2014 Australian Open of Tennis

[Budadiiii]

Stan the man.

Easy victory for either Fed or Nadal.

[ArbitraryWater]

Stan the man.

Easy victory for either Fed or Nadal.

Don't doubt me bro, I watched it too!

Sports Fanatic!!

Yea Stan's been great, but I don't really give him a shot in the final...

Damn I'm hyped for Roger vs Rafa!

VAMOS

[Trollsmasher]

Berdych will never beat Wawrinka

Don't know what it is about Stan that always makes him lose

[Budadiiii]

Don't doubt me bro, I watched it too!

Sports Fanatic!!

Yea Stan's been great, but I don't really give him a shot in the final...

Damn I'm hyped for Roger vs Rafa!

VAMOS

I love the class of tennis. I feel at home when I'm watching these fine gentlemen play and give respectable interviews.

Nice change of pace from thuggish basketball.

[ArbitraryWater]

I love the class of tennis. I feel at home when I'm watching these fine gentlemen play and give respectable interviews.

Nice change of pace from thuggish basketball.

If you just weren't a LeBron Hater..

Come over to the King's side!

[bdreason]

Fed is playing great... but Nadal is just a bad matchup; always has been, always will be.

[Budadiiii]

Fed is playing great... but Nadal is just a bad matchup; always has been, always will be.

Both Stan and Fed are great matchups for Nadal...

Mainly because of the one handed backhand that these guys have... it's counter effective against the lefty nadal... his topspin is brutal on that technique

[ArbitraryWater]

Both Stan and Fed are great matchups for Nadal...

Mainly because of the one handed backhand that these guys have... it's counter effective against the lefty nadal... his topspin is brutal on that technique

counter effective? Didnt see much counter when Fed routinely gets obliterated by Rafa's left hand.

[imdaman99]

If Nadal's blister is ok than he should beat Fed in 4.
If not, it could go 5 and we know how much mental fortitude Rafa has to win that

[ArbitraryWater]

If Nadal's blister is ok than he should beat Fed in 4.
If not, it could go 5 and we know how much mental fortitude Rafa has to win that

One of the greatest clutch players in sports history!

Mental toughness Individual Sport > Mental toughness Team Sport

[Budadiiii]

counter effective? Didnt see much counter when Fed routinely gets obliterated by Rafa's left hand.

That't what I meant.... counter effective meaning it doesn't work against Nadal.

Nadal owns both Fed and Stan.

[InfiniteBaskets]

Fed is playing great... but Nadal is just a bad matchup; always has been, always will be.

I don't know if you've seen the blisters on Nadal's hand but I'm not going to post them here as they are very nasty looking.

I've got blisters on the inside of my thumb from playing tennis before and if the outer skin peels off it's literally racket handle on flesh chaffing. It is extremely painful and takes about a week or so to callous over.

Thinking about how Nadal generates only about 10x the racket head speed I do along with how those blisters are all over his entire hand... I am surprised he won against that Grigor dude.

If Nadal's injuries are still there when he plays Fed, and he somehow pulls this off, I'll have gained a newfound respect for this guy. I know he's mentally strong, imo the mentally strongest athlete in all of modern era tennis, but to play and win a possible 5 setter against the most successful tennis player of all time with flesh wounds?

[Lebowsky]

I don't know if you've seen the blisters on Nadal's hand but I'm not going to post them here as they are very nasty looking.

I've got blisters on the inside of my thumb from playing tennis before and if the outer skin peels off it's literally racket handle on flesh chaffing. It is extremely painful and takes about a week or so to callous over.

Thinking about how Nadal generates only about 10x the racket head speed I do along with how those blisters are all over his entire hand... I am surprised he won against that Grigor dude.

If Nadal's injuries are still there when he plays Fed, and he somehow pulls this off, I'll have gained a newfound respect for this guy. I know he's mentally strong, imo the mentally strongest athlete in all of modern era tennis, but to play and win a possible 5 setter against the most successful tennis player of all time with flesh wounds?

Good post, and pretty much the reason why I think he won't win this one against Federer. It's too much of a disadvantage. Mentally strong or not, I don't think he will pull it off in such condition.

[ArbitraryWater]

I don't know if you've seen the blisters on Nadal's hand but I'm not going to post them here as they are very nasty looking.

I've got blisters on the inside of my thumb from playing tennis before and if the outer skin peels off it's literally racket handle on flesh chaffing. It is extremely painful and takes about a week or so to callous over.

Thinking about how Nadal generates only about 10x the racket head speed I do along with how those blisters are all over his entire hand... I am surprised he won against that Grigor dude.

If Nadal's injuries are still there when he plays Fed, and he somehow pulls this off, I'll have gained a newfound respect for this guy. I know he's mentally strong, imo the mentally strongest athlete in all of modern era tennis, but to play and win a possible 5 setter against the most successful tennis player of all time with flesh wounds?

Wow that post just made me worry quickly. I never had a flesh wound, damn. I'm insecure about this match now :/ Rafa might lose

[Grinder]

I prefer Nadal over Federer but man, I hope Wawrinka can somehow pull out a win and break up this Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Murray stranglehold on slams. Apart from del Potro's USO win a few years ago, it's been 9 years since someone else has won. I grew up playing tennis and am a big fan but the lack of parity of players who make the semis/finals has dampened my interest in slams. Sure, these guys play some all time epics but it's almost a a given who 3 out of the 4 semifinalists are going to be as soon as the tourney starts.

Don't get me wrong, I have a world of respect for Nadal and Fed but I miss the days of surprise slam winners like Safin, Gaudio, and Goran (one of my all time favorites ).