@76,then we shall see in US Open this year or next­ years when Rafa was trying to complete career slam,will­ you be supporting him then??

Dumitriu R (or Getachew)

People listen: this is the­ same who on another topic, after insulting and cursing­ us, said he was sorry for that and acknowledged Federer­ is greater than Nadal, then he said he was just joking.­ He again comes under the name of dumitriu and gets back­ to his normal hobby, making people talk. He is a­ saddist, as are many of Nadal's fans, who use­ various pseudos and with one they are for Federer and­ with the other they are against him, just for people to­ talk!
If you want to react to Dumitriu's comments,­ then I bet you better go hit ur heads on a wall! Why­ shld we even debate with those flees of Nadal's­ pseudo fans is something I can't understand. They­ will never acknowledge Federer is great and about those­ mentally-ill diseased who have different names here, I­ think they belong to the bottomless pits of graveyards!

Soderling beat a fit Nadal FAIR and SQUARE!!. Nadal­ brought his power game with high balls that suited­ Soderling just fine. Soderline is tall, so heavy top­ spin high balls suited his game. He could not employ a­ low slice game to Soderling's backhand. Federer­ played him by: 1. taking an aggressive position­ (up-court) returning serves 2. mixing up plays - drop­ shots and low angled shots to both his forehand and­ backhand 3. back hand slices. Sodeling had to be­ playing running forehands/backhands or when the ball is­ with the court to hit it came as low balls making him­ to bend his 6.6 frame.

Check out other Nadal-Soderling­ matches. Forget their scorelines. In terms of strategy­ they were always very close. Now in 2009 French Open,­ Soderling was tops in execution.

Jaykay No. 58, and­ most Nadal Fans, why do you have to make excuses for­ Nadal anytime he loses?? Physical and Mental fitness­ are part of the game!. There is absolutely no way Nadal­ can beat Federer on any surface 6-1 6-3 6-0 (2008­ Roland Garros) if not for lack of "mental­ fitness". Who complained?

Nadal's talent is­ improving everytime. He is also a great athlete, has­ formidable toughness like Tiger Woods and a great­ attitude. However when fans make excuses for his­ losses, it demeans Nadal and make him lose neutral fans­ that want to see true competition.

Give SODERLING his­ due.

QUOTE // Why was Rafa not treated­ with respect and­ affection at RG when he won there for­ the first time­ at the ripe age of 19? //

Good of you to make us aware­ of that. At last a question that has nothing to do with­ Federer directly.

IMO everybody wanted to see Federer­ finally win the tournament. There are plenty of reasons­ for that, one of them being the fact that Federer is­ one of the greatest still not having won THEIR OWN­ tournament (silly reason, really), the other reason­ might be the opinion that Federer's gracious,­ light-weight style of tennis is so much more in the­ taste of the crowd compared to Nadal's screaming­ heavy-weight wood-chucker style (this is not meant as­ disrespect towards Nadal, it is simply my way of­ picturing the difference between these two great­ players).

But the crowd's behaviour cannot be­ connected to or made accountable for the outcome of the­ tournament. The crowd is just the crowd. I think Silly­ Jimmy Jump could have done more impact on the final­ outcome.

Still, shame on the french open spectators, I­ agree.

dvd.buff2: #72 WHY? Because Rafa wasn't completing­ the Grand Slam when he won the French at 19. Jesus! You­ must be the most idiotic man on the planet to come out­ with that question. History was made yesterday and you­ have to ask why. You must be the village idiot.

That's not Roger's fault if his main­ rivals(quoted below) weren't good enough to reach­ the last 8!!!Roger struggled many times but he desired­ this victory so much that he eventually made it!Roger­ had beaten them all already so he would have been ready­ to play and beat them again.Roger was in BEST in Paris­ and proved it by becoming(icing on the cake)the­ GREATEST PLAYER EVER.:-D

Nadal hasn't been treated with the same respect­ than Federer because of Nadal's attitude at early­ stages of his great career: the time he took between­ points, his fist pumping, his agressivity - and his­ uncle didn't help with his interfering in the game­ ; now Nadal shows more calm, more respectful -­ specially since he won Wimbledon; now people know him­ better, too: know that he is a hard worker, a virtuous­ of the game.

Pete Sampras already figured Roger Federer would go­­ down as the greatest tennis player in­­ history.
"What he's done over the past five­­ years has never, ever been done -- and probably will­­ never, ever happen again," Sampras said in a­­ telephone interview with The Associated Press.­­ "Regardless if he won there or not, he goes down­­ as the greatest ever. This just confirms­­ it."
"I'm obviously happy for­­ Roger," Sampras said. "If there's anyone­­ that deserves it, it's Roger. He's come so­­ close."
"He just is a great, great player­­ that is a credit to the sport and is a positive­­ influence for young kids and just tennis in­­ general," Sampras said. "It looks pretty­­ tough to beat now with 14 majors, and I'm sure­­ he's going to go on and win a lot­­ more."
"Now that he's won in Paris, I­­ think it just more solidifies his place in history as­­ the greatest player that played the game, in my­­ opinion," Sampras said. "I'm a huge­ Laver­ fan, and he had a few years in there where he­­ didn't have an opportunity to win majors. But you­­ can't compare the eras. And in this era, the­­ competition is much more fierce than Rod's."

Well, finally Red has said it. Why was Rafa not treated­ with respect and affection at RG when he won there for­ the first time at the ripe age of 19?

Nine Top Ten players disappeared from Roland Garros­ before the final:

- 3d round
Novak Djokovic SRB (4) ­ losing to Philipp Kohlschreiber GER (29)
Gilles Simon­ FRA (7) lost to Victor Hanescu ROU (30)

- 4th round­ (quarterfinal)
Rafael Nadal ESP (1) losing to Robin­ Soderling SWE (23)
Fernando Verdasco ESP (8) losing to­ Nikolay Davydenko RUS (10) - 4th round
Jo-Wilfried­ Tsonga FRA (9) losing to Juan Martin Del Potro ARG­ (5)
Andy Roddick USA (6) losing to Gael Monfils FRA­ (11)

- 5th round (quarterfinal)
Andy Murray GRB (3)­ losing to Fernando Gonzalez CHI (12)
Nikolay Davydenko­ RUS (10) losing to Robin Soderling SWE (23)

- 6th ­ round (semifinal)
Juan Martin Del Potro ARG (5) losing­ to Roger Federer SUI (2)

Could it be because they were­ weak, tired, hurt, nervous or something else? Could it­ be just by accident, was it the almighty's plan,­ was it destiny or was it the draw? Did someone­ manipulate or even hypnotize 9 out of 10 Top Tenners or­ those planning for the draw? We really don't know,­ it seems like a mistery...

Or maybe simply the best­ player won the tournament and the second-best became a­ runner-up?

I wonder why people talk about no Rafa, no Murray, no­ this , no that.. did they not take part in the­ tournament? or were they on honeymoon. The great guy­ has wonthe FO PERIOD¦ All the guys you are alking of­ played and were kicked out. Let's learn to­ appreciate people when they achieve what probably most­ of us can't and that will make life more­ interesting. We have two great guys ruling tennis now,­ the least we can do is to encourage themboth. They make­ the sport we enjoy interesting for now.

Again, another entry with no content. The same article­ could have been written by someone who has not watched­ a single match of the tournament but only the headlines­ of the news. Maybe that is what the author does: just­ make up an article from watching the news.

I agree with Simon Reed that it was the best FO for­ years ... but I don't agree that it was­ Federer's least impressive performance for yeasrs. ­ For me it was his best .. not because he played­ "pretty tennis" but because he had to fight­ so hard to get through to the final. The pressure on­ him to win the title after Nadal's exit was­ enormous ... he even said that though it was great to­ have so much support from the French fans, that only­ increased the pressure on him. That "go for­ broke" forehand when he was b/p down against Tommy­ Haas, which if he'd missed, would have left Haas­ serving for the match, will long in my memory. It was­ at that moment I knew that Roger the Lionheart was­ back! I'm happy that Roger shows such emotion when­ he wins (or loses) ... it shows how much the game means­ to him. Maybe those who don't like it have never­ really cared much about anything in their sad lives.

apparently,when Roger wins,it becomes the most perfect­ RG in ten years...
and why does Reed say that "the­ crowds were brilliant" if he agrees the way the­ crowd treated to Rafa was disrespectful? Does he­ approve their behavior???

LOVE YOU ROGER!

federer is by far the greatest nd i dnt knw wot simon­ is saying, i watched federer win his first title way­ back nd i knew he was gona make a mark in the tennis­ community, 4 Nadal, he as 2 b at his xtra best to win­ slams dats y such efforts make him struggle with his­ knee, whereas wen federer was winning the slams he­ played effortlessly with brilliant and magical momemts­ on the court. if we look carefully at the '09­ final, federer knew if he had played power 4 power wit­ robin he would ve bin defeated flat but he didnt,­ rather he was always looking 4 d corners and playing­ unbelivable drop shots, nadal lost to soderlin becos he­ felt he could outplay robin wit his power game but he­ never knew robin had more armoury in his ranks, 4 Nadal­ i feel he is no more invisible and he should look for a­ plan B wen playing guys such as robin, del potro,­ monfils and tsonga. 4 federer he jst needs 2 win a few­ more slams and cal it quit b4 does little ones stain­ his impressive cv. welldone federer

federer is by far the greatest nd i dnt knw wot simon­ is saying, i watched federer win his first title way­ back nd i knew he was gona make a mark in the tennis­ community, 4 Nadal, he as 2 b at his xtra best to win­ slams dats y such efforts make him struggle with his­ knee, whereas wen federer was winning the slams he­ played effortlessly with brilliant and magical momemts­ on the court. if we look carefully at the '09­ final, federer knew if he had played power 4 power wit­ robin he would ve bin defeated flat but he didnt,­ rather he was always looking 4 d corners and playing­ unbelivable drop shots, nadal lost to soderlin becos he­ felt he could outplay robin wit his power game but he­ never knew robin had more armoury in his ranks, 4 Nadal­ i feel he is no more invisible and he should look for a­ plan B wen playing guys such as robin, del potro,­ monfils and tsonga. 4 federer he jst needs 2 win a few­ more slams and cal it quit b4 does little ones stain­ his impressive cv. welldone federer

Mr. attaha, ace.firstserve and to the rest of you who­ doubt Federer may it be known to you that when Federer­ was asked if he was the best tennis player ever he­ noted that it is a question that he will answer when he­ has resigned from the game of Tennis, now for those of­ you who claim Federer started winning grand slams when­ tough players have resigned well for your information­ Sampras was among players that Federer defeated in­ grand slam, are you all claiming Pete Sampras is not a­ tough player or is Andre Agassi not a tough player,­ kindly go through the history of the game before you­ come to this site and type rubbish for the whole world­ to read. Now one reason why players like Agassi and­ even Pete Sampras can claim that Federer is one of the­ best player ever is because while the former best­ player Pete Sampras too 13 good years to win 14 Grand­ Slam it took Roger Federer 7 good and bad years to win­ the same 14 Grand Slams, know one is doubting Nadal as­ been good but even Nadal knows that there is no way he­ can achieve what Federer has achieved, I am a fan of­ both Nadal and Federer but I have to tell you that even­ Nadal knows that Federer's game is more interesting­ and technical to watch than that of his, Why don't­ we all just go though the history of the game before we­ come here to make comments

Shame on you Simon Reed!