Roger Has Transcended

A great Pic ain’t it? Looks much better with both the players smiling, unlike Aus Open.

Except for the reflection of some man in the trophy it is an awesome picture

Roger did it. Lets not speculate over the situation, He did it and thats what matters

First of, Roger’s performance was just what I expected him to give, if he was to defeat Nadal. For starters Roger hit 3 aces in the first set. He won 76% points when his first serve was in, which was in at 62%. To add on that he hit, 14 winners, 15 UF Errors, converted 1/1 break points and won 7/9 points on the net. Good stats. In comparison to Nadal’s 6 winners and 8 unforced errors.

He did the two most important things I felt he should have done, played aggressively, evident with 15 UF errors and Serve well.

Overall I still think this was more of Nadal not playing good, than Roger playing good. Still no excuses and a win is a win. I was especially impressed by his break point conversion which was a rock solid 2/2! Nadal didn’t play 1:4 as good as he was against Nole. Which was sort of obvious as a result of his match with Djokovic lasting over 4 hours! I was mislead by the Aus Open revival, and believed Rafa could do it again. But it wasn’t so.

This surely spices things up. I can say with confidence that the Top 4 in the world right now are pretty close to each other, and capable of defeating each other irrespective of the ranking. With Roger winning here, Nole playing so well for the past month or so and Murray having an incredible year so far and obviously Rafa, well you know why!

Unlike a few people, I do not feel this was an irrelavant match for either of them. Roger is gonna have loads more confidence after this than he would have had he lost. Plus a title is always good, as thats what players enter the tournament for, to win. Rafa is gonna have this defeat in his mind. Even though he does not show it and even though it seems that this was irrelavant for him. Rafa is gonna be looking for revenge and trust me he is upset at himself. However this might just turn out to be a good thing for Rafa, as he will be looking to avenge himself now, thus leading to a even more deadly performance.

And for heavens sake lets not make too much out of this result. It was bound to happen. Bravo to Roger, but lets not question Rafa’s credibility or any of that BS.

Effect of Madrid on Nadal

I want to clarify something I said on Craig Hickman’s open post! I do agree, that the effect of this match is going to be more on Roger than on Rafa. However there will be an effect on Rafa as well. Here’s why,

If he would have won in Madrid, he would enter Madrid undefeated. In my opinion that is much better then entering a tournament just having your winning streak on a surface brought to an end. I feel Nadal is going to be less conifident about Roland Garros, as a result of this loss. I do not think Nadal’s confidence will sufer much either though. But he will be in a worse condition then he would have been if he won.

After reading the comments on Craigs blog in response to my comment, I think there is a misunderstanding. What I meant was that Roger will have a huge boost, I mean come on he has been waiting for this since Wimby! Dosn’t matter if Nadal was 100% or not. So I think everyone will agree on that. As far as Rafa, what I meant is Rafa will have “some” doubts and negative effects as a result of this match. I in no way meant that Rafa will suffer more from losing this match than Roger gaining by winning. I do not think I wrote that or meant to write it even if I did! I guess I shouldn’t have used the word horrible! I just meant that its bad for Nadal and good for Fed. Obviously more good for Roger than bad for Rafa.

So I hope its all clear What I meant! Btw after reading the comments in response to my original comment I have come to a new conclusion.

I now feel that Rafa, fully aware that he has been beaten, knowing there might be a slight possibility it can be done again, will now focus even harder and punish himself to the extent of coming back even stronger and better now. Like I said in my previous post Nadal is gonna be out for revenge.