Rafatennis Part II - Roland Garros 22 May - 5 June 2011

First topic message reminder :

So here we are then folks...the second slam of the year, with so much riding on it.

Will Novak get that No 1 that he so craves? Will Rafa get title No 6 to equal Bjorn Borg's records? Will Roger step back up and prove a threat and will Murray follow up his good form on the clay of Monte Carlo and Rome with a good run here?

The draw is out and Rafa faces John Isner in Round 1. Robin Soderling is in Rafa's quarter and Andy Murray in the same half.

Rafa has been in Paris for a couple of days already on the promotion trail with appearances at Armani and the Nike store. He's also been at the tournament site practising with Gilles Simon.

Good luck Rafa and vamos!

Ooh, it says on the tournament website that the rain has stopped and they are mopping the main court and Pietrangeli - the men's doubles finals may be played on Pietrangeli, which would make sense. Come on, come on, come on, vamos!

Ladies

I have now done my hair, had a shower and tidied my bathroom cabinet out. Young Miss Rose has also had her hair done and had a nice neat blow dry.

Yes Rafan ... I was in the foulest of foul moods last year because I was getting my hair wet. I even resorted to wearing my sunhat in a bid to try and save it. And oh ... we were near former Scouser Jon Arne Riise whilst sheltering from the rain ... so that didn't lighten my mood either.

Its chucking it down here too.

The only game I can think of is "Positives". What Positives can we take for Rafa for today and the rest of the season?

Positives are that he's made the final of every Masters 1000 this year, won one of them and won a 500. I hope for more positives later

The ladies' match is underway - Sharapova up a break. Come on Maria, make this quick! Vite vite vite!

My first positive was going to be ...

The ladies are on court playing now ... so you may get on in a couple of hours, Rafi.

But its Rafan's turn today to beat me to it.

Another positive is that regardless of today's result, Djokovic will have yet another match played and more mileage in those legs going into Roland Garros.

And this is Rafa in Rome ... and he will make him feel every single step he plays.

Positives.....He's just the best....and whatever is thrown at him, he will find a way to deal with it. He will never give up, will always try, and if it isn't good enough, then he will go home, think about it, work on it and come back once again.

He is the best role model that kids could have, and if we could have a british player as good and as lovely as he is, then we could consider ourselves very, very lucky

I could still slap him though...cos he does put us through the wringer

Rafa now has years of experience of going into a Major being one of the favourites and handling it. As does Roger.

The rest have been able to fly under the radar, so it will be "business as usual" for Rafa.

Sharapova has just taken the first set.

Good afternoon, Rafateers

for Rangers - Scottish Champions for the 3rd year in a row!!! Well done lads!

Well, I missed the Rangers game, did the shopping, did all my housework in double quick time, sat down at 3pm on the dot and . . . rain! Unbelievable. And what are they showing - blooming Djokovic v Murray!

Positives for Rafa - well, he IS Nadal; he's got to the fnal in spite of a bad start to the week with illness; he's made the final of every tournament he's been in since Melbourne. Many players would be well chuffed wth that.

Not currently feeling nervous; suspect the nerves are waiting til the match starts!!

Sharapova now serving at 4-3 in the 2nd. Hopefully won't be long now.

Well done Maria!!!

Rafa time!

<clunk> <click>

I wonder if they are presenting the women's trophy before they start the men's final. Well done Maria - great work finishing it in straight sets.

Anyone fancy a game of cards while we're waiting

Who's the of s then??

I've been playing ... Guess Who?

Or how about ...

Dorky ...

Goofy ...

Gorgeous ...

It's TIME

Come on Rafa, come ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

Anyone coming to the dark side?

I've never seen Rafa swap sides after the coin toss before. Vamos Rafa!!!

GO RAAAAAAAAAAAAAFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Aah! The nerves have arrived. Feeling sick.

Much better start by Rafa. Come on honey!! Keep going!!

Can Djokovic do any wrong ??

Hard luck Nadal, you've still got the 5 setter clay event coming up, don't despair.

I am devastated for Rafa

He still stood too far back, especially to receive serve. The only good thing was that he played better (with more purpose) than last week, but this must hurt.

Absolutely totally and utterly gutted.

Sonic.

If you can provide proof of your accusation, the do so, until then keep those kinds of remarks to yourself.

Just so gutted for Rafa.
Commentators ready to declare Djoko a god; ready to puke.

Sonic ... take that sort of comment off our thread. It is not welcome here. We have a good ambiance when we speak of Rafa and that is not to be tolerated.

Good evening. I thought Rafa played loads better than last week and would have won in straight sets against anyone else. It obviously wasn't good enough against Novak 2.0, who's effort you can only admire, particularly coming after last night effort so congratulations to him. He seems to be putting everything into "the streak", though and might come to regret that as I think there are bigger prizes at the slams.

I'm much happier with Rafa overall even though he lost. His clay game is coming together and will be peaking nicely in the 2nd week at RG, I think. If that's not enough to beat the new improved Novak, then so be it.

It must hurt to lose 4 finals on the spin, particularly to the same guy, though.

Well played both players tonight.

Rafa for me is still favourite for RG.

Womble!

Lovely words as ever. I think he played better too - and although I'm gutted, devastated and the rest of it, I don't feel as bad as I did after last week.

It does seem that Djokovic just can't lose at the moment - even after everything Murray threw at him last night he came through that. I think he's been hypnotised or something

Onwards and upwards...

And thanks to all for words of support which are always welcome, noh?

Vamos Rafa!

Good evening Womble

Of course Rafa was better than last week, however, his better still isn't good enough right now.

I feel a little disappointed because I could smell at times that Djokovic was rocking a little in that second set, but Rafa didn't have the ability to capitalise.

Its not possible to expect that after 6 years (bar one iffy result) that Rafa can dominate for the whole of his clay court career without a single challenge. Its really up to him now.

Djokovic may well be the favourite for RG. All the time he's entering into new environments where he was once able to fly under the radar ... can he cope with it?

Well done Rafa, but you now need to kick on and work harder. Vamos!!

Can't see Rafa winning at Roland Garros vs Djokovic, if he keeps playing soo defensively.

He needs to stay on the baseline and dominate with his forehand, which is far superior than Djokovic's.

He needs to come in the net more as well.

Hi Rafan and Wooffie. Yes, it is disappointing, but what I liked is that Rafa looks like he's got his spark back and I'm sure that's the competition. He didn't have that sort of jaded look he had a lot of the time in MC and Barcelona. It must be hard to keep motivating yourself when you keep beating everyone easily on a surface, even when you don't get out of 2nd gear.

This may be in a strange sort of way a good thing. Better to know the score now 3 weeks before he can possibly play Novak in a RG final. I made excuses last week about the altitude, speed of the court, etc, but now Novak has beaten him on a proper clay court so he and Toni are going to have to find a way to deal with the way Novak is playing.

The story is all going to be Novak going into RG. Every player is going to want to be the one that stops the streak so he's going to have a great big target on his back. Welcome to the world of Roger and Rafa.

Interesting there Wombie.

I think Djokovic has improved so much that Rafa needs to re-think some of his tactics. The looping forehand was not effective today as it is against other players because Djokovic was returning it with interest. When Nadal went for the flatter forehand Djokovic was able to retrieve and put it back into play.

In a strange way I am looking forward to seeing the pressure taking off Nadal going into RG because Djokovic will be the talk of the town.

I don't think Nadal has to make any major changes to his game on clay.

legendkillar wrote:Interesting there Wombie.

I think Djokovic has improved so much that Rafa needs to re-think some of his tactics. The looping forehand was not effective today as it is against other players because Djokovic was returning it with interest. When Nadal went for the flatter forehand Djokovic was able to retrieve and put it back into play.

In a strange way I am looking forward to seeing the pressure taking off Nadal going into RG because Djokovic will be the talk of the town.

I don't think Nadal has to make any major changes to his game on clay.

He needs to hit with sustained depth. He seems to drop too short vs Djokovic

sonic_boom10 wrote:

legendkillar wrote:Interesting there Wombie.

I think Djokovic has improved so much that Rafa needs to re-think some of his tactics. The looping forehand was not effective today as it is against other players because Djokovic was returning it with interest. When Nadal went for the flatter forehand Djokovic was able to retrieve and put it back into play.

In a strange way I am looking forward to seeing the pressure taking off Nadal going into RG because Djokovic will be the talk of the town.

I don't think Nadal has to make any major changes to his game on clay.

He needs to hit with sustained depth. He seems to drop too short vs Djokovic

Agreed. The looping forehand was way too short tonight.

legendkillar wrote:

sonic_boom10 wrote:

legendkillar wrote:Interesting there Wombie.

I think Djokovic has improved so much that Rafa needs to re-think some of his tactics. The looping forehand was not effective today as it is against other players because Djokovic was returning it with interest. When Nadal went for the flatter forehand Djokovic was able to retrieve and put it back into play.

In a strange way I am looking forward to seeing the pressure taking off Nadal going into RG because Djokovic will be the talk of the town.

I don't think Nadal has to make any major changes to his game on clay.

He needs to hit with sustained depth. He seems to drop too short vs Djokovic

Agreed. The looping forehand was way too short tonight.

He seems to tentative with his groundies vs Djokovic atm.

Nadal is capable of blasting both his forehand and backhand with stunning power, but recently hasn't been able to do so.

sonic_boom10 wrote:

legendkillar wrote:

sonic_boom10 wrote:

legendkillar wrote:Interesting there Wombie.

I think Djokovic has improved so much that Rafa needs to re-think some of his tactics. The looping forehand was not effective today as it is against other players because Djokovic was returning it with interest. When Nadal went for the flatter forehand Djokovic was able to retrieve and put it back into play.

In a strange way I am looking forward to seeing the pressure taking off Nadal going into RG because Djokovic will be the talk of the town.

I don't think Nadal has to make any major changes to his game on clay.

He needs to hit with sustained depth. He seems to drop too short vs Djokovic

Agreed. The looping forehand was way too short tonight.

He seems to tentative with his groundies vs Djokovic atm.

Nadal is capable of blasting both his forehand and backhand with stunning power, but recently hasn't been able to do so.

He is. Nadal's forehand is still the best in the game. I think his cross court backhand has looked week in recent events. If he can just get them up to scratch I am sure he will return to the force we all know and love.

legendkillar wrote:

sonic_boom10 wrote:

legendkillar wrote:

sonic_boom10 wrote:

legendkillar wrote:Interesting there Wombie.

I think Djokovic has improved so much that Rafa needs to re-think some of his tactics. The looping forehand was not effective today as it is against other players because Djokovic was returning it with interest. When Nadal went for the flatter forehand Djokovic was able to retrieve and put it back into play.

In a strange way I am looking forward to seeing the pressure taking off Nadal going into RG because Djokovic will be the talk of the town.

I don't think Nadal has to make any major changes to his game on clay.

He needs to hit with sustained depth. He seems to drop too short vs Djokovic

Agreed. The looping forehand was way too short tonight.

He seems to tentative with his groundies vs Djokovic atm.

Nadal is capable of blasting both his forehand and backhand with stunning power, but recently hasn't been able to do so.

He is. Nadal's forehand is still the best in the game. I think his cross court backhand has looked week in recent events. If he can just get them up to scratch I am sure he will return to the force we all know and love.

More worrying is the drop in the level of his serve.

sonic_boom10 wrote:

legendkillar wrote:

sonic_boom10 wrote:

legendkillar wrote:

sonic_boom10 wrote:

legendkillar wrote:Interesting there Wombie.

I think Djokovic has improved so much that Rafa needs to re-think some of his tactics. The looping forehand was not effective today as it is against other players because Djokovic was returning it with interest. When Nadal went for the flatter forehand Djokovic was able to retrieve and put it back into play.

In a strange way I am looking forward to seeing the pressure taking off Nadal going into RG because Djokovic will be the talk of the town.

I don't think Nadal has to make any major changes to his game on clay.

He needs to hit with sustained depth. He seems to drop too short vs Djokovic

Agreed. The looping forehand was way too short tonight.

He seems to tentative with his groundies vs Djokovic atm.

Nadal is capable of blasting both his forehand and backhand with stunning power, but recently hasn't been able to do so.

He is. Nadal's forehand is still the best in the game. I think his cross court backhand has looked week in recent events. If he can just get them up to scratch I am sure he will return to the force we all know and love.

More worrying is the drop in the level of his serve.

He doesn't make many DF's though and normally has a strong 2nd serve

Well compared to last week, I was pleased to see that he used his backhand and that he was trying to attack the Djokovic forehand. But I'm thinking that this is just the 4th time he's played the MkII version of Nole, and nothing is going to happen overnight. The standing so far back of the court and not attacking 2nd serves is an annoyance, but I always thought that Rafa's tactics against him was the standard move him around and around till he got him wider out of court cos he used to have the superior fitness so he either lost a point on that or Rafa could make his move with an easy put away.

I think he does need to change it up LK .. but I don't know enough about the game technically to suggest what. Apart from playing in the court of course.

I've only read NadalNews so far, but I'm glad there doesn't appear to be any daft hysteria. I still think Rafa will be OK for the FO ... but I think perhaps Djokovic might just run out steam at the wrong time there, and it won't be to Rafa.

Nothing last forever, and as Rafa fans, we had the most amazing time in 2010, as we did in 2008. We could kind of write off 2009 because of Rafa's injuries, but now we're feeling what other fans have felt. It happens. I hope somehow that Djokovic's challenge helps to make Rafa a better player. He's still got a good couple of years in him yet, I think.

I suppose so, but his USO 2010 serve would ease the pressure on his groundies

Sonic, the serve thing is a bit of a mystery, but it seems that whatever he was doing at the USO gave him shoulder problems (he pulled out of the Paribas Masters in Paris because of it) and since then he's been fiddling around with it. At least it's going in relaibly again now whereas I'm still having nightmares about the 2nd set serving at IW.

AFCWomble42 wrote:Sonic, the serve thing is a bit of a mystery, but it seems that whatever he was doing at the USO gave him shoulder problems (he pulled out of the Paribas Masters in Paris because of it) and since then he's been fiddling around with it. At least it's going in relaibly again now whereas I'm still having nightmares about the 2nd set serving at IW.

Ah ok, I totally forgot about the shoulder issue.

Hopefully he uses that serve again at USO 2011 though, to retain the title

Hey wooffie,

Technically his game doesn't need changing. His success is built on the depth he gets on returns. On clay he seems not to be finding that depth at the moment and in tonights match Djokovic was able to play many points from on the baseline and not behind it where so many times Nadal gets his opponents pinned behind the baseline. I think Nadal will get back to his high standards.

LK ... We've been commenting so much about Rafa just not getting his game going on clay this season, although its good enough to beat all but one player. Its just that we've got this far and its the FO next so you kind of worry if its got a bit late for those high standards to return. I think he'll take a bit more heart from today's performance, but surely it has to affect his confidence a bit.

Wooffie, I know this is clay, but grand slams are different. So often, the guy who looks the best at the start or going in, isn't the one playing his best at the end of week 2. After Toronto and Cincy, who expected Rafa to end up holding the USO trophy ? The best I was hoping for was to match 2009's SF points. After rounds 2 and 3 at Wimbledon 2010, were any of us confident he'd win ? I was just glad to see him back on grass and was convinced he'd lose to Soderling in the QF.

I'm not going to worry any more about Novak now unless they're both still in the tournament at 7pm on 3rd June.

Good Morning all my luvverly Rafateers

So let's hope all the hysteria can die down amongst the commies who are ready to bury Rafa and throw away the shovel and then we can concentrate on the important things.

Novak is playing lights out tennis, and at the moment is so confident that it is difficult to get past him. Rafa played well yesterday.....much better than last week and the beginning of this, so he and we must be happy about that.

However as always there's room from improvement and while he talks about what he needs to do, changing the habits of a lifetime are going to prove more difficult...but change he must.

We know the serve is something of a liability, but the second serve stats were bad yesterday, mainly because Novak could jump all over it and Rafa was immediately on the back foot......and.... this old chestnut again.....he plays too far back. Time after time he was 9ft behind the baseline wheras Novak was on, and then creeping inside to make his shots, pushing Rafa back....Rafa must plant himself on the baseline far more often .....and yes, come into the court.....he's not a natural vollyer (who is nowadays) but he's pretty handy around the net.

The F/H was better yesterday, but the B/H....well it wasn't!

What I did like was the fire in Rafa eyes.....he was up for the match all the way through, and I don't think he'll rest now until he bests Novak. The FO beckons and all that goes with it....we know how Rafa will deal with it, but Novak will go in as equal favourite.

What I don't like is Novak's attitude on the court, yes the players gee themselves up and I know Rafa does his fair share, but it's to himself and his corner, he doesn't strut around the court like a puffed up pidgeon. Novak needs to watch this, as does his family.....it's unsportsmanlike.

Hello Rafateers, I am certainly not here to crow about the recent match. Just hoping that Rafa enjoys great health this season and that we can witness more great battles between these champions. I appreciate the class you guys have shown, and I am sure Rafa the fighter he is will be back to his final winning ways shortly. As a Nole fan I know all streaks must come to an end. (unfortunately) When Rafa does come back, not if, this hard run of luck will make those happy times even sweeter. To truely enjoy victories one must taste defeat as well. Rafa is adaptable and versatile and will make his way back to the winners circle again. Still my favorite for RG regardless of what anyone says he is the champ till he gets knocked out.

Morning Denzy and thanks for the nice comment, Social. Seeing our boy lose two finals on clay is hard for us, but we're trying to treat it all "with colm".

Rafateers, I recommend reading Rafa's final press conference transcript on NN. Although it's a bit mangled, it's sane, balanced, positive, realistic and classy - I feel better already.

Morning How's everyone feeling today? I actually feel better today than last Monday morning (although I can feel a game coming on later ).

The fact is Nole is playing fantastic at the moment and he is currently the best player, but I think this is a good thing for Rafa. I seem to recall when he got the no. 1 first time round he said he felt a little empty (is that right or did I dream that?!). We know he's the kind of person that needs a challenge and now he has one. I have no doubt in my mind that he will rise to the challenge.

Granted, we'll all be nervous wrecks in the meantime but we're used to that.

Later lovelies.....