[cveks]

After this final I have opinion that whole Australian Open was organized for Nadal to win title.

Why I think that?

First reason - surface was super slow . On some moments I have impression that was slower than clay .

Who controls that ? Organizers .

Why would they slow surface?

Because general sponsor of tournament is Kia Motors. Who is in same time Nadal sponsor. We all saw commercial with KIA & Nadal

Its logical than that they put surface which favors their guy.

Because of this Federer never had a chance against Nadal too.

ATP also wanted Nadal to win. Nadal have bigger and more powerful sponsors than Djokovic . Also rivalry where only one guy is winning is not good for them .

Also judging was scandalous . I am watching ATP matches since 1994 and I never saw more linesman errors and main judge errors ever . They where also part of this "Nadal must win" game.

And whenever Djokovic challenged the ball who judges called out , the ball was good, but he didnt win the point because Nadal was hitting that ball and point was repeated again .

Also with fixtures management of tournament organized that Nadal has 24 hours more to recover and rest for the final than Djokovic.

At the end , when Djokovic won, all major guys were sad like they where on funeral .

How he did that I dont know . He has something which no one could explain .

All odds where against him and he pulled out everything.

My hat down to him and thats why I think he is a GOAT.

Nadal is one of the greatest players of all time. But he cannot be GOAT no matter his results says. Because no GOAT in any sport ever - has lost 7 times in row against his main competitor.

 

[tyruk14]

umad

 

[August]

Because general sponsor of tournament is Kia Motors. Who is in same time Nadal sponsor. We all saw commercial with KIA & Nadal

Yet, at EuroSport we saw the official timekeeper's comercial with Roger. But yeah, I had some conspiracy theories associated with Kia after all those erratic judgements.

 

[romismak]

This is stupid, but Novak was unlucky with that time for rest and linescalls, it is just WHAT IF but really if all those calls were good, maybe he could have broken earlier and win the match who knows.

 

[Looner]

Well, Navratilova did say that the court was slower than all the clay courts she's played on. Tells you something about the (pathetic) state of the game right now.

 

[cveks]

we who watch tennis more than 15 years remember how fast was surface on Australian Open in 90s and early 00s

for example look highlights of 2000 finals between Andre Agassi and Evgeny Kafelnikov

Average exchange between two players was 5-6 shots .

You can say by looking the ball speed that surface 12 years a go was like double faster than today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqE0_uHQOpg

 

[cveks]

Well, Navratilova did say that the court was slower than all the clay courts she's played on. Tells you something about the (pathetic) state of the game right now.

I didnt know that but when one of the greatest female tennis players says that - I know that I am completely right .

Everything was set for Nadal to win.

 

[cveks]

This is stupid, but Novak was unlucky with that time for rest and linescalls, it is just WHAT IF but really if all those calls were good, maybe he could have broken earlier and win the match who knows.

at least 5 times linesman error caused that point who was already won by Djokovic - goes after repeated service to Nadal .

I saw that clearly - Nadal wasnt simply on that ball .

If they did not do what they did - match would be over in 4th set.

One more thing - every year Abu Dhabi and Australian Open have same surface because Abu Dhabi serves as preparation for AO.


We all remember how superior was Djokovic there.

He simply destroyed Federer there and Nadal was scared to play against him and lost against Ferrer to avoid that match.

And funny thing - this is the first year ever that AD and AO have different surfaces

 

[Right On]

The linesmen wanted Nadal to win as well.

 

[Omnipotence]

Novak isn't the GOAT ffs.

 

[MuzzahLovah]

The lines calls did seem to come against Djokovic more often than not.

It's understandable they want a rivalry- Fedal or Rafole or what have you, but that just isn't happening. Nole beats Rafa and Rafa beats Fed. Fed vs Nole is a variable, but they can never meet in a final as long as Rafa and Nole are 1 and 2 and Fed is 3 or 4.

 

[Jade Fox]

we who watch tennis more than 15 years remember how fast was surface on Australian Open in 90s and early 00s

for example look highlights of 2000 finals between Andre Agassi and Evgeny Kafelnikov

Average exchange between two players was 5-6 shots .

You can say by looking the ball speed that surface 12 years a go was like double faster than today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqE0_uHQOpg

Um, the surface doesn't look all that much faster to me. I've seen other places describe Kafelnikov as an aggressive baseliner so I doubt he would have the defense of Novak or Rafa.

For all the talk about surface changes few people don't seem to talk about just how much athletic the players have gotten in the past 20 years.

 

[Raiden]

Good thread.

As a statistician I find it ludicrous to believe that the linesmen got it "honestly wrong" that many times when they kept calling Novak's ball out. And often you could notice the delay in their call that betrays their intent that they made a deliberate, calculated decision (they "thought" for a second and THEN made their call in favor of Nadal). Now that could be cuz either these linespeople were drunk with Fosters (a physical impossibility)... or they were just passionate Nadalistas... or worse: part of a "wink wink" conspiracy to at least "stretch" the match if not outright change the outcome in Rafa's favor.

Some of those dozen or so line calls were not even close to being outside (the ball was REPEATEDLY in the middle of the paint or even closer to the court-side than outside
.

 

[Branimir]

I agree that Nadal was preferred winner tonight. But you are destroying your own valid points by calling Novak the greatest ever.

Novak is the best player right now. That's it. He might go out as one of the greatest ever, but hey that's long from now.

 

[Looner]

You know, I just thought of something interesting. This is not a troll post. I recently studied in one of my modules that people like to keep a constant degree of risk in their life, consciously or not.

I think one logical reason for so many of the bad calls is that linejudges perceive of their mistake affecting a match to have gone down and as a result may be inclined, unconsciously or not, to make more errors. Just a thought.

There's always the conspiracy theories which I am no stranger towards. Finally, you may consider that such mistakes would not have been exposed in the past so we would never know if such ridiculous mistakes were made or not.