Monte-Carlo Masters

by **Mike Rotchtickles** » Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:50

fedfan wrote:WOW! The clay season is over for everyone else unless Rafa is injured. There are only 3 or 4 guys who could have any chance and they would still have to play there very best.

100%
Barring injury, Nadal is almost assured of adding to his clay court title count.
Upsets can of course happen like the Soderling match last year, but one would have to think that a fit Rafa is just too much for everyone else on a clay court.

by **jayl0ve** » Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:56

It's really crazy how dominant he is on clay.

He's much more dominant on clay than Roger Federer is on any surface :shock:

He's only extremely good on fast courts, but he is a total GOD on clay.

by **Mike Rotchtickles** » Sun, 18 Apr 2010 16:00

Yeah I would say you can narrow it down to between him and Borg as the best there ever was on this surface.
I'd probably place Borg just a tad in front because of the 6 titles at RG, but I'd also have no argument with anybody that saw it the other way.

by **GOA MASTER MDMA** » Sun, 18 Apr 2010 16:02

i agree borg and nadal are the greatest on clay ever .
and maybe tomas muster in the 90th

by **coke4** » Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:20

Must have been a disapointing final

Verdasco should have let Djokovic win so the final could have been better.

by **fedfan** » Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:49

coke4 wrote:Must have been a disapointing final

Verdasco should have let Djokovic win so the final could have been better.

If Verdasco had collapsed in the SF it probably would have been a double bagel.

by **AUSSIE_FABS** » Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:15

Verdasco got close to winning games a lot of the time lol 30-30 then rafa just says gtfo and wins 2 points in a row. Also who else saw that crazy pass in first set, the backhand cross court, so so unfair :lol:

by **ati4850** » Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:24

Amazing point from todays final:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL2dhSKhDVw

:shock:

by **Moralspain** » Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:32

superb

by **AUSSIE_FABS** » Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:39

Verdasco's reaction is made the point even better.

by **fedfan** » Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:40

Only if he had been able to do this constantly for 3 hours he would have had a slim chance

I do like to see players give the ball more height over the net against Nadal though and concentrate on keeping it deep, because it is nigh on impossible to hit through him. I honestly cannot see anyone doing it.

by **Mike Rotchtickles** » Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:48

So six in a row for Rafa at Monte Carlo and now going for another sixer in Barcelona. :shock:

Those are just crazy numbers. :lol:

These are the seeded players for this years Barcelona Open, and their past performances in this tourney:

# Player................................W-L.........Best Finish

1 Rafael Nadal (ESP) ..............26-1.......W-'09,08,07,06,05

2 Robin Soderling (SWE).........2-2......... R32-'09,07

3 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA).......0-0

4 Fernando Gonzalez (CHI)..... 5-5......... S-'09

5 Fernando Verdasco (ESP)..... 6-6......... Q-'09

6 Tomas Berdych (CZE).......... 4-3......... R16-'09

7 Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP).... 24-8....... W-'01

8 David Ferrer (ESP) ..............14-7....... F-'09,08

9 Tommy Robredo (ESP)......... 21-10..... W-'04

10 Juan Monaco (ARG)............. 3-2......... R16-'09

11 Jurgen Melzer (AUT)............ 0-2......... R64-'08,04

12 Lleyton Hewitt (AUS)............ 3-1......... S-'02

13 Thomaz Bellucci (BRA)......... 0-1......... R64-'09

14 Albert Montanes (ESP)......... 8-8......... S-'04

15 Nicolas Almagro (ESP)......... 11-6....... S-'06

16 Feliciano Lopez (ESP)........... 10-10..... R16-'09,08,04

by **AUSSIE_FABS** » Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:54

I want to see rafa absolutely destroy soderling. Although since it out of 3 sets soderling has more chance than at rg. Although he did beat rafa at rg he was injured and a bit off imo (not taking away from soderlings performance though he play brill tennis to get to final).

by **jayl0ve** » Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:03

Nahhh come on man, Rafa was not 'injured'; I love Rafa as a player but his 'injury' crap gets old....I mean if you ask him, the guy's never had a loss that couldn't be explained with 'knee pain' or whatever! Don't get me wrong he's one of the most gracious, humble, just-plain-nice players ever, but he tries to take pressure off himself by claiming minor, niggling 'injuries'. Soderling played a dream match and totally 100% took it to Rafa, there is in my mind no real excuse for Rafa losing that match aside from 'Soderling played amazing power tennis'.

by **Mike Rotchtickles** » Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:17

Yeah that is what basically happened.
Soderling was on fire that day, he wasn't going to be denied no matter what Rafa could come up with.

Also, 100% agree with your take on the Rafa injury excuses.
He may have knee problems (chronic, they say?

) but to me it just appears that he and/or Uncle Toni seem to use the 'injury' card to conveniently explain away some of Rafa's defeats.

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