In his seven year career, Fog has won a total of four grass court matches. He's a beast in his first service game, though--despite charging the net about two seconds too late on his last point....The Fog begins to spray shots and goes down a break. I must say Tomic moves very well on grass, looks right at home--maybe it's that Australian background....Fog, showing a lot of hustle, scrambles up a break, 4-4...but then with two double faults and indecisive play is broken right back, Tomic serving for the set...Tomic noticeably tightened, but Fabio couldn't take advantage, 6-4 Tomic.
Second set: loosey-goosey game from Fog but he holds to start the set--Tomic looking a little like he's thinking about going into a funk for no reason at all...a couple of lame points from Fabio perks Bernard right back up, though, 1-1...comedy of errors from both players at the moment, with Fabio managing to hit an attempted drop shot both long and wide (don't think I've ever seen that before), 2-1 Fognini...bi-polar game from Fog, but after nearly giving away a 40-0 start, he holds, 3-2...Fog gets a break as Tomic can't seem to get a groundstroke past the net, 4-2--if there is such a thing as a model of inconsistency, this set is it....nice service game from Fog and he takes the set.
Third set: early break to Tomic as spotty play and good tennis seem mixed in nearly equal measure, though with Fog more on the spotty side at the moment, 2-0...and in what seemed like 30 seconds, it's 3-0. Check out time for Fabio, perhaps....lots of close ups as Fabio gets his foot treated. Not too many better looking human beings on the planet...Fog is sure fun to watch--he seems to be stomping on ants at the moment...the party is almost over, though, 5-2 Tomic...But Fabio breaks a nervous Tomic who can't close out the set, 5-4. What a bad closer that kid is....and, what do you know, Fog breaks again and is serving for the match. Tomic has no idea how to take control of a point at the moment, just dinking that stupid backhand back hoping his opponent errs before he does...and Fabio, behind an excellent service game (129 mph serve on one point? Can that possibly be?), takes the match, 7-5 in the third.
Tomic really did not impress me. After a solid first set, he, tactically, seemed totally at sea out there. He has so many quirky public court mannerisms--the extreme underslice backhand, the undercut forehand, the tendency to just push the ball back like a fifth grader when he is in trouble--that combined with his inability to close an opponent out, just spells trouble to me. I don't think it is a game that can be "fixed" either. In the future, I can't see him prospering much beyond the point where he is now. On the basis of today's match, I'm amazed he's got as high a ranking as he does.
For Fabio, here and there he played patches of brilliant tennis mixed in with too much indifferent tennis--but he found a way to win. Glad he's hanging around.
Fog Won the last five games of the match; what a masterful performance. It was hard to pick a winner here between two of the players least likely to give a **** about a non-slam on tour. Hilarious match though. Silly bookies putting Fog at 5000-1 for Wimbledon. I'd put my entire life savings on him. I have a feeling there will be a new prevailing weather condition in SW19 this year.
Last edited by Deficient Mode: 06-20-2012 at 11:50 AM.
Weird day at Eastbourne. Both the quarters and the semis were played today after the rain delays yesterday, and the extremely high wind limited the possibilities for aggressive tennis. Kohlschreiber retired against Seppi in the quarter with an apparent injury; not sure how that bodes for him for Wimbledon. Seppi meets Roddick, who beat Fognini and Darcis, in the final. Hopefully Andreas prevails.
Weird day at Eastbourne. Both the quarters and the semis were played today after the rain delays yesterday, and the extremely high wind limited the possibilities for aggressive tennis. Kohlschreiber retired against Seppi in the quarter with an apparent injury; not sure how that bodes for him for Wimbledon. Seppi meets Roddick, who beat Fognini and Darcis, in the final. Hopefully Andreas prevails.
Utterly pathetic doesn't even begin to describe the Seppi performance so far.
Utterly pathetic doesn't even begin to describe the Seppi performance so far.
Honestly, I stopped watching after a few games it was so bad. This grass is sooooo slow, and one has to think that playing a third match in what, less than 30 hours is affecting their play. Hopefully the second set is better. Doesn't look like it though.
Here's an update of the list that I put together about a year ago in defense of Federer's GOAT status. It keeps growing (new achievements in bold)
Top Federer Achievements
1) 17 Grand Slam titles.
2) 18 appearances out of 19 consecutive Grand Slam finals
3) Reached all 4 Grand Slam finals at least 5 times (no one else has done it four times)
4) Winning 5 consecutive titles at 2 different Grand Slam tournaments
5) Overall, winning 24 consecutive finals
6) Between 2004-2010, Federer reached 23 consecutive Grand Slam semifinals, breaking the previous record of 10 (!) held by Ivan Lendl
7) Holding the #1 ATP Ranking for 237 weeks (Federer is the first player, male or female, to rank #1 for more than 200 consecutive weeks)
8) Holds record for most weeks at #1 with 302 weeks
9) Between 2004-2007 compiling a 247-15 match record
10) Won his first 7 Grand Slam finals
11) Holds the first and second longest streaks on hard courts (56 and 36, respectively)
12) 65 consecutive grass court wins
13) Winning at least one Grand Slam title a year for 7 consecutive years
14) Federer is the only player to win 40 consecutive matches at two different Grand Slams
15) Between 2004-2007, Federer won 11 of 12 non clay court Grand Slams
16) Between 2005-2007, Federer reached an all time men’s record of ten consecutive Grand Slam finals, breaking the record of 7 set by Jack Crawford in 1934
17) Federer is the only male player to play in 7 consecutive Wimbledon finals
18) Federer is the only player to play in 8 Wimbledon finals.
19) Federer has now reached 34 consecutive quarterfinals in Grand Slam tournaments
20) With his defeat of Stanislas Wawrinka in the 4th round of the 2010 French Open, he became the first person to win at least 11 consecutive matches at each of the 4 Grand Slams.
21) Federer won a record 26 consecutive matches against top 10 ranked opponents
22) Federer won a record 124 consecutive matches against players ranked outside of the Top 5 in Grand Slam tournaments
23) Back to back titles at 4 consecutive Wimbledons and US Opens
24) Reached all 4 Grand Slam finals in back to back years.
25) Reached 5 consecutive French Open semifinals
26) With the exception of one loss to Del Potro, in 23 Grand Slam final appearances, Federer has lost only to Nadal.
27) Federer was the first male player to be seeded first at 18 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments.
I can see a case for Sampras, through the arguments of much more diversity in play styles on each surface, but the numbers just don't hold up.
I don't think it does anymore.
This list first came up when some Nadal fans argued that because of Rafa's head to head advantage over Roger, Federer was not the real GOAT. I was responding to this statement in All Purpose Tennis Thread II by Deficient Mode, who I think was actually trying to calm the waters:
Quote:
Still, I hope I can say without seeming too spiteful that those Nadal fans who said Federer wasn't the GOAT because of his head-to-head with Nadal or even said that Nadal was the GOAT for the same reason should appreciate that there is no flawless transitive property of tennis greats - which doesn't mean one can't argue there have been better tennis players than Federer for other reasons.
Though I'm a Nadal fan as well as a Federer fan, my response was simply "my case" for supporting Federer as GOAT because it seemed to me that the evidence for that conclusion was overwhelming, simply unassailable, even then. In short, I didn't think there was a real debate. The intent in updating the list now is nothing more than to encapsulate his career accomplishments because they really are astonishing and worth noting. Now of course the only real debate at all that's left is for #2, and Laver would get my vote on that score. As for Sampras, he didn't come even close to having the clay court career that Roger has had.
This list first came up when some Nadal fans argued that because of Rafa's head to head advantage over Roger, Federer was not the real GOAT. I was responding to this statement in All Purpose Tennis Thread II by Deficient Mode, who I think was actually trying to calm the waters:
Though I'm a Nadal fan as well, my response was simply "my case" for supporting Federer as GOAT because it seemed to me that the evidence for that conclusion was overwhelming, simply unassailable, even then. In short, I didn't think there was a real debate. The intent in updating the list now is to encapsulate his career accomplishments because they really are astonishing and worth noting. Now of course the only real debate at all that's left is for #2, and Laver would get my vote on that score. As for Sampras, he didn't come even close to having the clay court success that Roger has had.
Me? Trying to calm the waters? How novel.
Everything he has done since the US Open is amazing. 8 titles, a 63-6 record, 18-3 vs. top ten players, 2-1 vs. Nadal and 1-2 vs. Djokovic. Now he finally got that elusive 17th Slam, beat the #1 and defending champion on the way, and took back the #1 ranking. If that weren't impressive enough by itself, he did it a month shy of 31. At the very least, it's a blow to the delusional Fed-haters who attributed his success mostly to a supposedly weak field. I guess at the very best it cements his place as GOAT. I don't know; I guess it's probably best to evaluate its significance later once the hype has died down.
This list first came up when some Nadal fans argued that because of Rafa's head to head advantage over Roger, Federer was not the real GOAT. I was responding to this statement in All Purpose Tennis Thread II by Deficient Mode, who I think was actually trying to calm the waters:
Though I'm a Nadal fan as well as a Federer fan, my response was simply "my case" for supporting Federer as GOAT because it seemed to me that the evidence for that conclusion was overwhelming, simply unassailable, even then. In short, I didn't think there was a real debate. The intent in updating the list now is nothing more than to encapsulate his career accomplishments because they really are astonishing and worth noting. Now of course the only real debate at all that's left is for #2, and Laver would get my vote on that score. As for Sampras, he didn't come even close to having the clay court career that Roger has had.
Nadal? Is that a joke?
I never even thought the conversation was about Nadal.
He's really not even close, he's nowhere near as consistent, and really, he never stood a chance against Federer in his prime - except on clay, obviously.
(shockingly, when you think back, Federer's "decline" began in 2008.... 2008, dudes... Then the 2009 comeback and Aus Open 2010, then another slump... but his play was nowhere near the untouchable Feds of 2005-2007)
Sampras is the only one in recent memory to compare to Feds, IMO.
But yeah, his clay court play was nowhere near Feds, even though I think his feats in that era on other surfaces are as good as or better than Roger.
Ivanisevic, Becker (not in his prime), Krajicek, Courier, Kuerten, Kafelnikov, Stich, Rafter...etc.
They made for such better competition than Ferrer, Tsonga, etc.
No tournament was a safe bet that the 1-4 seeds will make it to the semis, when today, it's a shock if it's not a Feds-Rafa-Novak-Murray line-up.
Sampras and Agassi had much tougher competition.
None of those guys were as great as them (Becker was not in his prime in the 90s), but any slight slump meant you lost the match.
Today, the top-4 walk through matches backwards in 90% of the tournaments.
Nadal? Is that a joke?
I never even thought the conversation was about Nadal.
He's really not even close, he's nowhere near as consistent, and really, he never stood a chance against Federer in his prime - except on clay, obviously.
Give them a break. Many of them didn't watch tennis before 2008. No, but if I correctly recall the context of that comment, it came right after last year's US Open, when of course the Rafa glory hunters were nowhere to be found, and it was just a gentle preemptive strike on my part.
Quote:
(shockingly, when you think back, Federer's "decline" began in 2008.... 2008, dudes... Then the 2009 comeback and Aus Open 2010, then another slump... but his play was nowhere near the untouchable Feds of 2005-2007)
Fed's decline began in 2007 I think. 2005 was his best year; 2006 was close. In '07 he was markedly worse, but still won three slams.
Quote:
Sampras is the only one in recent memory to compare to Feds, IMO.
But yeah, his clay court play was nowhere near Feds, even though I think his feats in that era on other surfaces are as good as or better than Roger.
Ivanisevic, Becker (not in his prime), Krajicek, Courier, Kuerten, Kafelnikov, Stich, Rafter...etc.
They made for such better competition than Ferrer, Tsonga, etc.
No tournament was a safe bet that the 1-4 seeds will make it to the semis, when today, it's a shock if it's not a Feds-Rafa-Novak-Murray line-up.
Sampras and Agassi had much tougher competition.
None of those guys were as great as them (Becker was not in his prime in the 90s), but any slight slump meant you lost the match.
Today, the top-4 walk through matches backwards in 90% of the tournaments.
Agreed. Sampras is still ahead of Nadal. People who haven't seen matches from that period don't appreciate how difficult it was for people like Lendl and Sampras to win on both grass and clay. The top-level competition was much deeper, and the contrast in prevailing playing styles on the two surfaces was much, much broader.
Nadal? Is that a joke?
I never even thought the conversation was about Nadal.
He's really not even close, he's nowhere near as consistent, and really, he never stood a chance against Federer in his prime - except on clay, obviously.
We have two principle Fed haters of long standing on this board, one extremely insightful on all other matters related to tennis other than Federer, the other a decidedly loose cannon who has a penchant for making pronouncements like "Say your prayers, Federer fans" after Rafa's recent win in Paris. Both have been noticeably silent lately. Not so in the past.
We have two principle Fed haters of long standing on this board, one extremely insightful on all other matters related to tennis other than Federer, the other a decidedly loose cannon who has a penchant for making pronouncements like "Say your prayers, Federer fans" after Rafa's recent win in Paris. Both have been noticeably silent lately. Not so in the past.
Had two. The one has now ascended to HFBoards heaven (RIP). Hopefully the other stays here for a while. People in the Lounge would be pretty bummed if he ever met the same end. To be fair to him though, he wasn't making that much noise when things were going well for him either.
Had two. The one has now ascended to HFBoards heaven (RIP). Hopefully the other stays here for a while. People in the Lounge would be pretty bummed if he ever met the same end. To be fair to him though, he wasn't making that much noise when things were going well for him either.
Whoa! I didn't know. I don't frequent the Lounge much but I hope the keeper has an Australian accent. Is it because you never sleep that you know these things?
Whoa! I didn't know. I don't frequent the Lounge much but I hope the keeper has an Australian accent. Is it because you never sleep that you know these things?
No, I know these things because I do frequent the Lounge. He's a full-out legend in those parts.
Won the last five games of the match; what a masterful performance. It was hard to pick a winner here between two of the players least likely to give a **** about a non-slam on tour. Hilarious match though. Silly bookies putting Fog at 5000-1 for Wimbledon. 
I'd put my entire life savings on him. I have a feeling there will be a new prevailing weather condition in SW19 this year.
No, but if I correctly recall the context of that comment, it came right after last year's US Open, when of course the Rafa glory hunters were nowhere to be found, and it was just a gentle preemptive strike on my part.
