[NextGenKing]

The man was known as one of the biggest forehands. His backhand is unreal!!!! Was he unlucky that the strength of his forehand blocked the praise deserved for the backhand?

How did he not do better at slams with those groundies?

I watched his era but not to same degree i do now. I never realized how good he was really.

 

[Unbiased]

Non - Big 3 thread alert.

Gonzales was certainly better than that glorified Botdick. But still not good / complete enough to win slams in the Big 3 era. I think he lacked defense and winning mentality the most.

 

[BauerAlmeida]

He wasn't consistent enough, and his decision-making was poor. He was the definition of "ball-basher", when he wasn't on a good day he could be an UE machine. Certainly could have done better as his backhand and serve were decent enough and he had one of the greatest forehands of all time.

 

[NADALalot]

Rafa was playing the 2009 US Open with a torn stomach muscle, hitting 1st Serves at only 95mph, and still beat Gonzalez 76(4) 76(2) 60.

 

[IBM]

Rafa was playing the 2009 US Open with a torn stomach muscle, hitting 1st Serves at only 95mph, and still beat Gonzalez 76(4) 76(2) 60.

Gonzo played like utter pish in those breakers tho, basically shat in his pants there despite playing so well. Third set was classic Tankzalez

 

[ballbasher101]

I have been thinking about players that have made me laugh over the years. Gonzo, AKA the hard hitting Chilean is one of those who made me laugh with his antics. His backand was probably his biggest weakness, just too many errors on that wing. He turned to the slice a lot, so as to cut those errors out, but by doing that, you get hurt by the better players. His match against Nadal at the OZ open in 2007 is one I remember fondly. I used to have it on tape. He was on fire in that match. He was hitting the ball with pure venom. Nadal looked lost, he had no idea what was happening.

 

[leng jai]

One of the stiffest single handers I've ever seen, I think he was allergic to bending his knees on that side. I suppose he luckbotted some hot winners with it once every 5 matches.

 

[NextGenKing]

One of the stiffest single handers I've ever seen, I think he was allergic to bending his knees on that side. I suppose he luckbotted some hot winners with it once every 5 matches.

 

[Nikola Jokic]

Oh... are we now on the "Make F.Gonzales Great" train?
))))))
The guy didn't do anything worth mentioning, except being a title-fooder for Roger Federer.

But I guess he's getting noticed now when we pointed out that Federer was feasting on that trash generation.

 

[emotion]

They were good when they went in, but I always clenched when he hit one. He was usually better off slicebotting, hitting consistently topspin backhands meant he was in god mode 10% of the time and that he was tanking the other 90.

 

[Ronman]

Great hitter.

More balls than any young player of the past 2 generations, except Theim.

 

[leng jai]

80% of those look like flukes with zero margin mate.

 

[NADALalot]

Gonzo played like utter pish in those breakers tho, basically shat in his pants there despite playing so well. Third set was classic Tankzalez

True, I remember the commentator saying Gonzo must be double-parked.

 

[BauerAlmeida]

Non - Big 3 thread alert.

Didn't matter

Rafa was playing the 2009 US Open with a torn stomach muscle, hitting 1st Serves at only 95mph, and still beat Gonzalez 76(4) 76(2) 60.

 

[guitarra]

His BH was a liability, he was able to ocassionally hit a great winner of that side but usually was not consistent enough. Also his movement was quite poor. Gonzo was good but not good enough and he’ll always be remembered for his FH.

 

[BodyServe]

 

[Beechaii2]

One of the stiffest single handers I've ever seen, I think he was allergic to bending his knees on that side. I suppose he luckbotted some hot winners with it once every 5 matches.

That's a good description for it, I always felt uncomfortable watching him swing that stroke. He never seemed that confident on it too, and would resort to mass-slicing when pressured.

 

[NADALalot]

Wow, Gonzalez beat Federer at Round Robin stage of 2007 Masters Cup 36 76(1) 75, his only win over Federer in 13 attempts.

 

[Burrow]

You can look at a highlight reel of anyone's strokes and come out with something decent. To say his backhand was unreal is ludicrous. It was incredibly dodgy. Larry Stefanki did what he does best and turned him into more of a boring player. Because he was utterly reckless prior, he didn't turn out to be near as boring as most of his other clients. What he did was make him slice a lot more, and probably for good reason. That single hander was one of those shots that could literally hit the back boards or land 10 feet wide at any given moment.

 

[GugaBackhand]

Non - Big 3 thread alert.

Gonzales was certainly better than that glorified Botdick. But still not good / complete enough to win slams in the Big 3 era. I think he lacked defense and winning mentality the most.

Roddick is 9-3 against Gonzalez, and 3-0 on slams.
I think you should consider changing your nickname