Should be a great final on Sunday. Best matchup you could probably have asked for (besides Fed & Rafa). The women's final on the other hand looks to be a yawner. The best match was probably Henin vs Sharapova.10spro wrote:Rhymes, I am glad that you did not asked me 'bout who would be in the women's finals.Geez.
Big win for Soderling and props to the Swede for making the finals for the 2nd year in a row. It should be Rafa on the other side of the net but I would think that the match won't be as easy as it maybe printed on paper.
If Soderling serves well and keeps his serves wide to either side of the Spaniard, he can take advantage of his heavy forehand, problem is of course, Nadal is probably the best serve returner today since A. Agassi retired.
Soderling has mental lapses in his game, he must fix that to have any chance at spoiling the party for one of the great clay players of all time.
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I don't follow the women's game much and I won't be able to catch the match tomorrow but I think it could be an interesting contrast. Schiavone's a very tough cookie and a classic clay-court player. She moves very well and she'll probably have to in order to withstand the kind of onslaught Stosur is likely to unleash.JackB1 wrote:Should be a great final on Sunday. Best matchup you could probably have asked for (besides Fed & Rafa). The women's final on the other hand looks to be a yawner. The best match was probably Henin vs Sharapova.10spro wrote:Rhymes, I am glad that you did not asked me 'bout who would be in the women's finals.
Big win for Soderling and props to the Swede for making the finals for the 2nd year in a row. It should be Rafa on the other side of the net but I would think that the match won't be as easy as it maybe printed on paper.
If Soderling serves well and keeps his serves wide to either side of the Spaniard, he can take advantage of his heavy forehand, problem is of course, Nadal is probably the best serve returner today since A. Agassi retired.
Soderling has mental lapses in his game, he must fix that to have any chance at spoiling the party for one of the great clay players of all time.
Think we got the final we wanted on the men's side. IMO, the Soderling V Berdych match wasn't anywhere near as good as the scoreline suggests but the Swede did play very well towards the end. Rafa showed that he's human with a dose of the wobbles when he was serving for the match in the 3rd. It was similar to when he failed to close out the match against Fed in the 4th set breaker of Wimbledon 2008. Agree with 10spro that if Soderling plays well, he's a big threat. On the other hand, Nadal was hitting very short in their match last year and I don't expect a repeat of that on Sunday. IMO, Nadal has served very well in the last few matches. It's an aspect of his game that's often criticised but I think he's been mixing it nicely.
Very happy to see La ragazza Italiana win the French Open, first Italian in a any GS tournament in fact. A natural clay player, I thought she mixed her game up at key moments of the match, coming to the net and slicing the ball perfectly.
Stosur has nothing to be ashamed of, upsetting all those top players to reach the finals, she'll do fine in future GS.
It should be Rafa's day tomorrow, hope Soderling puts a good fight though. Serving well will be the key for the Swede.
Stosur has nothing to be ashamed of, upsetting all those top players to reach the finals, she'll do fine in future GS.
It should be Rafa's day tomorrow, hope Soderling puts a good fight though. Serving well will be the key for the Swede.
Soderling is seen as a one-dimensional player with a huge serve, pounding groundstrokes and relatively little versatility in terms of having a plan B. That may be true but he does what he does very well and, fortunately for him, his natural game is probably the best and maybe the only way to beat Rafa on clay. Impossible to bet against Rafa though. He's one of the best clay-courters ever and if he wins today, he'll be only one away from Borg's six RG titles.
Not a lot of love lost between these two so that adds even more interest
http://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2010/06/ ... 275773729/
Really looking forward to this one.
Didn't see the match but caught the prize-giving ceremony and Schiavone's absolute joy was almost contagious.
Not a lot of love lost between these two so that adds even more interest
http://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2010/06/ ... 275773729/
Really looking forward to this one.
Didn't see the match but caught the prize-giving ceremony and Schiavone's absolute joy was almost contagious.
But he didn't serve well, maybe in part due to the fact that he knew it was so important and the pressure got to him. In contrast Rafa served very well and his game plan of high topspin to excellent length and great angles did the rest. Fair dues to Soderling for 2 excellent back-to-back RGs. I'm not a big fan of his style but he's the only player ever to beat Rafa at RG and the only player apart from Rafa to beat Fed at RG in the last 6 editions. Rafa's court coverage was immense.10spro wrote:Very happy to see La ragazza Italiana win the French Open, first Italian in a any GS tournament in fact. A natural clay player, I thought she mixed her game up at key moments of the match, coming to the net and slicing the ball perfectly.
Stosur has nothing to be ashamed of, upsetting all those top players to reach the finals, she'll do fine in future GS.
It should be Rafa's day tomorrow, hope Soderling puts a good fight though. Serving well will be the key for the Swede.
Nadal was invincible in RG this year. Even if Federer made it to the final, I think the Spaniard woud have destroyed him the same way he did back in the 08 finals. His coverage was massive, very strong mentally and followed his plan to a T.
Soderling committed too many unforced errors and already half way through the second set he already looked uninsterested. His big serve indeed desserted him big time and when that happened he just could never settle down and use his big forhand.
His backhand was a disaster as well, spreading unforced errors everywhere, partly because of his off day and a lot because of Rafa's constant pressure on him.
Nadal is number# 1 again, would love to see the big W host Federer and Nadal in the final. The Swiss shold be hungry again in his house.
Soderling committed too many unforced errors and already half way through the second set he already looked uninsterested. His big serve indeed desserted him big time and when that happened he just could never settle down and use his big forhand.
His backhand was a disaster as well, spreading unforced errors everywhere, partly because of his off day and a lot because of Rafa's constant pressure on him.
Nadal is number# 1 again, would love to see the big W host Federer and Nadal in the final. The Swiss shold be hungry again in his house.
Enjoyed tha Halle final today. Great win for Hewitt. Life in the old dog still. He looked down and out at a set down, 4-4 and 0-40 on his serve having blown an early break in the 2nd but he clawed his way back and you once he got the break at the beginning of the 3rd, you could almost sense him smelling blood as the instincts of a champion kicked in.
Didn't see the Queens final but good week for American tennis with Querrey beating Fish in the final.
Despite results this week, I'd still pick Fed, Rafa and Roddick as the ones to watch at Wimbledon.
Didn't see the Queens final but good week for American tennis with Querrey beating Fish in the final.
Despite results this week, I'd still pick Fed, Rafa and Roddick as the ones to watch at Wimbledon.
Missed the finals rhymes, as my focus has shifted to the WC. Roddick better pick up his slack as he was bounced in the second round of the tourney but his big boomer is a great asset at Wimbledon.
Federer has to be hungry to reclaim his number 1 status and where better than at his own backyard. I'd like to include Djokovic among the favorites, as well as the hometown boy A. Murray. A lot of players are banged up as well this year, so hopefully we all can watch a Rafa-Fed final for all the glory.
Federer has to be hungry to reclaim his number 1 status and where better than at his own backyard. I'd like to include Djokovic among the favorites, as well as the hometown boy A. Murray. A lot of players are banged up as well this year, so hopefully we all can watch a Rafa-Fed final for all the glory.
What a colossal upset in the making at Wimbledon, if southpaw Alejandro Falla continues with his strong play against heavy favorite R. Federer. Up two sets to love, had 4 break points on the Swiss serve in the third and has shown some heavy haymakers. Roger just finally broke his serve, and if he wants to claw out of this match, he must improve his serving and cut down on his unforced errors. Fed has been struggling on the pre-tournaments leading to the big W, he's definitely beatable. He's got to continue pounding on Falla's backhand. Very tight game.
Had to get out of a hole in the fourth as well. Falla's playing out of his skin. Great match but surely Fed won't let it slip now.10spro wrote:What a colossal upset in the making at Wimbledon, if southpaw Alejandro Falla continues with his strong play against heavy favorite R. Federer. Up two sets to love, had 4 break points on the Swiss serve in the third and has shown some heavy haymakers. Roger just finally broke his serve, and if he wants to claw out of this match, he must improve his serving and cut down on his unforced errors. Fed has been struggling on the pre-tournaments leading to the big W, he's definitely beatable. He's got to continue pounding on Falla's backhand. Very tight game.
Falla run out of gas and maybe his groin slowed him down a bit. He played an awesome match and even Federer admitted that this is a match that he should have lost if it wan't played on grass. The Swiss did a lot of running around for the 1st four sets, and if it wasn't for his great conditioning, the outcome could have been much different.
And I was just saying this morning that Fed's draw looked very comfortable in the early rounds. Very tight escape with Falla serving to win it in the fourth. This the third time they've met in the last five or six weeks so I guess Falla had gone beyond the point of being overawed at sharing a court with Fed and maybe has learned a thing or two about how to play him better. I was surprised by the amount of trouble Fed had dealing with the lefty slice serve to the backhand but he showed great composure when the chips were down. On the live stream I was watching, McEnroe felt that this could wake Fed up a bit and ultimately benefit him for the rest ot the tournament.
Roddick's been in very good form over the last year and a half or so. He's taken a bit of a break since winning Miami but Wimbledon is probably his best slam and for me he's one of the favourites this year. Tricky second round match tomorrow against LLodra, the French serve/volleyer who won a tournament on grass last week.
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sportdan30
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Agreed. What kind of shape are these guys gonna be in for the 2nd round match tomorrow? Mahut had to fight his way through the qualies and Isner was surely looking to make a big impact here. It's a nice one for the record books but not good news for two pros looking to make progress in the tournament. Time to start thinking about a final set tie breaker at Wimbledon?pk500 wrote:Match has lasted more than nine hours. What is this, test cricket?
Insane!
How is this even humanly possible? It's not like these guys are hitting a lot of unforced errors. They are acing the crap out of each other and hitting good shots. They are going to be very sore in the morning I would imagine. The records they are setting will stand for a very long time, if not forever.
I think the problem is that the tie breaker in tennis is seen by many as a lottery, similar to penalties in soccer. I hate penalties as a way of deciding important soccer matches. For me, nobody won the World Cup in 1994. On the other hand, one of my favourite sporting memories is the fourth-set tiebreak played by McEnroe and Borg in the 1980 Wimbledon final. The penalty in soccer is just one aspect of the game. The tie-breaker in tennis involves playing points that require the same skills as those of a normal game and is a fantastic climax to any set, including the last IMO.
Nope - this match is something special that will go into the sports lore. If they used the 5th set tie break it would be just another early round match between unknowns.JackB1 wrote:This proves they need to abolish this system and play a normal tiebreaker like they do in every other tournament. To continue to play normal games until one person wins by 2 can just get too ridiculous, as witnessed today.
Best wishes,
Doug
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