The Overend files

"His forehand drop shot, the new attacking shot in the Federer armoury, was tricking Del Potro as much as it did Tomic in the previous round."

Pretty sure he's been playing that shot for about 3 years now Jonathan.

Personally I would be very, very surprised if Roger wins the Fedal semi. I'd give it to Nadal in 4.

I hope to be wrong.

Yeah i think nadal probably takes it. Matchup is more important than form.

spdocoffee wrote: ... Personally I would be very, very surprised if Roger wins the Fedal semi. I'd give it to Nadal in 4 ...

Well that seems to be the most probable outcome. But are there any certainties within sport (apart from match fixing, England losing on penalties to Germany, England batting collapses in South East Asia ... ).

I actually think Federer would win. He's playing some of the best tennis of his career and his movement has been outstanding. I still can't believe his physical conditioning.

Nadal in 1.

Yes, i did laugh when I saw this. Yet some think he's a lover of Murray!! Believe me, nothing gets our Beeb genius more excited than a Fed win

Federer is not playing the best Tennis of career - simply because the form of 2004/5 comes once in a century

It's just the dreadful match up to the high backhand, and the 25+ rallies to wear down the accuracy. We've seen it many times and whilst it is boring and unadventurous, it's inevitable and difficult to combat on a slow court with a SHBH. Regrettably, Nadal in 3/4 unless Federer simply explodes on him and takes him out in 3.

Djokovic, of course, eats it for breakfast.

Just for the sake of an argument, if RF were to win convincingly against RN on Thursday, will that settle the GOAT argument once for all for the 'nonbelievers'.

Lol Manoj I sympathise with your intentions and know they are good but I don't think this is about converting people. One of the hardest things for me to come to terms with was how anyone could prefer Nadal. It's so obvious if you could choose to play like anyone who that would be at least from the current players. At the beginning I convinced myself that the world was a big enough place that it had to be inevitable that some people had those preferences. I've looked at it from a few angles and maybe if you remove the obvious negative traits such as time wasting and questionable MTOs then you're left with a driven individual who sees nothing but his goal in front of him. He's willing to learn and adapt and has limitless self belief. Ultimately I believe he's a good, humble person too. This is what I believe endears him to some of his fans.

When it comes to players, I think people will always have their preferences and in the instances where its impossible to verify a result between say players from different eras, people will remember best what they saw in their favourite player and pick them no matter what. Some people still believe Sampras would beat Fed and was indeed the better player. They've taken to heart his best moments and attributes and will always believe that his game should prevail in the end all things being normal whoever he faces (at least on grass and maybe hard). I do the same with Fed and just say if he'd played properly he'd have wrapped this up in straight sets for most matches I've seen him lose. Maybe one of us is right but we can't know.

So as for Thursday, he may win but to many Nadal will still be the greatest player they've seen. For all things being normal he'd have got to that extra ball or not played so passively on break point or perhaps even served better. Can't say we won't end up doing the same for Fed should it go the other way.

There is no "nonbelievers", there are only a few "don' wan' believers".

Irrespective of the result I know who is GOAT. I am no blind fan either. I quite like many, including RN. Let us hope it is a good match and gives us something to remember.

My prediction? RN in 4 or more sets. He will end up winning the final. Hasten to add, hope I am wrong.

Alright fair enough then lol I didn't mean to come across as patronising. I remember reading one of your posts about peoples views on Sachin Tendulker and you having those for Fed and then the use of 'non believers' again so I wrongly assumed... My mistake, very embarassing.

Yeah should be good. I have Rafa to win at some point as well though Djokovic may be available to lend his services to the tennis world if that happens.

Looks like Fed is looking foward to that semi final.

Q. Those Rafa comments before the start of the tournament are probably forgotten for you, but does this make a difference if you play against him in the semifinal? Does it change something?

ROGER FEDERER: No. No. Honestly, no. It was here for one day and then gone again. I'm happy about that, because it didn't deserve more attention than it did.

Yeah, so for me it's another great match with Rafa potentially, but he's got a tough task with Berdych first.

But obviously I'd like to play Rafa because of our great epic match earlier in the finals here a few years ago. I'd like to get a chance to play him again here.

I guess the H2H thing doesn't mean too much to him and he just enjoys a challenge. I mean I saying during the Del Potro match that he enjoys exchanging groundstrokes even though that's likely to hurt him more. Maybe it's similar here and he just enjoys the challenge Rafa poses and doesn't feel within himself that it's insurmountable.