⇒ wimbledon day 2 quote

Q. Which one of his (Federer's) records do you think is his most impressive?
RAFAEL NADAL: Every one. Every one is amazing. If I have to say something, 23 semifinals in a row of Grand Slam.

Q. Why?
RAFAEL NADAL: Because is five years, almost six years, playing all four Grand Slams. You can have no one injury, no one bad day, so is amazing. That's my feeling, no? So 23 semifinals in a row, in my opinion, impossible to do it another time.

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Q. You spoke about what you felt was Roger's most amazing record. Of your tremendous accomplishments, what do you think your best achievement is?
RAFAEL NADAL: 81 matches straight on clay. That's a lot.

yup

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⇒ wimbledon 2010: it's on

Once the clay court season was going to come around, it was always logical that Rafa was going to pick up tournaments.

I don't know. I don't want to say nobody expected him to win all four. But I know his level of play on clay. It's supreme to anybody. So it was impressive to see how well he played. He deserves to be world No. 1 again.

-Roger Federer

speaking of Fed, he just survived 2 sets down, 4-4 0-40 in the third in the First Round! Alejandro Falla (Columbia) was the other guy. He's been pretty vulnerable of late.

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⇒ tennis roundup

So Federer won Wimbledon '09...feels totally wrong though, especially given Roddick's amazing form and incredible improvement all over the court and draining effort. Matter of fact, without Federer's 50 aces, he would have been destroyed by Andy. I'm sure Andy feels cheated and I do too--he really should have won that match/championship. His all-court improvements, fitness, gameplan and patience only offset by Federer's unreadable serves. Federer didn't win so much as Andy lost. Pretty good write up of the match here, particularly the last 2 paragraphs.

The reasons I used to trash Andy are now the reasons I trash Fed--way too much ego. Add to that, the ego is now unjustified as his play level and style are nowhere near the peak form which carried him to the top.

He's all gold man-purses and monogrammed sweater vests now--he's losing me as a fan. He needs some serious thrashin' by Rafa/Murray/Djoko/Roddick to keep him in check.

Andy on the other hand has matured and improved in ways I'd never imagine from the player I saw in the past. He's basically become Agassi--from young American jackass to American ambassador, great competitor and classy guy. Furthermore, he continually reels in Djoko when his unjustified ego and showboating get out of hand.

The match itself was okay-'08's final was better. The whole match was mostly watching the guys hit aces or unreturnable serves. Only in the last two sets did the overall match improve.

Fed got back his #1 ranking BUT, Rafa's on his way back, and next year Fed will have to defend his French Open and Wimbledon titles, while Rafa will only need to exceed the 4th round of Roland Garros and first round of Wimbledon to pick up extra points.

btw, 'Rocket' Rod Laver, commenting on 'greatest of all time' hype, postulates a 'greatest of their era' title is more appropriate, given the playing field, equipment, courts and rules have changed since. I agree, but I prefer a 'best since...' list:
Rod Laver, best since Open Era started
Roy Emerson, best Aussie since Rod Laver
John Newcombe, best Aussie since Roy Emerson
Jimmy Connors, best American
Bjorn Borg, best Swede, best clay court player, best grass court player, most consistent
Guillermo Vilas, best clay court player since Borg
John McEnroe, best American since Connors
Mats Wilander, best Swede since Borg
Ivan Lendl, best Czech, best workhorse, most consistent since Borg
Stefan Edberg, best Swede since Wilander
Boris Becker, best German
Pete Sampras, best American since McEnroe (tie), best grass court player since Borg
Andre Agassi, best American since McEnroe (tie)
Gustavo Kuerten, best Brazilian, best clay court player since Vilas
Marat Safin, best underachiever, best Russian
Lleyton Hewitt, best Aussie since Newcombe
Roger Federer, best Swiss, best since Laver, Borg, Sampras, most consistent since Lendl
Andy Roddick, best runner-up, best American since Sampras/Agassi
Gaston Gaudio, best 'worst' player
Rafael Nadal, best Spaniard, best clay court player, best since Borg, Vilas, Federer
source: wiki

I would still rate Borg higher than Federer--he got 11 slams (4 consecutive French, 5 consecutive Wimbledons, did the 'difficult double' 3 times) and finished with 63 titles (or 100, depending on how you count it) by the time he retired at 25. Then of course time's gonna tell with Rafa (6 slams by 23 compared to Fed's 3 slams - Wimbledon '03, AO '04, Wimbledon '04).

full federer-nadal rivalry thus far | borg's pre-wimbledon 2008 thoughts

I don't follow Women's tennis closely enough to comment--there's an Aussie Women's champion drought at the moment. Also, their ranking system is critically flawed--Serena Williams is the current champion of 3 of the last 4 slams, yet she's only #2? GTFO! However, I am in awe of the achievements of the following women's champions:
Margaret Smith Court, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Venus Williams, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. Sharapova made the list purely based on her dream run to the title at Wimbledon, and her dominance at one Australian Open.

Picks for future grand slam champions:
Juan Martin Del Potro, Bernard Tomic, Grigor Dmitrov, Sorana Cirstea, Caroline Wozniacki


Three last things about tennis (I'm paraphrasing the first two):
1. "everybody is an underachiever" -Safin
2. "every grand slam could be your last" -Nadal
3. Federer should go back to the Steven Seagal look. If be a dick, at least play off it.

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⇒ Winner: NADAL!

holy sh!t!!! amazing final. dramatic with twists and turns--2 rain delays and a resurgent Federer again and again and again. 2 championship points saved and a 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(7-5), 6-7(10-8), 9-7 five-set thriller! the final set was played by gods! They pulled off shots most players don't even dream about! Nadal was RELENTLESS. Attack, attack, attack...non-stop, never backed down. Federer could not handle the new shots Nadal was coming up with--stuff Federer used to do to his opponents!

Unbelievable...they finished after almost 5 hours of play! In fact, they almost played in darkness...any later, they would have had to resume play the next day!

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⇒ wimbledon mens' finals 2007

federer edged out nadal (produced his 'good' level tennis ftw). Nothing against federer (I was rooting for the guy) but nadal was f#cking amazing! He scared the shit out of everyone--not just federer. On federer's stomping ground, he brought it in a big way and took it to 5 sets.

I think this wasn't federer's best performance but he did throwdown 24 aces compared to nadal's 1. Seriously, where was the federer magic? His backhand work was sloppy and he continually hit the ball into the net when the federer we all know would've knocked that shit around the net while running backwards and not looking.

Still, a win is a win. They now stand 8-5 head to head (Nadal's leading) but Nadal's only 21. Looks like this guy is gonna be the one who dominates if federer's not around on any surface. His performance on grass was amazing!

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⇒ teh tennis!

Wimbledon, Wimbledon, Wimbledon. They've replaced ball kids every 6 games, they have a roof-enclosed royal box, but exposed court, and they invented the seeds on strawberries and cream.

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