Members DramatistDreamer Posted January 30, 2022 Members Share Posted January 30, 2022 Looks like Rafa is staging a resurgence and Daniil is flopping a bit at the moment. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Toups Posted January 30, 2022 Author Administrator Share Posted January 30, 2022 What a comeback by Nadal!! Woke up in time to catch the 5th set at 4-3 and was surprised to see he lost the first two sets. Now Rafa is the first to reach 21 slams and will have a great chance to move two ahead of Novak and Roger. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DramatistDreamer Posted January 30, 2022 Members Share Posted January 30, 2022 Staged a resurgence indeed. Daniil did flop that third set and that was all Rafa needed to hang in there til the bitter end. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ChitHappens Posted January 30, 2022 Members Share Posted January 30, 2022 I've been up since 2:30 this morning and I wouldn't ask for a minute of it back! Wonderful comeback! Exhilarating match! The sleep deprivation was worth AO22! Congrats Rafa Please register in order to view this content 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Soapsuds Posted January 30, 2022 Members Share Posted January 30, 2022 (edited) I lasted till the fourth set and thought Rata won a set but didn't think he would pull it off and went to bed. Woke up to see he had won! I wanted him to win it all and I've never really been a fan. Somewhere this morning........ Please register in order to view this content Edited January 30, 2022 by Soapsuds 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Soapsuds Posted January 30, 2022 Members Share Posted January 30, 2022 From Roger Please register in order to view this content From Dominic 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Soapsuds Posted January 30, 2022 Members Share Posted January 30, 2022 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fevuh Posted January 30, 2022 Members Share Posted January 30, 2022 Well what's particularly scary - I only saw the last set / end of the match. I'm sure Medvedev knows, but maybe not to the extent that he even realizes. I hope someone tells him. Honey - as good as you were, and I'm sure you'll pick your own game apart and tell yourself you weren't nearly as good as you could have been, you made XX amount of mistakes, and you coulda done this or that better. Just know in your little heart of hearts...this wasn't even Rafa's best. And he's old now. LOL. A couple of months from 36 and 36 years old is by no means young in the Tennis world. Ya couldn't even beat him while he was at the end of his career. Remember that when you turn 36. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Soapsuds Posted January 30, 2022 Members Share Posted January 30, 2022 Please register in order to view this content 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cat Posted January 31, 2022 Members Share Posted January 31, 2022 Rafa's win was so moving and momentous. I really admire him as a person as well as a tennis player. He has always seemed more grounded compared with some other players on the tour. I felt bad for Med's disillusionment with the crowd, though, and how he feels that he is just playing tennis for his family and not so much for the tennis-playing public. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ChitHappens Posted January 31, 2022 Members Share Posted January 31, 2022 Yeah, Med's disillusionment was with the crowd and the loss. You don't have to love the spectators but don't make them an enemy. And let's not forget, this is the same guy defaulted from a match because he says the Chair and opponent are in collusion because they were both black. If he wants to be a jackass, he should be treated as such. Humble Pie is the worst! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cat Posted January 31, 2022 Members Share Posted January 31, 2022 And this is what I mean about Rafa being more grounded than "some other players on the Tour." Because some of these guys, like Medvedev, are spoiled brats, and if spectators are booing, its often due to past sh!tty behavior on the court. Some of these guys need to take accountability for their actions. But there also appears to be a growing divide between players from the West and players from former Yugoslavia/Eastern Europe/Russia -- a divide exacerbated by spectators booing Medvedev at some points. It feeds into the (Kremlin-pushed?) notion that western-based tennis institutions are focused on denying players from states like Serbia and Russia the wins they feel they deserve by stacking the deck against them. Djokovic's father said his son being sent back from Australia because the world had a vested interest in a Serbian not winning tennis tournaments, or some such victim complex nonsense. And while that narrative is looney-tunes ridiculous, I think this East vs West divide in tennis is deepening. And the beauty of tennis was that I rooted for players regardless of nationality. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DramatistDreamer Posted January 31, 2022 Members Share Posted January 31, 2022 I don't think there is so much an Easy/West divide as much as it's Novak vs. others. There were far higher numbers of more visible, prominent players from the Balkans 15-20 years ago than now. You had Seles, Ivanisevic, Ljubicic, Majoli, Dokic, Prpic, etc. Three of those names won at least one major title. Then add on Ivanovic and Jankovic. Nobody had it harder than Seles who was stabbed on court and as an ethnic Hungarian was part of a minority group even with the former Yugoslavia. When you go into Russia alone 15-20 years ago you had a ton more prominent players who dwarf today's numbers. Kafelnikov, Safin, Kuznetsova, Myskina, Demientieva, Safina, Tursunov, not to mention Kournikova. I have been following tennis for a very long time now and there isn't geographic divide in the sport. There are pockets of ethno-nationalism, among European fans from those areas and among MAGA-philic fans. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cat Posted February 1, 2022 Members Share Posted February 1, 2022 (edited) Thank you for putting it into context. I was just so shocked by the almost nihilistic finality of Medvedev's words that it seemed to sum up a divide which, as you point out, has Djokovic as its most polarising figure on one side. I remember well Goran Ivansevic who was my favorite (if highly unpredictable) player over an extended period. He is now one of Djokovic's coaches! And Monica Seles had it SO bad, my god, the swell of hatred against her, especially when she would beat Graf. Being stabbed on court was absolutely insane and it took a long time to prosecute the psycho who did it. Edited February 1, 2022 by Cat 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fevuh Posted February 1, 2022 Members Share Posted February 1, 2022 People don't remember at all. Or just deny it. It's an ugly stain on Tennis that people do not want to acknowledge. Not a single player voted for a protected ranking for Monica. Only Sabatini abstained, and that was the best they could do. Very ugly. And the German court system basically gave Parche community service. Monica to my knowledge (if I remember) never played a German tournament again. For whatever reason in history, Graf went down as beloved (still gross to me). No, it wasn't her fault. But she didn't do a thing for herself that could easily have made her look - empathetic and human. In the grand scheme of things we'll never know what would have become of Monica and how many more Slams she would have won. I feel safe in saying I believe she would have won at least 2 or 3 more French Opens and likely 2 or 3 US Opens. But it doesn't matter because we'll never know. What we do know is that in Steffi's first 14 Grand Slam tournaments that she played she reached the Semi Finals twice I believe and won one. Did not qualify for a couple/lost in qualifying. In the first 14 Grand Slams that Seles entered she made the semi-s in her very first, won 8 titles, with 1 finalist. It's not really that far of a stretch to see how it would have continued. And I usually say she was stabbed twice. Once by Parche and the 2nd by Tennis itself. You can tell who I'm a fan of. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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