OT: French Semis, Roger vs. Rafa

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Especially since in tennis you are usually considered "old" at 30. Nadal (33) and Federer (37) have been able to stay at the top for a long time.

Yeah this is another place where Nadals dominance on clay is truly eye popping; he’s 13-2 vs Federer on the surface before today’s match.

Next time you are near a clay court, see if you can sneak on just to walk around.  The surface is unique - you actually slide around a bit while you are playing.  This slipperiness not only impacts your footwork, but the ball "bites" into clay, making the effect of spin amplified.  And the ball comes off clay a bit slower than a hard court or grass.  Historically, that's meant that clay caters more to tactical players and is less rewarding of a pure power game.

Interestingly, though, the differences between clay, grass, and hard courts have diminished over the years - making the surfaces more consistent.  This allows players like Rafa to move between surfaces and still be pretty dominant.  (Of course a steady diet of steroids has also helped Rafa, depending on who you ask.)  The "blending" of the characteristics of the three main surfaces has been a bit of a controversy.  In any event, the days of "clay court specialist" are dwindling, if not gone.  That blending has meant that changing between surfaces is not as drastic as it was 20 years ago.

Clay forces changes in one's game, and is a hell of a lot of fun.  There was some hotel out in Ypsi that had outdoor clay courts back in the day, and I'd pretend that I thought they were public courts (they were near the road and away from the main hotel) until they'd chase me off.  Those were old-school clay (i.e., much "softer" than most clay courts these days), and just a riot to play on after spending nearly all my time playing on high school or muni hard courts.

Ability and requirement to slide around and the ball bounces differently. Clay takes the power away from the big hitters.

Nadal dominates on clay for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, he hits his groundstrokes very hard and with more topspin than anybody else probably in history (Dominc Thiem may be close). The extra bite of the clay courts enhances this topspin by bouncing higher and deeper into the court. This drives his opponent back in the court often enabling Nadal to take the offensive during the point and Nadal is the master at moving his opponent around to the point where he either has an opening to hit a winner or makes his opponent miss. 

Nadal's forehand is particularly devastating on clay and the fact he plays left handed also benefits him because he often hits it cross court to the right-hander's backhand (he is actually ambidextrous and throws right handed which helps his two-handed backhand). Playing to Nadal's forehand on clay is almost always a bad idea but his opponent often doesn't have a choice because they are usually on defense just trying to keep the ball in play.

The US lost interest in the sport, it's relegated to country clubs these days and not too many gritty, hardworking champions come out of country clubs, McEnroe was the exception.. There used to be tennis courts everywhere, not so much these days.

I think the lack of American male star power, for nearly the past 40 years, seriously dented the interest of American youth in the sport of tennis. Sampras has been, by far, the most dominant American male player of this time, but he lacked the charisma to increase the popularity of the sport. Agassi had a good run (twice), and he had all the charisma needed (especially early in his career), but the majority of his winning came in the 2nd half of his career, after his pop culture star power had all but faded. 

Contrast American tennis with American golf. Golf was boring, dominated by foreigners, and lacked any American male star power for the decade following Jack's 1986 Master's win. Then, a young American male burst onto the scene in 1997 with star power and an otherworldly game. 20 years later, young American golfers dominate the professional golfing world.

As great as Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic have been for the past 15 years, Americans are somewhat myopic regarding the sports stars that they let influence them. Americans need great and charismatic American players or else they'll lose interest in the sport, and kids won't follow it or want to play. 

However, there is an opening. The big 3 are all getting older and the injuries have been piling up lately. The problem, though, is there are only 3 American males in the top 50. One is an old man (Isner #10), and two young, but promising, charismatic players (Tiafoe #34, and Fritz #42). Our cupboard is rather bare, but as Tiger Woods proved in golf... it only takes one player to rejuvenate an entire sport.

They all do...RF included.

And Fed just magically hits harder at age 37 than what he did in his 20s and early 30s

Actually, Federer had won 5 in row against Nadal until today. It's a tad one-sided with Nadal up 24-15. But, so much of that is due to his clay specialty (14-2). Subtract that, and it's Federer 13, Nadal 10. No excuses though, whatever the surface, Nadal leads the overall rivalry.