French Open, Men's Semis match thread

[lydian]

First topic message reminder :

So...1 hour to go, thought I'd create a specific match thread.

Its clear blue skies over Paris, not a cloud in sight and temp is already 26.5c and rising. Latest pic and temperature:


So the heat is literally on!

12pm GMT we have Nadal vs Djokovic, followed by David vs Goliath.

We've seen the predictions, heard the impersonations and listened to the musical quips, just need the action to start now!

[Jahu]

Yesssssssss well done to Rafa. Hope he loses to Tsonga now in final

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Oh Novak you pleb

[kingraf]

Vam8s!!!

[summerblues]

Well done Rafa. This certainly was very different from what I expected - in so many respects.

All in all, deserved win for Rafa, he was the better player for most of the match.

[TRuffin]

wow! Learn the overhead smash kids...

[barrystar]

It's a great achievement, that's for sure, and he's nailed on for the final.

Something about him, about everything he does on a tennis court, just leaves me cold.

[break_in_the_fifth]

sucks.

[Guest]

Congrats Rafa



A true champ.

[_homogenised_]

And well done to the umpire for allowing nadal to get away with rule breaking, bad call on break point, and refusing to water the slippy court.

[Guest]

VAMOOOOOOOOOOOS!!! OMG ive had to change my bed 3 times. But you know what, Tsonga or Ferrer might well have a chance given those 2 just ripped eachother apart

[invisiblecoolers]

Great match, generally I don't enjoy DJoko/Nadal matches, but this one was different, well played both.

Condolence to Djoko, next time son.

Congrats to Rafa , Ferrer waits.

[barrystar]

And well done to the umpire for allowing nadal to get away with rule breaking, bad call on break point, and refusing to water the slippy court.

No call for that - he was the deserving winner, that's beyond doubt. A horrible loss for Djoko from 4-2 up.

[Guest]

Also before ANYTHING, massive condolences to Djokovic supporters here. That had to be wrenching you all as much as me. Hes one heck of a man that Djoker

[kingraf]

The funny thing, is that for about five months now this forum has begged Djokovic to do something about those overheads

[kingraf]

I dont think this match deserves any baiting from fans, these two guys just put together the finest hour of baseline tennis you'll ever see.

[invisiblecoolers]

Djoko will be 3rd time lucky for sure, it took 3 attempts in a row for Rafa to down Roger in Grass, not counting matches pre 2011, Djoko will win Rafa the next time if they both make the stage.

[Jeremy_Kyle]

Go Tsonga!!

[lags72]

I'd be surprised if anyone calls it an exciting match, despite the twists & turns.

Let's hope for a good second SF.

Credit to Djoko for his many fight backs. Congrats to Rafa for seeing it through.

[Guest]

Rafa must be favourite now for YE1?

[Guest]

Lets all hope Ferrer doesn't win.

THAT would mean the most anticlimactic final ever.

[CAS]

for Nadals legacy its good he won, I dont think it would look good on his CV had he lost in all 4 slams to Novak. One of the reasons why, even though the losses to Novak hurt as a Federer fan at the US Open, with Rafa awaiting in the final it cushioned the blow

[kingraf]

Nadal could have been out of here in three, and definitely should have been through in four. But he likes throwing it away to win 9-7, doesnt he?

[kingraf]

Tsonga time. I cant see him losing.

[lydian]

Oh guys...boy I'm emotionally spent...that 5th set was truly unbearable. 9-7 in the 5th like Wimb2008.

Great battle of wills by both guys in the end, this is the uniqueness that is tennis. Its why we're all fans of the sport.

HMM/Socal - I really feel for you guys

Homogenised - take your reverse-fanboy (to coin your phrase) bitterness elsewhere please, this forum isn't like OTF.

Nothing much more to say really...I'll be back tomorrow.

Glad he won of course but I feel kind of too mentally wrung out to post further. See you guys later...

[lorus59]

The French Open is already over. Williams and Nadal are sure winners. There is no point in watching the rest.

[barrystar]

Rafa must be favourite now for YE1?

If he wins the final he's on 7,000 points to Djoko's 5,030, so that's a very big advantage granted, but not insurmountable. It's very difficult to tell how strong Nadal will be on grass and hard court from his clay performance because he's so far out in front. You could even argue that he's never been so close to losing at RG, which suggests that on other surfaces Djoko starts ahead of him.

[summerblues]

Ok, so need to refocus on the minor SF now. Rooting for Tsonga, expecting Ferrer.

[kingraf]

Emancipator - Maybe, Djokovic has about 4900 points, a win for Nadal puts him at 7, 000, he probably needs to take Wimbledon for me to actually start paying close attention to the Race.

[luciusmann]

Well done to Rafa, I really thought it was over and it looked like it was until Djokovic went into the net and that changed things. I think that really irked Djokovic but it was a very close match but should it have been? Nadal was the better player on the whole although maybe it wouldn't have looked quite like that with the bad line call in the 3rd set however, what I don't understand is why they don't have hawk eye in the French Open?

I have no doubt he will claim his 8th RG crown and he is undoubtedly deserve to make history. What happens on grass is another matter, based on this performance, Nadal will not want to meet Djokovic in the semis! Djokovic has now shown he can push Nadal to the brink even on Nadal's favourite court, so what this means for other tournaments will be interesting...

[invisiblecoolers]

I'd be surprised if anyone calls it an exciting match, despite the twists & turns.

Let's hope for a good second SF.

Credit to Djoko for his many fight backs. Congrats to Rafa for seeing it through.

I saw this match much better quality than AO 2012, it was exciting, count me in that list.

[Henman Bill]

On year end, I now see Djoko as favourite for #1, Rafa is starting to look favourite for #2 ahead of Murray.

I think Djoko is capable of pulling back a lot of points - no clay for the rest of the year.

[invisiblecoolers]

The year end no.1 is dead sealed in Rafa's side if he wins the FO, the rest of the year the points will be shared by top 5, which means it will be very difficult for Djoko to score 3k points over Rafa.

[kingraf]

Luciusman - it will be interesting to see the rivalry from here, does Nadal turn a corner? The match went to five, but it was more a result of Djokovic's spirit. I dont think Djokovic really needed any confirmation that he can beat Nadal off clay.

[lags72]

invisible - maybe so but personally I've always felt that AO2012 was more about quantity than quality and I don't think I'm alone in that.

For me, the ultimate barometer of a high quality AND exciting match remains Wimbledon final 2008.

[break_in_the_fifth]

Great achievement for Nadal and whatever he does on this surface that enables him to win is the most effective there's ever been. Unlucky for Novak, had he won this I would have been happy for him to win the CYGS and become the new GOAT.

[lags72]

Would that alone make him the GOAT bitf ...... ??

[summerblues]

Had a quick lunch and I see that Ferrer is already winning.

[The Special Juan]

Daveed to whip Nadal in the final. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

[Henman Bill]

1st set, I struggled to get into it for some reason. Then I missed a big chunk of the end of the second set and start of the third due to a really important 1.30 meeting that I was never going to cancel.

Set 4, I think Rafa was 6-5 up and I believe it was the 12th game of the set Rafa was just getting the ball back into court and Djokovic was missing. It looked at that stage that the match was going to be decided by one player getting the ball into play - nothing more - and the other missing. So that's when I started to support Djokovic, I wanted a 5th set too.

The 5th set I thought was excellent, much more aggression from Rafa, some great rallies, good quality, and a really superb and key game at one point. I think it was the 5th game, at 3-1, when Djokovic had a chance for 4-1 with a double break and got close to it that was so important. But that being said, I think the net touch decided the match. I really do. We'll never know for sure what would have happened, but I at least think without the net touch he had a >50% chance of winning the match, and probably would have won that game (did it happen at deuce and he would have had advantage).

I was more neutral in the 5th set but after that net touch started supporting Djokovic again because I didn't want the match decided by a net touch. Which was such a shame after a good match. By the way, I don't like that rule. I think you should be allowed to touch the net if the opponent doesn't reach the ball at least, or something like that less strict.

Then the last game. Sad to say it, a rubbish anticlimax of a game, similar to last year.

Reflecting on it a few minutes after finishing, maybe Rafa deserved that luck with the net touch or at least deserved to win though. He was slightly the better player overall due to Novak's poor third set - the only really one sided set. In the first 4 sets, Rafa won 3 more games (counting tiebreak as 1 game). I do actually think Novak played well too and his supposedly poor perfomance has been exaggerated on here by some as I read back the comments.

[kingraf]

Ferrer and Tsonga feel a little bit like watching Justin Bieber following a Michael Jackson performance. Or, for my fellow cricket fans, watching Chris Martin bat having just watched Tendulkar.

[break_in_the_fifth]

Not really but I wouldn't have minded him surpassing Fed in the required stats after that.

[HM Murdock]

Finally have a chance to gather my thoughts!

To my great surprise, I'm not in the pits of despair! My main feeling is one of bewilderment!

I have no complaints at the result. Taking the match as a whole, I think Rafa was the better player by no small measure.

I have a feeling of frustration too that Novak brought an element of farce to it. Touching the net! I'm staggered.

The overhead smash situation is becoming silly now. He's so poor at them that matches are turning on them. He MUST work on that.

As much as I'm replaying that blunder in my mind, I'm also mindful that Rafa absolutely bungled an easy backhand in AO12 which ultimately swung that match to Novak. So these things even out over the long run.

I think the one thing that was unlucky (as opposed to a self inflicted blunder!) was serving second in the 5th. Once Rafa broke back and Novak was always serving to stay in the match, I knew the game was up and he would eventually crack.

And now I need to lay down for a while!

[kingraf]

I would hope that last set put to bed the myth that once Djokovic goes up a gear, Nadal has no chance, but I'm probably wrong.

[Henman Bill]

Still, no-one has ever produced any statistics about whether servinng 2nd really makes any difference. So there were 2 missed smashes, the first one didn't matter because he held anyway. And was the second in the last game where he was broken to love? One of the first two points?

[CAS]

meanwhile, Tsonga doesn't look interested as Ferrer goes *4-0 up

[The Special Juan]

I feel for you HM but I wouldn't despair too much. If they meet at the USO, there's only going to be one winner there. That was the most Nadal's ever been pushed at RG (without getting beat but we all know that doesn't count because he was injured ) and for that Novak can be immensely proud.

[CAS]

Still, no-one has ever produced any statistics about whether servinng 2nd really makes any difference. So there were 2 missed smashes, the first one didn't matter because he held anyway. And was the second in the last game where he was broken to love? One of the first two points?

The missed smash that gave Federer double set point at Wimbledon last year I think I'm right in saying? And a missed smash that gave Murray double set point in the US Open final as well. Both lost him the match in hindsight, he has a huge issue with them for sure.

[Haddie-nuff]

Sorry for you Novak fans... But ME Im tickled pink

[The Special Juan]

Sorry for you Novak fans... But ME Im tickled pink

I'm surprised you're not leading a conga line around the streets!!

[summerblues]

I do not like to say things like "the best/worst I have ever seen", so I am not going to say it now. But do many of you remember many worse overhead performances than Nole had today? Including the net one, I think he blew five of them - and they were not exactly difficult overheads either. How many did he make? It feels like maybe two? I suppose it may have been more but the missed ones are easier to remember.

[Sponsored content]