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Tennis...Anyone?

trixR4kids said:
Well Nadal still holds that head to head record I'm pretty sure, at least in grand slams. But guessing Fed has narrowed the gap a bit in recent years.

I haven't followed tennis super closely now that I don't play it anymore so I could be wrong about all of this :D
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Rafa is still way ahead at grand slams but it's mostly because they have played a lot more at Roland Garros than the other venues. They interestingly enough have never faced each other at the U.S. open.

I like the all court games of Fed and Agassi a lot more than Sampras or Nadal. Drug cheating is rampant in tennis but I always felt it was a lot more obvious with Nadal than other players.
 
Re: Tennis...Anyone?

trixR4kids said:
it always seemed like Fed moves more efficiently or has better footwork rather than relying on effort as much.
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especially in the latest Australian Open final. It seemed to me that he changed tactics compared to prior matches with Nadal, to cut off shots right after the bounce and hit the ball while it was still rising. That countered Nadal's tendency to force Federer to move side to side until he could find an opening. By returning the ball that much sooner during each rally, it also made it harder for Nadal to set up his stroke.

Fed did something similar to Djoker several times (last year? year before last?) when he would move in on the second serve and half-volley it back.
 
Re: Tennis...Anyone?

Drew S. said:
Rafa is still way ahead at grand slams but it's mostly because they have played a lot more at Roland Garros than the other venues. They interestingly enough have never faced each other at the U.S. open.

I like the all court games of Fed and Agassi a lot more than Sampras or Nadal. Drug cheating is rampant in tennis but I always felt it was a lot more obvious with Nadal than other players.
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You think Nadal was using PEDs? The thought never crossed my mind. Idk how it would help in tennis other than blood doping and getting more stamina or something like that.
 
Re: Tennis...Anyone?

trixR4kids said:
Well Nadal still holds that head to head record I'm pretty sure, at least in grand slams. But guessing Fed has narrowed the gap a bit in recent years.
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I've never been a huge fan of comparing the head-to-head, at least as a sole measure, because you're ignoring all those years Federer was still grinding it out and putting up pretty respectable finishes in majors while Nadal was out with injuries/definitely not steroid suspensions.
 
Re: Tennis...Anyone?

MaizeRage said:
I've never been a huge fan of comparing the head-to-head, at least as a sole measure, because you're ignoring all those years Federer was still grinding it out and putting up pretty respectable finishes in majors while Nadal was out with injuries/definitely not steroid suspensions.
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That's true. Nadal is five years younger than Fed too so he kinda always had an advantage in that regard, especially as Fed got closer to 30.
 
trixR4kids said:
You think Nadal was using PEDs? The thought never crossed my mind. Idk how it would help in tennis other than blood doping and getting more stamina or something like that.
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Look at pictures of him when he was just starting out.

I don't think they do the traditional football/baseball stuff, it is more HGH or something along those lines. There is no way they train for four or five hours a day without some serious help.
 
Re: Tennis...Anyone?

Drew S. said:
Look at pictures of him when he was just starting out.

I don't think they do the traditional football/baseball stuff, it is more HGH or something along those lines. There is no way they train for four or five hours a day without some serious help.
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I don't buy it. They test for that crap in Tennis. A woman just got kicked out for a year because of it. He would have been exposed by now.
 
ScoobyDoo said:
I don't buy it. They test for that crap in Tennis. A woman just got kicked out for a year because of it. He would have been exposed by now.
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That was an anti-anxiety type medication. It would lower your heart rate in matches but didn't have anything to do with how you train.
 
Re: Tennis...Anyone?

ScoobyDoo said:
I don't buy it. They test for that crap in Tennis. A woman just got kicked out for a year because of it. He would have been exposed by now.
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Well they test in baseball too but it took them IDK how long to catch Braun and other guys like Dee Gordon who had been doing it for a while. Who knows how many people they've missed.

But I can't imagine Tennis has perfect testing either and pretty much in all sports it seems like the PEDs are ahead of the testing. Just think about Lance Armstrong and the blood doping etc.
 
Re: Tennis...Anyone?

trixR4kids said:
Well they test in baseball too but it took them IDK how long to catch Braun and other guys like Dee Gordon who had been doing it for a while. Who knows how many people they've missed.

But I can't imagine Tennis has perfect testing either and pretty much in all sports it seems like the PEDs are ahead of the testing. Just think about Lance Armstrong and the blood doping etc.
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I don't buy it. After Armstrong anyone would be exposed in any sport. Speaking of cycling they had a story on 60 minutes where they can cheat now with a little electric motor contained in the bike. Mechanical Cheating. Cycling is such a cesspool.
 
Re: Tennis...Anyone?

trixR4kids said:
Yeah I was gonna write something up about it yesterday but never submitted. I think the biggest difference between the two is that Fed plays efficiently and tries to hit winners more frequently even if that means more errors as well (both forced and unforced). Nadal just focused on prolonging every single point and didn't hit nearly as many winners (at least against Fed) in every match I remember watching. IDK if there are stats on this out there but I always remember it ending up that way.
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The killer stat should be unforced errors. You'd expect Fed to have way more. Of course, it can pay off at that level (though at NO other. "You can try that shot when you can beat me with it" -- same coach)
 
Re: Tennis...Anyone?

Yeah he definitely had more of those in the head to head matches vs Nadal during a lot of the grand slams he lost. Especially on clay. At the same time there's a risk reward factor there and on grass/hard courts it pays off more often than not. Fed's style clearly isn't as conducive to the slower paced game on clay though, it's just harder to hit winners there and the unforced errors will likely outweigh the winners on that surface for him, at least against a return machine that is Nadal.
 
Re: Tennis...Anyone?

btw as much as I love a great baseline game - and Fed/Raffy had some truly tremendous rallies at the AU final - I do lament the nearly complete loss of the serve & volley game.
 
Slap Shot said:
btw as much as I love a great baseline game - and Fed/Raffy had some truly tremendous rallies at the AU final - I do lament the nearly complete loss of the serve & volley game.
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Murray actually lost to a serve and volleyer at the Australian Open. It was a crazy match.
 
Re: Tennis...Anyone?

Wimbledon draws released.

If top 4 seeds hold, semi-finals would be Murray v Nadal, Federer v Djokovic.
 
FreshFish said:
Wimbledon draws released.

If top 4 seeds hold, semi-finals would be Murray v Nadal, Federer v Djokovic.
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I don't think those four are going to have a great tournament and Fed is the only one who I think has much chance. It seems Murray and Djoker are both a combination of out of form and a bit knackered, Nadal has played a lot of tennis this year and I'm not sure his body will hold up, and while Fed has no obviously deficiencies right now he is in his mid 30's. It's a great opportunity for one of the young guns to win it.
 
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