French Open Tennis

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Tongo

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Anyone following the events at Roland Garros?

Could be an interesting couple of weeks. Djoko needs the title to complete a career Grand Slam, but looked vulnerable in the final last year. Murray looks like he might actually launch a challenge on clay. No Fed and who knows what Wawrinka or Nadal will do?

Personally i've always preferred the French Open over Wimbledon. Maybe its the unfamiliar clay or the more guttural, visceral nature of the capricious French crowd. For me its a bit more theatrical than Centre Court.
 
Kind of got out of the tennis now. Like Louise says, it now seems to be just a case of stand at the baseline and hit it as hard as you can.

There are few exceptions to this such as Murray, federer and Djiokovic. Just seems to be all about the power...........kind of like golf :p
 
Rather than new thread thought I'd resurrect the aptly named one..

So Rafa does it again the King of Clay takes a 12th French open title. Puts him only 2 behind Federer overall in the all time Grand Slam wins tally.

I know Federer gets huge plaudits for his grace and style. But got you love Nadals athleticism and desire..
 
Nadal's record is stunning but it is so heavily leaning towards clay that even if he passes Federer's record I would still have Federer as the better player. He has a much better spread of titles over the different surfaces. Saying that, Nadal is still exceptional. You are in Messi v Ronaldo territory where either being the best are equally valid.
 
Lord Tyrion said:
Nadal's record is stunning but it is so heavily leaning towards clay that even if he passes Federer's record I would still have Federer as the better player. He has a much better spread of titles over the different surfaces. Saying that, Nadal is still exceptional. You are in Messi v Ronaldo territory where either being the best are equally valid.
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Totally agree LT the spread of Federer victories will always tip it in his favour.
It's a great thing though we've lived through an era in sport such as this where such great players showcase different skills to compete and win at the very top for so long.
 
Wolf said:
Totally agree LT the spread of Federer victories will always tip it in his favour.
It's a great thing though we've lived through an era in sport such as this where such great players showcase different skills to compete and win at the very top for so long.
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I keep saying this to my son regarding a spread of sports. He has had Messi, Ronaldo, Bolt, Woods, Federer, Nadal, Djokovic off the top of my head. All exceptional talents.

They were talking about this on The Cut podcast in relation to womens golf. The last 9 majors have been won by 9 different golfers. They have no dominant player, no star and that makes it hard for the average viewer to latch on to a player to follow. They need a star to dominate for a while so that people can get used to hearing their name.
 
I think it is a shame from what has been said previously that they made the surfaces closer together, one result was that it has made it easier for people to win on all surfaces, shame really.

IIRC I remember hearing that Lendl even didn't play in the French open one or two years, to try to win Wimbledon to complete the career slam. Hard to imagine doing that.
 
Realise why many people think Federer is the greatest, easy enough case to make.

BUT head to head Nadal is ahead 24-15 overall and 10-3 ahead in grand slams, and it not just the French Open, he is 3-1 up on Australian Open hard courts. Fed is 2-1 up at Wimbledon and strangely they've never met at Flushing Meadow.

So if Nadal does equal Fed's grand slam total, that combined with a much better head to head record, you could easily make that case for him being greatest too.

I prefer Nadal's power tennis over Fed's iffeminate ponciness but each to their own.;)
 
Lord Tyrion said:
I keep saying this to my son regarding a spread of sports. He has had Messi, Ronaldo, Bolt, Woods, Federer, Nadal, Djokovic off the top of my head. All exceptional talents.

They were talking about this on The Cut podcast in relation to womens golf. The last 9 majors have been won by 9 different golfers. They have no dominant player, no star and that makes it hard for the average viewer to latch on to a player to follow. They need a star to dominate for a while so that people can get used to hearing their name.
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But he has missed out on not seeing Pele, Georgie, Jack, Arnie, Rod, Bjorn and Johnny Mac to name a few...
 
MegaSteve said:
But he has missed out on not seeing Pele, Georgie, Jack, Arnie, Rod, Bjorn and Johnny Mac to name a few...
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There will always be greats in one sport or another at any one time but they are usually spread out and you rarely get 2 at the same time. I think he has been lucky to have seen quite a few in a short space of time. He has seen players and perhaps thinks they are the norm when they are most definitely not.

Here is a discussion for you, I would not put McEnroe in that elite bunch at the level of Nadal, Federer, Djokovic from the current era. 7 Grand Slams doesn't get him up there.
 
Lord Tyrion said:
There will always be greats in one sport or another at any one time but they are usually spread out and you rarely get 2 at the same time. I think he has been lucky to have seen quite a few in a short space of time. He has seen players and perhaps thinks they are the norm when they are most definitely not.

Here is a discussion for you, I would not put McEnroe in that elite bunch at the level of Nadal, Federer, Djokovic from the current era. 7 Grand Slams doesn't get him up there.
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Assuming he would listen and do as advised with 'modern' coaching and access to current conditioning techniques... I reckon he'd be right up there... He certainly had all the 'weapons' to be so just needed pointing in the right direction on how best to use them... Probably could say the same for many others from 'back in the day'...
 
I think the fact that Nadal has managed to win majors on other surfaces mean if he were to join beat Federer i'd have him top. Federer only got the french title because Rafa was injured imo.

Granted i'd rather watch Fed and truly believe his game transcends any era, he would have dominated at any time imo where as Rafa needed to be in an era where serve and volley wasn't the main game.

As has been pointed out, Rafa also has the better majors record in match ups.
 
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