⇒ mo' tennis

cool hand davydenko

too bad he got whupped by Soda head-oh wellz...Go FerGonzo! Show him you power!
Yeh, that's my pick for FO'09 win, Fer Gonzales-paid his dues, good enough clay courter, not a prick.

I guess this is one of those years the journeyman makes a run to the finals and dumps the perennial favorite just cause he's on a hot streak (cf. AusOpen '02 final, AusOpen '08 both semis)

I'm sure Rafa will stomp Soda head at some point down the line...mess with the bull you get the horns!

last words about Rafa's loss:
"Um, he didn't retire, right? (Laughter) No, he'll bounce back strong. I'm convinced about that. Sure, it was a big upset, but I mean, the focus wasn't really there, to be quite honest.

Of course, my dream scenario is to beat Rafa here in the finals, but I gotta concentrate on my part of the draw and make sure I come through like today.

...

Well, I mean, I think it's the same for all the players right there, you know, to be quite honest. It's like if you've just beaten a great player, and then you have to back it. Like Kohlschreiber has to do or Soderling has to do.

It's not an easy task,because how often does it happen in your life? It happens just a few times, and it's hard to back them up. I went through it when I beat Sampras at Wimbledon and then lost to Tim. I didn't play that bad against Tim, but youjust realize that not only Sampras can play tennis, but Henman can and there are so many other players that play so well.

Just because you beat this one particular player, it doesn't mean you're going to now beat everybody easily. That's where it's hard mentally to be able to shift. Yourself you have to keep on playing dream tennis, and that's a hard thing to do sometimes."
-Roger Federer
source

"My reaction was surprise obviously, like you or everyone here, because normally Rafa is the winner here, so nobody expected him to lose that quick.

But anyway, it shows that in sport anything can happen. Even Rafa, that it seems that he can never lose, when he's not 100% in a match and the other player is 200%, then things can happen.

Anyway, I think that it was really close. If Rafa would have won the fourth set, maybe he will win the match. But Soderling was hitting great, and Rafa, he wasn't the Rafa that we are used to seeing."
-Tommy Robredo
source

Toni Nadal's thoughts on the Parisian crowd here...I'm inclined to agree purely on my past experiences and personal history with French people.

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