ATP World Tour Final 02

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anyone interested/watching?

Murray as usual NOT rising to the occasion against Fed

Roddick almost had the Spaniard, Djokovic playing nicely

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JNW1 said:

North West Tom said:

Federer was too good, just a shame Nadal choked in that final set.

I thought he seemed to more run out of gas than choke. The high energy game you normally associate with Nadal wasn't really there tonight and if Federer hadn't suffered a dip in form in the middle of the 2nd set I think he would have won in straight sets; he was the one dictating proceedings whenever he played well and certainly deserved to win. Hopefully this victory will give him a confidence boost for next year and also some belief that he can beat Nadal!

Still, three grand slams isn't exactly a bad season for Rafa; 12 months ago I bet he'd have settled for one in 2010 after his awful showing at the O2 last year!

yes Nadal did look tired but credit to Federer for not letting him get into a rhythm, attack all the way

I thought they both looked a bit tired, also looked as if they had both lost a fair amount of weight

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Jonny671 said:

Excellent match though! Not many aces, is it just our Murray that aces alot?

Federer served quite a few? Only 3 sets and Nadal has never served many

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Justices said:

People forget Roger grew up on the clay. This is where his all-court game was developed and why I believe he seems hesitant in attacking the net. If you watch his Wimbledon match against Sampras he played superbly at the net (no option really) so he is more than capable of doing so when he chooses. You only need look at the way he dispatches everyone (even the top clay players) at Roland Garros each year for proof of his clay court prowess. Nadal is a very different animal though as there is virtually no point in a match where his head dips so it is very difficult to turn the proverbial screw as you get little to nothing in terms of leverage. The only way I've seen it done is with all-out-attack where he is neutralised and doesn't have a chance to get into the points. James Blake and Tsonga did this well against Nadal. It's high-risk tennis however and you need to be ON for the entire match. The moment you aren't.. "VAMOS" it's over.

Going back to Maradona, his handball was one thing, that incident was for the referee at the time to judge (unfortunately). The consistent, flagrant drug use and being allowed to play time and time again despite disgracing his various teams and the competitions he was allowed to compete in is something else. As brilliant a player as he was, victory means nothing when you cheat. Fundamentally it is a complete lack of respect for your opponent and without an opponent, there is no sport. The absolute definition of a false idol IMO.

In Argentina, so long as you don't get caught it's seen as acceptable to cheat in sport to win. I discussed this at length with a few top athletes earlier this year and although I had suspicions, I was still bowled over that it's really a bit of a non-issue there. A large number of Argentinian tennis players have been caught and banned. International players that well known Argentinian players have coached also get involved in doping, allegedly of course..

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interesting i never knew Federer grew up on clay, it might partly explain the mental block he has when playing Nadal...?

That is the great thing about Nadal, the only way to beat him when he is on top form is to attack like Federer did but to keep that kind of level up for a whole match is very difficult

Jimmy Connors summed it up perfectly: "In an era of specialists, you're either a clay court specialist, a grass court specialist, or a hard court specialist...or you're Roger Federer."