Rome 2014

First topic message reminder :

ATP Draw: http://www.atpworldtour.com/Share/Event-Draws.aspx?EventId=416&Year=2014

WTA Draw: http://www.wtatennis.com/singles-draws/tournamentId/643/round/7/rangeStart/1/rangeEnd/16

OoP:

Sunday, May 18, 2014

CENTRALE Start 1:30 pm
[1] Serena Williams (USA)
v
[10] Sara Errani (ITA)

Not Before 4:00 pm

[1] Rafael Nadal (ESP)
v
[2] Novak Djokovic (SRB)

PIETRANGELI Start 2:30 pm

[6] Daniel Nestor (CAN)
Nenad Zimonjic (SRB)
v
Robin Haase (NED)
Feliciano Lopez (ESP)

[4] Kveta Peschke (CZE)
Katarina Srebotnik (SLO)
v
[2] Sara Errani (ITA)
Roberta Vinci (ITA)

(Apologies for missing last two days. Been a bit under the weather).

slashermcguirk wrote:To come through stepanek, kohlschreiber, ferrer and raonic is impressive

Or: to lose a set to kohli, and struggle against David and Milos, whom he should beat in his sleep, is alarming

Dimi

slashermcguirk wrote:Another good win for Novak.

What illegal substance are you on? What good win? That win was below average, let alone good. Not been watching this week have you?   

Lets go Dimi lets go, save the face of tennis, for gods sake. Nadal and Djoko last 2 months have been a disgrace, forcible undeserved wins. Dont start now the usual bs, sometimes players have to win like that blla blla. Talking about purely aesthetic tennis here.

My eyes and brain are tired of these top 8 players. Go AWAYYY!!!!

summerblues wrote:

slashermcguirk wrote:To come through stepanek, kohlschreiber, ferrer and raonic is impressive

Or: to lose a set to kohli, and struggle against David and Milos, whom he should beat in his sleep, is alarming

Yep, he's definitely not at his best but nor is he playing too badly either.

His problem is he keeps going horribly passive and careful at big moments: serving for sets, backing up breaks if serve, break points etc.

These tough, narrow wins are more through resilience and toughness than great play.

In fairness, the individual performances from Ferrer and Raonic were among the better ones I've seen from them. Their level came up more than Novak's came down.

Jahu, he appears to be in the final despite having played hardly any tennis. Not sure what you are on? Last time I checked ferrer, kohli, raonic and stepanek are top players

slash, of course, just that it was nothing to do with "good", we all know what good wins from Djoko look, or good streaks in tournaments. That was my point.

Jahu wrote:

My eyes and brain are tired of these top 8 players. Go AWAYYY!!!!

Hmm does that include ALL of the top eight??

I can give Murray another 12 months, lets see his back work out, Delpo is toast, Stan I'm happy has a GS, Berdy is lame, Ferret is nothing.

Not bad eh?

Jahu wrote:I can give Murray another 12 months, lets see his back work out, Delpo is toast, Stan I'm happy has a GS, Berdy is lame, Ferret is nothing.

Not bad eh?

So as I thought it is NOT all of the top eight. Thanks for clearing that up.

Ye ye, Andy is my second fav guy, he played good last night, and not seen him long time play.

Dimi not at his best here, Nadal doing a quick one tonight I guess.

So it is seven you have no time for. Ooooh Roger will be upset.

Rog is history man, time for new blood, which is nowhere to be seen.

Well will look forward to you vehemently getting behind whoever is playing Roger from now on then.    

Agreed, apart from Choko.

Dimi needs Norman, to inject some Soderling and Stan discipline and shotmaking.

Thought Rafa looked to be playing very well last night. Haven't seen anything of Novak but by all accounts he has been struggling. However, the position was similar in Miami and he came out and smashed Rafa up badly there. Have a feeling we may see something similar here - going to go for Novak in 2.

Fairly depressing by the way that this thread has only just over 100 comments. Looking back, last year's had over 600 and the two years before were about 1,000 or so. Not sure what can be done about it but it does seem that the tennis section of this site is slowly dying.

Looking forward to the final today. A djokovic win could make the French open very interesting. Really want to see Novak complete the career slam. Jahu, I am sure you agree :-)

The final today could go either way. If Novak can stick with Rafa and get off to a quick start then he could win in straight sets but never doubt Rafa's battling spirit plus he did look good yesterday against Dimi.

BS you must take into account a fact that we are amidst the clay court season and in years gone by we had a plethora of Rafa fans enthusing over their players skill and impressive wins which certainly helped to punch the post numbers up and then you had the anti-Nadal posters countering those posts counting for more posts but now they no longer have those Rafa fans to counter-post with.

As ever, not much between these two. I think the general rule of "give Novak the edge on HC and Rafa the edge on clay" holds true.

Similar situation today to Miami where Rafa seemed to have played himself to form whilst Novak seemed be not quite on all cylinders.

I don't expect a repeat of the Miami final though. My gut says Rafa in two hard fought sets. But no outcome would surprise me.

Born Slippy wrote:Fairly depressing by the way that this thread has only just over 100 comments. Looking back, last year's had over 600 and the two years before were about 1,000 or so. Not sure what can be done about it but it does seem that the tennis section of this site is slowly dying.

Several months ago, there was some discussion about this and the general health of the Tennis Section. Typically, contentious threads get more comments, otherwise they are fewer. As many have have said, some amount of WUMmery may be the medicine this section needs.

(I can always ask SoCal to start something... )

CaledonianCraig wrote:The final today could go either way. If Novak can stick with Rafa and get off to a quick start then he could win in straight sets but never doubt Rafa's battling spirit plus he did look good yesterday against Dimi.

Dimitrov was pretty lackluster and became over-aggressive, when patience was required, and gave away errors.

CaledonianCraig wrote:BS you must take into account a fact that we are amidst the clay court season and in years gone by we had a plethora of Rafa fans enthusing over their players skill and impressive wins which certainly helped to punch the post numbers up and then you had the anti-Nadal posters countering those posts counting for more posts but now they no longer have those Rafa fans to counter-post with.

Number of posts can be misleading in terms of a vibrancy measure. I could have added some commentary and swelled the numbers on this thread, or had a thread per day for Rome. Perhaps RG will bring a larger participation.

Turn the clock back a year or two and you had many Rafa fans who were regular posters (all but gone now and not replaced) and so post numbers have fallen. Those that revelled in winding-up the said-mentioned Rafa fans have had their favourite pastime taken away so again you lose more posts. The latter will not be missed but the former are.

I was hoping we would now be getting ready for Dimi vs Rao, but it was not to be. So:

Nole

Come on Rafa, chop him.

Born Slippy wrote:Fairly depressing by the way that this thread has only just over 100 comments. Looking back, last year's had over 600 and the two years before were about 1,000 or so. Not sure what can be done about it but it does seem that the tennis section of this site is slowly dying.

It's the tennis.

What else is there left to say about a sport locked in time? Even as Nadal and Djokovic are nowhere near as good as either were a few years ago there's no threat, no competition. It's just the same week after week, tournament after tournament. Wawrinka was leapt upon as a drowning man grabs anything to save himself  but he's turned out to be no salvation, just a flash.

They've killed the sport with technology and conditions and made it boring.

Breake him nowwww

And Djoko broken.

Yeah bb is right. Tennis is boring for now. Wake me up in 2018.

4:1 for Nadal,  Djoko scared like a puppy,  cant hit simple balls.  Expect a MTO soon from him, minuse one smashed racket.

At this rate, Nadal just needs to put the ball back in the court, and Djokovic will commit mistakes. 14 UEs so far, and counting.

I'm not quite sure I'd agree that Nadal and Djokovic have made tennis boring.

Where you like it or not they are the two best, by a large margin, players in the world.

It's hardly their fault Murray got injured and Del Potro's wrists are falling apart.

The new guys are coming up, the likes of Raonic and Dimitrov, but they've still got a few pieces to compile in their puzzles yet.

Nothing lasts forever, just as Roger, I bet many claimed he was killing tennis with his domination. It's didn't last forever did it?

Djoko needs the third coach, maybe Lendl as well. He has same amount of coaches to the tournament wins this year.

Gerry, its not Nadal and Djoko who made it boring, thought they helped a lot, its the general slowness and defensive play that has happened on all surfaces.

Jahu wrote:Gerry,  its not Nadal and Djoko who made it boring,  thought they helped a lot,  its the general slowness and defensive play that has happened on all surfaces.

I agree regarding the lack of speed on HCs and grass.

But I think this has happened in part due to TV networks wanting these 3/4/5hr matches to boost TV rating.

I don't think TV networks would want a return to the 1990s when slam finals could be over inside 90mins

Gerry SA wrote:TV networks wanting these 3/4/5hr matches

Surely not?

Yes, a mix of commercial interests. I guess those and fans pleasure will never be in sync.

Boring??? Yeah I really miss the ace fest of 90s and early noughties!! Serve volley on every point.

Its only people who are fans of these slow defensive players, that trash the previous tennis style.

Anyway,  when in Rome,  Nadal takes first set.

What a forehand!!!!!

Djoko taking over now, Nadal sleeping.

Watching Novak in full flow....such a talent! Nadal destined to raise his game again though

Visions of Madrid 2009, anyone?

Come Rafa break him from 40:0

And he does with the help of a couple of lucky babies.

That match vs Murray lit a fire in Nadals shorts again.

This is why Rafa remains the King of Clay.

Even if his opponent is up 40-0 in his service game, the opponent can never relax.

Agree, Nadal seems good only SF and F these days.

Very good match so far

First time in 6 years that the championship match in the Eternal City goes the distance.

On that day unheralded Swiss Stan Wawrinka took the first set 6/4. Novak Djokovic then won the second and third sets 6/3.

Anyone feel the same today?