[ballbasher101]

Strange that Rafa supports Madrid whilst his uncle played for Barcelona . Ah well stranger things have happened. Anyway no one cares about these type of things. Roger looking out for number 1 for once. The guy does a lot for charity.

[Ibracadabra]

Federer has played enough exhos agaisnt this clown for a life time.

[Ibracadabra]

Originally Posted by ballbasher101

Strange that Rafa supports Madrid whilst his uncle played for Barcelona . Ah well stranger things have happened. Anyway no one cares about these type of things. Roger looking out for number 1 for once. The guy does a lot for charity.

Glory hunter. Once upon a time during the 90s and early 00s. Barcelona couldn't play football you know. Threatened to get themselves relegated n the early 00s.

[abraxas21]

Originally Posted by ballbasher101

Strange that Rafa supports Madrid whilst his uncle played for Barcelona . Ah well stranger things have happened. Anyway no one cares about these type of things. Roger looking out for number 1 for once. The guy does a lot for charity.

apparently uncle toni forced him to be a RM fan just because he resented his brother, who was actually good at sports.

[alter ego]

[Just like heaven]

Originally Posted by ballbasher101

Strange that Rafa supports Madrid whilst his uncle played for Barcelona . Ah well stranger things have happened. Anyway no one cares about these type of things. Roger looking out for number 1 for once. The guy does a lot for charity.

He said in his book that he supports Real Madrid because of his father, who has always been a RM fan.
He also said that during the period his uncle played for Barcelona he also cheered for them. But only for that period.

[Pirata.]

Originally Posted by SERBINATOR

Roger supports Barcelona

Source?

Roger supports FC Basel. Same colours, same initials, different teams.

[Ash86]

Originally Posted by Ibracadabra

Glory hunter. Once upon a time during the 90s and early 00s. Barcelona couldn't play football you know. Threatened to get themselves relegated n the early 00s.

Umm... no. He supports Real Madrid because his dad supports RM - pretty normal to support the team your family does. Toni has always supported Barca. And obviously Miguel Angel, who played for Barca, is also a Barca supporter. They all supported Barca when Nadal's uncle was playing for them but after that Nadal could go back to his RM supporting ways...

As for the timing of it I think it has to be then because only then could they play on the grass of the stadium as no football will be played there and they'll redo the turf for the new season afterwards. It's planned as one of a few big events to celebrate 110 years of Real Madrid so they can't just do it next year or something. All in all if Fed can play an exo in a different continent 2 days after the Dubai final and then play in a Masters less than a week later (which actually has more points available than the Olympics) then I don't think one short exo would do much harm to his Olympics chances. (And no I'm not comparing the prestige of the Olympics to that of a Masters, just that on the whole the bad timing kind of makes sense and you'd think Roger "I'll be there whenever he needs me" Federer could make it work).

Other than Federer the only people who make sense are Djokovic (they won't go for that for obvious reasons) or an old great like Agassi, Sampras or Borg. As much as I like Ferrer he's not up to the standard of playing in front of potentially 85,000 people - you should have at least won a Masters & got to a slam final!

[Sunset of Age]

Originally Posted by Ash86

All in all if Fed can play an exo in a different continent 2 days after the Dubai final and then play in a Masters less than a week later (which actually has more points available than the Olympics) then I don't think one short exo would do much harm to his Olympics chances. (And no I'm not comparing the prestige of the Olympics to that of a Masters, just that on the whole the bad timing kind of makes sense and you'd think Roger "I'll be there whenever he needs me" Federer could make it work).

You totally disregard the fact that whereas Rafa already has a Olympic gold medal in the singles, Roger hasn't - and it's for 99% sure that this will be his last chance ever (if it isn't too late already).
It's not up to the fans to decide which player 'should' be appearing at whatever exho, tournament, happening, or whatsoever. Pretty sure there will be another opportunity for Rog to make up for it later in his career.

[Slice Winner]

Surely they aren't gonna play tennis on soccer grass?

[Roamed]

Two thoughts really... there's nothing wrong with Fed declining it, it's not at a great time and he's got different priorities from Rafa. That said, it sounds like a really cool idea, so if they can manage to do it at another time it would be great.

[Ash86]

Originally Posted by Sunset of Age

You totally disregard the fact that whereas Rafa already has a Olympic gold medal in the singles, Roger hasn't - and it's for 99% sure that this will be his last chance ever (if it isn't too late already).
It's not up to the fans to decide which player 'should' be appearing at whatever exho, tournament, happening, or whatsoever. Pretty sure there will be another opportunity for Rog to make up for it later in his career.

I haven't disregarded that. And I do understand how important the gold medal is to Roger. And of course it's not for fans to decide where players play exos. I'm just saying that in the grand scheme of things I don't see how this hurts his preparation. I assume he'll stay in Europe unless there are grass courts in Dubai?

So though the scheduling isn't fantastic I also don't think it's that tough - given how much/how little Fed practices anyway there's no reason this should take up much of his time or harm his Olympics hopes in any way. You have more chance of injuring yourself in a proper practice session than in a meaningless exo which is played in a casual way. More a shame because the venue is grass and really the only current player that makes sense vs Rafa on that surface is Federer. After that Murray is actually a better opponent on grass given their recent Wimbledon matches - better option than Ferrer though clearly not as big a name as Fed/Djoker/Agassi etc.

[Just like heaven]

Federer said today that he will meet Rafa in Indian Wells and maybe they will find a solution. He would like to play, but he's not happy with the date.

http://twitter.com/#!/sebastianfest

[fmolinari2005]

Oh wait ... what was that chat with ATP schedule being bad on the body, players need to play less tennis and that Roger is the only one not complaining because he is lucky that he doesn't get injured?!

[tangerine_dream]

Originally Posted by ballbasher101

Strange that Rafa supports Madrid whilst his uncle played for Barcelona . Ah well stranger things have happened. Anyway no one cares about these type of things. Roger looking out for number 1 for once.

It's sweet that he's looking out for Novak. For the longest time Roger only cared about himself.