Anyone Else Watching the French Open Tennis Finals Live - Nadal vs Djokovic?

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

The French Open Tennis Finals were rain delayed early in the 4th set yesterday, but they have resumed play - it's 5-5 in the 4th set...



Another epic match!!!

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/



ADG

[EddyTheDog]

I might take a look - I didn't know they were rained off last night...

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Yup. Better hurry though - Championship point...



ADG

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Not gonna spoil who won, in case anyone will be watching on DVR later...

Now I must sleep...(5:05 am here).



ADG

[EddyTheDog]

Originally Posted by AsianDivaGirlsWebDude

Yup. Better hurry though - Championship point...



ADG

lol - They where just walking off when I saw it.

No surprise Nadal won again....

[seeandsee]

i was :D its end now

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Originally Posted by EddyTheDog

lol - They where just walking off when I saw it.

No surprise Nadal won again....

Real smooth spoiler there, Eddy!





7 French Open titles now for Nadal...



ADG

[BIGTYMER]

Damn I wanted the other guy to win.

[travs]

ahhh fuck hahahaha

[bbobby86]

another epic final... Dam Djokovic lose it..

[CIVMatt]

Great match but once they took them off the court I had to stop watching

[Choopa_Pardo]

Nadal is nasty. I love Novak, but Nadal's game on clay is unmatched.

[EddyTheDog]

Originally Posted by AsianDivaGirlsWebDude

Real smooth spoiler there, Eddy!

ADG

Oooops....

Sorry, I wasn't thinking...

[Scott McD]

I can only watch tennis for so long before i get bored of it. Don't get me wrong some games are just epic, but in general when a game ends up lasting over 4 hours or something i just get fed up and want it to end...

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Originally Posted by Scott McD

I can only watch tennis for so long before i get bored of it. Don't get me wrong some games are just epic, but in general when a game ends up lasting over 4 hours or something i just get fed up and want it to end...

I understand. That is probably one of the reasons tennis is not more popular. The scoring can be confusing initally, the rules are not all that clear until you understand them well, and I'm sure that the sport is not as interesting if you don't play yourself.

My wife and I are tennis junkies. It has been our primary form of exercise for well over 15 years now, so we love the Tennis Channel.

Originally Posted by Choopa_Pardo

Nadal is nasty. I love Novak, but Nadal's game on clay is unmatched.

Both players are exceptional athletes.

Overall pro tennis has taken a giant leap in the past 10 years both in the quality of players and the quality of play.

One of the top American men currently is John Isner, and he is 6' 9'' (2.06 m). He is probably a prototype for future pro tennis.

Meanwhile their are millions of serious recreational players, and we play in leagues divided by skill level ratings (as determined by actual league match results) and age, so that you are generally playing against opponents of roughly the same skill level.



People that work behind computers can get quite sedentary, so tennis is a fun way to get your exercise, and it is also one of the few sports that men and women can compete at together (mixed doubles tennis is one of the few pro sports in which men and women compete directly with and against one another).



ADG

[Choopa_Pardo]

Originally Posted by AsianDivaGirlsWebDude

I understand. That is probably one of the reasons tennis is not more popular. The scoring can be confusing initally, the rules are not all that clear until you understand them well, and I'm sure that the sport is not as interesting if you don't play yourself.

My wife and I are tennis junkies. It has been our primary form of exercise for well over 15 years now, so we love the Tennis Channel.





Both players are exceptional athletes.

Overall pro tennis has taken a giant leap in the past 10 years both in the quality of players and the quality of play.

One of the top American men currently is John Isner, and he is 6' 9'' (2.06 m). He is probably a prototype for future pro tennis.

Meanwhile their are millions of serious recreational players, and we play in leagues divided by skill level ratings (as determined by actual league match results) and age, so that you are generally playing against opponents of roughly the same skill level.



People that work behind computers can get quite sedentary, so tennis is a fun way to get your exercise, and it is also one of the few sports that men and women can compete at together (mixed doubles tennis is one of the few pro sports in which men and women compete directly with and against one another).



ADG

Novak is an exceptional athlete. He's been my favorite for a few years now. I am gnashing at the bit waiting for an american to make a big impact in men's singles. I mean a true top five player, and I just haven't seen that coming from Isner yet.

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Originally Posted by Choopa_Pardo

Novak is an exceptional athlete. He's been my favorite for a few years now. I am gnashing at the bit waiting for an american to make a big impact in men's singles. I mean a true top five player, and I just haven't seen that coming from Isner yet.

Isner has a massive serve (clocked at just under 150 mph), he's just so damn gangly - he struggles with this on clay in particular, which if the big serve is removed, tends to favor more compact mobile athletes.

A size comparison of Nadal and Isner:





I'm disappointed in the current crop of American players. As the Williams sisters approach the end of their WTA careers, the future does not look all that bright for American tennis, with a few possible exceptions.

However, tennis is very much played as an international sport (except for Davis Cup/Fed Cup, the Olympics, and a few tournaments organized, which are based upon nationality), and since it is an individual or 2-person team sport, I find myself rooting for players more based upon their individual skills and personalities, than on their nationality (would still like to see an American resurgence in the sport though).

ADG

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Originally Posted by bbobby86

another epic final... Damn Djokovic lose it..

Djokovic's transformation and rise the past few years, from court hot-head to hyper aggressive skilled tactician, has been impressive.

The top three men in professional are currently all a credit to the sport, which can't be said for every sport.



From SI:

Nadal would almost certainly have more major titles by now - this record seventh French Open crown took his total to 11 - if not for Federer and Djokovic.

Without those two stones in his shoes, Nadal could have ruled alone at the top of tennis for years. But would tennis fans have cared as much about the men's game as they do now? No. And would Nadal have become such a good player if first Federer and now Djokovic hadn't forced him to improve? Probably not.

"To just watch these top players push each other, I don't think there's any much further to push,'' Steffi Graf, a 22-time major winner on the women's side, said before this latest momentous chapter in the Djokovic-Nadal-Federer rivalry. "Men's tennis, definitely, is at the highest it has ever been.''

Like musketeers, they're even more glorious as a trio. By building this golden era of tennis together, they share in its glitter. It may sometimes seem like a curse for Toni Nadal, but it is precisely because his nephew is tested so often against opponents of such high quality that we can be absolutely sure of his and their greatness.

To beat each other, they have to lift their game to the highest of standards. All three have been made bigger and stronger by their rivalry, not diminished by it. They are each other's poison, but also each other's magic potion that makes them look good. Together, they have now won 28 of the last 29 majors.

So, in men's tennis, it is them on one plane, everyone else on another, and looks likely to stay that way for the immediate future, at least for Nadal and Djokovic. Both in their mid-twenties, they have more time than Federer, 30, to make even more of a mark.

"They are doing something to one another that hasn't been done before,'' said three-time French Open champion Mats Wilander. "Borg made (John) McEnroe a better player, but Borg quit. And Federer made Nadal a better player, and Federer didn't quit. And Djokovic has beaten the hell out of Nadal, and Nadal didn't quit. So I think they're a very special three players that are not afraid of one another. They're not mentally really disturbed by one another. They just tactically, technically can't handle the other guy. It's very interesting.''

Had he won his first French Open final, Djokovic would have become the first player since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold four majors at the same time.

But Nadal, for his mental health, needed this victory more. Another loss in a major final to the world's No. 1 would have been the fourth in a row for Nadal, an unprecedented Grand Slam of losses that would have done untold damage to the Spaniard's confidence.

ADG

What level are you, ADG?

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Originally Posted by sherm

What level are you, ADG?

I practice regularly with 4.0 players, but I am a 3.5 still (my wife plays 4.0 now)...Back in the 90's and in 1999-2003 in particular, I had some pretty decent seasons playing league tennis (11-1, 10-1, 11-2).

A few of my teams won local titles, and made the district championships, and I actually won the NorCal section Grand Prix Mixed Doubles title one year playing with my wife (for most match points accumulated in Grands Prix tournaments for the year).

Unfortunately, my health has diminished greatly since then, so while I still practice a lot, I keep getting injured whenever I've tried to resume league play (which is a lot more competitive - my problem is that in the heat of league matches, I forget about my physical decline, and try to make my body do what it no longer can do, and invariably get hurt again).

I'm hoping this upcoming USTA Men's season, to finally get a decent amount of league matches in, and eventually work on moving up my rating again. Right now, I am just trying to get back on court and stay healthy.

With all that said, I'm basically a duffer that mostly plays for exercise and fun.

I know you play tennis Sherm, what level are you at currently? I generally bring tennis gear with me when I travel to shows and such, so someday we'll have to get together and slap balls around together...





ADG

Originally Posted by AsianDivaGirlsWebDude

I practice regularly with 4.0 players, but I am a 3.5 still (my wife plays 4.0 now)...Back in the 90's and in 1999-2003 in particular, I had some pretty decent seasons playing league tennis (11-1, 10-1, 11-2).

A few of my teams won local titles, and made the district championships, and I actually won the NorCal section Grand Prix Mixed Doubles title one year playing with my wife (for most match points accumulated in Grands Prix tournaments for the year).

Unfortunately, my health has diminished greatly since then, so while I still practice a lot, I keep getting injured whenever I've tried to resume league play (which is a lot more competitive - my problem is that in the heat of league matches, I forget about my physical decline, and try to make my body do what it no longer can do, and invariably get hurt again).

I'm hoping this upcoming USTA Men's season, to finally get a decent amount of league matches in, and eventually work on moving up my rating again. Right now, I am just trying to get back on court and stay healthy.

With all that said, I'm basically a duffer that mostly plays for exercise and fun.

I know you play tennis Sherm, what level are you at currently? I generally bring tennis gear with me when I travel to shows and such, so someday we'll have to get together and slap balls around together...





ADG

Nice!! I'm 31 now and my body feels like it's 70. I tend to play for a year at a time, then drop off for 2-3 years. I'm at the point now where I'm getting back on the court as of last week. I'll be hitting the courts a few times a week before jumping back into tournaments again, and I may possibly jump back into league play.

Last time I was part of a league, it was a 5.0 league. I believe I went 4-2, and played doubles. I'm a bit too fragile these days to play 5.0/open singles, so I try and keep it to doubles. I am hoping to get rated at 4.5 so that I can play 5.0 doubles and 4.5 singles though. However, they tend to not let me drop, being as I played D1 tennis (which is ridiculous, as it was 8 years ago).

Next time you come to Vegas, let me know. We'll hit the court!

[Chosen]

I don't

[ilnjscb]

Roger set the tone - gentlemanly, reasonable, humble. Nadal took it up and is the picture of a sportsman. Djokovic would have been an arrogant prick if not for having his ass whipped for years and having to dig deep.

Now they are three of the greatest athletes the world has produced. I was hoping Del Potro would join the ranks but after his injury who knows.