There is only one King of Clay and that can't be a joker

Rafa came firing after the rain break and inspite of Djoko doing his best scummbed to pressure by double faulting at the match point.

Its not joke this guy won 7 slams in a row or utter dominance and holds 52-1 record, Rafa means business in clay, congrats Novak you did your best with some stunning comebacks in the tournament and saving 4 match points against Tsonga but everybody have to go down to the King of Clay.

Vamous Rafa, The King reigns.

To Rafa and Rafa fans

Thank you ic... he deserves the applause.. I can put the vallium away now..
lol

Well Haddie, the dedication and hardwork Nadal puts on to get the result is second to none.

People point a black mark in Fed cv citing his negative h2h against Rafa compared to Sampras, but Sampras never in his career faced a warrior like Rafa, specially in clay. Fed have to be credited he could even muster some wins against prime Rafa in clay.

Winning Rafa on clay and specially in Roland Garros is close to impossible thats the standard he has set, even divine intervention at times will not work and thats what Novak might have realized today.

Congrats to Rafa and all his fans :-)

ic I remember a presser from a few years back when Rafa had beaten Roger on clay... the pressman said something like "your biggest problem is playing on clay is that not right Roger " his reply was " No I have no problem playing on clay.. my problem is playing Rafa on clay"

Thank you Jahu... generous of you

Congrats to Nadal, I don't want to be to gushing with praise because I'm not Nadal's biggest fan by any means but he has done something which Fed never managed which was hold off his main rival on his patch which is incredible.

It's not easy to do and with 3 losses in grand slam finals to Djokovic, it was going to be tough, it looked it to but he held his nerve and saw off Djokovic and finally beaten him in a slam for the first time since Sept 2010.

Haddie-nuff wrote:ic I remember a presser from a few years back when Rafa had beaten Roger on clay... the pressman said something like "your biggest problem is playing on clay is that not right Roger " his reply was " No I have no problem playing on clay.. my problem is playing Rafa on clay"

Exactly, somehow people haven't realized how great a player Rafa is on clay, Rafa is good on every surface but a beast or best on Clay.

@ Jahu thanks for joining the celebration.

luciusmann wrote:Congrats to Nadal, I don't want to be to gushing with praise because I'm not Nadal's biggest fan by any means but he has done something which Fed never managed which was hold off his main rival on his patch which is incredible.

It's not easy to do and with 3 losses in grand slam finals to Djokovic, it was going to be tough, it looked it to but he held his nerve and saw off Djokovic and finally beaten him in a slam for the first time since Sept 2010.

Neither I am a big fan of Nadal, but anybody who likes Tennis would like Rafa , Lucius Fed stopped Rafa from winning Wimbledon twice which is no ordinary feat, 2008 Wimbledon was special, Fed losing his edge and Rafa gaining it, yet Fed gave the toughest fight to be back from 2 sets to Nill and 2 points and a game away for the title.

Yes what Rafa achieved today is stunning and certainly super human effort, and to think he is just 26, who knows he might be the first player in history to have a double digit GS behind his name on a single tournament.

I for once thought Djoko looked like crying but he held his emotions before tears took control, poor Djoko wouldn't wanna stand even for 1 sec in the prize ceremony.

Congrats to haddie and lydian and the other Nadal fans. Rafa played better and deserved to win. He is truely the best clay courter of all time a position that has been clear to all but the haters for many years. Novak left himself no margin with how he played in the first two sets. Oh well, that is the beauty of tennis another big tournament in a couple of weeks.

Social
Very gracious in defeat, good to see.

Socal is a nice civilized poster here, and yes its good to see a fan gracious in defeat.

No problem, its tennis man sometimes you win sometimes you lose. Nadal was great he deserves his success. A truely humble and gracious champion I do actually as hard as it is feel a lot of respect for the other guy and you can't say he didn't deserve his success and then some.

@ Socal, i am not a fan of Nadal either, but what he achieved today is a monstrous one and that has to be appreciated, anybody who doesn't appreciate somebody's success means only one thing they are jealous of him.

It's an extraordinary achievement, so hat's off, but I invariably support all-comers vs. Nadal.

I will like to Novak to win the French Open someday or soon. He has been a great Champion the past 16 months and nothing will be better than to see him do the Career slam. Nadal winning 7 FO in 8 attempts even as a fan personally is enough for me because i don't necessarily like seeing the same player winning the same tournament ad infinitum. Perhaps he takes a winning break next year and come back for more in 2014.

cheers socal and ic

I feel Nadal has completed a life's work now...everything else he goes on to achieve is a bonus. What he has achieved on clay is likely never to be done again. What he can focus on now is achievement elsewhere, to add to his overall haul. It will be tough...of course...but he can play with freedom now, he has got the "Borg Monkey" off his back. He may win another RG...but clearly he cant keep doing this...clay is probably the hardest surface to keep doing what he's doing. The enormity of it is hard to comprehend. But he cant fend off all-comers forever, and the fire in his belly may diminish on clay at least...I mean what has the guy got left to prove on this surface anymore? His stats are mind-boggling.

But I dont for one moment expect Djokovic to take the loss lightly...so we'll see what Wimbledon brings and how this win/loss affects the order in the game at the moment.

Jewell, I think that Nadal and Djoko have a real chance of making this rivalry the greatest in the game because of how far they are in front of the other players in terms of big match ability. I mean 4 straight finals contested that is pretty amazing. Federer is great but he is in the process of riding into the sunset. Someone has to force their way into the mix. I mean the two have already played each other many more times than Fed and Nadal and they are closer in age as well.

Lydian I stated before nadal probably goes into wimby as the slight favorite because momentum as Novak proved can be huge in sports. But I feel the same way about Novak's game and ability now as i did last year. He is still developing and it is scary. So maybe he goes into a minislump or comes back with more resolve. Eventually, and in pretty short order I don't doubt that he will regain his bearings and comeback stronger than ever. Lets remember Novak Djokovic is used to pressure, his entire family's financial life was staked on him becoming a great tennis champion, his father was in hock deep to loan sharks to help pay for his early career. Sometimes you are aggressive in pressure situations and it comes off sometimes it doesn't. These guys are like big stakes poker players they know that they are in for bad beats in their career.

Indeed socal...and havent they played more than just about any other top pairing in the Open Era already...? Considering both keep getting to finals this rivalry could go on for another 15-20 matches. Their domination of the tour has been very clear...but I do think there are 2-3 players who could upset them. After all...lets not forget Tsonga almost beat Djokovic on clay...should have beat him really. He almost lost to Federer last USO...and almost to Nadal at AO. I'm not being churlish about luck...just to say that the picture could have easily been very different. I dont expect Murray to gatecrash the party...the challenges will come from those who have great slam runs...the danger guys...Tsonga, Berdy, Delpo, Raonic...guys who if they have a great fortnight can blow just about anyone off court. You cant do much about those guys...like Sampras couldnt against Krajicek in 96. They come along then disappear again. These are the true threats at present...not a new entrant into the top 4.

I dont doubt he'll come back socal...and he'll keeping winning slams for sure. But I dont think he'll be routinely winning 3 per year anymore. The tour will learn to play him, up their game (like Nadal is doing) and he wont keep coming through the eye of the needle as he's done. 2-3 slams a year for 3-4 years wouldnt be bad though....puts him around Federer total.

Its all a question of whether he can sustain it mentally and physically as well. He does play a very physical game...with even more stress on his tendons/ligaments than Nadal with those stretches of his.

Yes lydian but those guys that you mention while highly competive and great tennis talents are not capable on any level of making it to the point in my mind where they dominate consistently at slams. I mean everyone one of them are capable of a grandslam run or two but are they going to do what Fed, Nadal, and Novak have done and basically be shoe ins for grandslams semis and finals in every single tourney. Well I highly doubt it. I also think you underestimate murray I think he will be more consistently a threat to the top 2 than any other player.

But the potential of these guys playing in some thing like 25 or 30 tournament finals and maybe 10 times in slam finals is out there. Potentially, if they both maintain good health.

I disagree lydian, I don't know about predicting 3 slams a year or anything like that. i think he will come back and win more slams and probably get another this year, I don't know depends a bit on form. Form comes and goes, although the best ones replicate their top form much more often. Djokovic is a bit off form but do not mistake that with an inability to recreate 2011. He will get better from here he is still at his peak physically and you can tell he is working on the rough edges of his game.

As for his physical style of play outside of Federer over the course of 5 years or so Novak has been by far the healthiest. In fact he often leads the ATP tour is near the top in matches played in a season. Look at his track record when it comes to durability over the long haul. Not many players have averaged nearly 80 matches a year over the last 5 or 6 years like Djoko.

I never meant those guys will win consistently...hence why I called them one-slam streakers...Tsonga is more than capable of it.

Djokovic is off-form? Why, because he didnt win FO against clay GOAT?
Outside of smurf-clay he got to final of MC, Rome and RG. Some players would kill for those results. Not bad for being off-form on his least preferred surface.

Healthwise...you saw what happened to Djokovic last year after USO...mentally and physically burnt-out, plus injured. What has gone before isnt relevant...he's now playing at a level where he's putting his body into serious physical challenge. He's getting to final weekends all the time...so recovery time is reduced too. All I'm saying is that his style of play isnt like Federer's...he's going to feel the effects of it come what may...especially if Nadal and Murray keep pushing him.

Novak was way off form hitting less than 45 percent of his serves in set number 2. Come on seppi took sets off of him. But he still beat fed and got to the final and gave Rafa the toughest final of his RG career. So as Rafa fan I would not be thinking that Novak has played his best tennis not this year or in his career. Barring an unforseen injury I am very confident he will get better. If I was a Rafa fan to a certain extent this your day and I don't want to rain on the parade I am not out to rain on anyone's parade like those who talked incessantly about how awful Novak's win at the AO was.

If I was Rafa fan even in my success there would be a hint of worry. Novak served at 68 percent against Fed and played a very clean match. He didn't play a clean match in front of Rafa and was abysmal in the first two sets getting the first serve over. People want to talk about the rain, I felt that Novak was hurt by the rain delays and frankly I don't buy the talk that he outplayed Nadal because the court was wet. This was peak Nadal on his best surface playing a Novak that didn't have his best form, had the much tougher draw and the much tougher road to the final, and a Novak who couldn't get a first serve over for two sets and yet Nadal almost lost. Almost lost with all of these factors in his favor to a somewhat subpar djokovic. Not subpar from 2011, subpar from his previous match, Djoko serves as well as he did against Rog against Rafa he wins that match.

I still see Wimbledon as the weakest surface for Djokovic, Nadal accustomed to slow grass so well, Fed is a genius in grass movements and his style suits it as well.

Novak's movement in grass is not the same as clay or hardcourt, if he gets a good grass court player let alone Fed enroute to Finals [Like a top form Haas, Roddick or burst of form by Hewitt ] all can take him down.

So Wimbledon would be tricky and I soley expect Rafa- Fed in the finals provided they don't meet in the semi's, I feel Murray's game is much better suited in grass than Djoko however the stats say otherwise, so have to see of Murray perform in this year Wimbledon , he will be a serious threat in here unlike RG.

Thank you again socal (I did acknowledge your post on another thread) But I and I know other Nadal fans applaud your graciousness .. (just one little smiley will do however lol )

All right Haddie owed you that much. Hey no worries haddie, I have never had a problem with Rafa or his fans. At least this year I feel that Novak lost to the better player on the day. No shame losing to a man who has lost one match in 8 years at RG.

Fair enough socal but I dont really agree. I wasnt saying it was peak Djokovic...but his form has been generally good. Seppi and Tsonga played blinders, we should give them credit. Nadal was peak before the final but not in it...only during small phases. I dont agree about the rain...the first rain occurrence and break certainly saved Djokovic from a straight sets defeat.

I dont feel worried at all as a Nadal fan. Quite the contrary. At the end of the day Novak has always had to play out of his skin to beat Nadal...even an out of sorts Nadal as he was last year. This Nadal 3.0 is a much tougher prospect now and I believe will go on to play with much less inhibition in future. On the other hand losing a match on MP like that will haunt Djokovic for a while. It just places that seed of doubt in his mind for those future clutch moments. So if anything thats something to for a Djokovic fan to worry about...that almost surreal self-belief he had in coming out of any tight situation (something he has said himself even) will have taken a serious knock.

Thank you socal... as you probably now realise
"Ive come to know him so well"

Well lydian two people can view an event and have a different take on it. My take is different. I don't think Nadal has seeds of doubt or djokovic. But Novak didn't even play unfortunately for him as well as he had played in the fed match. You can not deny by the numbers that under 50 percent first serve percentage in the first two sets impacted the result. By the way it was drizzling on off the whole first day. Nadal won two sets in the rain and lost another set in the rain. It started drizzling after a couple of games today as well just like yesterday but he managed to hold his game together and win. I don't believe the rain was the reason he went off boil how do you then explain him winning the first two sets when it was all so off and on drizzling. It wasn't like it just started to rain right before Nadal started to play bad.

Regardless, like I said I don't want to rain on Nadal fan's parade he was the better player and has been since the start of the clay court season. Novak now has to do what Nadal did last year and tighten up a few areas and work on a couple of tactical wrinkles for Nadal. You can not deny that Nadal was pushed in this match and if you want simply blame it on the rain that is fine. But if Novak serves a good match I think he can more than answer the bell on any surface. So hopefully, then next time they play he has a big serving performance.

Nadal may have won the final. but it could well have been a different result had play had to resume last night with Djokovic up a break in the 4th set. Nadal it seems is a fast starter of a tennis match whilst Djokovic is a slow starter and has to take his time to get himself into a match. Once he does though, he usually can outplay the moonballing Spaniard.

gboycottnut wrote:Nadal may have won the final. but it could well have been a different result had play had to resume last night with Djokovic up a break in the 4th set. Nadal it seems is a fast starter of a tennis match whilst Djokovic is a slow starter and has to take his time to get himself into a match. Once he does though, he usually can outplay the moonballing Spaniard.

It could have been a different match entirely had it not rained... then Rafa would have finished him in three
Nadal is a notoriously SLOW starter as all his fans will tell you... Novak was slow and Rafa capitalized on that
The rain slowed Rafa down .. not Djokovic- The Serb does a bit of moonballing himself when it suits.
Wrong day for wumming Im afraid..

Actually, it's often been said that Nadal is a slow starter. I don't recall that being said of Djoko much.
Perhaps yesterday went against the grain.

Julius I think the result stuck in a few craws... "The Moonballing Mallorcan" is not everyone´s cup of tea... maybe they should try a little sugar to help the medicine go down. Rafa WON... and now owns Roland Garros.
Ill say one thing for Nole he accepted the defeat better than his fans.

If he owns Roland Garros, he should build a roof on it

This win feels even sweeter for Nadal, after last night Djokos father said how Djoko is the GOAT And he wares a Djoko t-shirt

Yes socal, Djokovic pushed Nadal...as he should. But I'm not paying much credence to the waterlogged part of the match where Nadal had clearly started losing his calm.

But socal these double faults at key moments seem to be flourishing.
He hit 3 of them in this final at break-point down inc. the one at MP of course. He also hit one at MP down in Rome.
Hmm, hope he hasnt got an attack of the yips developing like happened to Coria after Nadal got to him....

Jahu wrote:This win feels even sweeter for Nadal, after last night Djokos father said how Djoko is the GOAT And he wares a Djoko t-shirt

So his dad is the real joker then

Key thing is I've never seen Nadal lose his composure to the degree he clearly did against Djoko towards the end if yesterday- even I thought, for the first time, that detractors' cries of him being a moaner rang a little true. That he brought himself bcd into it despite the pressure and the edge mentally that Djoko clearly had over him is an indicator that he truely is a great competitor with an iron will, but I wasn't entirely happy with his conduct even if I agreed with his logic and empathised with his frustration. Nadal doesn't do phased but he did yesterday and that shows that Djokovic was definitely still Nadal's bogeyman. Let's see if he still is

Djoko certainly is Nadal's boogeyman, this is vintage Nadal on his favourite court against completely off color Djoko in finals, yet Djoko made Nadal pay the dividents for a set and a half, I am pretty sure every Nadal fan hoped for the match to get over in 4 sets otherwise it could have easily been Djoko's had it gone for the 5th set.

Nadal was competiting with Fed for Wimbledon honors for 3 successive years and finally got in 3rd year, the 2nd year was a very close one, it looks the similar way, if Djoko and Nadal competes for 2 more years in a row in FO I am sure Djoko will walk with the crown on 2014 if not for 2013 itself. Nadal is mentally getting tired of competing with Djoko.

IC....Djokovic won 3 points on Nadals serve after they restarted play today...Djokovic got 69% of first serves in and yet was still broken twice. In the drier conditions he couldnt handle Nadal's play as he couldnt yesterday in the drier sections of the match. So discussion about the 5th set is irrelevant because it didnt get there...and if it did I would favour Nadal in similar conditions as to how the match started today.

Djokovic may well beat Nadal here one year...we'll see...but he's always going to need cool/damp weather conditions in my opinion.

But Lydian, have you ever seen Rafito struggling to control his emotions as much as in this match?

The top and bottom of it was that outside of the heavier rain Djokovic was never in the match. Just shows what type of conditions he needs to push Nadal on clay...conditions he's not likely to get again.

Djoko had his fair share of comeback this FO, technically speaking he should have lost by 4th round to seppi if not in semi against Tsonga.

ChequeredJersey wrote:But Lydian, have you ever seen Rafito struggling to control his emotions as much as in this match?

No but that only proves one thing just how much that match meant to him. Rafa has never pretended to walk on water he keeps his emotions in check because he was told he had to from a very little boy. Borg wasn´t the ice man at all .. he had a furnace burning deep within he just didnt show it. These players are human. So Rafa had a moan.. is that so terrible. Does he smash racquets ?? smash equipment. Even cool calm Roger moans and has smashed the occasional racquet. So that Rafa was hyper tense yestereday proved that he is a man first and a tennis player second. Ive seen Rafa cry before but never like he did yesterday.. he had fulfilled a life´s ambition and he showed the world what it meant to him.

invisiblecoolers wrote:

Jahu wrote:This win feels even sweeter for Nadal, after last night Djokos father said how Djoko is the GOAT And he wares a Djoko t-shirt

So his dad is the real joker then

Oh my god his dad loves him, how evil.