re: Official French Open Discussion Thread

quote:

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Just every now and again, there's a Strange Federer Softness. Sometimes you get the sense that he feels he's proved his point in the early games and expects the rest of the match to fall into line out of courtesy. And if it doesn't, if things don't work out as a logical extension of those first few games, he's taken aback. It's not that he lacks the mental strength to compete, more that he loses his decision-making ability because he's genuinely perplexed.

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While I agree with that, I'll add Fed NEVER had to play aggressive tennis on "big points" because time and time again his opponents played poorly enough that Fed came through repeatedly. Nadal was not that guy, Federer NEVER adjusted to Nadal's style until maybe 2011.

In two of their epic Finals Federer had more break opportunities, but rarely cashed in and that was the difference in the match. Big points, Fed was thinking he could just rely on errors or poor shot selection from Nadal like he did every other player. Not gonna happen.

Edit: and at Serena in discussion as best ever. You young pups can be dumb as a sack of rocks, but entertainingly dumb though.