Tennis - Volume 7

cyclops_psycho · Post time 4-6-2022 01:13 AM

The best!

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cyclops_psycho · Post time 4-6-2022 02:51 AM

In prese conference, Rafa ckp dia akan rehat lepas final RG & x akan main kat Wimbledon. Rest of the season is still uncertain. Tanda2 bakal bersara kah???

Mulan · Post time 4-6-2022 07:31 AM

cyclops_psycho replied at 4-6-2022 02:51 AM
In prese conference, Rafa ckp dia akan rehat lepas final RG & x akan main kat Wimbledon. Rest of the ...

Mungkinlah.

Sblum AO pun dia ada cakap.. not sure nak main ke tak .. alih2 menang pula.

Mungkin badan dah tak larat nak cope dgn injuries byk2 wpun hati masih suka bertanding. Kat RG ni kan dia bawak Doc dia. Last one kot.

Alahai sedihnya.

Mulan · Post time 4-6-2022 07:31 AM

cyclops_psycho replied at 4-6-2022 01:13 AM
The best!

Vintage Rafa. Marvelous shot.

Mulan · Post time 4-6-2022 07:54 AM

Nadal on Zverev: “I know how much he was fighting to win a Grand Slam. I’m sure he’s going to win much more than one and I wish him all the best. It had been a super tough match, over three hours, we hadn’t finished the second set. It’s one of the biggest challenges on the tour today when he’s playing on this super high level. Difficult to say a lot of things in this situation.”

Speaking of his personal goals, Nadal said: "I like tennis, I like to feel myself competitive against the best players in the world. I have to make sacrifices (with my foot) but it's worth it." ????

"I would prefer to lose Sunday's final and get a new foot. Win is beautiful, but life is much more important than any title. Especially after the career that I had." ????

cyclops_psycho · Post time 4-6-2022 11:06 AM

Mulan replied at 4-6-2022 07:54 AM
Nadal on Zverev: “I know how much he was fighting to win a Grand Slam. I’m sure he’s going to win ...

Obvious sangat. Might be his last year in tour atau dia kena lebih selective dlm mana2 tournament yg dia nak main.

Mulan · Post time 4-6-2022 10:31 PM

Jahat tul CNN. Iols biasa stream dari situ.. arini depa alih NBC lak kena subscribe n pay

Merayau cari link .. dpt2 score si Iga dah 5-1 adehh.

Abis dibelasahnya Coco..

cyclops_psycho · Post time 5-6-2022 09:26 PM

Mulan replied at 4-6-2022 10:31 PM
Jahat tul CNN. Iols biasa stream dari situ.. arini depa alih NBC lak kena subscribe n pay

Merayau c ...

Hahaha yg penting match Rafa vs Ruud dpt tgk tak?
Btw, kalau Rafa menang RG #14 & tiba2 dia announce utk berehat sementara atau retire korang terkejut tak??

kikiharris · Post time 5-6-2022 10:12 PM

First time tgk final GS tak berdebar langsung.
Game vs novak or zverev tu mmg finale standard.
One sided match, boring seh final ni.

Alvida · Post time 5-6-2022 10:57 PM

cyclops_psycho replied at 5-6-2022 09:26 PM
Hahaha yg penting match Rafa vs Ruud dpt tgk tak?
Btw, kalau Rafa menang RG #14 & tiba2 dia annou ...

rehat ok jer tp bersara i tk benarkan ok

cyclops_psycho · Post time 5-6-2022 11:02 PM

kikiharris replied at 5-6-2022 10:12 PM
First time tgk final GS tak berdebar langsung.
Game vs novak or zverev tu mmg finale standard.
One ...

Amboi..sila bersyukur sis. Hahahaha
Kalau competitive mcm AO final hari tu baru terkucit.

cyclops_psycho · Post time 5-6-2022 11:03 PM

Alvida replied at 5-6-2022 10:57 PM
rehat ok jer tp bersara i tk benarkan ok

Hahahaha mcm menang mudah je ni. Takpe kita layankan. Kalau si Ruud ni dia punya draw kat top half, xde maknanya dia ni masuk final.

cyclops_psycho · Post time 5-6-2022 11:08 PM

Ruud ni backhand x power, no wonder la Rafa asyik duk attack kat backhand wing dia. Tak mcm Novak, Meddy or Zverev - tiga2 ni power backhand, Rafa pun x berani sgt nk attack backhand dia orang all the time.

Mulan · Post time 5-6-2022 11:55 PM

cyclops_psycho replied at 5-6-2022 09:26 PM
Hahaha yg penting match Rafa vs Ruud dpt tgk tak?
Btw, kalau Rafa menang RG #14 & tiba2 dia annou ...

Dpt tgk tp terhenti2. Tak lah saspen sgt. Sepatutnya lwn Djoker n Zverev yg SF & Final. Not today punya.

Apapun syukur.

Klu Rafa retire, (i dun think dia jenis ambik break & come back.. unless dia injured).. xtau la nak kata. Mmg sedih. Tp itulah kehidupan duniawi, tiada yg kekal. It's been truly amazing journey watching tennis & being a Rafa fan.

Kadang sakit hati & kecewa, tapi at the end, Rafa mengajar kita utk tidak give up wpun byk injuries, wpun tough draws, playing indoors/under the roof against his wishes.. dia steady je. Menang kalah, dia carry on as usual. Tak berlagak. What not to love about those things about him? Pasal nitpicking, slowpoke, i guess his imperefctions are what makes him human, just like a normal person

Mulan · Post time 7-6-2022 10:23 AM

LONG AFTER HE HAD NOTHING LEFT TO PROVE, RAFAEL NADAL SHOWCASED MASTERY OF THE CLAY-COURT CHESS MATCH YET AGAIN TO MAKE IT 14 FOR 14 IN ROLAND GARROS FINALS
For two hours and 18 minutes Sunday, Rafa put on a clinic, while his opponent Casper Ruud struggled to get himself to believe he could win.

By
Steve Tignor
Published Jun 05, 2022

LATEST TRIUMPH
In the third game of the men’s final at Roland Garros on Sunday, Casper Ruud broke Rafael Nadal. When Rafa’s last forehand dropped into the net, Ruud put his head down and walked toward the sideline for the changeover. Halfway there, he looked up and saw that Nadal was waiting at the net for him to walk across and go to his chair on the other side. Ruud, slightly startled, jogged the rest of the way so that Nadal wouldn’t have to stand there for long.

It was a sign of Ruud’s good manners, and the relationship between the 36-year-old Spaniard and the 23-year-old Norwegian, who has spent considerable time training at Nadal’s academy. One of them is the idol, the other is the idolator. One is the master, the other is the student. Most important, one was trying to win his 14th French Open final; the other was thrilled to be in his first.

The match played out exactly as you would expect between them. For two hours and 18 minutes, Nadal put on a clinic in clay-court tennis, while Ruud struggled to get himself to believe he could win, struggled to gain control of rallies, struggled to put his backhand return in, and ultimately failed to find any foothold in the match. Nadal’s 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 win was one of the most straightforward of his 14 final-round victories in Paris.

Nadal didn’t have to mount a stunning comeback, or bring the crowd to its feet with a miracle passing shot. But after struggling with a rib injury and foot pain in the months before, to persevere and win another time meant a lot to him. Before each match, he had received an injection to numb his foot.

“For me, [to] have this trophy next to me again means everything, no?” he said. “So, yeah, have been emotional victories, without a doubt, unexpected in some way. Yeah, very happy, no? Have been a great two weeks, honestly, no?”

This match wasn’t among Nadal’s most memorable here, but it was one of his most quietly commanding performances on the Chatrier stage. Once again, he showed off his mastery of the chess-match aspect of clay-court tennis.

He hit high balls to Ruud’s backhand to push him back, and then quickly stepped forward to swing the ball crosscourt into the open court. He brought Ruud forward with his forehand drop shot, and then passed him. He worked the ball at sharp angles, and then punched it down the line before Ruud could shift gears, or even make it to the other side of the court. Nadal finished with 37 winners against just 18 errors. Each time he was broken, he broke back in the following game.

“I think that the key today was my backhand, cross-backhand, no?” Nadal said. “I think that creates a lot of damage on Casper today, because I was able to open the court very well that way, and make him play with a bigger court….He was not able to move around and hit his forehand very often from his backhand side. That’s a big danger on a forehand like his one.”

Ruud admitted that he had trouble adjusting to the uniquely intense atmosphere of a Grand Slam final. And then, after he finally settled down, he ran out of ideas.

“I didn’t know exactly where to play there in the end, and he made me run around the court too much,” he said. “When you are playing defensive against Rafa on clay, he will eat you alive. I guess that’s a little bit what happened.”

Nadal’s win takes him to 22 Grand Slam titles, two ahead of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer; he’s also creeping up on Serena Williams’ 23. If we’ve learned anything about the GOAT debate over the past 12 months, though, we should know not to make any definitive pronouncements.

Last year at this time, Djokovic’s quest for that semi-mythical title seemed unstoppable. He had beaten Nadal in Paris and won his second title there, and a month later at Wimbledon he would tie Rafa and Federer with 20 Slam wins. The future seemed to be his, and the GOAT race seemed all but over. Now it’s Nadal who has the two-Slam edge.
Let’s see what happens from here. Rafa has said that his chronic foot condition could bring his career to an end. Rather than have it numbed with injections, he’s going to try a new treatment next week, a “radio frequency injection…trying to burn the nerve a little bit,” as he put it. If it works, he’ll play Wimbledon, where, for the first time, he’ll be going for the third leg of the Grand Slam.

If it doesn’t work, Nadal will have to decide whether to have major surgery. At 36, it may or may not be worth it to take that risk to prolong his career. If he doesn’t keep playing, though, he’s already had a worthy swan song with his first back-to-back Australian Open and French Open titles.

When Rafa came to Roland Garros as a muscle-bound, stringy-haired teenager, the crowds in Paris weren’t overly welcoming. At first, they didn’t like that he used his “brutal” style to beat their favorite, Roger Federer. Then they grumbled at his relentless dominance. Nadal’s uncle Toni called them “stupid” when they cheered his nephew’s defeat to Robin Soderling in 2009.

This year was different. Maybe the fans missed him during the pandemic. Maybe there were more Spanish people in the audience. Or, as Rafa himself said, maybe they realized he wasn’t going to be around, and winning their tournament, forever. Whatever the reason, they cheered him and chanted his name over the last two weeks in a way that wouldn’t have seemed possible 15 years ago. Rafa certainly heard them.

“Can’t thank enough everybody for the support since the first day that I get here, no?” he said on Sunday. “Very emotional.”

It was about time Nadal felt the love in Paris. His efforts to win this title over and over haven’t just elevated his own career; they’ve elevated Roland Garros as well. Here’s someone who has cared enough about a tournament to keep doing whatever it took to win it, long after he had nothing left to prove there.

Mulan · Post time 7-6-2022 10:32 AM

Edited by Mulan at 7-6-2022 10:36 AM

THE ETERNAL NOW OF RAFAEL NADAL: A JOURNEY OF ENDURANCE, PATIENCE, AND SUFFERING FOR THE ROLAND GARROS TITLE
A year ago, there was concern if Nadal would ever play again. At Roland Garros, once again, here he is — like no one in tennis history, simply and powerfully occupying an eternal presence.

By
Joel Drucker
Published Jun 05, 2022

Back in the early ‘00s, when Rafael Nadal first burst on the tennis scene, it was easy to compare his swashbuckling playing style to that of a matador, straight out of Ernest Hemingway’s classic book about bullfighting, Death in the Afternoon.

As Hemingway wrote, “The individual, the great artist when he comes, uses everything that has been discovered or known about his art up to that point… then the great artist goes beyond what has been done or known and makes something of his own.”

That would be an accurate way to describe what Nadal has done for so long. The duration of his excellence is rare, Nadal joined only by Pete Sampras and Ken Rosewall as men who have won singles majors in their teens, 20s and 30s.

But Nadal’s run to the title this year conjures up another iconic Hemingway work, written more than 20 years after he waxed on bullfighting: The Old Man and the Sea. It’s a story brimming with Nadal-like values: a journey of endurance, patience, and suffering, set amid an activity Nadal greatly enjoys, fishing. In words Nadal might well concur with, Hemingway wrote that, “Pain does not matter to a man.”

Call Nadal’s 2022 Roland Garros title run, The Old Man and the Clay.

Though Nadal at 36 is not old in real-life terms, in tennis, every year of one’s 30s is considered an ominous tick towards midnight—particularly so for someone who has struggled with injuries as often as Nadal. Last year, following his semifinal loss at Roland Garros to Novak Djokovic, Nadal only played one more match in 2021. By last fall, there was concern if he’d ever play again.
Two years ago, Nadal won Roland Garros without the loss of the set. The road was considerably tougher this year. In the last four rounds, every player Nadal beat was ranked in the top ten. Each matchup also had an emotional component. In the round of 16, Nadal took more than four hours to beat Felix Auger-Aliassime, a player now coached by Toni Nadal. Next, a battle of near-similar length versus Nadal’s most formidable rival, Djokovic. There followed a semifinal versus Alexander Zverev, played in sauna-like conditions indoors—more than three hours of play before Zverev injured himself near the close of the second set.

Today came the opportunity to play in yet another major final. There is never any doubt of Nadal’s heart and mind. But in the wake of all he’d been through, how would Nadal’s body hold up?

Alas, Casper Ruud was hardly able to bring his best tennis. Though Ruud and Nadal have practiced together at Nadal’s academy, Ruud was well aware this situation was very different. “I don't think it really got to me until I stepped on court today and saw the full stadium and felt like the atmosphere in the crowd,” said Ruud. “It was a little bit, honestly, a bit tough to find myself too comfortable in the situation in the beginning, but as the match went on, I tended to feel a little bit better and I could calm down and breathe out a little bit more.

“It was challenging because you are playing him, the most winning-slam player ever, and on this court in the final. It's not too easy.” So it was that after being down 3-1 in the second set, Nadal won eleven straight games, taking the match, 6-3, 6-3, 6-0.

“[They] have been emotional victories, without a doubt, unexpected in some way,” said Nadal. “Yeah, very happy, no? Have been a great two weeks, honestly. I played since the beginning, improving every day. Finishing playing a good final. Super happy and can't thank enough everybody for the support since the first day that I got here. Yeah, very emotional.”

Throughout his entire career, Nadal’s gestalt has been this simple: nothing comes easy, not for him or his opponents. Play Djokovic and you will be clinically dissected. Play Roger Federer and you will become a witness to genius. Play Nadal and you will stagger off the court knowing that you have competed—that is, you have engaged in mutual struggle.

This is arguably the year Nadal has struggled the most. Recall that Nadal’s 2022 began with a bout of COVID. There followed his surprising victory at the Australian. In March, came the cracked rib that delayed the start of Nadal’s customary arduous clay court season. Then, a recurrence of the chronic foot injury that has frequently threatened to end Nadal’s career.

Following the match today, Nadal explained that over the last two weeks, he’d had injections to numb the pain and also taken anti-inflammatories. “That's was the only way to give myself a chance here,” said Nadal. “So I did it. And I can't be happier and I can't thank enough my doctor for all the things he did during all my tennis career, helping me in every tough moment.”

Amid all the physical and accompanying emotional challenges Nadal has faced in 2022, it’s staggering to think that for the first time in his career, he’s now half-way towards winning all four majors in a calendar year—something no one has done since Rod Laver in 1969.

Said Nadal, “I'm going to be in Wimbledon if my body is ready to be in Wimbledon. That's it. Wimbledon is not a tournament that I want to miss. I think nobody want to miss Wimbledon. I love Wimbledon. I had a lot of success there. I lived amazing emotions there. So full credit and respect to the tournament. A player like me, I am always ready to play Wimbledon.

“So if you ask me if I will be in Wimbledon, I can't give you a clear answer. If I want to win Wimbledon, of course. Let's see how the treatment works. I don't know.”

*********************************
Uncertain as Nadal was about what was to come regarding Wimbledon, he was firmly on-message when it came to assessing what motivates him. “It's not about being the best of the history,” said Nadal. “It's not about the records. It's about… I like what I do, you know? I like to play tennis. And I like the competition.”
***************************************

Hemingway would have understood.

As he wrote in The Old Man and the Sea, “Now he was proving it again. Each time was a new time and he never thought about the past when he was doing it.”

At Roland Garros, once again, here is Nadal, like no one in tennis history, simply and powerfully occupying an eternal presence.