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Old 08-06-2008, 11:54 PM   #3
Plonnikas

Join Date
Oct 2005
Posts
459
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Other will post here too, Nels. Let us rant too:
RF needs a French Open title less than RG needs him to win there. Just look at the list of great ones never to have won there, and it is impressive to say the least. And it is not only Americans, pardon me. Names like Becker, Edberg, Newcombe and now Federer are missing. Yet, the illustrious names of Gaudio, Costa, Ferrero, Muster, Moya, Gomez, Chang and many more (all fine players, I agree, but a different level) pepper the victory list at RG like bird droppings on an otherwise perfect snowy scene.
RG must be worried about this. I think that the last number one seed to win there was Jim Courier in 1993. The last RG champion to be number one at year's end was Guga (2000). In the same way that Wimbledon slowed down the courts to avoid serves from being the only requisite to win there (which, BTW, it wasn't), RG must do something to allow for attacking players to have a say in the results at the French.
I admit I do not see Roger winning it. With the fresh memory of Rafa's performance, right now I have no clue who will beat Nadal there, ever.
But Roger dead? In 2002, Rusedski said, after losing to Pete at the USO, that if he kept playing that way, Pete would not go one more round. I agreed. Pete didn't, and he didn't. And he won his final USO.
I learned to eat crow that day. And I will not write Roger dead until he retires, on his own terms.
Pete's record is there, still achievable. The second best clay court player in the world THREE YEARS IN THE RUN knows it. That's enough motivation.
It was to make the surface firmer and longer lasting as a result of the newer shoe techonology that would tear up the courts, not to help out baseline players. RG should not speed up the clay to help attacking players anyway. Roger needs to adapt to the surface and figure out a gameplan and EXECUTE. The surface only plays a part in the matchup, but it all comes down to the players in the end.
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