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Canadian Genie Bouchard reaches Wimbledon final

2K views 7 replies 3 participants last post by  63Blazer 
#1 ·
I am a Yankee but I always root for the Canadians in all sports (other than hockey of course) and I would assume this is huge for Canada:

http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/news...ie_bouchard_reaches_first_wimbledonfinal.html

On men's side it could be the predictable match up of another Federer-Djokovic final. Between Fed's age and injury plagued 2013 and Djokovic's apparently serious injury this tournament, it's probably too close to call. Both players are great serve and volley players but a long baseline battle is the type of thing players with injuries can't endure and my call is for Fed to win if he stretches out the rallies and runs Djokovic side to side in the style of Bjorn Borg. Both Fed and a healthy Djokovic could live on the baseline all day and play counter punch tennis better than anybody on the tour. If the rallies are short, then Djokovic has the advantage of his youth and sheer firepower. It's either Djo in three or four sets, but if rallies are long then it's Fed in four or five sets.
 
#2 · (Edited)
Petra Kvitova beats Bouchard for her second grand slam title. Kvitova was the first player of either gender born in the 1990s when she took Wimbledon in 2011 and this year was her second All England title. All eyes will watch her at US Open.

On the men's side if Djokovic didn't get over injury he won't be able to take any rallies. But to win he has to be on form like this:



UPDATE: 2 sets to 1 Djokovic but Fed breaks serve in 4th set and brings it within 3-2. For Fed to win he has to win the 4th set and rely on his conditioning to wear down the injured Djokovic. If Djokovic wins a 5 setter with his injuries it goes to show his fanboys that he may very well be the best ever. Imagine what this tournament would be like if Djokovic wasn't injured. He almost had to be carried off the court to hospital and now he's up 2 sets to 1 over Fed who didn't drop a set until this point. At his best, Djokovic is the most dominant male player since Lendl at his absolute prime, but the mental game is huge too and his 101 weeks at #1 and 44 titles in 10 years is still a long ways from Lendl's 157 weeks at #1 and 94 titles in 17 years.

UPDATE 2:

Djokovic wins 5th set even with taking break for injuries. He got through this with mental toughness alone in last set.
 
#3 ·
Now for weird finals, you have #14 Marin Cilic from Croatia versus Kei Nishikori from Japan tomorrow for the Men's 2014 US Open title. While it's not unusual for a man from the former Yugoslavic republic to be in a final, it's weird that it's not Novak Djokovic who is and will still remain #1 in the rankings.

But for a man from Japan to be here is a first and this will be interesting. It's reported that nearly the whole sports fan community was up in the wee hours of the morning watching Nishikori handily beat Djokovic.

Nishikori has a commanding head to head record against Cilic, but Cilic is peaking with an unstoppable serve.
 
#4 ·
Cilic looked great against Federer, but Federer looked pretty bad. I know Kei Nishikori would have rather met Federer in the final, as he mentioned him being one of his idols.

Interestingly this is the first Grand Slam in almost 10 years to not feature Nadal, Roger, or Novak.

And man, that serve of Cilic's is serious. I'm definitely looking forward to this final.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Cilic looked great against Federer, but Federer looked pretty bad. I know Kei Nishikori would have rather met Federer in the final, as he mentioned him being one of his idols.

Interestingly this is the first Grand Slam in almost 10 years to not feature Nadal, Roger, or Novak.

And man, that serve of Cilic's is serious. I'm definitely looking forward to this final.
The two really giant servers of the game in contention, Berdych (has beaten all the current and former #1s) and Raonic (often serves in the 150 mph range), are gone and done in by the two finalists this year. But Cilic may have the extra weapon of having a great all around game to make him more than just a big server. He can also kill you being a power baseliner and this makes him sound a lot like a young Federer. Nishikori is an all around player who is at ease doing anything in tennis, not unlike his coach Michael Chang. It's premature to call Cilic the new Federer or Nishikori the new Chang since the latter older players have held #1 and #2 positions for a long time in their respective eras. This could be a one time thing for Cilic and Nishikori or we could be seeing the next top players to come in men's tennis.

If there is a new era of men's tennis, it will one day exclude Federer and Nadal who reigned over the best rivalry ever in this sport on the men's side.

http://sportschatplace.com/tennis-p...i-nishikori-2014-us-open-pick-odds-prediction
 
#6 ·
In the end for the long term, other than the amazing world record holder fast serving Andy Roddick, huge servers don't go to the top ten in tennis nor do they stay there. Roscoe Tanner also did well and people though his huge serve would easily propel him to #1 but it didn't.

I remember seeing so-called tennis legends in the making get only so far with a big serve because few had the skills to know how to work long rallies or switch between net game and power baselining.

You can have a pretty fast serve like Sampras, Djokovic, or Federer but most of your points will still be won on what you can do after that serve. Cilic does have a great baseline game and may win a French Open for that, but the all court stamina players will still hold the top spots like they always have.

Djokovic is still #1 where he will finish at the top again and make a run next for 8 Grand Slams with hopefully 130 weeks total at #1 for career. His versatility makes him perhaps the best of all time, especially in an era where he had Nadal and Federer and Murray to deal with, and Cilic will probably never beat him and Nishikori won't do it again. Cilic and Nishikori have the goods to be long term top 5 players, like a Warwinka or Michael Chang, but not #1s.
 
#7 ·
Djokovic is still #1 where he will finish at the top again and make a run next for 8 Grand Slams with hopefully 130 weeks total at #1 for career. His versatility makes him perhaps the best of all time....
Nope - Roger is the best ever... Djokovic has 7 grand slam titles while Roger has 17...plus there are 20 guys besides Novak with 7 or more grand slam titles so I don't think Novak is even in the discussion yet as best of all time...my wife and I are huge tennis fans and huge Roger fans and if you recall watching Roger in his prime his pure raw natural talent was unparalleled...he made it look easy most of the time...he is aging now but he is still the best ever
 
#8 · (Edited)
My votes for GOAT would include a discussion with Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Sampras, and Lendl. All five of those thrived in times of extreme competition. I always loved the Sampras-Agassi fights and the lastest Djokovic-Federer matchup was classic. The French Open final with McEnroe and Lendl was one for all time. The best single year I have witnessed was Djokovic's 2011 and the longest, most consistent run of greatness was Federer.
 
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