Fisticuffs In The Fourth / What Did Roger Say?

First topic message reminder :

I was unable to watch today's semi between Federer and Murray (although I do have it on record) but reading match reports there is a lot of discussion of this incident in the fourth set when Federer said something to Murray. I'm curious to know what was said and the context. We are always hearing about how all the players are best of buddies but with these two I've never been convinced. Does anyone know what happened?

Here is a video. But it isn't clear what was said and we cannot see the context.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJatAb1IWAs

This is what Federer had to say afterwards about it

Q. You spoke earlier in the week about the good manners that exist between the players. There definitely seemed to be a bit of feeling between the two of you after 6 5 in the fourth. Can you talk about that. Was there an exchange between you?
ROGER FEDERER: I mean, it wasn't a big deal anyway. We just looked at each other one time. That's okay, I think, in a three and a half hour match. We were just checking each other out for bit.
No, I mean, that wasn't a big deal for me. I hope not for him.

http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/news/interviews/2013-01-25/201301251359121946973.html

And what Murray says is even more intriguing

Q. How surprised were you by what he shouted when you were at the net at 6 5 in the fourth? You had a funny look on your face at that point.
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I wasn't that surprised. I mean, stuff like that happens daily in tennis matches. You know, in sport, the stuff that some people say on football pitches and in basketball and all sorts of sports. I mean, it was very, very mild in comparison to what happens in other sports. It's just one of those things.



Q. Did it rattle you at all?
ANDY MURRAY: No. I think it didn't rattle me. I think he raised his game, you know, and that's what happens. Sometimes guys need to get, you know, emotion into the match.
He definitely raised his level and played in that game I think he hit two balls onto the line and was extremely aggressive after that.



Q. Can you repeat what he said?
ANDY MURRAY: It's not relevant what he said. You know, it doesn't really matter. It's something that happens, like I say, all the time on tennis courts, in sport, all the time.
Especially when it's a one on one sort of individual combat. It's not relevant. There's no hard feelings.



Q. Was it a word that we might struggle to get in our newspapers?
ANDY MURRAY: It's not relevant what was said, you know. I'm sure Roger won't talk about it and I have no interest in discussing it either, because, like I say, it happens all the time.
People will want to make a big deal of it and it isn't really a big deal.

My first thought was that Murray had tried to hit Federer with a ball as he did at Wimbledon. But I was wrong. So what did happen?

Have just found a description of what was going on from Kevin Mitchell from the Guardian

Serving for the match at 6-5 in the fourth, Murray stopped in mid-rally then passed Federer on his backhand side. Federer, irked at what he perceived to be gamesmanship, said something that provoked Murray into an ugly sneer in reply. From there until the end, it was no tea party.

When Federer forced a tie-break and took the match into a fifth set, the feelings did not subside. At 15-0 in the second game, Murray had the simple option of passing down the line with a backhand volley but drilled it at Federer, who celebrated when it went long. He was not so happy when he framed a backhand and again Murray broke, for 2-0. They went punch for punch to the final bell and indulged in the most rudimentary of pleasantries at the net after Federer had sent his final forehand long.

Federer smiled. Murray did not. Nobody present could remember such naked antagonism between them.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/jan/25/andy-murray-roger-federer-australian-open

Not nice! Not nice at all... Mitchell sums up by saying It is one they will want to forget and no doubt they will gloss over it but it was real, all right.

It Must Be Love wrote:I've made my point, I just feel you're choosing to ignore it now to wind me up.

You've continually ignored my very clear questions so I'm assuming you don't want to give any answers just to wind me up. Unless you don't like the answers you found so you're keeping quiet, rather than admit them.

Any point you've made hasn't addressed my specific points, it's diverted from them.

I've answered all of them.

Except all the ones you didn't

Do you not think the real explanation is to do with players seeing Federer as a tennis "star" but because he's very friendly with everyone, gives his time & makes an effort even with lower ranked players, is very "down to earth" and not aloof etc this makes it likely for players to vote for him. As long as he's fair on court they'll probably vote for him because they like him off court.

It is difficult for someone like Ferrer to compete with this because he's not seen as such a "star" so players aren't going to think "wow, Ferrer gave up 15 minutes to chat to me about my injury" but they will think that about Federer.

Even in 2004 Federer was the main "star" of the tennis world.

Speculation, but I think it'll have an effect ... to win it you probably need the right blend of fame, friendly/considerate behaviour off-court and sporting behaviour on court.

Andy Roddick:

"You know, as with any time you play Roger, he's developed such a fan base. And side story, I‑‑ you know, you're around guys a lot, but The Garden event that we did three weeks ago was the first time Roger and I spent an entire day together doing stuff.
I'm amazed at the way he does every picture, every autograph. You know, I know what I deal with on a small scale, and it's not what he does.
So, you know, you start to have an understanding why people are so fanatical about him. You know, I think the crowd anywhere cheers for him.
And probably in the USA it would have peed me off not too long ago, but I fully get it now after seeing the way he is and was three weeks ago. You know, I didn't think I could be more impressed with him, but I was really impressed with the way he went about his business for those couple days up there."

I agree with IMBL, I don't know how anyone could argue that your legacy as a top player is part of the criteria, formally or informally, for an award named the edberg award and won by federer and Nadal. If you are really good and humble then people notice. If you aren't good people expect you to be humble.

I mean sure there is one off here and there, hell a crappy silent movie won the best picture in the academy award, does that mean if you want to win an Oscar you should just make a black and white silent picture. Generally writting and dialogue matters for an Oscar. Just like being a top player matters for being an Edberg award winner.

CAS, I think Andy is either on Roger's payroll or should be after that attrocious backhand volley he hit on break point late in the 5th set at wimbeldon. But on a more serious note, I don't even consider the things you are talking about to be sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is how fair you are to your fellow competitor and maybe to the officials. Roger is not a particularly nice guy when he loses, he isn't a pretty nice guy to officials. The other stuff is arguably sportsmanship or it is fan or public relations. And even there, Roger hasn't exactly had an exemplary record in that area either. Didn't he yell at the fans to shut up at RG, frankly I am no fan of the cynical and nationalistic parisian or New york crowd. But I have yet to see any star tell the fans to shut up!!!!!! Most other mortals just look plaintively at the umpire.

And frankly as I said because of who he is if he just says hello to most of the back benchers they will be giddier than a school girl talking to the captain of the football team. Fed has great PR we know that. And overrall he is a very positve figure on and off the court. But he is not 8 times in a row edberg good, and some of his conduct is beyond the pale.

Just remember him denoucing Novak's lucky shot and claiming that he can't believe that Novak would even dare try such a thing on match point. And for once, once the fans and the annoucer actually turned against him and you heard a smattering of boos. This is just one of many, many incidents the guy has had. In fact I would venture to say that federer is one of the least gracious post defeat interviews in the history of the sport.

It's all a Nike conspiracy.

All those Australians who cheered him louder than Tomic, those Wimbledon fans who saw to it he was equally supported at the last final, the French who support him more than any pther player, even the yanks who cheer him like one of their own, they're all Nike plants. He really isn't the best respected and most universally supported player in the World with a popularity and affection a thousand times Novak, that's just a cunning marketing play.

His numerous awardslike the Edberg, the BBC overseas personality, the Laurius, that's cr@p too. Rigged, the lot of them.

The zero retirements and tiny handful of MTOs taken during matches, lack of time wasting delays -none used while making the opponent stand ready to receive while the ball is bounced endlessly - all this pales against swearing at an Umpire once, telling a spectator to be quiet and telling his opponent once that he put him off (I left out telling loud mouthed parents to be quiet as everyone seemed to applaud that).

His siding with lower ranked players over his peers on recent matters is no more than cynical manipulation.

I mean, the measure of a man is whether he ever lies after matches. Far better to be gracious, while telling everyone how injured or upset you are, than saying that your opponent needs to be more attacking or you were surprised by a swipe. Unforgivable, he's only played a thousand or so matches, at this rate the guy will be racking up serial abuse charges.

socal1976 wrote:Roger is not a particularly nice guy when he loses, he isn't a pretty nice guy to officials.

Are you referring to the USO 2009 incident with Garner? You do realise DelPo was challenging very late, correct?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69izvDaepm0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv_uJYbPRYM

PS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0Db1Cn6sMw

Just emotions on the show. Bad hair days, etc.

They all try to be on their best behaviour, but they are humans.

Novak has done probably the best job getting more wins than losses. That's why he's ranked where he is.

But obviously Novak is the double defending champion here. I think so at least. He's done really well again this tournament, digging himself out of the hole against Stan, coming and playing good tennis against Berdych and Ferrer. So obviously a tough match again, and give a slight edge to Novak just because of the last couple of days.

http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=86092

There seem to be a lot of people trying to evidence that Federer appears a good guy, which no-one (even socal) is disputing. The argument is whether his sportsmanship is up there with Edberg. Surely it is fairly easy to see why people might question that based on what we can see by watching his matches and interviews?

Its easy by the way to say its isolated incidents over a long career but of those 1000 or so matches how many have been lost since 2004? Surely when measured against the number of defeats the slightly controversial moments suddenly have a much higher percentage.

I'm also a bit puzzled as to when not being injured equated to good sportsmanship. Can someone name a match where Federer clearly soldiered on despite being injured severely enough to have no chance of winning?

the malisse match at wimbledon?
the lopez match at wimby 03?
3rd match at wimby '10 where his right thigh was bandaged?

I don't know but i have seen the claim bandied around that he was struggling against falla with his back, i don't know if this is true but just putting it out there.

He won all of those matches, so hard to say that he was too injured to properly compete. Compare that with Nadal, hardly a paragon of sportsmanship, but I would say against Murray in Rotterdam and Ferrer at the Australian Open he finished matches which, due to injury, he had no chance of winning.

so you think feds is impervious to pain and injury? that he cannot soldier through despite being injured?

Born Slippy wrote:He won all of those matches, so hard to say that he was too injured to properly compete. Compare that with Nadal, hardly a paragon of sportsmanship, but I would say against Murray in Rotterdam and Ferrer at the Australian Open he finished matches which, due to injury, he had no chance of winning.

Well since Federer has never retired hurt we have to assume he has always soldiered on, unless he's never been impaired.

Without research, I can think of a few times he's lost when apparently impaired; certainly there was a bad back match v Murray at the end of 2008, and indeed throughout 2008 he was playing on and losing to all sorts of jokers. Yes he was definitely impaired v Falla. Maybe not all clear cut examples to be fair, but my point that 0 retirements must = some degree of soldiering on is surely indisputable.

What I can draw from this is that their must be a massive wave of respect for Federer if he keeps on winning the award.

There might be other elements to which may not catch the press attention, e.g he may well take time out during the tour to speak and offer advice to upcoming juniors, his work on the council which by he has always held the players welfare paramount to his cause, how he conducts himself with fellow pro's off the court on tour coupled with his family commitments.

For a guy that holds tremendous influence and I mean that with governing bodies, the pro's, sponsors, tournament and event organisers I can't say I have ever heard him use his position of influence to gain a personal advantage.

Yes, I can see Edberg yelling at a players box and parents to shut up. By the way did he try telling the umpire to ask Novak's box to be quiet before he told the guys mother to shut up. Yes nothing says sportsmanship like telling another players mother to shut up on court in a loud and aggressive voice. A good sport would have asked the umpire to admonish the players box over the loudspeaker and that probably would have worked. Instead the 8 time Edberg award winner (lol) went ballistic at another player's parents on television. Anyone else does that and it makes front page news and we are denouncing him to this day for his conduct. Oh yeah I could really see Edberg telling another players family to shut up on court.

socal1976 wrote:.................................................................................
...........................................................................................................
Oh yeah I could really see Edberg telling another players family to shut up on court.

Hmm .... just as most folk might be inclined to think "oh yeah I could really see the family of either Edberg or Federer (or whoever) behaving like that in the stand "

lags72 wrote:

socal1976 wrote:.................................................................................
...........................................................................................................
Oh yeah I could really see Edberg telling another players family to shut up on court.

Hmm .... just as most folk might be inclined to think "oh yeah I could really see the family of either Edberg or Federer (or whoever) behaving like that in the stand "

I know lags he should shoot them because yelling out in a tennis match should be a capital offense. By the way did he ask the umpire to admonish them like any other player would have done? No he didn't he went diva on them, see this is what I mean by double standard. If Federer ran up to Djokovic and punched him in the face everyone would say how dare Novak run his face into Roger's priceless hand? Yes telling another players parents to shut up and yelling at his mother that is so Edbergesque. How about doing what other people are expected of doing and actually do, is tell the umpire to admonish them. That is what a good sportsmen would do.

socal, I don't think you like Fed.

socal1976 wrote:Yes, I can see Edberg yelling at a players box and parents to shut up. By the way did he try telling the umpire to ask Novak's box to be quiet before he told the guys mother to shut up. Yes nothing says sportsmanship like telling another players mother to shut up on court in a loud and aggressive voice. A good sport would have asked the umpire to admonish the players box over the loudspeaker and that probably would have worked. Instead the 8 time Edberg award winner (lol) went ballistic at another player's parents on television. Anyone else does that and it makes front page news and we are denouncing him to this day for his conduct. Oh yeah I could really see Edberg telling another players family to shut up on court.

And well done too I say.

He taught them some etiquette which they clearly had been unaware of before.

He did it perfectly If I may say so myself.

He didn't even look at them, jus't snapped a quick 'be quiet' in their direction almost like an effortless FH winner. He snipered them and they sat quietly thereafter and have remained so to this day, apart from a momentary lapse when mother Screech squeaked 'The king is dead'. For that crime the great one made the Screeches suffer for a further 3 years.

All hail the great one,

wielder of the liquid whip.



emancipator

It was a very isolated occasion socal, prompted by the sort of behaviour (and no, not 'capital offense' behaviour, of course not, nobody implied that ....) rarely seen from a player's guest box.

I've mentioned it before in a friendly way socal, and I'll mention it once more if I may. Your man Novak has played around 500 fewer matches on tour than has the ageing Federer, so there is a lot of potential for a lot more things to happen in the course of his (Novak's) career than have happened to date. It's true that Novak is generally a pretty good sport on court (though a bit less time-wasting with ball bouncing would be good ....) but you just don't want to let go on the very very occasional, and - many might say (especially in the context of certain previous generations) - very minor indiscretions of Federer. You seem to think that a guy who spends more time on court than almost anybody has to be 100% faultless 100% of the time to be deserving of an award. Anything less is not remotely acceptable.

You might want to take just a little a break from slagging Federer, and pause just for a moment to ask yourself whether you will demand quite so much of Djokovic and allow him so little leeway should he too (heaven forbid) commit any similar indiscretion in the years ahead ......

JuliusHMarx wrote:socal, I don't think you like Fed.

You don't say..

He's been whingeing like a b***h nonstop for seven pages. You're giving us all a headache.

Get over it dude...

Screech has no fans. He's the champion that no one cares about.

Take comfort in the fact that he is a great player and stop whingeing about things that will never change.

I still reckon racket smashing counts against a player more than we realise. Would explain why Ferrer has missed out.
Kids are going to learn to swear at some point - parents accept that. But no-one wants their kids to go around smashing rackets.

I can't see it Julius. 90% of players do it so why are they going to regard it as so bad when someone else does it? Fed still won it in 2009 after the racquet smash that shocked the world anyway.

Has anyone got a theory why Rafa won in 2010? What was different about that year than, say, 2008?

Because they know it's bad when they do it?

2010 vs 2008 - as I said before, we have no idea what goes on off court as to why players vote for who they vote for, except for things touched on in interviews.

lol Socal your opinion on this is so out of whack. All but one or two of the incidents involving Fed can be easily dismissed.

legendkillarV2 wrote:What I can draw from this is that their must be a massive wave of respect for Federer if he keeps on winning the award.

There might be other elements to which may not catch the press attention, e.g he may well take time out during the tour to speak and offer advice to upcoming juniors, his work on the council which by he has always held the players welfare paramount to his cause, how he conducts himself with fellow pro's off the court on tour coupled with his family commitments.

For a guy that holds tremendous influence and I mean that with governing bodies, the pro's, sponsors, tournament and event organisers I can't say I have ever heard him use his position of influence to gain a personal advantage.

Oh my word LK .. Ive got a trowel going spare if you would like to borrow it.

Haddie-nuff wrote:

legendkillarV2 wrote:What I can draw from this is that their must be a massive wave of respect for Federer if he keeps on winning the award.

There might be other elements to which may not catch the press attention, e.g he may well take time out during the tour to speak and offer advice to upcoming juniors, his work on the council which by he has always held the players welfare paramount to his cause, how he conducts himself with fellow pro's off the court on tour coupled with his family commitments.

For a guy that holds tremendous influence and I mean that with governing bodies, the pro's, sponsors, tournament and event organisers I can't say I have ever heard him use his position of influence to gain a personal advantage.

Oh my word LK .. Ive got a trowel going spare if you would like to borrow it.

As long as it has RF on it

No sorry you probably would want it though it belonged to Mother Theresa

hell's angel?

Born Slippy wrote:

Has anyone got a theory why Rafa won in 2010? What was different about that year than, say, 2008?

Nail on the head.
It's obvious isn't it. Type of shows my point.

Ferrer deserves it more than Rafa.

break_in_the_fifth wrote:lol Socal your opinion on this is so out of whack. All but one or two of the incidents involving Fed can be easily dismissed.

Yeah one or two, like his bizarre post match interview following his defeat by Melzer, his cursing at murray, or after losing multiple times to murray saying he wasn't impressed by his game, or telling Novak you are bouncing the ball too much; apparently unlike other players Roger doesn't deign to address his criticisms to the umpire which is what you are supposed to do. Roger is not a bad guy in fact he is a good guy in general and really good for the sport. However his sportsmanship is not 8 time Edberg award winning good. He is the only guy I have seen who routinely argues with shot spot and looks incredulous and abuses officials for simply enforcing the hawkeye decisions. I can't think of a single other player who gets as ticked off at shot spot and actually complains about the enforcement of its decisions. Just a few isolated incidents for certain. Cursing, bizarre post match interviews, abusive and indignant conduct towards officials, other players families; now that is what I call sportsmanship that warrants 8 edberg awards in succession. At least he hasn't stuck a racquet between his legs and flipped off the fans, I can agree on that much.

emancipator wrote:

JuliusHMarx wrote:socal, I don't think you like Fed.

You don't say..

He's been whingeing like a b***h nonstop for seven pages. You're giving us all a headache.

Get over it dude...

Screech has no fans. He's the champion that no one cares about.

Take comfort in the fact that he is a great player and stop whingeing about things that will never change.

If you haven't noticed Emancipator I am a bit of contrarian and enjoy bucking the trend. That is part of the reason I never became a fed or Nadal fan, it just seemed to easy and uncontroversial. I like Novak and I am happy for his success but if you all started to cheer for him, it would probably make me not be as passionate in his defense. I know it isn't logical, I just don't like to jump on bandwagons and cheer for the most popular guy necessarily especially when it comes to tennis. It just rubs me the wrong way when there is a consistent fawning double standard towards federer and his conduct when frankly some of the things he does on the court and in his interviews would be wildly criticized if anyone else did it. Do I dislike the man no, my feelings towards him are lets say conflicted and complex. But I agree great champion, good guy, and good for the game. The second coming of Edberg he certainly isn't and as I said before if you buy that then I have a pair of 30 dollars crappy chinese sneakers I'd like to sell you for 200 dollars, but it has a pretty little swoosh on it.

Breaking news ...... Shock horror !

Sports and leisure company has products made at low price in China and then sells them at big margin throughout the West.

Who would have thought it .... ??

I wouldn't say Novak behaves impeccably on the court all the time but to be fair I don't think you are saying he does. I wasn't too impressed when he sarcastically clapped a Federer winner by slapping the frame of his racket, making sure everyone knew it was slightly shanked. Players are allowed to get frustrated, in my opinion being overly modest when you are clearly brilliant is the worst form of arrogance.

socal1976 wrote:

break_in_the_fifth wrote:lol Socal your opinion on this is so out of whack. All but one or two of the incidents involving Fed can be easily dismissed.

Yeah one or two, like his bizarre post match interview following his defeat by Melzer, his cursing at murray, or after losing multiple times to murray saying he wasn't impressed by his game, or telling Novak you are bouncing the ball too much; apparently unlike other players Roger doesn't deign to address his criticisms to the umpire which is what you are supposed to do. Roger is not a bad guy in fact he is a good guy in general and really good for the sport. However his sportsmanship is not 8 time Edberg award winning good. He is the only guy I have seen who routinely argues with shot spot and looks incredulous and abuses officials for simply enforcing the hawkeye decisions. I can't think of a single other player who gets as ticked off at shot spot and actually complains about the enforcement of its decisions. Just a few isolated incidents for certain. Cursing, bizarre post match interviews, abusive and indignant conduct towards officials, other players families; now that is what I call sportsmanship that warrants 8 edberg awards in succession. At least he hasn't stuck a racquet between his legs and flipped off the fans, I can agree on that much.

feds on melzer lost "he played well", "I missed the chances i had today and should have got one of the sets"

"things didn't go my way, he shanks them they stay in play, he hits the lines, i just miss ... all of this leads to something quite frustrating"

" He did well, he played aggressive, mixed it up, he played the right way, the way he was supposed too"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ouPkagJMQs

Melzer's response: "I had a few shots on the line, a few bad bounces that were going my way. You need that to beat Roger." "When we played at the U.S. Open, there were a lot of key points where I felt I was unlucky," Melzer said. "I thought, luck is going to turn. It did today."

So melzer just proves that you are wrong there, so that is dispelled ok?

tsonga wasn't happy with djoko's ball bouncing it in the aus final 08, odesnik turned around in protest of him taking so long. It's a joke sometimes how long he bounces it, sometimes over 30!

[/quote] He is the only guy I have seen who routinely argues with shot spot and looks incredulous and abuses officials for simply enforcing the hawkeye decisions. I can't think of a single other player who gets as ticked off at shot spot and actually complains about the enforcement of its decisions. Just a few isolated incidents for certain. Cursing, bizarre post match interviews, abusive and indignant conduct towards officials, other players families; now that is what I call sportsmanship that warrants 8 edberg awards in succession. [quote]

There is a lot wrong with this post, you seem to be making mountains out of mole hills. In hundreds of matches he's done this so rarely, yet you make out that hes the devil!
There are some stuff i don't approve of for what hes done and said, but hes human. Novak's sworn at the crowd, so what, it seems you have a personal vendetta against him, lighten up!

socal1976 wrote:

emancipator wrote:

JuliusHMarx wrote:socal, I don't think you like Fed.

You don't say..

He's been whingeing like a b***h nonstop for seven pages. You're giving us all a headache.

Get over it dude...

Screech has no fans. He's the champion that no one cares about.

Take comfort in the fact that he is a great player and stop whingeing about things that will never change.

If you haven't noticed Emancipator I am a bit of contrarian and enjoy bucking the trend. That is part of the reason I never became a fed or Nadal fan, it just seemed to easy and uncontroversial. I like Novak and I am happy for his success but if you all started to cheer for him, it would probably make me not be as passionate in his defense. I know it isn't logical, I just don't like to jump on bandwagons and cheer for the most popular guy necessarily especially when it comes to tennis. It just rubs me the wrong way when there is a consistent fawning double standard towards federer and his conduct when frankly some of the things he does on the court and in his interviews would be wildly criticized if anyone else did it. Do I dislike the man no, my feelings towards him are lets say conflicted and complex. But I agree great champion, good guy, and good for the game. The second coming of Edberg he certainly isn't and as I said before if you buy that then I have a pair of 30 dollars crappy chinese sneakers I'd like to sell you for 200 dollars, but it has a pretty little swoosh on it.

I knew a certain SocalFootieFan from old 606 who used to get quite vocal in the support of Nadal.

But maybe my memory is a bit hazy...

socal1976 wrote:Yes, I can see Edberg yelling at a players box and parents to shut up. By the way did he try telling the umpire to ask Novak's box to be quiet before he told the guys mother to shut up. Yes nothing says sportsmanship like telling another players mother to shut up on court in a loud and aggressive voice. A good sport would have asked the umpire to admonish the players box over the loudspeaker and that probably would have worked. Instead the 8 time Edberg award winner (lol) went ballistic at another player's parents on television. Anyone else does that and it makes front page news and we are denouncing him to this day for his conduct. Oh yeah I could really see Edberg telling another players family to shut up on court.

What you're overlooking is that Djokovic's parents are such utter douches that yelling at them drew a round of applause and extra cred points from everyone in the game.

spuranik wrote:

socal1976 wrote:

emancipator wrote:

JuliusHMarx wrote:socal, I don't think you like Fed.

You don't say..

He's been whingeing like a b***h nonstop for seven pages. You're giving us all a headache.

Get over it dude...

Screech has no fans. He's the champion that no one cares about.

Take comfort in the fact that he is a great player and stop whingeing about things that will never change.

If you haven't noticed Emancipator I am a bit of contrarian and enjoy bucking the trend. That is part of the reason I never became a fed or Nadal fan, it just seemed to easy and uncontroversial. I like Novak and I am happy for his success but if you all started to cheer for him, it would probably make me not be as passionate in his defense. I know it isn't logical, I just don't like to jump on bandwagons and cheer for the most popular guy necessarily especially when it comes to tennis. It just rubs me the wrong way when there is a consistent fawning double standard towards federer and his conduct when frankly some of the things he does on the court and in his interviews would be wildly criticized if anyone else did it. Do I dislike the man no, my feelings towards him are lets say conflicted and complex. But I agree great champion, good guy, and good for the game. The second coming of Edberg he certainly isn't and as I said before if you buy that then I have a pair of 30 dollars crappy chinese sneakers I'd like to sell you for 200 dollars, but it has a pretty little swoosh on it.

I knew a certain SocalFootieFan from old 606 who used to get quite vocal in the support of Nadal.

But maybe my memory is a bit hazy...

Haha

I mentioned this same thing a few months ago but of course Socal denied it.

Glad I'm not the only one who remembers that Socal (FA, Socalfootiefan) claimed at that time to be a Nadal fan.

Sounds like a fair weather fan to me.

I wonder who he'll be championing next? Tomic?



rotapicname - intergalactic investigative journalist

Hmmm, that does ring a bell. Certainly there was no Djokovic fan by that name on the old 606.

socal1976 wrote: He is the only guy I have seen who routinely argues with shot spot and looks incredulous and abuses officials for simply enforcing the hawkeye decisions. I can't think of a single other player who gets as ticked off at shot spot and actually complains about the enforcement of its decisions. Just a few isolated incidents for certain. Cursing, bizarre post match interviews, abusive and indignant conduct towards officials, other players families; now that is what I call sportsmanship that warrants 8 edberg awards in succession. At least he hasn't stuck a racquet between his legs and flipped off the fans, I can agree on that much.

See this video again and watch what exactly he is arguing about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0Db1Cn6sMw

If you can find something to back up your argument where he is ticked off by other player's challenge then post it here.

And as for abusive, again hear what he is saying.

Yes spurnik, I often have defended Nadal against scurrilous accusations on this site and others to the point that Nadal haters have denouced me as Nadal apologists. If you make unsupported allegations of PED use and cheating against any player and you name, names I will have a big problem and defend said player. I have often defended Nadal tooth and nail on this very site and will continue to if people try to character assassinate him on a bunch of made up nonsense. On 606 if you said nice things about Nadal the wild eyed Nadal haters would often accuse you of being a fan boy. If people accused Andreas Seppi of being a cheat without any evidence I would also defend him tooth and nail.

To this day I find the distasteful Nadal character assassination campaign by some to be highly disrespectful and disgusting, I had a lengthy fight with Smearjay on this very site about it. If that makes me a nadal fanboy, then fine.

socal1976 wrote:Yes spurnik, I often have defended Nadal against scurrilous accusations on this site and others to the point that Nadal haters have denouced me as Nadal apologists. If you make unsupported allegations of PED use and cheating against any player and you name, names I will have a big problem and defend said player. I have often defended Nadal tooth and nail on this very site and will continue to if people try to character assassinate him on a bunch of made up nonsense. On 606 if you said nice things about Nadal the wild eyed Nadal haters would often accuse you of being a fan boy. If people accused Andreas Seppi of being a cheat without any evidence I would also defend him tooth and nail.

Nonsense.

You were an avid Nadal fan on 606, two of us have independently verified this fact. Exposed

As for all that made up nonsense about Fed being rude to spot shot (presumably u mean Hawkeye) and being offensive to umpires when a decision goes against him, where's your proof? You just made it all up.

Everyone knows Fed isn't a big fan of HE but I have never seen him challenge offensively a decision by HE. That's just you being disingenuous again.

It isn't one incident the guy bitches quite often when his calls on shot spot are wrong or when his shots get overturned I have seen it more than dozen times and I don't even watch most of his matches.

I do have to agree with Socal on most of what he says. He has defended Rafa on numerous occasions especially over the PEDs accusations. I also would agree about what happened on 606 which is one of the reasons I eventually left that forum. No matter whether you were male or female young or old if you just happened to like/support Nadal because you enjoyed his game you were attacked and accused of being a fan girl (oh I should be so lucky). Nadal haters were in abundance on 606 and were disgustingly disrespectful wums and trolls.

emancipator wrote:Everyone knows Fed isn't a big fan of HE

Has she written an article about him too?

( HE couldn't resist )

socal1976 wrote:It isn't one incident the guy bitches quite often when his calls on shot spot are wrong or when his shots get overturned I have seen it more than dozen times and I don't even watch most of his matches.

Evidence?

I've never seen him dispute a HE challenge.

On clay, ALL players occasionally dispute calls, particularly if they think the wrong mark was called in/out.

It's very rare for Fed to dispute any call.

Why don't you admit that you got carried away (as usual) and just tried to make up a whole bunch of stuff. Sadly for you the great intergalactic investigative tennis journalist emancipator happened to be perusing the boards at that precise moment. I, emancipator, therefore determined to use a few seconds of my time to debunk your storytelling.



emancipator

I thought you'd 'had enough' of that.

Yeah, 606 wasn't based on anti- Fed wums after all, was it?

Ok Spuranik, you got me, you exposed me as a Nadal fanboy, I like the man's game and his contribution to the game and I have defended him. In fact I did a thread entitled the wonderful shotmaking ability of Nadal. So if you ever say anything positive about Nadal you can't be a fan of another player. Whatever, who cares what your official verdict is, I like the man and have said nice things about him and his game. And I like murray and have said nice things about him. I have even said very nice things about federer on this very website, would you like me to bring that thread up so you can denounce me as a fed fan?