Is Nadal done! Will Real Roger Stand up! Will Murray take over!

Postmortems are always ugly but someone's gotta do it and much as I dislike scraping fresh wounds, I think sometimes we need to do it so we can be healthier.

So I looked at some of Nadal's comments, after his US Open loss to Andy Murray and have to say that, to me they were almost Rogeresque! Let me explain what I mean.

For many months now, Roger would make comments after tournaments that I thought were kind of partial denials of reality - for example his comments after the French Open and before the Wimbledon that he was still the favorite to win Wimbledon and that grass was his best surface. While the comment was partially correct, it ignored the fact that other contenders specially Nadal was snapping at his heels - grass or no grass. Sure enough, Nadal did a Roger at Wimbledon and won the title. No denying that Roger played extremely well but no denying the end result either. I kept feeling that Roger was reluctant to acknowledge that his crown was in danger - that unlike any other time in the past four years, he was being chased very closely by Nadal and maybe a bunch of others.

Coming back to Nadal - Even though a good number of predictions were that Nadal will win USO, my reading after watching him in initial matches, was that Nadal's busy and demanding season was taking its toll on his body and he was surviving the USO matches plainly on skills and will power and not on stamina.

And now after the USO, asked if he might cut his schedule next year to avoid the match fatigue, Nadal said that "playing so many events is what enabled him to become the world No.1."

"If you want to be in the top position, do you think you have any chance if you play less? No," he said.

As you may know, next on Nadal's agenda is the Davis Cup semi-final and then the Masters Series event at Shanghai.

I think this is a potentially dangerous line of thought and a risky way of going into the next season considering that Davis cup starts within next 9 days and even though the Masters Events thankfully starts a month later, on November 9, it is still, way too short a period to recover from grueling matches. Is Nadal cutting it too fine physically, because the Australian Open then starts on January 19th.

Maybe I'm getting paranoid for nothing, after-all Nadal is supremely fit looking athlete but something to me is not right in this picture. I would rather have him skip the Davis Cup (or maybe just be a reserve for the Davis Cup), take longer rest and then go to Masters in Shanghai.

Even some of the other comments he made like, ""You know how important it was for me to win Wimbledon after two years playing the finals," Nadal said. "For sure after Wimbledon I had the big goal - Number One and Olympics and finals US Open", appear to me as unlike Nadal. Is he already sounding like Roger! Your call!

Moving on to Roger- He's the US Open Champion and winner of 13 slams and I hate to write anything that takes away from his achievements but I've got to say that even though he won the match from Andy Murray, he didn't convince me that he will rule the courts the way he used to. Many are predicting that this is the return of the old Roger - the invincible, but I'm going to wait & watch. He showed the glimpses of his old self when Andy was making mistakes but not when Andy was firing back. To me that is the difference between old and current Roger. Old Roger would make the best look like ordinary and the current Roger makes ordinary look like good! Great player no doubt but old Roger, not yet.
I do hope that he gets to at least 15 slam titles so we can wait, pant , anticipate to see if there will be a successor to his crown. To me he can easily go beyond 15 too but only if the old Roger resurrects.

Andy "Muzza" Murray - watching him up close during the US Semis and in practice matches made me think that this man could very well may displace Djokovic from # 3 position in next 6 months or so. Its not only his tenacity and good play, the man can think on his feet and play deceptive shots to fool opponents. He can cover the ground well from coast to coast and his shot arsenal is getting wider too - we have all seen him hit those running cross court forehands that are tough to handle and are winning shots more than ever before.

Djokovic - I like him but I am getting the feel that he will really have to step it up. I will keenly follow how he performs at Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai. I do want him to do those impersonations of other players. This man is genuine fun.

May the Best Player take it all.

Prince Andy Sets up showdown with the King Federer

Take a good look at the picture. This is your own Desiwriter as the chair umpire on Court 17!

So Doubters, hope you trust my forecasts now!
When I wrote 10 days back that I expect Nadal to be out and Andy to storm into the finals - many a doubts were raised! Someone even commented that I was not only writing my blog but was also writing my own comments (this was because someone wrote a comment on my blog, agreeing with my assessment).

Before I get drunk in my own heady minor success, let me say that I also forecast in the same article that while Roger would get into the semifinals, he will lose to Djokovic, so I was off on that! I have to say that I'm delighted that Fedex is rolling back again and the way he played in the last two sets, I felt that old Roger was surfacing back again, if not almost back. Hope he wins the final and is resurrected. On the other hand, i saw him practice today and was confused - why! Lets come back to that later.

Getting back to the match, watching the match live at Arthur Ashe stadium with my family, almost as always, I was the only one amongst the group who was supporting Andy Murray, and very vociferously too, if I may add. In fact, the people seated right ahead of me complained that I was too loud, thankfully they were nice people and knew that I was a true sports fanatic and meant no ill will for their ear drums. In fact, if you were at the stadium, you'd think that there was barely any Andy supporter. Court would erupt if Nadal won a point and would have a smattering of applause when Andy carved a point. Of course, Nadal is a great player and that kind of support is expected in a way but I was still surprised that Andy didn't have more support than I saw. Well, the good part of being in minority is that when you are vindicated, its doubly satisfying and thanks to Andy, I could celebrate.

Now before you jump to the conclusion that I don't like Nadal, as I have seen many people do, whenever I write anything that happens to go against popular sentiment. He is a great player, someone who was just considered a good clay court player and is now feared on every surface. I just felt that the long season was about to catch up with him and I had expected him to be out in the quarterfinals of US Open and he still made it to the Semis. just goes on to show, how good a player he is.

Getting back to the match, what I liked about Andy was that even though he lost the third set, he never appeared to not have the guts to take the game to Rafal. I for one was not surprised at his win even though almost the entire staidum seemed to!

Moving on to his bigger challenge, the Men's final - obviously, he does have a chance, a good one at that to upset the overwhelming favorite - the King - Federer. Andy is playing with great confidence, he has the skills, he hits the shot with convictions and just if you didn't know or forgot, his record against Fedex stands at 2-1. Oh, and don't forget, Andy won the US Open title in 2004 in the Junior championship so he knows this surface very well.

However, something tells me that Roger is not about to give up, just like that. The man is on a 33 consecutive wins streak at US Open, since the last one and half sets is playing like his old self again and is a master of the craft. I must mention though that, as the Andy/Nadal match was in progress, I saw Federer come into the practice court. Thinking that, it was going to be a good practice session, I temporarily stopped watching the Andy Nadal match and focused on what I though was going to be an intense practice session by Roger. I have to say that I was surprised that Roger stayed not more than 20 minutes on the court. he hit a few balls with his hitting partner, hit out a few serves and was gone before I could say Roger Federer. I don't know, maybe he was out there just for the heck of it or just to stay loose or maybe changed his mind about a long practice session but I was surprised that he left so quick!

even though, I felt uncomfortable, I think, Roger will win the title. In the last one and half set he played against Djokovic, I felt that he was sharp, gained confidence rapidly and didn't let up. I do thaink that it would be a four setter and we'll see some good action in the second and third set with Roger prevailing. All in all, it would be a great match and I know that you are as excited to see this one as I am. I do wish that I had tickets for this one too - I would have really enjoyed watching it live in the stadium but then, that would have burnt a deeper hole in my pocket. The semis have alreday done it so I think I'll better watch it on TV.

Good luck to both and may the best player win!

Some of the pictures, I snapped today;












Above- India's Leander Paes is listed on the winners board for his win in the Mixed Doubles Final












Above- Roger Federer practicing while the Andy/Nadal match was in progress












Above- Roger Federer sitting in the practice court












Above- Andy after the win












Above & Below - Andy/Nadal match in progress

Fedrinator Vs. Nadambo - Tennis the clash of the Titans on the world's biggest Tennis stage -Will it be Titanic results for Federer!

Ok, I admit both lack the physique of a Terminator or a Rambo but you'll agree, both annihilate the competition.

Fedex made short work of Safin and Nadal stepped it up when he really needed against Schuettler. Even though both won, we all saw that they are not invincible.

Nadal looked more shaky of the two and looked definitely rattled when Schuettler got ahead in the second set. As expected though, he managed to win against the german. This however, was the first time in a long time that I saw, Nadal being a defender than an aggressor and apparently he's neither used to nor likes being in that situation.

Under pressure, he was making the mistakes that any player does, hitting long balls, making unforced errors and even double faulting. Before I say anything else, I need to acknowledge that Schuettler despite his two-day marathon match with Clement didn't look jaded as I thought he would and instead looked fresh enough to bring it to Nadal and boy, did he do that. If he had won the second set, who knows what would have happened. When I saw his first two games in the match against Nadal and though he eneded up losing the first set, I felt that if anyone could defeat Nadal, this is the man. Oh what a loss! Spain overcomes Germany again.

Federer on the other hand had a relatively easier match against a resigned-to-lose Safin. I mean Safin seemed to believe what he had said earlier; I'm playing semifinals, but that doesn't mean that I have a chance there .... To beat Federer you need to be Nadal and run around like a rabbit and hit winners from all over the place...... It's another chance for me. But I think it's just a little bit too difficult it would be for me to beat him.

Again, I felt somewhat, if anyone could trouble Roger - Safin could be the man but then we all know the result.

Coming to our match on hand - the £700,000 question is - Can Fedex retain his title! Notice that I didn't say " Can Nadal win the title" - I truly believe that Federer has a mental block against Nadal, a lack of confidence if I could stretch a little bit.

I've also felt that Roger is trying to pscyhe himself up and gets quite a bit defensive when asked about his potential loss to Nadal. His comments, in my opinion, even refelect a certain desperation; "But this is different because this is now crunch time, it's playing the second best player in the world, somebody's got all the chances to beat you on any given day, you know. So you definitely respect that.

It's make or break, and that can sort of put you under more pressure or make you more nervous. I've been in this situation so many times that for me it's not really a whole lot different because for me I know I'm playing very well, and from that standpoint I don't have much to worry about. And I know if I do play well, I'm most likely, you know, going to win the finals."
Here's the full interview link of both players R. Federer Interview - 5 July & R. Nadal Interview - 5 July

Now don't get me wrong these interviews by themselves don't appear to intense, even appear to be nice conversations with nice comments about each other but the overall drift that I catch from these and other comments Roger has made - to me its all one sign - he's great except when he plays Rafa and then he hits a road block.

To me this match's result is going to be a combination of two previous matches
1. Andy Murray and Nadal match
2. Fededx and Rafa French opem final match.

1. If Fedex can win the first set, in my opinion, he will win the match
2. In the French Open final, in my mind, Fedex lost the match in the second game of the first set when he was one game up and had a chance to break Nadal's serve and didn't do it. It brought him down but pumped up Rafa.

Keys to the match;

Roger
1. Do a Schuettler - be highly agressive, not necessarily rush to the net but make Rafa run coast to caost - keep him reacting rather than set up his shots. For gos' sake, win the first set.
2. Be a closer - make sure to break Rafa's serve when you get a chance - if you are up 15-40 on Nadal's serve, play very tight, control your volley's and play be percantages. Try being your usual self and you will neither win the game nor the championship

Nadal
1. Remain aggrassive, win the first set
2. Don't do too many drop shots, Roger is very fit and covers the ground very well and will put you in trouble if these are not ball-dead-on-arrival drop shots.

Good luck to both and as tennis fans, we hope for a good treat as we set glued to our TVs.
Yeah, I wish I was to watch this live but I have to wait till I'm sponsored.

Nadal - the Beast Vs. Fedex the majestic - The beast feast

And we all know what Beasts do to majestic creatures - devour them. So I feel that in tomorrow's match Nadal has the edge, though no mistaking the fact that Roger is a great player and more than capable, well there sure is a very good reason that Roger is # 1 for last three years.

However, for all the greatness he brings in, he's not playing tight. He's no longer a closer and his reputation of late has made every player on the circuit feel that they can at least take a couple of sets away from him in a match if not the match itself. What's apparent to me is that its not his game but his Stubbornness of sticking with his shots in a situation that demands a change.

It was so visible in his match against Monfils - he was playing great at times and then missing some easy volleys - makes no sense and now I've noticed another factor - after every match now, Roger exults a bit - something he never used to do earlier - to me that's a sign that he either thinks or knows that its not as easy any more and that's a scary thought.

Whenever you have basic fear of any kind, it makes you weak and I feel that Fedex is right now a bit fearful. Hopefully he will leverage it to win the French Open and his career grand slam.

Now lets look at Nadal - The Spanish Tiger - this guy blew off Dojkovic in the semis - What! Dojkovic is a steam engine that blasts its way off any station and doesn't stop till he has run through everything but Nadal blasted him off the courts for the first two sets like no other man can!

Yeah! That's What's Up brother!

Wow, I just couldn't believe the winners Nadal was creating during the match from what looked like sure points for Novak! Nadal's game is at a different level than anyone else right now and he looks fitter than anyone else too.

I do know this though; if anyone can stop this rocket from blasting off the planet - its Mr. Elegance - Roger the Federer.

Good luck to Both and I do hope that Nadal gets rogered! Oops!