[GOATsol]

Why are we only aiming for 20?

[Litotes]

Originally Posted by GOATsol

Why are we only aiming for 20?

Well, thread starter Clay Death is a Nadal fan...

[Corey Feldman]

on ATP website they are having a top5 countdown of the best moments of the year and Nadal's Roland Garros win only placed 5th

Dull facebook fanatics going mental

1 & 2 will be known tomorrow, should be Maestro's Wimbledon win followed by Murray's Olympic/Slam


Nole and Dull left in the shadows
Nole best player of 2012 MY ARSE.

[Yolita]

Originally Posted by duarte_a

Nah, I know that the ATP, as usual, catered to the whining complaints of the 2 divas djokovic and nadal. It was to be expected.

That's one way of looking at it. There's another one. These are the 8 semifinalists of the Madrid Masters in 2012:

Tipsarevic - Del Potro - Berdych - Federer
Radwanska - Hradecka - Azarenka - S. Williams

Not one of them made the finals of Roland Garros. Not one... Out of eight.

It sort of proves that Madrid wasn't exactly the best preparation for the most important event on clay: Roland Garros. It's not surprising that the so called "whiners" are precisely the players who actually felt that they had a shot at winning Roland Garros and took their preparation seriously. And they were right: they made the finals, not only of Roland Garros, but of all the other Masters on clay as well...

I'm sure that if a flashy millionaire managed to buy his way into the ATP and produced a fantastically hyped, celebrity&entertainment-oriented Masters 1000 tournament on a surface completely different to the Wimbledon grass, in the middle of the grass season, players like Federer and Murray would not like it, would complain about it and would most likely skip it: why would they jeopardise a Wimbledon title for 1000 points?

Results show that Rafa and Nole made the right decision in bowing out of the Madrid Masters early.

And the ATP made the right decision going back to the normal Madrid surface.

I'm sure Tiriac will have a blue clay tournament soon, nothing wrong with that: just don't place it in the middle of the clay season, it could prove costly to the players who actually have a shot at winning Roland Garros.

[heya]

Fed can't dominate clay tourneys, even since his first year; he couldn't dominate hardcourts the last 4 years against Nadal either. He needed luck to beat Nadal & Djoker on clay (the reason for winning was not that Fed's draws were difficult because no one except Nadal & Djoker won big clay tourneys consistently).
Losing Masters titles in a 20 month period & reaching finals with easy year-long schedules didn't count as "domination". Sorry to burst Fedcrier's bubble.

[Benny_Maths]

Originally Posted by heya

Fed can't dominate clay tourneys, even since his first year

In the 'post-jurassic' period no one, apart from Nadal and perhaps Borg, has ever 'dominated' clay.

[Johnbert]

Originally Posted by heya

Djoker won big clay tourneys consistently

[Lopez]

Originally Posted by Yolita

That's one way of looking at it. There's another one. These are the 8 semifinalists of the Madrid Masters in 2012:

Tipsarevic - Del Potro - Berdych - Federer
Radwanska - Hradecka - Azarenka - S. Williams

Not one of them made the finals of Roland Garros. Not one... Out of eight.

It sort of proves that Madrid wasn't exactly the best preparation for the most important event on clay: Roland Garros. It's not surprising that the so called "whiners" are precisely the players who actually felt that they had a shot at winning Roland Garros and took their preparation seriously. And they were right: they made the finals, not only of Roland Garros, but of all the other Masters on clay as well...

I'm sure that if a flashy millionaire managed to buy his way into the ATP and produced a fantastically hyped, celebrity&entertainment-oriented Masters 1000 tournament on a surface completely different to the Wimbledon grass, in the middle of the grass season, players like Federer and Murray would not like it, would complain about it and would most likely skip it: why would they jeopardise a Wimbledon title for 1000 points?

Results show that Rafa and Nole made the right decision in bowing out of the Madrid Masters early.

And the ATP made the right decision going back to the normal Madrid surface.

I'm sure Tiriac will have a blue clay tournament soon, nothing wrong with that: just don't place it in the middle of the clay season, it could prove costly to the players who actually have a shot at winning Roland Garros.

Reasonable point. However, players complained about the slippery surface which was the real problem. I don't think the colour was a problem, they just didn't get the courts to settle. "Nobody is complaining about the colour" was Tipsarevic's comment during the tournament and he proceeded to explain that the slipperyness of the court was the real issue.

The players blamed it on the colour and it got scrapped (personally, I thought it was fun). But people forget too quickly that Madrid has almost always have issues with the surface (remember the match point in 2010?). Madrid has never been ideal preparation for RG: that's why it was moved to be held before Rome.

I think they should have let the organizers to test the courts once they had "settled" a bit more, e.g. with a Challenger tournament.

[Johnbert]

Originally Posted by Yolita

That's one way of looking at it. There's another one. These are the 8 semifinalists of the Madrid Masters in 2012:

Tipsarevic - Del Potro - Berdych - Federer
Radwanska - Hradecka - Azarenka - S. Williams

Not one of them made the finals of Roland Garros. Not one... Out of eight.

these players wouldn't have made the final even if they would've skipped madrid. most of them aren't that great on clay, only fed (and maybe silliams, but her bad rg-record is common knowledge) had a serious shot at the final at rg (azarenka still hasn't won a big clay-tournament). there's no great claycourter @wta since henin retired. and i doubt fed lost that semi against djoker 'cause he played madrid...

[duong]

Originally Posted by Yolita

That's one way of looking at it. There's another one. These are the 8 semifinalists of the Madrid Masters in 2012:

Tipsarevic - Del Potro - Berdych - Federer
Radwanska - Hradecka - Azarenka - S. Williams

Not one of them made the finals of Roland Garros. Not one... Out of eight.

It sort of proves that Madrid wasn't exactly the best preparation for the most important event on clay: Roland Garros. It's not surprising that the so called "whiners" are precisely the players who actually felt that they had a shot at winning Roland Garros and took their preparation seriously. And they were right: they made the finals, not only of Roland Garros, but of all the other Masters on clay as well...

I'm sure that if a flashy millionaire managed to buy his way into the ATP and produced a fantastically hyped, celebrity&entertainment-oriented Masters 1000 tournament on a surface completely different to the Wimbledon grass, in the middle of the grass season, players like Federer and Murray would not like it, would complain about it and would most likely skip it: why would they jeopardise a Wimbledon title for 1000 points?

Results show that Rafa and Nole made the right decision in bowing out of the Madrid Masters early.

I agree that there's a logic that they try to get a surface more similar to the clay season in Madrid and that the "powerful whiners" were right on that peculiar topic, even if I liked blue colour and I'm not convinced at all that colour was the problem here.

But implying that Nadal and Djokovic lost on purpose (which, on the men's side, is the only thing present in your "8 players demonstration" ), well ... it's not serious

you could maybe say that for Djokovic in a small extent, even though it was very visible that even if he wanted, Djokovic was just not able to move on that surface (and from what he does on grass, we know that he doesn't like sliding surfaces a lot).

But for Nadal in Madrid no just no he didn't lose on purpose to Verdasco

I know I've read even more ridiculous things about tanking in the end of the year, but this is not serious.

Originally Posted by Yolita

I'm sure Tiriac will have a blue clay tournament soon, nothing wrong with that: just don't place it in the middle of the clay season, it could prove costly to the players who actually have a shot at winning Roland Garros.

personally I think that blue colour is condemned for long because of that failure, and I think it's a pity because once again, I'm not convinced at all that it's impossible to make a good blue clay. Besides, Tiriac is a businessman and I don't think he will try another experiment. I think the idea will be taken back one day, but I'm afraid the blue clay is now condemned for longer than it should have been without that stupid failure.

[Just like heaven]

Originally Posted by Corey Feldman

on ATP website they are having a top5 countdown of the best moments of the year and Nadal's Roland Garros win only placed 5th

Dull facebook fanatics going mental

1 & 2 will be known tomorrow, should be Maestro's Wimbledon win followed by Murray's Olympic/Slam


Nole and Dull left in the shadows
Nole best player of 2012 MY ARSE.

Actually Murray's gold medal+Slam was placed 8th and Fed's Wimbledon was 7th.
http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Ten...2-6-To-10.aspx

[Litotes]

Originally Posted by Just like heaven

Actually Murray's gold medal+Slam was placed 8th and Fed's Wimbledon was 7th.
http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Ten...2-6-To-10.aspx

Top two are also out:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Ten...s-Of-2012.aspx

I think seven RGs is better than eight straight MCs, what about you?

[Just like heaven]

Originally Posted by Litotes

Top two are also out:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Ten...s-Of-2012.aspx

I think seven RGs is better than eight straight MCs, what about you?

RG is much more important but winning eight straight titles is something that no one has ever done so

[dazed1]

Originally Posted by heya

Fed can't dominate clay tourneys, even since his first year; he couldn't dominate hardcourts the last 4 years against Nadal either. He needed luck to beat Nadal & Djoker on clay (the reason for winning was not that Fed's draws were difficult because no one except Nadal & Djoker won big clay tourneys consistently).
Losing Masters titles in a 20 month period & reaching finals with easy year-long schedules didn't count as "domination". Sorry to burst Fedcrier's bubble.

Again off meds, spreading trash in public? sad.

[EliSter]

Originally Posted by Just like heaven

Actually Murray's gold medal+Slam was placed 8th and Fed's Wimbledon was 7th.
http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Ten...2-6-To-10.aspx

lol owned