Hi Ralph, good to discuss this... "I would suggest­ that the last wimbledon was a won by a the one who­ wanted the victory the most, with conditions fitting­ much better his games , slower, and heavier ball...­ Don't ask me why they made it so... As everyone is­ saying, there one left hard court tennis GS which is­ the US open ;).
As I mentioned, watch out! this kid was­ the challenger, the one who when loosing, it is ok, but­ when winning, a great achievement! What u faced as­ being the challenged player is "defending a title,­ defending a reputation, defending a ranking, chasing­ record, "what will the press say if I lose­ again..." How about that extra-gear that Nadal­ had on Fed, I would further say that all this­ extra-pressure always contribute to his first serve­ letting him down and the ridiculous % of UE his had­ against Nadal on GS finals? I think that Fed is now­ confident again and rightly so because he was wrote-off­ already... by everybody... and got the luck he needed­ to get back that confidence... not many players took­ Nadal twice already on clay courts finals... And we­ would like to look at tennis as a whole and look at a­ player who masters all elements of the tennis game­ except storming over-spinning balls from Nadal on his­ single handed backhand!
I am excited about they next­ meetings now that he can play free of­ "curse"... The only thing that Nadal and his­ team should think about is accepting to let go some­ points and loose some matches just to stay fit and­ enjoy a healthy career which is a part of greatness...­ It isn't just luck. I am personally afraid that the­ only other option will be try to attack and dictate the­ game rather than scoring point from mistakes of ur­ opponent which mean complete shift of strategy from­ Nadal that could make him then vulnerable to all other­ player...
It will be a pity to lose a champ because of­ not managing well the physical efforts to put on a­ normal human body and having an excellent but

It's all very well being humble... But Federer­ doesn't need to be, he is the best! Nadal is­ proving to be a pretender. My money is on him losing­ world no.1 by this time next year.

Tennis is all­ psychological for these guys. Him believing he is the­ favourite is

i think novak wud make me proud for wimbledon..he is­ frustrated with himself but he is also out to give 110%­ performance

as i believe federer wasnt always in all the hardcourt­ finals rafa has won, on the 5:4 my mistake either way­ pretty level and that was my point surely not a sign of­ dominance, enough said from me on this matter, all the­ best

I think it unlikely that Nadal will surpass Federers­ tally of slams. History proves how hard it is to do.­ You would need to stay fit for a considerable period(as­ Federer has done)Nadals knees must raise a serious­ doubt as to whether he could. Also however good Nadal­ is now, someone is bound to come along to challenge­ him. When you raise the bar in a sport others follow. I­ would doubt he'll ever win the us open as the­ surface is fast and Murray would always be favourite to­ beat him there in my book. To me the goat will probably­ in the future be considered between Federer and Laver.­ But as Ralph r says it will always be a @#$%e to­ answer. Yes Nadal is better than Federer now but that­ doesn't mean he is the better of the two overall.­ Whereas I would bet on Nadal to beat Fed in a final. I­ would bet on Federer to make a final, with Nadal I­ would never be so sure. If you want to break records­ you have to consistently make finals. Nadals record is­ good, but not as good as Federers

Somebody wins 14 GSs and the last 2 out of 3 and­ he's not allowed to say he's the favorite­ playing on his favorite surface? There are a lot of bad­ would-be dictators on this forum. Why don't you­ crawl back to your caves you m o r o ns?

Telling the truth is not arrogance. Only the stupid and­ petty see it that way. Federer is the favorite,­ it's simple. The fact that he has the guts to say­ it is a different thing, I for one wouldn't say it­ for many reasons, but not because I wouldn't like­ to seem arrogant.. But I guess Roger is not afraid to­ say out loud what common logic suggests.

Oh, and­ everyone claiming that Federer only wins when others­ are not playing, is so hopelessly dumb that it's­ not even funny.

mental-probably,physical-no way

federer...please save urself the humiliation and shut­ the hell up!

#99 Ralph r,
the head to head excluding the clay­ matches is 5:4 to Federer, not to Nadal. Another thing­ that i wanted to point out is that Laver wasn't an­ all surfaces guy, for the only reason that at­ Laver's era tennis was played on grass, even the­ RG. From all six men to have a (career or calendar) GS­ title, only Agassi and Federer have won on four­ different type of courts. As for Nadal that has the­ game to beat Federer i think it is kind of winning­ "ugly" playing only at Federer's­ backhand, i'd like for once to see him play like a­ "man", but a win is a win, i'm not­ arguing about that. As someone else had posted here­ earlier, the record stands 13:7 on Nadal's favor­ because Federer has always been to the finals of the­ clay court tournaments (exept for the semi final of­ 2005 RG), whereas Nadal wasn't always waiting him­ to the finals of the hard court tournaments.

i dont think they do hatsuking they just dont see fed­ as the rightfull owner of title GOAT and thats their­ perogative.

isnt it a bit easy to say he lost his matches in the­ head, yes when u r getting beaten consistently by a­ younger player whilst u r trying to break all the­ records well yes that would mess someones head up a­ bit, but the fact of the matter is that nadal has the­ game to repeatedly beat fed and it has nothing to do­ with the head and all to do with the tennis. salut

hi herve well fed has a 5:4 losing record on hard­ courts to nadal, on clay u r right nadal has many more­ because its his favourite surface, grass well its 2:1­ for fed but was close to being 2:2 in 2007. anyway as u­ see fed hardly dominates and as u know this head to­ head started way back when fed was at his most­ dominant. if it would be like against murray only in­ the end stages dare i say that of feds career. look fed­ is great absolutely the most dominant other than laver­ on all surfaces. what doesnt quite sit with fed being­ the GOAT for many is that other than a 19 year old kid­ taking him on there was no one else that makes feds­ path a little easier maybe than others and by the way­ that kid went on to claim no1 in the world dethrone fed­ on grass and hard courts claim a gold at the olympics­ and till this year prevented him from winning the­ french and all at the age of 23 and extending his head­ to head to 2:1 over around 20 meetings. what about­ these facts. salutation ralph

Didn't take him long to be the braggart that he­ truly is. Even though he didn't say I am better­ than ever, he did say he is the favourite. Too bad he­ is not humble. A lot of people thought he was, until­ Nadal and Murray started beating him. More Nadal of­ course, but he didn't like losing to Murray that he­ put down Murray's game. Such arrogance. Hope Murray­ or Nadal wins Wimbledon or he will talk about himself­ even more!

"how slow the surfaces had became"

Are you­ crazy? A guy hits 55 aces on clay and the surfaces have­ become SLOWER? Valuable analysis you people are­ providing. Then again, that's what being a stupid­ and uncritical fanboy does to you.

90: fact that you know what a diatribe is doesn't­ make you less stupid than you are. A player who wins a­ trophy only bc the organizers changed the speed of the­ surface specifically in order to provide him with an­ advantage is a fraud.

Hey Ralph r, glad u commented!
My point is as simple­ as the fact that greatness cannot be challenged by the­ h to h record... Sampras never won on clay and was­ before Fed one on the GOAT... not coming from me, you­ or a few..but from all, until Fed records started to­ chanllenge his... How many times did Nadal beat Fed on­ Hard court? how many on grass? how many games did they­ played on grass? It just happened that Fed made more­ finals on Nadals favorite surface to meet him than he­ did to meet Fed on grass or in the others...
So U­ can't use that to undermine his achievement!
Nadal­ is great and we know that the game between Fed and him­ were most of the time lost by Fed in his head...­ desperately look to break records on one hand and­ looking for the "HOW" to win the FO... you­ should all consider that... Give more time to Nadal and­ his opponents on the tours... Fed has a sloppy one and­ half year... but is back... Now Nadal will face what he­ faced for 4 strait years... when all other opponent are­ "challenger", playing the match of their life­ against you... Fed did good to stay up there 4 years,­ 20 SF of GS strait, 4 F RG Strait, 6 F Wimb Strait,­ etc... u know the records! all that, staying fit,­ mostly without coach... This is why legends,­ commentators, his pairs and tennis fans are putting him­ UP there, comparing him to LEGENDS even with 2 to 5­ more year to play...
Another will maybe top him one­ day... and I continue to believe that greatness cannot­ be spoiled by one to one records! see how short the­ grass seasons is?., how slow the surfaces had became...­ but Fed is still up there!

Cheers Ralph and looking­ forward to ur comments!