f13.net

Seriously.

He won that shit this morning.  Craziness.

Can anyone explain what happened to Federer?

For a couple of years there, there was talk about him being the greatest ever... they were putting him on Tiger's level.

Now, like. Uh.

Rafael Nadal is what happened.

Edit: yea Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federer-Nadal_rivalry

Nadal always owned Federer on clay which skewed the results, but that's even back when they were making Federer/Woods comparisons.

I'm taking about since then. Federer has not been as good. Against Nadal or anyone, with any consistency.

Well that's why he's not #1 anymore; Nadal is.

Federer's last year might be something we need to cross off the books at least as far as the "he's washed up" talk is concerned.  He had mono and it showed.  He destroyed Murray at the finals of the US Open last year and looks to be the solid #2 right now.  Murray still showed he's got mental issues and Djokovic showed he still has fitness issues.  Both are outstanding shot makers, however, and will take home some majors soon.

Now before I explain some tennis-nerdy finer points of the Federer/Nadal thing; Nadal IS a beast. He's the best player right now by a mile.  His only minor weak points are his serve; which no one attacks well and his hard court game; which as we can see is coming around.   He has benefited in general that the Australian Open plays slower now that it's not on the rebound-ace surface and Wimbledon has been slower ever since the disastrous Sampras-Ivanisovic final.  The US Open is the only real major that's played on a fast surface. 


Some things that explain Nadal's owning of Federer.

-Nadal is a very bad match up for Federer. His forehand kicks high to Federer's one handed backhand and is always a major problem.  He's strong now off both wings.  Has better defense (which has negated Federer's .  Better shot making.

-This is Nadal's first hard court major final.  Before last year I would have said he'd lose every single time during the years he was pounding Fed on clay. He did take some Master's finals during this time on hard court surfaces.

-The above mentioned surface changes.  It would be nice to see Wimbledon get a litter faster, but not to the point where all rallies rarely get over 3 strokes. Right now the only place Raffa is at a disadvantage is the US Open, where his higher bounces have the bigger hitters hitting through him.

-Nadal is tougher mentally.  A lot. Federer during his dominant stretch had people scared of him and never really developed the mentality that Nadal has. 

-He's in Federer's head.  Federer does not like being #2, does not like the talk that he's never going to be the GOAT with Nadal thumping him.  No matter how well Fed is playing, it means nothing when he goes up against Nadal.

I don't see a huge drop off really in Federer's toolset after watching this US/Austalian Open.  He's serving better than ever.  He's still got great defense and shot making.  The field has just caught up and matured.  Without Nadal, Federer would have had a couple French titles by now.  Without Federer, Nadal would likely have some more Wimbledon titles but still likely not the hard court ones.  But without either of them, you wouldn't see some of the young talent there is now ala Murray, Djokovic, Tsonga, Simon, Del Potro and now Verdasco that have had to grow up quickly or spend years getting drilled.


Edit: Tennis players have a traditionally very short period of dominant play.  Male players tend to pospone this a little longer, but once you start getting near 30, you're an old man and meat for the next generation.

Mono lasts like two weeks.

And the field before that? Overall inferior, every last one of them?

And nobody can be considered as one of the greatest for two amazing years.

Federer was considered an all-time great a few years ago. That is over. Period.

Before Nadal, I'd say Federer's strongest competition was Andy Roddick, the eratic Marat Safin, and an aging Andre Agassi.  Only Safin scored any significant win against him.  Federer used to have trouble with David Nalbandian, but Nalbandian has never won a major, and I believe Federer turned that head-to-head record around. 

Fed's won 3 grand slams in a season 3 times.  He's won 3 out of the last 5 Aussies.  5 out of the last 6 Wimbledons. The last 5 US Opens. He's been to the French final the past 3 years on a surface he's terrible on. In the last 3 years, he's only missed 2 Grand Slam finals. He was in 10 straight grand slam finals until the major where HE HAD MONO. He was still in the French, Wimby and US Open final in 2008.  He was ranked #1 for 237 straight weeks (ok, I had to look that one up) destroying Connors' and Graf's records.

He's going to be 28 this year.  He's doesn't intend to fade away like Sampras.  It'll just be a matter of time before his body fades like Andre, although Andre played a much more punishing style of play (Andre was a freak about conditioning though). 

He's an all time great. No question. He's an amazing talent and one that no one saw coming (he was a bad junior).  GOAT is off the table unless he can turn it around again Nadal and possibly take a French.  Until then, Laver had a season slam and Sampras won in a time with a ridiculous level of competition. Some will argue though that he (Sampras) won a ton of Wimbledons when it was an insanely fast court with the game's top serve and top volley.

I can see Fed getting past 14 titles.

I watched the match. Nadal was tiring and could have been vulnerable, but believe it or not, Federer lost his cool. He became frustrated and made errors.

And I'm talking about "errors" in pulling off incredible shots. It was like watching two gods. One was tired, one was frustrated. But they were still both gods. I would have stopped it and given both a trophy.

Good read if you like details.

http://www.sportsscientists.com/2009/02/australian-open-final-analysis.html

I might be biased since I'm Swiss, but I always preferred Federer's play compared to Nadal more violent style.
There is no question Roger rocked for a long period of time, Nadal has improved lately I guess and he's younger as well.
You can't win forever and mono did not help. Mono does not last only for 2 weeks, btw more like 4

For a top-tier athlete, mono can ruin a huge swath of your season, just ask Jeff Carter of the Philadelphia Flyers; mono really stunted his progress last season.