Greetings and a Postmortem
I just want to kick things off by thanking Jefe for his gracious invitation to join this group, an invitation I have been heavily (shamelessly?) lobbying for. Thanks very much, and I am really excited to be here.
I'm still reeling from the Wimbledon final. It was as awesome as I had hoped. Nadal's testicular fortitude was on full display, while Federer's play, while stellar, was somewhat undermined by uncharacteristic mental lapses and bitching about the linecalls. At one point I think I heard him utter an obscenity, which was shocking. The little Spaniard is clearly in his head. Nadal was constantly stunning me with groundstrokes he seemed to be pulling out of his ass. Even though Federer manged to gut it out in the end, this is as close to rattled as I have seen him in 4 years.
You can't help but pull for Nadal. He's flashy and exciting and seems to go for broke on virtually every shot. He may lack Federer's grace, but his skills are unbelievable. I can't wait till they play again.
And finally, this little tidbit, courtesy of the BBC:
"Former French tennis star Guy Forget made the case today against sleeveless shirts by taking a swipe at Rafael Nadal: 'We don't need construction worker arms in tennis.' "
Well. Zing. I guess.
posted by Omar at 6:22 PM
3 Comments:
It's obviously unfair, but I've racially profiled Nadal and lumped him in with the 300 French and Spanish guys who come out for the French Open every year. I hate those guys.
8:24 AM
The audio commentary in the final absolutely killed me. I had to mute it intermittently throughout. I mean, yeah Federer could stand to be more aggressive and volley more often, but the bottom line is the guy still wins everything. My friend and I observed that it might do Federer good to lose a major (besides the French). He seems a little too scared to lose; a little too tight. And his serve is really underrated. He might not get it to 130, but the guy hits so many aces that it doesn't really matter.
9:21 AM
He is extremely scared to lose. Like when a couple of the reviewed line calls went against him, he started whining about how the Hawk-Eye replay system "Is KILLING Me," and churlishly demanding that it be turned off (this despite an accuracy rating of like a thousand percent and unanimous support from every other player for its efficiency in resolving disputes). It was really unsettling for me to see. Whenever a few points start to go against him, he starts acting like the recent incarnation of Harry Potter, ie heroic and dazzling but lately prone to adolescent tantrums and interminable yet inexplicable brooding. Its like, grow a pair, Potter. Life's hard. Suck it up.
12:28 PM
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