<p>They’re all too early to watch, but rooting for Nadal tomorrow.</p>
<p>“Well, then, emilybee, dish it up. Is Roger not the nice family man he seems? Does Rafa act likea spoiled brat? What?”</p>
<p>Actually, Roger is extremely nice. I have friends who have been big fans since he first came on tour and he always finds time to chat with them at tourney’s and has even arranged for court side seats for them. </p>
<p>I’m not going to name names as most I am personally familiar with are retired now but just like most people in the public eye - what they are like in private is often different than what they are like in public. </p>
<p>And some are genuinely nice. I have a friend who became a huge fan of Max Miryni and is now so close to him and his wife that they take her out to dinner and give her a players pass whenever she goes to a tourney where he is playing. </p>
<p>CSIHSIS, glad to hear you are enjoying your tennis lessons! We could have used you the other day when our 4th cancelled at the last minute and we were stuck playing Canadian doubles. 
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<p>MC has been pretty boring this week.</p>
<p>Saw some of the semis today. I keep saying that Tsonga has so much talent but always finds a way to lose against the top four. If he could just get his head straight - it must drive his team boners.</p>
<p>I give the edge to Nadal for the finals - he had tougher matches but he looks better. Djokovic’s ankle is still a little suspect and his arm might be too. Someone took a closeup picture of his racquet and many noted that there was less lead tape in the upper hoop than seen before. Someone else provided an explanation that it was due to his arm problems so he may be playing with a lower swingweight now which would result in a lower power level on his shots.</p>
<p>Set my alarm for 8, let’s see how that works out. The Australian Open was torture xD</p>
<p>Thankfully there was a rain delay so I got up in time!</p>
<p>I’ll watch it later on ESPN (great service as I can skip the breaks).</p>
<p>Djokovic d. Nadal , 6-2, 7-6 </p>
<p>RG is going to be very interesting.</p>
<p>Wow! I would have rather not seen that though. Oh well, it lowers the excitement level when I watch.</p>
<p>Did not enjoy it.</p>
<p>USA’s Fed Cup team is so awkward because Serena’s the only person keeping it alive. Might as well not even be a team thing.</p>
<p>That was depressing. :(</p>
<p>Go Nole! </p>
<p>The French Open is going to be interesting indeed. It is always the hardest major to predict because there are many clay court specialists who are relatively unknown and can beat any player on any given day.</p>
<p>Interesting match. The first set was relatively easy for Djokovic and the second set was a war. I always got a feeling that Djokovic had a slight edge and an edge in confidence, even as he was playing from behind in the set. Both of these guys can play incredible offense and defense but Djokovic just seems to have that added bit of confidence. I like to watch a physical match from time to time and this one was fun.</p>
<p>Nadal was wearing a patella strap (looked like a bandage wrap but maybe they make the whole strap like that). He also appeared to be wearing some kind of support on his foot. It was a few inches above the shoe collar but wasn’t anywhere near as high as your typical ankle brace. Djokovic was really great on tactics and overall strategy - his ball striking was very good too. I was also impressed with how well he did on hitting drop shots. Nadal generally couldn’t do much with the ball if he got to them.</p>
<p>Interesting comment from Nadal in the post-match interview: </p>
<p>“But I need a little bit more physical performance. That’s the real thing, to play all that points with the same intensity. I get tired more to play with that intensity, earlier than what I used to do it. So, yeah, even like this I had the chance to win the set. But I get tired in the 4 2. Then to win 5 All, have the break, was a few very intense points. I get tired to play the 6 5. I didn’t play with that intensity. When you start to have that feeling, is tough.”</p>
<p>On the other hand, Djokovic credited his team, especially the medical component on preparing him well for the tournament. It’s kind of hard to imagine Nadal being tired because he seems to go full throttle for every point but I think it shows up in errors.</p>
<p>Clearly Joker’s PEDs are currently superior to Nadal’s PEDs. Watching Nadal break down is akin to Arod’s (the baseball player NOT Roddick) decline both physically and production wise.</p>
<p>Nadal’s style is to stand pretty far back and hit with a ton of spin and pace. Djokovic prefers to stand closer in if he can and drive the ball though he can also hit with a fair amount of pace (not as much as Nadal of course). This means that Nadal has to run farther to track down balls hit at an angle to the court which means that he has to do more running. Nadal looks like he has more muscle compared to Djokovic (or just about any other player). He’s up at 187 pounds compared to 180 for Djokovic so I imagine there’s more work carrying the extra weight around. It seems like Djokovic has to do overall less work compared to Nadal.</p>
<p>Novak’s more lean, Rafa is a bit more muscular.</p>
<p>Anyway, wasn’t Nole injured going into MC? A lot of people were telling him to stay out of it.
I’m rooting for Nole to complete his Career Slam this year.</p>
<p>Also, sorry BCE! I will wait longer before posting results :)</p>
<p>I find watching Nole clinically destroying people, with clever angles and amazing defence so much fun.</p>
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<p>Nole had a hard time deciding whether or not to play MC and his medical team gave him the okay. I know that he’s had arm problems - the Kineseo Tape is a dead giveaway. I think that he had lower leg issues too. He had a few close calls where it looked like he might fall but he didn’t.</p>
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<p>The stuff that he does reminds me of Federer but Federer does this stuff as a matter of his usual style. Djokovic is more conservative spending time in the backcourt trading topspin (and sometimes slice) groundies that are conservative. What would be scary is if he used the sharp play all the time.</p>
<p>Nice match between Ferrer and Nadal. They’re both on serve in the first set from what I’m watching. Ferrer is playing well or Nadal isn’t.</p>