMO it was annihilation, at no stage Rafa had any chance of winning the match (even before the match started).

And likewise, there is no way those guys could produce those kind of rallies within the tennis rules.

In short it's like we are allowing a 200m racer to win a 100m race by extending it a bit my 50m. It's not a 100m race anymore.

What fools we must be to have enjoyed what we thought was a classic match! Turns out it was pretty rubbish. ... Reminds me of when I was enjoying a night dancing with some girls in a club and there was a couple of lads standing on the side pointing out that the area was too small to dance in and the music system wasn't the best for the space..

Nice analogy Jarvik but a match means a match between 2 players and not a mismatch. Only one player was getting beaten again and again. You can call it a good match as there were rallies, athletecism but not an epic for sure.

It wasn't even a contest.

We'll have to agree to disagree there wow. I thought it was extremely competitive! Epic? Well, I think they burned themselves out after 3 sets but given the intensity of some of the rallies I can understand the epiphet.

Put it this way. If every rally in a match was like the best of the rallies last night but every rally was won by the same player and he won in triple bagels would it have been a competitve match? I say yes!

Competitive? Yes, I wouldn't disagree on that one too much

Only reason which stops me hailing this a very exciting match because of the fact that rafa did not play variety till the start of the thrid set. I was listening to Mcneroe's commentary and he was perplexed as why rafa is not taking an aggressive approach. Rafa did play a different third set but till then there was only one winner and tbf Djoko was dictating the points.

Djoko came to net nearly 50 times, nearly 3 times more than Rafa. Novak was also changing the pace, directions, hitting volleys, drop shots but from rafa's side it was mostly baseline whips and retrieving shots.

I can watch this match again but more for Djoko's game than for rafa's. But I am not a rafa fan so at times my views are biased as well.

100mph first serves, 80mph second serves

Nadal wasted so much energy in that first set to only muster up 2 frickin games... it's no surprise his service speed suffered as a result of his expanded energy in 8 epic mugged up games.. it makes me wonder that had Chela or some other clay court energized rallying mug played Rafa they too could've gave him the fits