Comments on: ATP WORLD TOUR FINALS DAY 4: SODERLING INTO SEMIS, NADAL OUT

By: lorrie

lorrie — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 02:07:35 +0000

totally agree w/ dana, liz, mak and LLKR. i need not say more.

By: judy

judy — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:38:58 +0000

it was hard to watch rafa struggling out there. he had moments of brilliance but he just doesn’t have the same intensity, power on his shots and his body language is more negative at times, which is unusual. i do hope he gets healthier, stronger and recovers mentally from a tough year. i’d love to see him back at his best. he’s such a good guy and the sport is better off when he’s playing well and mixing it up with the best!

By: mak

mak — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:36:48 +0000

well,am not too fond of guys like sod n the djoker who make fun of others.thay should take the example of rafa n rog who are fantastic shows of sportsmanship

By: mak

mak — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:30:21 +0000

i agree,dana,i believe rafa will be back,once he has rested,better than ever,but he does need to work on his serve n to have a game plan

By: Nina

Nina — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:24:20 +0000

I wouldn’t worry much about Rafa, he will come back strongly. Or don’t we remember all the doom that surrounded Federer not so while ago? People are too eager and fast to dismiss a champion like Fed or Rafa when they’re not winning everything, sad. Anyway we knew the season was over for Rafa, it’s for he best.
I’m more concerned about Novak. He seemed so unmotivated and tired in his press conference after giving away his match against Soderling… it’s like there is no more fight in him. After winning Bercy and Paris I knew that he would put on the brakes, I mean he’s played more matches than anybody and still managed to win the last tournaments. I hope he passes to semis but if he doesn’t it will be fine, he just needs to play next season like he’s been playing lately and the future I bright for him. I hope we can see a good match against Rafa though. I think he just had a bad day against Sod.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:03:24 +0000

Nadal showed big and promising signs of improvement in the second set. But Davy is a fantastic ball striker and, in fact, if he didn’t tend to choke in the big occasions and wasn’t in the Nadal Fed era, he would have probably won some slams.

Soderling has always been a funny guy. I thought his mocking of Nadal was pretty funny at the time, yet people reacted as if Nadal wasn’t a tennis player but a sacred icon who can’t be made fun of.

By: patzin

patzin — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:35:54 +0000

I believe Rafa is going through a rough spell and will come out of it. Of course we remember how Roger was treated in ‘08 and beginning of ‘09 – doom and gloom. And look what he has accomplished. Rafa will return in his own time.

By: Liz

Liz — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:47:12 +0000

I thought the commentators were pretty brutal about both Rafa and Kolya. Their comments about Rafa were a little shocking — the poor guy is coming back from a significant break. And has anyone played really well in this tournament, except Soderling? Evil Roger has shown up in both matches, Nole looked horrible out there yesterday, Murray crumbled when Roger recovered his form.

Speaking of Soderling, how did he get so charming and witty and appealing? Remember after Wimbledon ‘07, when he and Rafa had that big match and the commentators made it sound like he was some kind of troglodyte that only came out of his cave for tennis matches?

By: Dana

Dana — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:18:30 +0000

Yes, Rafa’s in a slump. But so was Roger earlier this year, as you pointed out. The dire warnings and oh-mys were just as rampant then. My guess is Roger knows better than anyone what Rafa’s now going through: endless “your career is dead” hand-wringing from fans and snarking, know-it-all columnists. Rafa’s now what…23 years old? He’s fighting back in every match, with better scores in every successive final set (not folding out like poor Murray did with Roger, like poor Novak did with Soderling)? He’s clearly determined to comeback in 2010 – the winning attitude. So his career is dead? Pshaw…

By: LongLiveKingRog

LongLiveKingRog — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:10:32 +0000

FF, I feel strangely the same about the Rafa match. I am a Roger fan but I like the guy. In fact, I like Kolay too – his shot making was incredible yesterday and with this ability, I wonder had he been more resilient in his head, he should have been in some major finals. As for Rafa, he looks so…. listless. So frustrated. So… yeah, gutted.

The whole stadium was rooting for Rafa – probably feeling the same – that we are sad to see such a fierce competitor not being able to compete, a champion who is clearly struggling but couldn’t get out of this hole, a tall figure crumbling right before our eyes. I know how it feels, we all know how it feels – it’s like watching Roger in Australian Open and Miami this year.

I hope Rafa takes a good rest and regroup – I don’t want the Fedal rivalry to end yet!

As for le Sod – totally deserved his win and I think the crowd appreciates his performance as well. Did you guys see the post-match interview? He was asked “You haven’t beaten Djoker in the past 5 times and you beat him this time. What was the difference?” “No one beats me 6 times in a row. ” ***laughs**** didn’t know he has a dry sense of humour. I am really starting to like this guy (as long as Roger beats him 13/14/15… times in a row)!

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Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:29:39 +0000

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