re: Official 2013 French Open Thread

The way Haas is playing and moving around the court, I can see him playing for 3-4 more years.

Agassi was playing at a very high level when he was 35, but it was only because his groundstrokes are historically second to none, and they allowed him to dictate points and thus mask the fact that his movement was just awful.

Haas looks like he's 27.

quote:

---

Wawrinka has thrown in the towel.

---

Are you able to watch it? I'm getting Haas/Djoker.

ESPN3 is giving the option to watch either.

A french open win would move Rafa to 3rd place all time with Roy Emerson and only 2 away from tying Sampras

Rafa/Djoke is gonna be focking epic.

quote:

---

Djokovic was just broken when he was serving for the match. 5-5 in the third now.

---

Djoker's return of serve is filthy enough to lessen the magnitude of getting broken.

quote:

---

too bad its not the final

---

Well, it is the final. But it is too bad that the final isn't the final.

Both matches officially in the books now. Nole had to work a little harder, but they were both in straight sets.

Looking forward to that semi!

quote:

---

A french open win would move Rafa to 3rd place all time with Roy Emerson and only 2 away from tying Sampra

---

And nobody with a brain would put Roy Emerson even in their top 15 players ever.

Tennis was a clusterfrick prior to the Open Era. It was a bit like boxing is now. So it's really hard to figure out who the greatest of past eras really were. But the generally consensus is that Pancho Gonzales, Bill Tilden, Jack Kramer, and Don Budge were the cream of the crop.

quote:

---

Was discussing this the other day with my brother who played at the college level, where would you rank Rafa's passing game? I struggle to find someone on his level. His ability, thanks largely to the fact he used to hit a forehand from sides, to get so much pace on his passing shots and still whip them down is insane. In his epics with Federer at Wimbledon he hit some of the most insane passing shots I've ever seen, shots that shouldn't be possible.

We were also talking about how the general improvement of all players' passing game, obviously aided by the new technology, is one of the main reasons for the death of the serve-and-volleyer.

Am I on the right track? I love tennis, but never played enough to know if my technical/strategy takeaways are worth a damn or not.

---

I'd actually never considered this question, but I do think you're on the right track.

Have you read Rafa's book? The way it is set up is that the chapters go back and forth between being written from Rafa's perspective and from the perspective of somebody close to him. Anyway, Carlos Moya writes one che of the chapters and he talks about how much Rafa holds back on his shotmaking in actual matches versus when they practice together (or used to practice together when Rafa was coming up and Moya was one of the best in the world).

And he's right. Rafa doesn't look to end points with brilliant winners. He looks to set up rallies and pull the trigger on a winner only when he has a decided advantage in court position. But of course it doesn't always work out nicely for him like that. A lot of times he ends up getting forced into the defensive position, and when this happens is when we see the shotmaking that Moya was referring to.

Dude will be like 8 feet behind the baseline on a dead sprint and rip a forehand that bends three feet only to land an inch in the court. Who else can do that?

It reminds me a little bit of a boxer trapped in teh corner whosse "flight" response is no longer an option and so the "fight" kicks in and so he fires away with a rapid combination of punches, all of which land. I actually used to box, and whenever I was in the ring with somebody that I rspected too much, this would happen to me. I'd be overly cautious, afraid to take the offensive until I was in a position where I had no choice but to take the offensive, and then I would fire off some of my best punches. I think that's the mindset of Rafa during a point.

Also, his passing shots benefit from his speed, and his extremely underrated backhand.

I'm not sure who in history has had a better passing shot. Agassi, perhaps. But Agassi couldn't turn defense into offense like Nadal. So I'm gonna go Nadal. I'll throw Lendl in the conversation as well, but I think Nadal takes the cake.