"From Wimbledon 2004 to the Australian Open 2010, 19 grand slam tournaments in all, Fed reached the final in all but one. He won 12 of them."
Actually, he made the final in all but three of them. AUS OPEN 2005 (lost to Safin in SF), FRENCH OPEN 2005 (lost to Nadal in SF), and AUS OPEN 2008 (lost to Djok in SF).
I was not able to watch the entire match. Just saw several youtube videos of different highlights. What I saw was so entertaining. If you like tennis I don't know how you could ask for any more enjoyable tennis to watch.
Sometime in the last year I saw a replay of the only time Federer and Sampras played at Wimbledon. An up and coming Federer against the king of the hill, for a little longer at least. It was fun to watch. Enjoyable. But comparing the two different matches. I think it was in the fourth game of the Federer/Sampras match when a point had a 5 shots in it and the announcer talked about the first rally of the match. Seems so ludicrous now to call something like that a rally. Almost all tennis matches these days, men and women, have wonderful rallies by the players. This particular match was beyond the pale.
I know a lot of the change in how tennis is played, don't know how much, has to do with the evolution of the equipment. But I do know the entertainment value is not even in the same universe. As an old guy, club court player, not bad, I am just amazed at what these players do nowadays.
I also enjoy baseball- was my game when growing up. But I can' hardly stand to watch it now. Tennis is the opposite- it's hard not to watch.
I've had the same journey - for 20+ years was big into baseball, but as it has descended into a slog of inactivity tennis has captured my attention with its action and thrills.
It was astonishing tennis. I love both of these guys. They were hitting 5 or 6 winners just to get a single point. Like Joe, it reminded me of Frazier-Ali III aka "The heavyweight Championship of Each Other". Sometimes in our lives we see something so exceptional it makes us want to cry, but not because we are sad.
So true. I had tears in my eyes but they were tears of joy... And a little bit of sadness. The sadness came from not feeling worthy of enjoying the most amazing sporting event I've ever had the extreme pleasure to watch live. I live in Pacific time zone so I arose at 530 am to be awake for the 6am start time. Of course it wasn't being showed until tape delay several hours later on NBC but thank God for VPN and a Paris IP that allowed me to watch every second live. Awakening hours earlier than my normal schedule to watch this match live is one of the few good decisions I've ever made in my life. I'll never forget the feeling of cheering for Novak and thinking... Well I would need 5 more pages to try to describe my thoughts but luckily there were a few articles like this one that almost put my feelings into words.
That 3rd set was simply unreal. All you could do was sit back and enjoy what was probably a once-in-a-lifetime level of tennis for almost an entire long set. Absolutely amazing! And being a Nole fan, I was glad he pulled it off, but I love Rafa too, and it was hard to watch either one lose that set of tennis.
Watched this match alone in my basement, cheering points out loud as if I were there, and laughing at the ridiculousness of what they could pull off from seemingly impossible positions. Just an astonishing set of tennis.
"From Wimbledon 2004 to the Australian Open 2010, 19 grand slam tournaments in all, Fed reached the final in all but one. He won 12 of them."
Actually, he made the final in all but three of them. AUS OPEN 2005 (lost to Safin in SF), FRENCH OPEN 2005 (lost to Nadal in SF), and AUS OPEN 2008 (lost to Djok in SF).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Federer_career_statistics
Some 'Recency Effect' might me shaping perception here.
Greatest match ever played? 2008 Wimbledon final.
The greatest set? Australia Open final set, 2017.
Both featuring Federer vs Nadal. Both 5 set matches.
‘Greatest Battle’ among these recent legends... Djokovic-Nadal, 2012 Australian Open.
...Ask Johnny and Pat Mac 😄
I was not able to watch the entire match. Just saw several youtube videos of different highlights. What I saw was so entertaining. If you like tennis I don't know how you could ask for any more enjoyable tennis to watch.
Sometime in the last year I saw a replay of the only time Federer and Sampras played at Wimbledon. An up and coming Federer against the king of the hill, for a little longer at least. It was fun to watch. Enjoyable. But comparing the two different matches. I think it was in the fourth game of the Federer/Sampras match when a point had a 5 shots in it and the announcer talked about the first rally of the match. Seems so ludicrous now to call something like that a rally. Almost all tennis matches these days, men and women, have wonderful rallies by the players. This particular match was beyond the pale.
I know a lot of the change in how tennis is played, don't know how much, has to do with the evolution of the equipment. But I do know the entertainment value is not even in the same universe. As an old guy, club court player, not bad, I am just amazed at what these players do nowadays.
I also enjoy baseball- was my game when growing up. But I can' hardly stand to watch it now. Tennis is the opposite- it's hard not to watch.
I've had the same journey - for 20+ years was big into baseball, but as it has descended into a slog of inactivity tennis has captured my attention with its action and thrills.
It was astonishing tennis. I love both of these guys. They were hitting 5 or 6 winners just to get a single point. Like Joe, it reminded me of Frazier-Ali III aka "The heavyweight Championship of Each Other". Sometimes in our lives we see something so exceptional it makes us want to cry, but not because we are sad.
So true. I had tears in my eyes but they were tears of joy... And a little bit of sadness. The sadness came from not feeling worthy of enjoying the most amazing sporting event I've ever had the extreme pleasure to watch live. I live in Pacific time zone so I arose at 530 am to be awake for the 6am start time. Of course it wasn't being showed until tape delay several hours later on NBC but thank God for VPN and a Paris IP that allowed me to watch every second live. Awakening hours earlier than my normal schedule to watch this match live is one of the few good decisions I've ever made in my life. I'll never forget the feeling of cheering for Novak and thinking... Well I would need 5 more pages to try to describe my thoughts but luckily there were a few articles like this one that almost put my feelings into words.
That 3rd set was simply unreal. All you could do was sit back and enjoy what was probably a once-in-a-lifetime level of tennis for almost an entire long set. Absolutely amazing! And being a Nole fan, I was glad he pulled it off, but I love Rafa too, and it was hard to watch either one lose that set of tennis.
Watched this match alone in my basement, cheering points out loud as if I were there, and laughing at the ridiculousness of what they could pull off from seemingly impossible positions. Just an astonishing set of tennis.