Everyone goes on about Nadal as the person who will rather die than lose a match. I've seen from Federer that he too never gives up until the last point either, but no one will ever associate him with that kind of attitude? Why?
True, I mean I can remember last year at Cincinnati, the whole world predicted annihilation in that QF. Pressure from the media, clearly not at 100%. Then he came out and played like that. Rafa and him clearly share that 'never say die' personality, but it's not often mentioned with Federer in comparison
Also Nadal, particularly when younger, looked to the average viewer as though he plays the entire math on the back foot by retrieving. Federer by contrast looks like he is dictating play. He fights by playing well in important moments but it's a strange contrast with his seemingly effortless style.
I think Federer can fight very hard to win, but at the same time there are several occasions where he has just gone away mentally in the fifth set. To me he has more ups and downs than Nadal, who is pretty constant throughout.
He does have that attitude, but Federer is more of an introvert, so even when he does fight back, he isn't as loud and celebratory every time he starts to fight back.
Nadal, on the other hand, is more of an extrovert, which is why it is synonymous with him.
It's tough to say, he's got two bouncing twins at home. Could be distracting when you want to get home and see the sprogs for a week or two when your two sets down
Spartan means you are the underdog and you'll win against all odds.
Federer was the great favourite every time he played. Even when he was two sets down, everybody was just waiting for the gamechanger. So it never seemed as if he would fight his way back and do the impossible.
-Well, one time he had this chance. Wimbledon 08 with the great passing shot to deny Nadal the champsionship. But sadly he couldn't back it up in the 5th set.
"Spartan attitude" is just Dulltards (mainly 15 year old boys raving about the POS movie 300) trying to build an ever lacking manlihood. Who gives a f...
Always amused me that Nadal of all people gets called "Spartan". He's yells vamos and runs like shit yes, but he also whines like no other player in the top 50, takes timely MTOs, gets on-court coaching and takes 30 seconds between points. Nadal is like a loud and competitive child, not a warrior.
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal remind me a little bit of Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa in the first two Rocky films. Federer is hailed as the greatest of all time with a style that is based on skill and finesse and has some flamboyance to his personality. Nadal comes along with a low key, blue collar approach and tough-as-nails fighting spirit and gives him fits.
Not a perfect comparison, but I see some general similarities.
Dulltards are "simple" people: they're senstive to shallow information like Dull vamosing or doing the lawnmower... They think this is Spartan attitude while this is childish attitude!
Fed is a real man in his fighting: discrete, not "in your face" attitude.
Fed has always been Spartan for everybody on tour. Haters making fun of him when losing close matches but at least he makes it close, while Nadal had more than few crushing defeats, on biggest stages
I don't think you can ever accuse him of not trying his best. Even the matches he lost last year. Bad back or no bad back he would make sure that his opponents would earn their wins. It's best seen in his match against Del Potro at the WTF. I do agree that he has less of the junkyard dog mentality against Rafa for whatever reason only he knows. I think last year for Nadal against Nole at FO was a sign of his never say die attitude. 4-2 down in the fifth and I could almost swear he was getting stronger. All in all, I just think it's a fact that Federer isn't given enough credit for grinding out matches he isn't playing his best in
I don't think you can ever accuse him of not trying his best. Even the matches he lost last year. Bad back or no bad back he would make sure that his opponents would earn their wins. It's best seen in his match against Del Potro at the WTF. I do agree that he has less of the junkyard dog mentality against Rafa for whatever reason only he knows. I think last year for Nadal against Nole at FO was a sign of his never say die attitude. 4-2 down in the fifth and I could almost swear he was getting stronger. All in all, I just think it's a fact that Federer isn't given enough credit for grinding out matches he isn't playing his best in
Really? I don't remember Nishikori, Benneteau or Brands having to do anything particularly special. And even against Nadal he was pretty pathetic in Rome (compared to how resilient he was in Cincinnati).
I don't think Federer is particularly mentally resilient. His technical and tactical excellence give him the edge more than anything.
Nadal's gamestyle has always suited gutting and grinding out points, that's what makes it look like he's some superhero in the big points, in reality, it's just his game from first till last point. Roger is different, his game has always been far more high risk and as anyone will tell you, it's so much harder to execute that game style on the big moments, but Federer did that better than anyone, especially in his prime
Also Roger suppresses his fire more than Nadal (who is always eager for the world to see how much a fighter he is), but make no mistake, it's there.
I've never yet seen Roger quit on a match, lose a match on tiredness, resort to MTO tricks to turn a match around and still not retired in nearly 1,200 matches.
Or to make sure everyone knows what kind of pain he has before the tournament or match. Rafa just plays dirty mind games and likes people to feel sorry for him . it is like Look at this guy he is in such a pain but he fights very hard. Rafa praised Murray as one of the best clay players before his SF at FO and what a crap match it was. But Stepanek at 35 fought like a lion vs Murray/ who is a great grass player and proved one/ but no one gave him a credit. Media called Federer generation as weak. But now it is very strong .Federer proved them wrong in 2012 when he won Wimbledon and got number one once again but no one said a word.
You could argue that Federer's high risk attacking gamestyle is more Spartan than Nadal's physical running game, and he has after all won more grand slams.
Federer is more 'Spartan' than dull in many ways. More attacking game taking all the risk vs gutless pushing game taking no risk, dull is always complaining about some injury while Fed tries not to use injuries as an excuse like a real man should, and dull runs away after humiliating losses while Fed comes back stronger.
You could argue that Federer's high risk attacking gamestyle is more Spartan than Nadal's physical running game, and he has after all won more grand slams.
This is beyond ridiculous What does the fighting aka Spartan spirit have to do with the game style? Fedtards probably have no idea what Sparta is about
Hey, you can use another ancient term for Federer's spirit. You can use a Macedonian analogy, why not? After all, Alexander of Macedon is a GOAT in some sense, he did conquer the largest amount of land/countries Or you can compare him to Napoleon? The guy was called a war genius and then, he also had effortless career for the first years
Sarcasm, of course! Nope, sarcasm was not something we were taught. Can you teach that? I think it's genetic, no? I've noticed the majority of illuminati do value sarcasm though. Must be in their genes.
Sarcasm, of course! Nope, sarcasm was not something we were taught. Can you teach that? I think it's genetic, no? I've noticed the majority of illuminati do value sarcasm though. Must be in their genes.
Stop embarassing yourself, mate! Spouting BS in every direction won't make anyone forget you took very seriously an obvious sarcasm, and actually thought studying antiquity at age 11-12 is a sign of super-duper education!
I value opposition, I take no pleasure in beating a self-destructing adversary!
Obviously the attitude plays a big part in that biased perception : even though he fights hard, Fed doesn't show his emotions on court, so it looks like he doesn't care... until he wins a big point that gives him the turnaround and shouts a loud "come on" out of nowhere. Another issue is that when it comes to tough matches against big guys, he loses most often. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he's something like 2-6 in five setters against his fellow "Big 4" guys (and one of his wins against 18yo Nadal). Even though the actual Spartans are mostly famous for a defeat, such figures do no good for his reputation. People mostly remember hard fought wins, not losses.
Otherwise I definitely agree with the Creed/Balboa comparison, it has struck me for some time already. One has graceful, flawless moves and boundless arrogance, whereas the other, aside from having a match-up advantage from being lefty, is an unparalleled fighter with infinite stamina. Yeah, very much alike. And BTW, 2011/2012 looked a lot like Rocky 3!
In his prime, he certainly had a spartan attitude. And he still has it now, though it has waned. You just have to go back to his matches against Berdych and Djokovic in Dubai to see his fighting spirit.
Federer is not a 'spartan' by any means. The guys is arrogant and goes walkabout very often. If a few things don't go his way, he gets pissed and tries to force things instead of change his tactics. It sucks being a Federer fan and watching him mentally blow a match that he should win. Its happened way too often.
What does that have to do with his attitude? He has won dozens of very close 4-setters that could have gone 5, especially in his prime, where he would just raise his level at the key moments.
^^ He defeated peakest of Peak Djokovic on his worst surface when he was 30 in tough 4 sets=> Not considered
. While Dull defeated washed up Choker in 5 on his best surface in his prime=> Fighting attitude since Dull fluked it in 5th and couldn't close it in 4!
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