Novak has just too much lucky,the wind,the amnesia of tennis players who they are...OMG
You are so funny.Your analysis is so unfair.Ok,Djokovic, for all this years, learn that his success is not enough price.Unfortunately for him,he`s from Serbia,not from US or Western Europe.

Dania,

Another stat worth mentioning is that Federer has won titles all year round since he started winning in 2001-2002, whereas Nadal NEVER wins after Wimbledon (half the year) unless there is a special event (Olympics or career grand slam) for him to get "pumped up" for. Playing half the year, ambushing your rival (who plays well the whole year) during a few weeks in June and July, then losing muscle tone and fitness "for some mysterious reason" and lying low for the rest of the season is not very impressive.

Federer made Soderling forget to play tennis, Monfils made himself forget to play tennis. Where was Novak during this match?
Sorry Steve, in final we will watch Nole-Rafa.

Lets just wait for the semifinals result so that all our speculations will be finally be answer. But much better if Rafa will win the US OPEN so that he can also feel the title all the way from New York City. GO RAFA GO RAFA GO RAFA GO.

Does it always have to be so commercial? Fed and Rafa are bestsellers now, so it has to be used until the very end! Imagine US Open final Djokovic-Yuzni, the two guys from Eastern Europe, commercial nightmare (seems that Iron Curtain still exist physicaly in some heads).
Future is in front of Djokovic! Go Nole and show them!

Well, at this point, skybet and betfair show nadal as the favourite. I reckon that Fed will win his 6th US Open unless the windy conditions die down fully and nadal gets to spin like usual, it'll be a fed win.

Agree that Novak doesn't get enough credit for making some very good tennis players look like your average club player. Yes, he does not own a "best in the world" - shot, but his game is the most well-rounded in tennis and he turns defense into offense more quickly and smoothly than any other player.
If Federer plays his best in the semi, he will probably win - but since Federer like anybody else is at less than 100 % most of the time, I'll give Novak a 50-50 chance of winning.

I would like to assure all tennis fans that roger is gonna win

I wonder, if Djok wins today (it happened before in both semi-finals and finals) what will be your excuse? Federer forgot where is the net? Good luck to everybody and lets hope to watch good tennis!

I picked Federer loss last year in the finals......check the blog and today Fererer will go down again.

Djokovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2!

Resa

Delpo did beat Fedex last year in the USO, ok. And Delpo did beat Nadal the same year, but to an injured Nadal in pretty bad conditions. Now I'd love to see them playing again, we could see something different, trust me

Youzhny in 4!

Posted by Lynne Danley 09/10/2010 at 02:50 PM
Yes, something is definitely at stake in a Fedal match. I think what's at stake is Fed's awesome legacy, and the reason is the MEDIA. If Nadal wins, we will be avalanched by all of the "Now Nadal is the greatest player of all time" prematurity that happened after Nadal beat Fed at Wimby. The media will jump all over the fact that Nadal accomplished the career slam AT THE AGE OF 24 as if doing it at 28 makes it somehow less compelling. Forget that Fed would still have 7 more slams than Rafa and some of the most awesome records in tennis that Nadal isn't even close to. The thought of it really makes me sad for Roger, and that is why I hope he wins. It's too soon to sweep Roger's legacy under the rug, but that's just what the media will do. Maybe some day Nadal will earn this epithet, but he doesn't have it yet and won't even if he wins the USO. Roger has earned it, and I get sick when I think about how it will be taken away from him if he loses to Nadal on Sunday. GO, ROGER!!!!!

YES, YES, YES, Lynne Danley...You have hit the nail square on the head. I think both are totally great players, but cmon, people. What more does Roger Federer have to do to be taken seriously as a great player? Rafa is good, but he simply does not have the records in the tennis history books that Roger has. Roger is the ONLY #1 player in the world I've known for the past 4 years for 285 weeks, i week shy of Pete's record. That stat just kills me, I don't know. I am holding out hope that Roger can best Pete's record of weeks at #1

What makes me scratch my head is how Roger's worth is measured by his H2H w/Rafa. Roger and Rafa lends itself to good tennis drama but there's always an Achilles heel for a great player.

Martina vs Chris -- Borg vs McEnroe -- Agassi vs Sampras -- Graf vs Seles -- Connors vs McEnroe -- Becker vs Edberg

None of the above rivalries measured one player's worth against the other. All of the above players had great rivals in their careers. At the end of the day it didn't matter what the H2H was for these rivals.

Some would make the argument that because the H2H between Roger/Rafa is significant. Think about these facts --

--Roger has approached Steffi Graf proportions. He has won 3 of the majors at least 4 times. If not for Rafa, arguably the best clay court player EVER, Roger would have had at least a Roger slam (FO 2006 final) or a Calendar Year slam TWICE. Roger has his own unique set of records in the history books but so does Rafa. Rafa's legacy is interwined w/Roger's because of the Grand Slam titles Rafa has, he has beaten the same player in 5 of his 8 Grand Slam victories and that player was Roger.

Don't let them do it to you, Roger. If we do get the Roger vs Rafa final, don't let the media throw you under the bus. You deserve this victory. You are always number one in my book whatever the outcome this weekend.

My goodness, the idiocy of the Nadaltards never ceases to amaze me. After spending the whole thread bashing Fed and dismissing his legendary achievements (something Nadal will never reach) and behaving in the usual Nadaltardistic fashion, it's the Federer fans who are getting antsy?!? Looks like Federer collecting another slam is too hard to take, but don't worry, there's always Rafas ass to look at to ease the pain.

well someone wrote something earlier about noticing that the rabid nadal 'fans' with a 5 year old's mentality coming out of the woodwork, i guess Ill have to second that here ...

SuperSaturday indeed.
A dumb marketing gimmick invented by people who do not know or care about tennis.
There is a reason why there have more memorable finals at the other majors (except the Rafa dominated French) than at the US Open.

6 of the 10 finals since 2000 have gone straight sets (including some really bad ones like Hewitt over a washed out Sampras) and only one has gone 5 (last year).

I love this tournament upto Super Saturday. After that it becomes a near-farce because it unreasonably favors the earlier semi final winner over the later one.

Guys&Gals, Have a heart. Root for the underdog for a change. Haven't you all had enough of Fedal finals - I certainly have. I would like to see Youzhny get to the finals and win the finals too. He is the only semi-finalist in the mix, without a grand slam title. Go Youzhny!

Steve - I loved this line "he got Mardy Fish, who conveniently forgot he was a New Player. In the quarters, he got Gael Monfils, who conveniently forgot that he was a tennis player at all." And yes - I'm with Tim. Thanks for the Youhzny v Djokovic final tomorrow. CBS is going to LOVE that:)

Steve's next comment:
"Unfortunately, we'll have to wait another year for Rafa-Federer US final, since Roger (in)conveniently forgot he was the best tennis player ever! How did he dare?!"

Posted by John

And Delpo did beat Nadal the same year, but to an injured Nadal in pretty bad conditions.

.....

what was he so injured looking for in the major s/f??

ahaha...you know my uncle is always injured, otehrwise he would've beaten Nadal, Rog and Djokovic in teh same tournament!

test them all, before semis.....DO IT

DANIA,

Yours is the classic case of "Statistics Lie".

The data is skewed and absolutely flawed. To the untrained and unsophisticated eye those stats may look impressive but the glaring FLAW is very simple. Roger is 5, repeat 5 years older than Nadal.

Your stat is garbage!!! It is like comparing a middle schooler not able to do Pre-Calculus or AP Calculus done by a 12th grader.

What is more telling and objective is the HEAD TO HEAD. And clearly, at 14-7 and counting, Roger is Rafa's whipping boy.

And more objective is the comparison of accomplishments at the same AGE.

Now, since you can compile stats but not analyze them, I dare you to tabulate how many things that Rafa has accomplished that Roger can only hope to do at 23 or 24!!!

Boy, that was Staples-easy!!!

And Dania,

Julio Chavez is not the pound for pound king is boxing. Manny Pacquiao is. Where have you been. Again, you are so dead wrong. And behind the times. Are your 80 years old?

MJ with Scottie and the crossdresser, maybe so but it is KOBE, KOBE, now!!! without Shaq. with Pau.

Not too fast in the track and field. Bolt has something to say about that and he is still rewriting the record books.

and who watches HOCKEY!!! Even the SPORT of FIGURE SKATING has more fanbase!!! Ouch! LOL.

So, you see Dania, you are wrong. But, hey that is roger fanaticsm for you. Nothing wrong with it, no?

Always remember this, HEAD TO HEAD is the most OBJECTIVE stat of all. No spins, no opinions, no sucking up to sponsors, to fans, to organizers.

Pure and unadulterated who beat who. Who kicked one's hinny most of the times. That simple.

No tabulation and ... absolutely no CAPS, either.

Duh!

I did the math.

14-7. Rafa beat Roger 14 times out of 21 and here's the kicker.

6-2 in Grand Slams!

Ouch!

Oh please pleaseeeee let Federer win....

Steve's a Serb hater, no doubt about it.

Don't get me wrong. Roger is a great player.

But if he is Rafa's whipping boy, ... fill in the blanks.

Mano a mano, QUALITY trumps quantity.

How did Roger get his 14, 15 and 16th Slam? Rafa was injured, unable to defend 100%

So, Roger is just one LUCKY player.

Proof? Did you see 2008 French Open? 2009 Oz Open? whiffed at 2010 Madrid Open?

I rest my case.

Resa first I was in the war & Serbian nation is attacked. Gusko
Novak darling good luck
love Nadal, Michael & Fredra who ever wins it is not end of world they are all good

And IF, if at all Roger wins over Rafa, it is going to be 14-8..

Wellll ... woopteedo!!!

LOL!

RAFA is in THE FINAL!!! VAMOS!!!!!!!!!

VAMOS RAFA - HE IS IN THE FINALS!!! I don't care who is going to be on the other side of the court. RAFA WILL COMPLETE HIS SLAM THIS YEAR!!!

And the dJOKER breaks the FED Express!

And he is immediately broken back by Express!

And the dJOKER crashes the party !!!

I told you, future is with Nole! Go Nole!

Djokovic popped your party... novak popped your party. Steve Tignor, we are waiting for a response...

Djoko made Federer look like the old Fred of yore. What a shame.

Well, is it the mono? Why did Roger forget to play so suddenly? I mean, he dismissed all his opponents so easily, what happened now?

You will now see some articles about Novak, but it will be much, much more about "wrong tactics" of Federer, how lucky Novak was, how this means nothing, how it is because Federer will soon retire etc., etc.
You will not find a singe author who will write a huge positve text about Novak with a nice picture (usually, you will see the uglies picture of him from the whole match).

But, it does not really matter. Tigno just does his job. If he wrote some truth, he would not have the job.

What happened? Federer forgot something, like where is the net? Anyway, it was a great match!I hope Nole recovers for tomorrow.

Well done, Steve!

Greatest Jinx Of All Time

Arbiter, you are absolutely right!You got the point, congregulations! Hope the others will open their eyes one day!

to all federer fans : what do you say now???

WOW!!!! Federer forgot how to play too. Steve get a life!
Go Noleeeeeeeee!

Too bad Tignor. Congrats to Djokovic, who DESERVES to play against Nadal.

Nice victory for Novak.
I think he finally pushed himself to "the" other level. He came all the way trailing for most of the match, and then he was 2 MPs down in the 5th, quite similar to the two sets he had lost.

I think the man really needed this one. He needs to win that 2nd GS badly, that would do a good upgrade to his appetite.

I hope he will recover and save his best for tomorrow. It's gonna be a truly great match. Without any doubt, he has a hell of game, even more than Nadal can handle on HC. I expect him to come out firing. We will see if he's ready to show the champion's spirit. Things are going for him because there is no expectation, everyone seems to have already handed the trophy to Nadal.

Seriously dude what is with insulting Fish and Monfils? Djokovic kicked their asses no need for you to add salt in the wound.
How are you going to describe Federer tomorrow? OMG What if Djokovic beats Nadal?? OMG what are you going to say than? OMG!!!!

Steve, I beg you don't pick Federer to win a title again. Stick to Rafa because everytime you pick Roger he loses.

Dania, stat and other roger fans,

Fed is gone.

He is done.

Care to tabulate more stats at 24?

Steve,

Hey, at least I am 2 for 2 picking Nadal and Djok.

Hey, fed fans, I picked Djok beating Roger. He did.

Now, let the excuses begin. Actually, Roger hinted at it already, that Djok may have been just lucky. What? no injuries this time. What about the ever present MONO that now Roddick is using each time he loses. What about that!

Get a reality check! Roger can beat the so-so players of his era. Hewitt, Safin, Roddick and Ferrero.

The Nadal era is now in. Nadal who has to contend with a more competitive group of big guys from Sod, Berd, Mur and Djok ... aside from trashing Fed out. Proof? 14-7, 6-2, 11-5 and got revenge in beating Sod, the only man who beat him at Roland Garros.

Go for it, Nadal. the Career Slam ... oops, sorry Fed fans, it is the GOLDEN Career Slam!!!

Ok, I am getting ahead of myself.

See you tomorrow, then.

Is It Sunday Yet?

Yes Steve. TODAY is Sunday. Not two days ago! Two days ago was Friday.

Now, did you realize what hit Fish and Monfils recently in the tour??

Posted by princepro110 09/11/2010 at 07:48 AM

I picked Federer loss last year in the finals......check the blog and today Fererer will go down again.

Djokovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2!
________________________

That was too good. Regardless of number and their disposal per sets, you did good job.

So, now, can you please post your prediction for today's final? Thank you.