Exactly. They want to pretend he doesn't exist for reasons that have nothing to do with tennis.

Fk Nadal and fk Federer too

Happy for Rafa after so many disappointments. Don't really care who wasn't at the tournament. You can put asterisks all over champions in every sport. Who cares?

Rafa and Djokovic both have two wins or more in all the Grand Slams. Very nice.

Steffi Graf still remains the only player - male or female - to have won each of the Grand Slams four times or more. Love her.

Imagine mixing politics and sports while accusing people of....wait for it...MIXING POLITICS AND SPORTS!!!

lol honk honk!!!

Sit on it, Dom you fuking clown.

LMAO

Have you been living under a rock? They did mix politics with sports which is why Djokovic was not allowed to play and your warrior had a path cleared to the final.

No politics and Nadal remains on 20. Do not pass GO.

Nadal the compliant sock puppet that he is — who conveniently tested positive 10 days before arriving in Oz just in case he actually got Covid in Melbourne and had grounds to dispute it since his fake jab obviously wouldn't stop transmission or getting Omicron — sank the boot into Novak and even has the nerve to put a closeup with his mask on his social media to rub it in.

Djokovic was robbed by the Australian government who admitted under oath in court that they had no problem with his visa or medical exemption. They deported him because the world's best player fitter and healthier than any of these bums in power might dissuade the 93% double jabbed from getting a booster or the 7% of pure blood outliers from getting their first shot.

That is 100% politics you cuck and if you had any backbone and stood for something you'd be supporting Djokovic. No one is saying you can't be happy for Nadal but to come in here with your "cultist" BS when you know damn well why your hero won is a disgrace. Hang your head in shame you cuck.

dont really wanna comment on the politics besides:
- the only result of this media clusterfuk is that every party involved loses

Anyway, im happy for rafa getting #21 and that 2nd aus open, its ridiculous how close he was multiple times

Secondly im mostly sad for Daniil. His presser afterwards was honestly depressing as chit. Hope it was just in the heat of the moment and he'll go on to have a long carreer that he gets to enjoy with the crowd behind him. He's one of the most if not the most interesting player of the younger generation. He's got character, personality and a pissening ground game.


Lastly i wanted to comment on:Not wrong but Med playing drop shots and trying to keep points short at all costs from the late 3rd set onwards had everything to do with his legs not holding up and not as much with his decision making. Kept on handing over court position to Nadal by trying to agressively step in and finish, without succes as Nadal kept getting the balls back in the open space Med left.

He simply couldnt execute his gameplan of comfortably grinding out the long rallies from deep behind the baseline in a defensive position for the full match.

I would have preferred him to bail out going for broke on low percentage winners rather than that predictable drop shot which he hardly won a single point with.

The crowd was a low IQ disgrace and their hate for Russia was palpable. You could hear a pin drop when Daniil won a point and they jizzed themselves over every error. He tried to channel his inner Novak and embrace the villain role but he really needed the crowd to lift him after 5 hours.

I migrated to Reddit (and to a lesser extent MTF) but it's full of fanatismo there - I can't stand it.

Medvedev baby. 0-40 up, failed to convert those BP chances. You just had to hold serve for two more after that... and what was with the constant dropshots like Novak in 2020?

At the very least, Novak, the clown, if you weren't gonna win against Medvedev here you would've at the very least stopped Rafa getting 21.

Yeah 100%

Potato dropshot gonna potato.

I'm fairly convinced that he tried to go big on his groundstrokes but Daniil just doesnt have very powerful groundstrokes and his approach and finishing shots arent exactly top tier. Shoulda dug deep and stuck to grinding it out imo but it must've been tough for him in that 4th and 5th set feeling physically broken with the crowd behind Nadal.

Maybe Rafa is just a strong pro-vaxxer and not a "puppet" who wants to subtly kick Novak when he's down?

Politics aside, very impressive for Rafa to win those last 3 matches given his struggles off the clay at this point of his career and his aging body. Showed tons of fight, mental fortitude, and ability to adjust when his gas tank and legs weren't what they were in his prime.

Novak still has the longest peak (likely the highest peak as well minus on clay which goes to Rafa though I'll listen to arguments for Fed in his prime on Grass/HC).
If Novak wants to end the debate he'll need to get the outright slam count. Until then I'll be cheering for Rafa to make things interesting.

He 300% shoulda won this match in 3 or 4 but hey that's a harsh lesson.

Federer, Djokovic and Nadal have all lost brutal 5 set matches from sometimes winning positions. It happens.

Some that come to mind:
Nadal losing Aus Open 2012 & 2017
Federer losing Wimby 2019, US open 2010 SF
Djokovic losing US Open 2012, RG SF 2013

LOL

So after grovelling to the admin to be let back in you're going to gargle Rafa's nuts in here until Novak returns?

listen what happened to novak was a joke and we can all agree to that, but it has nothing to do with Nadal.

there is no grand conspiracy to keep novak from getting 21

Nadal can only play who's in front of him but of course he was licking his lips the second the government pulled a move that is usually reserved for deporting serious criminals and took his toughest opponent both out of the draw and the country. I'm glad you can at least concede it was shameful.

Make no mistake what Nadal did in that final was incredible but I'd feel a lot better if Djokovic was taken out fair and square.

I'll make my position clear. I would prefer to keep politics out of this thread but when an authoritarian government flexes like that and compromises the tournament — and directly influences the slam race — it has to be discussed. I could go around acting like the Oz government and ban people here just because I feel like it, neg, delete posts, etc. In fact the only time I deleted others' posts was to clean up the thread and keep people from being banned. You and iabs have fired shots at me for 5 years and of course I fire them back. That's how it should be. We don't agree on everything (at least not where Nadal is concerned) but I don't like censorship and would never power trip.

Anyway it still annoys me that most people here think Djokovic was deported for visa or medical exemption reasons. The guy was kicked out of the country forcomments he made nearly 2 years ago. There are some really shady things going on in this country right now which is a discussion for another thread.

i'm pro choice, take the vaccine or don't. its already proven that vaccinated people spread the disease just as easily so it really should be a personal choice. they are just trying to erode peoples civil liberties one step at a time. thats all i have to say about the subject.

back to tennis. nadal didn't have the best tournament, he won by guts, experience, and some help from others. shapo absolutely choked in that 5th set and so did medvedev at 0-40 in the 3rd. berretini is a joke and is never going to trouble nadal with that backhand. at the same time, it is still amazing to do what he did at 35 and win the aussie again (since 2009, longest gap between winning the same slam i believe), never thought i'd see it happen.

FAA really impressed me this tournament, should have beaten medvedev but just came up short. hopefully he continues to improve.

Isner vs Opelka was so stupid. Amerifat tennis players are trash. Dumb fukcing servebots cant break each other’s service games to save their lives.

if one individual in the crowd yelling"Naomi, you suck"brings you to tears I guess professional sport just isn't for you

that is all

Osaka is simply a joke.

Anyone miss the GOAT Federer? Tennis has been so lame since his absence

GOAT? lol

21> 20.

Yep, most people still consider Fed the GOAT, including most pros. Nadal has only beaten Fed once since 2014 (on clay, surprise surprise), plus Fed is still known by everyone to be better on hard court and grass. Hell, even Djokovic is as well. Nadal is easily 3rd best

24 - 16.

Age difference, Nadal never had his own era, less weeks number 1... Fed has superior forehand, slice, serve, overhead, dropshot, volley skills... I could go on and on

Olympic Singles Gold (on HC): 1 > 0.

World Tour Finals 6 >>>>>>> 0

Plus Nadal has never won Miami which is embarrassing

Double career slam.

Not this again. Tally up where Federer was strongest in the second half of the season and count how many times Nadal faced him in that 24-16.

3career wins after the French Open: 2008 Wimbledon. 2013 Cincinnati. 2013 ATP Finals. 2013 was a nightmare season for Federer where he experimented with a larger frame before switching back to the old 90 for Cincy. Confidence was shot. Meanwhile 2013 was Nadal's best HC season.

Cliffs: 1st half of the season advantage Nadal. 2nd half advantage Federer. That defines the H2H. They played most of their matches where Nadal was strongest.

slam h2h: 10-4

This.


Just LOL at anyone thinking Nadal is better than Fed on anything outside of clay