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Tennis: ATP/WTA Tour 2014


Raghav_12

Tennis: ATP/WTA Tour 2014  

  1. 1.

    • Rafael Nadal
      4
    • Novak Djokovic
      7
    • Andy Murray
      0
    • None of the above
      4


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One season doesn't make up for an entire career of under-achievement. Wawrinka's BH and FH as powerful as they have been and as potent as they've been the last 18 months' date=' have overall been quite poor. Else he'd have achieved a lot more. I'd take the components from the player who's achieved more. [/quote'] Interesting that you don't apply the same yard stick when it comes to Nadal, forehand anyone? I have rated Stan and Gasquet's BH as the best SHB I have seen for quite some time now. Gasquet is not even getting any recent success, is he? Where players like Federer score is his head. He is smarter than either of them. Just on pure quality their backhands are superior to Federer's. For Federer 90% of the time BH is not an offensive weapon, for Stan and Gasquet it is. It is a minor injury, media is blowing it out of proportion as usual. I read somewhere that it would take him about 10 days rest to fully recover. I don't think he will miss any of his scheduled tournaments, let alone RG.
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Off the top of my head. From the players that I have seen since about 1997-98 Single handed BH Tier I: Stan, Gasquet Tier II: Federer, Haas, Almagro, Guga etc. Tier III: Sampras ( was a weapon on grass and other low bouncy surfaces but a liability elsewhere) Double handed BH Tier I: Djokovic, Agassi, Safin, Nalbandian Tier II: Too many :P Forehand Tier I: Federer, Nadal (completely different forehands but equally effective) Tier II: Sampras, Del Potro, Gonzalez, Djokovic etc. Nadal has the best DTL running forehand, Sampras the best crosscourt running FH. Serve: Tier I: Sampras ( never seen a more clutch server) Tier II: Federer, Goran, Roddick, Isner, Rionic, Ivo, Krajicek etc ( Federer is nowhere near others in speed but his accuracy and clutchness is comparable to Sampras) Movement Tier I: Nadal at his peak. Tier II: Sampras, Federer, Djokovic etc.

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Found an interesting interview of Michael Chang. Muloghonto won't like it but it validates what I said a few months ago. Michael Chang himself thinks that he played a similar style as Ferrer but with the intensity of Nadal. Called it months ago. :haha: http://www.barcelonaopenbancsabadell.com/en/news/michael-chang-it-takes-confidence-and-belief-become-great-player

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On an added front, I'd say Federer is not an ATG top 5-10 bracket in, is in serving. I can think of atleast 5 servers who have more power, accuracy and as much variety as Federer does on serve. His volleying too, is excellent but barely top 5 ever
LOL weren't you arguing with me about the power of Federer's serve? I proved it with statistics that he barely goes over 130 mph, which is pretty standard in modern day tennis. Even Nadal and Novak has the ability to hit that fast. Where Federer is much better is his accuracy and control. He is only next to Sampras in that category for me. Go through this thread if you haven't already. I posted some very interesting service stats some time ago http://www.indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?p=2804016 Federer is a good volleyer, but he is not the best. He has excellent technique and it looks pretty on the eyes but he misses quite a few that's because he lacks the volleying instinct. It may be because of not playing SnV regularly after 2003. I would place him in Tier II. behind Sampras. Haven't seen the likes of Edberg live.
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LOL weren't you arguing with me about the power of Federer's serve? I proved it with statistics that he barely goes over 130 mph, which is pretty standard in modern day tennis. Even Nadal and Novak has the ability to hit that fast. Where Federer is much better is his accuracy and control. He is only next to Sampras in that category for me. Go through this thread if you haven't already. I posted some very interesting service stats some time ago http://www.indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?p=2804016 Federer is a good volleyer, but he is not the best. He has excellent technique and it looks pretty on the eyes but he misses quite a few that's because he lacks the volleying instinct. It may be because of not playing SnV regularly after 2003. I would place him in Tier II. behind Sampras. Haven't seen the likes of Edberg live.
I was arguing that federer has a way better serve than nadal, his serve is top 10 bracket of his career. But not top 10 alltime. Sent from my GT-S5830D using Tapatalk 2
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I was arguing that federer has a way better serve than nadal, his serve is top 10 bracket of his career. But not top 10 alltime. Sent from my GT-S5830D using Tapatalk 2
That was not the argument. It was about speed. Otherwise anyone who has followed tennis even for a few months knows that Federer is a much superior server. I wouldn't argue against that.
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Off the top of my head. From the players that I have seen since about 1997-98 Single handed BH Tier I: Stan, Gasquet Tier II: Federer, Haas, Almagro, Guga etc. Tier III: Sampras ( was a weapon on grass and other low bouncy surfaces but a liability elsewhere) Double handed BH Tier I: Djokovic, Agassi, Safin, Nalbandian Tier II: Too many :P Forehand Tier I: Federer, Nadal (completely different forehands but equally effective) Tier II: Sampras, Del Potro, Gonzalez, Djokovic etc. Nadal has the best DTL running forehand, Sampras the best crosscourt running FH. Serve: Tier I: Sampras ( never seen a more clutch server) Tier II: Federer, Goran, Roddick, Isner, Rionic, Ivo, Krajicek etc ( Federer is nowhere near others in speed but his accuracy and clutchness is comparable to Sampras) Movement Tier I: Nadal at his peak. Tier II: Sampras, Federer, Djokovic etc.
I would rather believe that Nadal's cross court forehand is more lethal rather than down the line. I guess that is the only shot where he is trying to keep the ball really low, crossing net just inches above it. Probably by DTL forehands you meant those forehands where he picks ball wide outside on left side of the court and curves it in the right corner of the baseline with complete banana trajectory. Nadal hits this shot better than others, but still in a game there are very limited opportunities where such shots can be hit and overall number of such shots remain very limited. Watch this video for Nadal's forehands. m7njuHOSG2U
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I would rather believe that Nadal's cross court forehand is more lethal rather than down the line. I guess that is the only shot where he is trying to keep the ball really low, crossing net just inches above it. Probably by DTL forehands you meant those forehands where he picks ball wide outside on left side of the court and curves it in the right corner of the baseline with complete banana trajectory. Nadal hits this shot better than others, but still in a game there are very limited opportunities where such shots can be hit and overall number of such shots remain very limited.
The banana shot as well as flat running FH like this one. No one plays it better than him. 594rg_Lrcjw Of course he has an amazing running cross court FH too, but Sampras was equally good if not better at it. Sampras had more power, he could finish the rally with one shot even if the opponent only a couple of feet away. Having said that Federer probably has the most perfect FH that I have seen. During his peak he could do anything with it.
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The banana shot as well as flat running FH like this one. No one plays it better than him. 594rg_Lrcjw Of course he has an amazing running cross court FH too, but Sampras was equally good if not better at it. Sampras had more power, he could finish the rally with one shot even if the opponent only a couple of feet away. Having said that Federer probably has the most perfect FH that I have seen. During his peak he could do anything with it.
I had seen Sampras matches earlier but I was not much in technicalities of game at that point of time. Now I watched some of his old videos and noticed his cross-court forehand was really good. Nadal has good cross-court forehands but he usually uses it on short balls and effectively finishes point almost all of the time with that shot. However, he is probably not capable of hitting that shot from baseline the way Sampras was.
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Over reaction. I wouldn't be too worried about Nadal yet.
People sometimes take Nadal's achievements on clay for granted. Clay court tennis requires a tremendous amount of physical effort and Rafa has done it for the last 9 years continuously. It is not easy to keep doing that every year and at some point he is bound to decline. I think his clay court game in general has declined, it was pretty clear to me last year too even though he won almost everything. It may be a temporary thing but right now I consider it to be something very natural. I mean take a look at that picture below. His achievements on this surface is something that will never be repeated again, it's not just about Roland Garros, he owns the whole summer clay swing. Except three early exists, he has played every final he could in the clay season for 9 straight years. It is utterly mind-blowing. I don't expect him to repeat such form this year.

5x0obk.jpg

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It's called age
Yep, agreed. Nadal is 28, this is the beginning of the decline. I predicted it last year. I'm also still on course when I say Novak and Andy will be declining towards the start of next year. There is little evidence if any to indicate, Novak, Rafa or Andy will be a force as Roger has been in his late 20s and 30s. So with Novak and Andy the top 4 as they are known, will this wonderful and very competitive era be gone.
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It's called age
No it's called motivation and confidence. He was beating everybody till the US open (even after the US open he only lost to Novak and Del Potro who was on fire) last year and suddenly in a few months he has gotten so old that he is losing to his whipping boys like Almagro and Ferrer, that too on clay and who are older than Nadal. :cantstop: Either he is tanking on purpose to preserve energy for the summer slams, especially Wimbledon (although not very unlikely with Nadal) or as he himself admitted he is severely low on confidence. It is not a permanent thing, he will be back.
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No it's called motivation and confidence. He was beating everybody till the US open (even after the US open he only lost to Novak and Del Potro who was on fire) last year and suddenly in a few months he has gotten so old that he is losing to his whipping boys like Almagro and Ferrer' date=' that too on clay. :cantstop: Either he is tanking on purpose to preserve energy for the summer slams (which is unlikely with Nadal) or as he himself admitted he is severely low on confidence.[b'] It is not a permanent thing, he will be back.
I wish and probably you are right as well. These people have really been Nadal's whipping boys. Almagro had lost 9 consecutive matches to Nadal before this. Wawrinka had not won a single set in some 15-20 meetings against him. He has toyed with Ferrer for years. Decline can not be so sudden I believe. We will wait until French Open to see how it goes.
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I wish and probably you are right as well. These people have really been Nadal's whipping boys. Almagro had lost 9 consecutive matches to Nadal before this. Wawrinka had not won a single set in some 15-20 meetings against him. He has toyed with Ferrer for years. Decline can not be so sudden I believe. We will wait until French Open to see how it goes.
His clay game has declined gradually over the years, which is expected. There is no doubt about that. But overall the results of this year after that Aus open debacle are not decline. No one declines like that. Once he gets his motivation (which will be there at slams) and confidence back he will be back. He might not be the #1 player again (three times year end world #1 while competing with two other greats and fighting injuries is good enough), but he will win slams in the future. He is too good a player to fade away like this. Look at Federer, last year he looked dead and buried; this year he has bounced back. Nadal will too as long as he remians physically fit. IMO Nadal has minimum 2 more majors in him.
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His clay game has declined gradually over the years' date=' which is expected. There is no doubt about that. But overall the results of this year after that Aus open debacle are not decline. No one declines like that. Once he gets his motivation (which will be there at slams) and confidence back he will be back. He might not be the #1 player again (three times year end world #1 while competing with two other greats and fighting injuries is good enough), but he will win slams in the future. He is too good a player to fade away like this. Look at Federer, last year he looked dead and buried; this year he has bounced back. Nadal will too as long as he remians physically fit. IMO Nadal has minimum 2 more majors in him.[/quote'] There is a massive difference between the way Fed plays and the way Rafa, Novak and Andy play. Fed's game means he can compete into his 30s because it's not a physically demanding game. Rafa, Novak and Andy will be almost done by the time they hit 30. In fact I will go so far as to say, none of these three with win masters events after 30, let alone slams. In my opinion as I've said many times before, 2014 is the last year of dominance of the big 4 and even that dominance will not be complete. It is sad to see this happening, one of the greatest eras of any sport coming to an end, but it is almost here.
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I wish and probably you are right as well. These people have really been Nadal's whipping boys. Almagro had lost 9 consecutive matches to Nadal before this. Wawrinka had not won a single set in some 15-20 meetings against him. He has toyed with Ferrer for years. Decline can not be so sudden I believe. We will wait until French Open to see how it goes.
I hope it isn't but it isnt unheard of. Wilander won 3 slams in 87 or 88 and then promptly fell off the planet, playing like a nobody the very next season. Decline in sports can be sudden and catastrophic, its inexplicable but it does happen.
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