and i’m excited to watch federer get his ass handed to him on clay again this year, giddyapp!

April 7th, 2011 at 3:49 pm

After he wins Monte Carlo, I will hand your ass to you, you little piece of shhhhhiiiit!

April 7th, 2011 at 4:03 pm

Love TMF. Great attitude. You can’t keep a good man down.

Until Tennis-X gives us a clay season preview, predictions? The draw for MC comes out Saturday, so we have a couple days to shoot the bull.
I say, Rafa with 2 Masters and FO.
Rafa will be beaten by either Nole, Fed, or Ferrer in the other Masters- but if it happens before the finals, that player may lose to one of the others.
I think Soderling is going to be up there with those 3 second-tier clay men as finalists and semifinalists, and I think Andy Murray and Del Potro will be give a 3rd tier of quarter/semifinalists with Almagro and Verdasco.
I HOPE to see some quality from Dog and Raonic, maybe Tsonga too.

April 7th, 2011 at 4:05 pm

I’m curious to see how “TMF” does on clay. Gotta love the attitude.
I.like tennis bullies- what a hater. dont you have someone who you want to see WIN instead of someone you just wanna see lose?

April 7th, 2011 at 4:26 pm

Here’s my predictions
Rafa 2 masters, Barcelona, Roland garros winner
Fed, 2 masters finals, Roland garros semis
Novak 1 masters, 1 masters final, Serbia, Roland garros finalist
Murray qf and or semis of all events except Roland garros, I’ll take him out 4th round there.
The armada, a smattering of semis and quarters between the crew, maybe one final.
Berdych, nothing in the masters and a SF at Roland garros again.
Sodelring, i think will disappoint.
Delpotro, ditto Murray, I agree with TV

April 7th, 2011 at 4:37 pm

I would be excited to see nadal pick his @$$ and VOILA! out comes the “i like bullies” right out of nadal’s @$$. hope that will stop nadal from pickin his @$$, further on.

April 7th, 2011 at 5:10 pm

KImberly, if your scenario plays out, there will only be a couple of hundred points separating Nole and Rafa after the FO!

Do you think Novak will beat Roger in the FO semi? Or will we see a Fedal semi at the FO?

April 7th, 2011 at 5:16 pm

dari nothing gives me more pleasure than watching the mighty swiss ego being humiliated once again by the true goat rafael nadal (:

April 7th, 2011 at 5:32 pm

I like to watch Sod on Clay. Amazing streaky player sometimes, and can “Bully” anyone off the court. Just don’t know if his form is happening right now…..Also will be interesting to see Delpo’s form on the dirt :).

April 7th, 2011 at 5:49 pm

@ i like tennis bullies,
If nothing gives you more pleasure than that, I really feel sorry for you. You life must be booooring.

@ Cindy Brady,
You are personally rude to a guy and use rather disgusting language just because he wants Federer to lose? I feel sorry for you too.

On another thought, I do not care, keep the insults flowing at each other, I may even find it entertaining…

April 7th, 2011 at 6:28 pm

i think djokovic will come back down to earth when nadal starts beating everyone on clay.

April 7th, 2011 at 7:27 pm

Stu, it doesn’t matter in my opinion. At this stage best of five I think both Novak and rafa would win that match.

I was starting to rethink my prediction. I will keep it for the masters but I could see this semi final line up at RG if the conditions are similar to last year
Novak rafa, berdych, soderling or delpo.

If it’s really have I think the big boys will have success again being able to hit through the court where others can’t, the three that come to mind would be delpo, soda, and berdych. I gave berdych the best chance is I just don’t think delpo is match fit enough yet. Maybe next year. And sodas form in IW and Miami was pretty poor but we all know he can turn it on. I think verdicts heavy ball can do a lot of damage. But that depends on the conditions.

April 7th, 2011 at 9:03 pm

Del Potro is not ready for five setters yet- but he may well be in two months when the French Open comes. There’s a lot of exercise between now and then.
The way DelPotro was improving over the summer of ’09, and the way he’s been improving since his comeback, I just don’t think he’s someone you can peg on his recent form.
I think TMF will prove more resilient than most are expecting.
Its interesting to think: If we reserve two spots for Rafa and Nole, that leaves six quarterfinal spots to be fought over between Fed, Berdych, Soderling, DelPotro, Murray, Ferrer, Verdasco, Almagro, Tsonga, Monfils, and Surprise Man. So five of these top notch clay court players will be out by the fourth round (yes, I’m booking Surprise Man in for the quarters at least- book him!).

April 7th, 2011 at 9:12 pm

Damn auto correct, I meant Berdych not verdict!

Here my QF lineup
Rafa
Novak
Berdych
Federer
Almagro
soderling
Gulbis
Dolgopolov

April 7th, 2011 at 9:19 pm

I’m not quite ready to make RG predictions without seeing the first clay tournament. A big IF for me is the sod- a lot depends on how is looking after a shaky IW and Miami.
For MC, I’m sticking with my nole pick- beats Rafa in the finals.
Will need to see draw to decide if I put fed even in the semis, but would like to see Almagro or ferrer in the 4 there.
When will Stan the man back up his claim.that clay is his gave surface- make three major qf’s in a row at RG?
He is one of the guys that was a part of that terrible upset day at Miami, so its hard to say.
If I keep saying it, maybe it will come true: Murray wakes up this tourney, makes it deep!

April 7th, 2011 at 9:26 pm

Actually I thought of wawa but then decided to take yet another gamble on Ernie.

April 7th, 2011 at 9:30 pm

Dari, I’m picking Nole to win at home (MC) too. And since it’s the first time I’m picking him to win this year, maybe that’s where his streak will be broken :)

April 7th, 2011 at 9:41 pm

Btw, I think I saw karlovic playing isner tomomorrow. I imagine that match will consist of several 26 to 30 stroke grueling baseline rallies (sarcastic)

April 7th, 2011 at 10:49 pm

Go Rog!!!!! Nadal, your clay domination is finished!!!

April 8th, 2011 at 12:17 am

Federer will begin the clay season at his lowest seeding since 2002

9 years at either no. 1 or no.2 – that’s pretty amazing.

how much more can federer fans expect from federer except to watch him play and enjoying his tennis?

Let’s have two more solid years at least from the TMF with top class tennis. None of this semi finals acceptance loss speeches. We want fire fed!

Looking forward to the clay court season.

April 8th, 2011 at 3:00 am

just for Skeeze! http://eurosport.yahoo.com/08042011/58/tennis-balls-made-bigger.html

for Daniel (delpo’s been listening to you!) and everyone in fact, since a lot of hard info carried in this short interview – plus, what a lovely cuddly geezer: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/tennis/mats-wilander/article/5/

Nishikori proceeding satisfactorily, I’m glad to say….

April 8th, 2011 at 4:31 am

Don’t know if you folk noticed, but Murray has accepted a wildcard for Monte Carlo. Maybe (fingers crossed!)the technical demands of the different surface will occupy his mind to the exclusion of the psychological problems.
Don’t forget, both he and Djokovic had plenty of clay experience in their teens.

April 8th, 2011 at 4:42 am

You guys are so funny arguing about Roger and Rafael.

The truth is that Roger is declining and Rafa is the best on clay. I doubt anything will change this clay season and I am thinking that Djokovic won’t do much to change it either. Let’s see though.

April 8th, 2011 at 4:54 am

grendel,

thanks for that, get me even more riled up, lol.

what about rackets with no strings, all wood and rubber cover like the fancy ping pong paddles?

as margot would say…..lordy

April 8th, 2011 at 10:42 am

@ “ILTB & CB”

But mine is bigger than yours.

April 8th, 2011 at 10:45 am

Tiriac is a wise man: “If you lose in the first round, then it is the final.”
However, I think they’ve gone too far in slowing down the courts. I’d rather see them take on the real problem which is that this is the only sport I know of that places no restrictions on the technology and make-up of equipment. Its the racquets and strings that should be controlled.

April 8th, 2011 at 10:48 am

TV you bring up a good point. There was some effort a long time ago when “Speghetti” strings got outlawed. ‘Member? They had to do it in Golf with “box” grooves added to much spin. Maybe they are looking at the wrong area if there looking to slow down the game, and I don’t know why either?

Not trying to go backwards, but wouldn’t it be interesting to put the standard wooden tennis racket in these guys hands on these current courts? People complain that the old matches look so slow. Well put those wooden rackets in the current players hands and you’ll see the slow….

PS; Any of you Tennis players out there who have a old wodden racket, try to take it out one day and hit with it….just to see..:)

April 8th, 2011 at 11:00 am

skeeze: bet it’s easier for the guys used to wooden rackets to adapt to modern technology, than vice versa. Lordy, lordy…. ;)…..would love 2 c Laver play now.

April 8th, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Tennis Agenda, it is in fact you who are funny, in your blind belief that Nadal is some kind of superhuman robot. So Federer’s declining? True. And the amazing Rafa isn’t?
Not so very long ago you Rafanatics were shouting from the rooftops that Nadal was the greatest because he could win on any surface. But rather swiftly you have been forced to fall back on the old cry “Ah, but he’ll win everything in the clay season”. He is declining too, if not as swiftly and obviously as Federer, and furthermore HE KNOWS IT, even if you don’t.

April 8th, 2011 at 1:50 pm

COlin–i wouldn’t say Rafa is declining because he lost two finals, I would say for the first time in a long time there is someone other than Fed that is as good or better. But his game is either as good or better than its ever been (made it to the finals in 02, 09 didn’t win a set, finals in IW and Miami, both losses to the hottest player on tour, last year last to two inferior players in semi) If you watch the matches you would see that Nadal’s game hasn’t dropped, Novak has just raised his level.

I will flat out acknowledge that Novak is just playing better tennis than Rafa right now, by a small margin. Us fans are hoping that margin disappears on a different surface. Maybe it will maybe it won’t.

Fed’s game is worse than it was occasionally and just as good as it ever was often. It seems he has one match per tournmant in 2011 where he just doesn’t bring it. Maybe thats part of aging. If he’s at the top of his game, like he was in the fall season of 2010, he can still win.

Your comment is kind of nasty and not true.

April 8th, 2011 at 2:04 pm

Rumour Nole has withdrawn from monte carlo? jane, stu?

April 8th, 2011 at 3:16 pm

Just checked Reuters, it’s true, cites “knee injury” bummer :(

April 8th, 2011 at 3:21 pm

That’s fine, as long as its not a real problem, this is the best tournament to skip, as I and many others on the site have said. So this is a good time for rest. Makes this tourney a little less exciting, but hope its good in the long run.
Who’s my other finalist now?!!!
Margot- yea the Murray interview was good. it felt reassuring as far as his emotional state goes. And as for the video, however it happened, I’m glad he is looking at video of himself now!

April 8th, 2011 at 3:29 pm

How do they always surprise me with these withdrawls? Up until three or so days ago I was sure he was not gonna play and then BOOM. gets me every time.

April 8th, 2011 at 3:38 pm

Kimberly, just you wait and see.

April 8th, 2011 at 3:57 pm

C’mon Roger, go for the Coupe de Mousquetaires this year!

Go Del Potro too! And what’s this I hear about Djokovic not playing Monte Carlo? Hope he’s OK.

April 9th, 2011 at 12:22 am