Nadal won
Nadal won Rolland-Garros* :/
Don't see how he can be beat by Ferrer or Tsonga now.
Roland-Garros*
He seems like a pretty good dude, and is a hell of a competitor. What's to hate?
Probably the big thing is the persistent PED rumors - though we can't assume anyone else at the top is clean either.
But I think tennis has some pretty stringent testing proceedures, no? And Nadal has always been more thickly built than other top players, save maybe Tsonga.
Tennis actually hasn't been too strong in that regard, with very infrequent testing, but they're going to start using the biological passport system soon, which will beef things up considerably.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/sports/tennis/tennis-federation-strengthens-drug-testing.html?_r=0
If you've seen Nadal when he was 17, he was a lot more jacked than he appears right now.
I think the first French Open he won, the interpreter misinterpreted what Rafa said and turned it into a self-aggrandizing remark to which the crowd booed him for. Maybe that's why the French don't like him? I have no idea really.
French people love Federer. (That's probably at least in part because Federer speaks French fluently.) They may be annoyed at seeing him regularly get beaten on this surface by Nadal. Nadal also doesn't speak French well, so it's harder for him to endear himself to the crowds.
There was an article about tennis players' French skills the other day in the WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323844804578527533065305270.html
In France, a lot of fans hates him because he's just too good.
Nadal was injured but he reached the final this year.
When you win the French Open seven times(almost eight now) and you're almost on clay courts you'll receive a lot of hate for sure.
I suppose the US has been without a consisent threat to win a major for so long, I don't have much of a national rooting interest these days, even at the US Open. I just enjoy the matches for what they are.
- He picks his butt before every serve. Once noticed by the viewer, it becomes extremely unnerving.
- He walks to the towel-boy and wipes his sweat after almost every point. This delays the game and is annoying. His matches take forever. It's agony to watch. His opponents don't like it either and have accused him of taking too long between points.
- He takes an unusual amount of injury timeouts. Once again, more delay. Annoying.
From a distance, he does indeed seem like a good person. He is always very gracious in victory, for instance. However, the above-mentioned habits mean that, while I don't hate him at all, I do hate to watch him play.
If you read his book, he has a lot of quirks,and part of his greatness are due to those quirks. Also, I feel like a lot of his issues stem from his uncle. I've met the guy before and he is incredibly down to earth. If there is a reason to hate him, it is Uncle Toni.
Nadal is great and my favorite player. I used to hate Roger, but that was prior to my liking of tennis. I hated him only because he was winning every tournament on Earth, but I have developed appreciation for him. I love watching the Big Four play (Nadal, Murray, Federer, and Djokovic).
Only question now is if the long match is going to hurt his performance in the finals. Tsonga is good I could see him putting up a challenge
Tsonga put a whupping on Federer that he won't soon forget. It was ugly.
This is a stupid thread, but I will post anyway.
I really like tennis, but only watch the Grand Slam events. I have been listening to the radio coverage for the past two weeks while working and it's been a great tournament. The Nadal/Djokovic match was absolutely spectacular. I have a feeling this Ferrer/Tsonga match won't be complete by night fall, which is a problem because no court at Roland-Garros has lights...yet.
Djoko had some uncharacteristic errors in the last half of that last set, starting with his body touching the net on an overhead smash. After that, Nadal regained his confidence, and serving first in the 5th helped take some pressure off of his serve. He will win the title again, but I am more interested in what happens going forward. As a Federer fan, I just hope he regains his form and gets one more title before calling it quits. His form as of late, compared to where it was last year, has been nothing but depressing to watch as a fan.