Respect his ability but for him to say after he won­ 'i always knew there would be a year where Rafa­ wouldn't be in the final and i would be there and­ win it' tells us a lot about his character. Firstly­ what he is saying is that he can't beat Nadal at­ the French Open. Secondly, it is so easy for him to say­ this once he won the title but in the last few rounds­ he kept saying just because he has winning records­ againstthe players left doesn't mean he would win.­ Contradictory to say the least and that is what bothers­ me about Federer - the arrogance he sometimes shows in­ his interviews.

Come on tennis fans we all know Roger is the very­ best.He would of won aussie open had he not been ill­ and had a back injury.I don't care what people say­ Roger is the most talented player ever on the atp­ tour.Keep up the good work Roger wimbledon is yours­ again this year with Rafa injured.

i am the,greatest french,PLONKER of all­ time;D
Hihihihihihihihihihihi
Love Jess xxx (Ladyboy)

FEDERER WON FRENCH TITLE

THANKS TO GIFT FROM­ SOLERLING ~~ who wanted to be runner up

lefty ROD­ LAVER is ~~~~ "BEST EVER""

YOU GUYS THINK THAT SODERLING LET HIMSELF DOWN.THEN YOU­ ARE MAD.SODERLING MAY HAVE DEFEATED NADAL AND DAVYDENKO­ BUT DID YOU NOTICE THE MATCH BETWEEN SODERLING AND­ GONZALEZ THEY BOTH WON TWO SETS AND GONZALEZ COULD HAVE­ WON BUT HE DIDNT.SO IT WAS LUCK THAT BOUGHT SODERLING­ TO THE FINALS.SO THAT MEANS NADAL IS WEAK AND FEDERER­ IS GETTING STRONGER AND IT ALSO WAS AN OPPURTUNITY FOR­ SODERLING TO GET HIS FIRST GRAND SLAM THEN WHY SHOULD­ HE LET HIMSELF DOWN.FEDERER WORKED HARD THATS WHY HE­ WON.GO FEDERER GO

Sometimes I think that the majority of people on these­ boards are not tennis fans at all - they are just­ followers of 1 particular player - as they cannot­ appreciate what both these players have­ accomplished.
Rafa & Fed are friends and have a­ great deal of respect for each other. I am sure that­ should they read these pages, they would be disgusted­ at the way their so called 'fans' insult the­ other player to try & gain points.
No-one can say­ Fed would not have won if Rafa was on the other side of­ the court, as he wasn't, so God only knows how a­ match between them would have gone - the way of last­ year's final, W last year or the Ao this, or the­ way of Madrid just 3 weeks ago. It could have been any­ of those scenarios.
As for Soderling letting him win,­ what rubbish. Fed had done his homework properly &­ never let him into the game. He cut off many of his­ chances to attack & had him running from side to­ side like a frightened chicken. Usually Rafa is an­ expert at that, but for some reason (maybe his knee,­ we'll never know) he didn't use that tactic. ­ Against Rafa, Robin used the obvious tactic - get to­ the net & decrease the time for Rafa to get to the­ ball. Nadal is a great natural player and pulls off­ some amazing shots, BUT his greatest strength is his­ speed to get to the ball. If that time is cut down, he­ has less chance of getting into the correct position to­ hit them cleanly. Often he can pass the player at the­ net, but that slight d lateness cuts down on his­ accuracy. In fact, I often wonder why Roger­ doesn't come to the net more often against him,­ though he does ppear to be doing it a bit more often­ now.
Again, yesterday, he was moving up more often­ & cutting off that move for Soderling.
Another new­ tactic for Roger is those great drop shots from way­ back. It's new & so players are not expecting­ them. He's been taking full advantage of this when­ his opponent is pegged behind the base

Fed won French title
with total cooperation from­ opponent Robin
who also wanted FED to secure title

i agree with tyrone100smith1979, roger is much stronger­ mentally now...did you watch all his matches at french­ open...i did cz i am done wit exams.
he had to fight­ back in almost almost all
that against tommy has, he­ was 2 sets down
against acasuso he was 5-1 down in the­ 2nd set having lost the first. he won 7-5
he's much­ better now mentally

@Mar(273) - this requires Nadal`s presence in the final­ :)

@tyrone, believe me or not, I really hope u`re right!
­ I really hope ...

Now that pressure is off the Chosen One of­ Tennis...
Let me bring on the predictions for the next­ two years....call me the most optimisitic guy on earth­ if you want...
Wimbledon 2009 - Federer - Beats British­ Pig Murray 6-0 6-1 6-0 (Nadal knocked out of first­ round by world no 209)
US Open 2009 - Federer - Beats­ Joker Novak Djokovic 6-2 6-0 6-2 (Nadal knocked out of­ quaterfinals by robin soderling)
Austrailan Open 2010 -­ Federer - Beats Nadal 6-1 6-1 6-1 (Completes­ non-calender year GRAND SLAM)
French Open 2010 -­ Federer - Mauls Nadal 6-0 6-0 6-0 (The Emperor of Clay­ mows down the King of Clay)
Wimbledon 2010 - Federer -­ Thrashes Nadal 6-0 6-0 6-0 (The only player in history­ to get triple Bagels at both french and wimby...Rafael­ Nadal)
US Open 2010 - Federer - Annihilates Nadal 6-0­ 6-0 6-0 (Completes the calender year GRAND­ SLAM)
Federer decides to stop playing tennis with 21­ Slams in order to put an end to the humiliation he has­ been heaping on Nadal.

hey..to fedex haterz.. rafa is a great in the­ making..and no one denies that..just hope that his body­ can handle the same way when he is older.. and about­ roger not being the best.. he has alwayz given rafa a­ run for his money in all the slam finalz they have­ faced each other..most of them goin al the way.. and if­ rafa was such a great plyr..why was he not in the­ finals this year..rafa may have won the last few­ years..bt not this year..rite? and abt attitude..they­ way he reacted to the camera man after the loss to sod­ was really not that of a gentle man.. and RF cryin..­ common..he is only human..he too has emotions like all­ of us.. he may never show it while playin..but he too­ is jus like u guyz and me.. cheerz..well done RF!!

cryss088 if you have been watching Tennis for a long­ time you will find that many players when they get to­ Grand slam finals for the first time they choke on the­ big occasion. Remember Gonzalez at The Australian open­ a few years back then he was demolished by Federer.­ Also Soderling used alot of energy against Nadal,­ Davydenko and Gonzalez. By the final he did look a­ little bit spent. Roger knows how to handle himslef for­ the big occasion though.

@Shoi Costle - I tell u why`s the debate! Because­ Soderling was so aggressive with Nadal, next he swept ­ Davydenko away, but when he played with Federer his­ game was POOR and weak and ... etc
It`s true that I`m­ Nadal fan, but I also admire and I do have a lot of­ respect for his remarcable opponent named ROGER­ FEDERER. So, I wish just the yesterday final to be a­ "clean" one. I have no doubts about Fed`s­ talent as a tennis player. THAT`S WHY I`m worried­ about! What if Federer had an unworthy opponent?
It`s­ Soderling the one who makes me suspicious. After all,­ Soderling defeated Nadal, right? And Nadal is the best­ here, right? And when Soderling plays with Federer­ something strange happens - his game is poor, he isn`t­ aggressive no longer
I hope u catched my drift.
And­ don`t get me wrong - I`m glad Federer won! But what­ happens with Federer if ... oh, God, I don`t even wanna­ think about it!

It amazes me some of the critics of Federer. When­ confronted they always seem to know little about the­ actual game of Tennis. Always finding excuses for­ things.

Common one is that Federer had no competition­ compared to Sampras. I disagree. Roddick and Hewiit­ were his competetion and he just dominated them in­ Grand Slams finals and semi-finals. Hasn't he also­ beaten Murrey and Djokovic in the U.S Open finals and­ beated Novak in the semi-finals last year?

To the­ Federer haters that won't be enough but what about­ this?

Tin Henman played both Sampras and Federer in­ their primes and says Roger was the better all round­ player.

ANDRE AGASSI played both Sampras and Federer­ in their primes and said Roger was the tougher opponent­ to play.

Not to mention Conners, McEnroe, Laver,­ Agassi and Sampras all say HE IS THE GREATEST OF ALL­ TIME!

Do the words of Tennis legends mean nothing to­ the Fed haters? Or do you prefer to live in a fantasy­ world of denial of reality!

@Dolly, the answer is simple, Nadal is just brutal­ physical power like "James Clubber Lang" or­ "Ivan Drago" from Rocky III & Rocky IV,­ even though they both beat Rocky, did you have any­ sympathy for any of them? Have you seen any of Nadal­ vs. Federer matches, it's one pattern of playing­ that Nadal has been using all the time, yes Nadal's­ simple game plan vs. Federer works perfectly, but­ that's just styles matching, it's Federer who­ tries to mix things and people enjoy watching him...­ I've always liked it when brutal brainless power is­ beaten.. Yes, Nadal has achieved a lot in young years,­ but his physical style brings victories only when he is­ still young, and even now he does long breaks between­ the serves, so what's going to happen when he­ becomes older?

Dolly i think you missed the point, Federer is the­ best. Nadal some day will overtake him becuase he is a­ very good player, esp. on clay. But someone will­ overtake Nadal, thats just how it goes. The players get­ better and better.

@raed i - I`ve noticed that, too! I mean - his game­ became suddenly so poor! Like he had just remembered­ he`s only 23 rank in the top. To be honest, the final­ was so poor compare to the semif - the one between Del­ Potro and Federer, for instance!
What happened with­ Soderling yesterday, anyway?
Federer played with a­ very-very strange oppponent ...