Nadal is so far behind the top mix its unreal!

ferrer and fed look like theyl smash him to

you still drunk mate

Novak will beat him here all day long.

Even Fed will have a chance if they play on a wet court.

No arrong im just being realistic here. I have 250 quid on nadull at around evens but  he looks absoloutly shocking. fed and ferrer look good do they not? U not think nadull is way below par?

only djokovic will 'smash' nadal. he'll grind his way through anyone same as always. 1.8 to 2.2 over the last few days shows how people are rating his price v djoko so far. although he'll be nearer to 1.2 should he play fed in the final, which is remarkable really

Fognini played the best I have ever seen him play, but Nadal was a bit off his best, particulalry in the first set.  He's been a bit like that in each of his matches so far.

I think Novak > Nadal on clay. He will grind him out (imo). Novak is a better player technically than Nadal (imo) and I think if they played each other, he'd take control of the match and punish Nadal the way he did at Monte Carlo

As much as I said pre tourney Nadal was the man to beat I must admit I'm slightly concerned now. Fognini played very well especially in the first set to his credit. It's hard to say exactly what is leading to these poor performances. Fatigue? Great play from opponents? Knee bothering him? Parisian weather not to his liking? Or has he just had a dip in form?

If it is the dip in form i'm not overly worried because Nadal never produces his best tennis in the first week of a major, if it is the weather i'm also not too bothered as forecast gives it to be hot and sunny in the high teens early twentys for friday (potential clash with Djokovic) My big fear is he is injured and just struggling on.

shiraz yes that may be the case with fognini but i seen a bit of the game and to me nadal was no wer near the lines which enabled fogi to play from middle of the court which would have helped his performance. i genuinly thaught dimtirov would gave djocko a game but he destroyed him, i think he choked more than djocko played well tho. I seriously think ive done my nuts on nadal here and am just nervous or bit of a virus or something. i still believe he can beat djocko but on current form u gota say it looks a formality for djocko

only djokovic will 'smash' nadal. he'll grind his way through anyone same as always

Could not agree more.

Jun 2, 2013 -- 11:53AM, The Bhoys wrote:

No arrong im just being realistic here. I have 250 quid on nadull at around evens but

ffs

don't care how any of the 3 have played so far. Rafa isn't losing to Fed or Ferrer

you can still red out with a small loss, better to switch on Djoker, he should already be fav outright and will be fav in the SF as well

he won't be fav, but his price is too big, has been for months

bye bye care bear

rong fred muppit

Jun 2, 2013 -- 12:12PM, bb66 wrote:

you can still red out with a small loss, better to switch on Djoker, he should already be fav outright and will be fav in the SF as well

I hope you are making the market

im not redding out, i have banged on for months about nadal will win roland garros. im sticking with it, my mate backed djocko tho i really cant listen to him if and wen djocko beats him. i still believe nadal will win it tho

rafa been poor or workmanlike in lots of tourns this year till later stages...then he thrashes the top guys normally after ferrer played him into form (except joker at monte obv
)

djocker was absoloutly unreal in monte carlo, and i seen enough in that game from nadal to tell me he can beat djoko as there is no way in hell he can produce that display again and nadal should have made it 1 all in sets that day. nadal has been poor this week ino but hes bound to improve

It's all about opinions of course, but, 2/1 Novak is HUGE imo. This is the worst I have ever seen Rafa play on any court worldwide. To all Rafa backers, I'd just say, think long and hard about it, listen to and see the truth in front of your eyes, be 100% honest with yourself and accept a small loss by backing Novak.

Only if you can humbly accept a loss can you ever truly be successful.(Financially - and metaphorically - speaking).

This seems to me like a real seminal moment in Rafa's career. He is just waiting for anyone remotely decent to crack him. Even, dare I say it, even Stan could potentially make him pay. Strike while you can folks, and take that 2/1 Novak.

Whatever you decide though, good luck to you all.

nadal made finals in last 8 tournaments straight. it doesnt matter how he plays against some mugs atm. i think people got too much influenced by curier ramping on itv. nadal wasnt performing best on wet clay but in normal conditions he will be himself. he didnt play much of djokovic after injury lost first set then lost second on tb. this is best of 5 match he need to apply different approach against djokovic but its not difficult to execute with his ability . nadal on clay usually concentrating on hitting the ball with massive spin but he dont care about placement too much just direction, he lands his forehands in the middle but ball still pushing opponent away and is difficult to control early, djokovic have crack on that because he can control difficult ball better than any other player so nadal just need to work on  the length of his shots to neutralize novaks counter punching abilities but its not that difficult for him, power top spin forehands to the middle of the court which are working against everybody need to be replaced with tactically placed more accurate shots to the baseline but nadal can easily execute this. lets not forget novak its not in his best form we seen in 2011 atm, he has ups and downs and in best of 5 even not performing well nadal can grind him down. but nadal is in good form,he just waiting for this match whole week so he was bit nervous at points + weather against some mugs, same novak btw. they just waiting for this match from the beginning,losing focus.
it will be good match whoever said novak rafa can be boring, lol this is massive match best since last spring

paragraphs ffs

12/1 on fed must be a bet..........he can get to the final and if its djocko, fed could beat him.

THIS IS FERRERS YEAR

We still knocking Rafa and bigging up Djoker after that last round - Djoker struggled against Kohli and Rafa keeps Nishikora quiet easily.

Evens against Rafa was lovely after those matches - he has to beat Djoker then gets...erm Tsonga or Ferrer to win it - odds against those two if in final?

Ferrer: 1.1
Tsongo: 1.2 (yes, I rate him a bigger danger than Ferrer.

IMO

no chance he'd be 1/10 vs ferrer

personally I think Djoko will win it , and if he will he will win all 4 slams this year, now or never, 4 slams i a year, thats wat djoko looking for

How did Berdy beat Djoker then?

amazing fishing thread, many hooked

No way this is fishing, Bhoys is serious

Jun 5, 2013 -- 12:12PM, SIR_Bond wrote:

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Has this ever happened before?
no chance he'd be 1/10 vs ferrer

What would you price him at?

That's my guess (1.1) at what price he should be - not saying the market will.

Last 5 times he's met Ferrer (all clay too) final set went to Rafa with these scores:

6-0, 6-1, 6-2, 6-0, 6-2

He hasn't won a set worth of games in 5 sets there - add in added pressure of first ever GS final. (actually think Tsonga might do him anyway though).

That's right, Ferrer does'nt seem to believe he can beat Nadal.  Another factor that may effect the price is, assuming semi is Djokovic Nadal, the winner of that match may be fatigued if it's a real epic.

Fair point shiraz - though can't see Ferrer or Tsonga having an easy semi either.

He sure aint behind the top mix now Bhoys eh

majority of the Nadal fans I follow on Twitter are still worried

and tbh he beats Stan up like this all the time

i was never un-worried   not even when he won IW. mugs (albeit with decent serves) getting games, and sets even. and MC was a blow. the way that went especially. les just say it was all training session
playing better than ever they says

If Nadal continues to play that forehand into Djoker's backhand, he'll be digging a hole for himself. He slowly but surely learnt how to play the new Djokovic but he seemed to forget at Monte Carlo. He must mix up the forehand down the line with the crosscourter from the getgo to give Djokovic trouble reading his shot selection. Djokovic's backhand is just too good to play to it as much as Nadal does

No doubt Madness I completely agree, one thing you said I picked up on though is that Nadal worked out how to beat the "improved" Djokovic but then struggled at Monte Carlo, I'm inclined to look past that result, he wasn't playing as well then as he did today. Yeah I get he always beats on the single backhanded players but he was hitting the ball for the most part cleanly off both wings today which greatly encouraged me.

i agree with bruce, djocko was unplayable at monte carlo and nadal still should have levelled the match. Djocko will have to play like that again to beat rafa i feel as rafa has improved dramatically last 2 games. also feel haas missed an awful lot of shots nadal would have put away today. i favour nadal slightly but still think has to improve a bit on serve

Yeah his serve could be slightly better but today was the first time he let that forehand go and at times it was unplayable. No way Rafa is letting go of his crown here.

i watched more of novaks game than rafa but he did play that forehand well. its definatly to do with the weather aswell. Novak didnt look great, got a lot of balls back in play and haas was unable to finish most of time, nadal will not make that mistake