OT - Djokovic making a run at the French Open Finals
Off the top of my head, Gaudio came back 2 sets to 0 against Coria. So they must have forgot about that one.
I saw that too… they showed like 5 different times it happened, and 4 were in the French.
?♂️
They showed a graphic that stated it had been done 3-4 times in the Open Era. You must have meant THIS century.
I'd been staying away from commenting on anything I'm totally engrossed in this match. I picked Tsitsipas to win this thing at the start of the tournament. And, since I'm a sports fan, I'm somewhat superstitious LOL (kind of like Stefanos not taking that dirty, sweat filled shirt off until he lost a set).
Anyway, it's looking like a 5th set, and I'm hoping that youth will be served. It's time, and I like Tsitsipas. I think he can be a great one!
But that would still be wrong lol.
Gaudio v Coria was 2004.
Probably just mis-heard.
The one mentioned in the previous comment happened in 04 (I think is what it said), so I might have heard it wrong.
Im enjoying the match though.
Enjoyable match, indeed. Tsitsipas needs to regroup for this 5th set, regain some confidence. If not, Novak is going to roll right over him in a similar fashion as the 4th set. If Stefanos Tsitsipas is to become a champion, he's going to have to find that mental resolve and determination that has defined Roger, Rafa, and Novak!
Agassi did it in 99 as well. Another epic final which led to his resurgence and second act where he would go on to win 5 more majors afterward.
5th set!!!
COME ON JOKER!
NOVAK THANOVIC WINS A 2nd CAREER SLAM!
"Dread it. Run from it. Destiny still arrives."
When it was 2-0 sets down, I was tempted to make a sports betting account and drop a couple hundo on whatever the odds of a comeback were.
This set is going to be a whooping, IMO. I can see a 6-1, 6-2.
I'm not a gambling man. But to answer McEnroe's question from earlier - "is this a moment, or a movement"?
This is a MOVEMENT! Let's go Tsitsipas!!!
Sounds like you really like him. I'm meh. He's in the middle in terms of someone I'd want to see dominating the circuit.
Reminds me of Roger, one handed backhand, kind of smooth - and I'm a big fan of Roger Federer.
He's cool. I am just more in the camp of wanting to see an American start to win again. I can get much more on board with that.
LOL WTF. They just cut away (at least on my feed) to the Indy crap??
I was wondering about this. They were really going to force people to switch to the stream for the 5th set?
I've been watching from nearly the beginning. Tsitsipas looks done mentally.
If he gets broken to open the 5th, this could go very quickly.
GOOD! Freaking Direct TV cut away for 5 minutes for the Detroit belle isle race.
I bet their phones were off the hook to go back.
When the engineers built this place, did they not seriously think about the shade and how the roof will affect play? Good gravy.
Good point. The organizers are going to want to start the Men's Final an hour earlier in the future.
Or just close the roof, regardless of how nice of a day it is.
BROKE HIM!
Great point too by McEnroe about drop shots and that being a sign of fatigue. I know that all too well…
Djokovic looking like he is gonna cruise from here.
3-1 in the 5th. It's not going to be long now.
The semifinal was good, but this match is pretty epic.
Double posts are awesome
Given that this is a Tennis thread, you Double Faulted.
/I'll show myself out.
This is the game Tsitsipas turns this match back in his favor.
Terrible call by line judge. Big time miss by her.
Now she’s gun shy… must be miserable to miss a call and then question yourself the rest of the match is a match like this.
That’s another incredible stat (if true), that neither Federer or Nadal have won the grand slam twice.
It is. Nadal has won the Australian once and Federer the French once.
Of course it’s still really impressive to win on every surface. Djokovic doing it twice on each is phenomenal, especially beating Nadal for the second one.
I have a dumb question. What would the officials do if they ask the crowd for quiet before the serve, and the the crowd keeps cheering like it's the Chicago Blackhawks national anthem?
I think they will just keep at it until the crowd quiets down. The player can refuse to serve if there’s too much noise.
This was a good match. Stefanos will hopefully learn from this, and find the mental resolve to become the champion, and dethrone the three-headed god!
Nole!!! Wow! Phenomenal comeback. Hats off to Tsitsipas, but Djokovic is just too strong mentally and physically.
The sentimental part of me still wants to give it to Federer, but honestly Djokovic has the strongest case.
Federer had the best game. And he’s a class guy. Rafa is so tough and also a class guy. I was really hoping Tsitsipas would pull it off. He seems like a great guy. Tsitsipas’ game was amazing in the first two sets and then he lost it mentally. Tennis is the toughest sport mentally.
I actually wasnt a Federer fan in his prime, only because he was so good. I liked Djokovic at first but he turned into such a winey ass egomaniac. I especially don’t like all his BS medical time outs he’s used during his career when 1 or 2 down. That, and his other antics make it such that he can never be a real champion in my book.
"Federer had the best game."
Aesthetically? Sure. It was graceful and elegant. But it's clear to me by now that Djokovic has a superior game. If nothing else, Djoker's ability to transform into a moving wall - especially in the biggest points - seems to be noticeably better.
"That, and his other antics make it such that he can never be a real champion in my book."
LOL!
Fed had his bad moments too. For instance, he blamed his first loss to Djoker in a semifinal on mono.
Fed is the goat imo, but ran into his cryptonite in Rafa on clay. Any other era and Fed has another 5 or 6 Grand slams. Roger reached 5 French finals, only winning one in a year Rafa was not his opponent.
Djoker is amazing but caught Rafa post prime after many injuries and Roger is post prime (age).
Really hard to compare players at different career stages and across all surfaces, but I think Djoker benefits slightly from catching both post prime, and having Roger go essentially his entire career as the second best player in the world on clay against the greatest ever on clay (Rafa) in his prime.
Across all surfaces in their primes, I would rank it
1) Fed
2) Djoker
3) Rafa
All 3 are incredible no doubt
"I think Djoker benefits slightly from catching both post prime"
This cuts both ways.
Federer was in his prime and had an experience advantage over both Nadal and Djoker for many years.
Example: At 2007 US Open Final, Federer was 26 and Djoker was 20.
Also, in the early 2000s there was no one to challenge Federer the way Nadal and then Djoker challenged him. Federer's first titles were against a weaker crop of players.
But all of Nadal's and Djoker's titles had to go through Fed at some point.
Federer beats Djokovic at their peak. Rafa beats anyone on clay at their peak. They’d probably still be chasing Borg if Borg didn’t quit at 27 and if he played the Aussie Open.
But that's not really true. If you look at Federer - Djokovic H2H during 2008-2015, when both were considered to still be in their primes (Federer aged 27-34 and Djokovic 21-28), Djokovic still leads 21-17 in all matches and 8-4 in slams.
Federer won 5 of their first 6 matches pre-2008. Novak has won 5 of their last 6 matches from 2016 on so the bookends of their careers even out. Novak leads the overall H2H 27-23.
I don't necessarily disagree with your larger point, but I think that the early 2000s were, in retrospect, as much a blown opportunity for Federer as they were a time when he racked up majors against weaker competition.
While Federer is four years older than Nadal, he had a later start on his tennis career and wasn't dominant in his early years--this isn't atypical, obviously, but I think it's easy to forget that Federer wasn't winning majors from the moment he stepped on tour. Nadal won his first French (2005) a couple of days after his 19th birthday. Federer won his first major, Wimbledon in 2003, weeks before turning 22... and had never even reached the semifinals of a major prior to that. So, prior to '04, Federer had played in only one major semifinal. Federer won three majors in 2004 and was off an rolling, but Nadal was lurking on the horizon.
Also, American tennis hasn't really been a threat during the reign of the Big Three, but Federer still had to contend with some American talent in his early career. Federer ended Sampras' reign at Wimbledon, and then Pete would no longer be relevant. But Agassi was still a top-five player, and Andy Roddick was actually really good for a few years, before Nadal became the arch-nemesis.
Anyway, this is partly a defense of Roger, but also an admission that he would have had a stronger claim to being the greatest had he started winning big at an even earlier age. In particular, he struggled on clay well before Nadal appeared--losing in the first round of the French on multiple occasions; by the time he figured out that playing surface, the window had closed.
I'm willing to consider the GOAT debate a "tie" for the time being, though I think that Djokovic will have the strongest statistical claim in the near future. I still appreciate the beauty of Roger's game and his ability to set a whole new standard for greatness after Sampras.
Impressive that Djokovic can speak so many languages. His French is pretty solid.
That is fucking amazing. I struggle with English, even without 2-carbon substances.
Knocked off the competition like tsetse flies.
Heckuva match by the Greek.
Jimmy is dead. Better check on Keith though.
The physical conditioning and mental toughness of Djokovic - no words to describe how impressive. I hardly ever root for him but giving the racquet to that kid was nice.
Tsitsipas will have his day. His first serve left him in the last three sets and too many unnecessary unforced errors. Very entertaining guy. As McEnroe said he will be a better player because of this match.