Rafael Nadal Takes Over ATP Rankings Race Lead From Federer, Earns Top 4 Seed At French!

Yaaaaay! Well done Champ!
Vamos Rafa!

May 15th, 2017 at 10:17 am

Congrats Rafa, you and Fed are “owning” the field this year so far.

May 15th, 2017 at 10:27 am

Nadal is simply unbeatable on clay. Thiem played a great match, but Nadal was just too good.

If you guys don’t mind, could you visit http://www.courtsidewatch.com? It’s a new and upcoming site, and we’ll have an article on Federer and the French Open up at 11:30 CDT. Thank you so much!

May 15th, 2017 at 11:03 am

Fed will be the question mark in RG and which QF he will be drawn to: Murray, Djoko, Wawa or Nadal. My feeling is he will be drawn QF to face Nadal. Let’ see.

Murray and Djoko slowly climbing the race rankings. If they did decent this week they could enter RG in top 10 race leaders. Any semis spot at this postition will boost their rankings.

May 15th, 2017 at 12:15 pm

There are sport journalists who think Fed won’t enter the French. And Rafa maybe skip the grass.
Fed could look for for a 9th Halle – 8th Wimby

May 15th, 2017 at 12:35 pm

I posted negative vibes on Rafa on the other thread, so I’ll even out the Karma by throwing shade on his rivals here:

If Fed doesn’t come back at the French,
or if Fed comes back at less than his early 2017 level
or if Rafa is able to resume his H2H dominance over Fed…

(and there’s a very good chance Fed ain’t coming back to that insane level he bottled in the early hard courts…)

Then…
Who is going to stop Rafa? When and how will Novak and Murray find their old form? If they don’t by Wimbledon… do the favourites become Kyrgios or Raonic??

May 15th, 2017 at 1:22 pm

Luca – Thank you for your suggestion re. “courtsidewatch” – which was interesting – but a link to Facebook slightly put me off.

May 15th, 2017 at 2:04 pm

Oh, and people forget to add that Nadal also is currently co-lead in masters series wins with Djoko at 30.

Him and Federer 2 each already this season.

May 15th, 2017 at 2:07 pm

Murray played awful before in RG and deieve on grass. So he’ll be fine cole grass season reagrdless of Rome and RG. Can’t see another crash like Dimi in Wimby 2014

May 15th, 2017 at 2:09 pm

Raonic, Kyrgios, Dimi, Cilic, any tall power hitter will have a shot at Wimbledon.

Djoko don’t know if he will recover in time.
Nadal if wins RG may be mentally empty and with his latest Wimby results, won’t place him as favorite.

That will leave Fed, Murray, and the others mention above.

Wawa I think will start decreasing, he is not young and he is even more incomsitant than the past.

All top 3 underperforom on clay so far and will try to prove somethig this Rome: Murray, Djoko and Wawa.

May 15th, 2017 at 2:14 pm

Daniel: Tall power hitters usually don’t win against (a) Murray and (b) Nole – however, we are not at “usually”.

May 15th, 2017 at 2:48 pm

Fed is not playing RG:
http://www.rts.ch/sport/tennis/8623881-rolandgarros-roger-federer-renonce.html

May 15th, 2017 at 3:23 pm

Raf won’t slow down until after USO, he will finish the year as #1, absolutely certainly, he is on the mission, extremely well prepared, rejuvenated, sky high on the confidence, don’t be surprised if he makes three out of three in last three GS.

Andy is big question mark, what I saw against Coric is not Andy, very lethargic for whatever reason.

Nole will be lucky if he makes top 8.

Roger is topping up, legally, with juices hoping he will have another burst of success, he might have one or two tournaments but that’s about it.

May 15th, 2017 at 5:47 pm

‘…he might have one or two tournaments but that’s about it.”
Wimby & USO, fine by me.

May 15th, 2017 at 6:06 pm

Sure, “elixir of youth” can do miracles, make the player, who at his prime wasn’t top 20 in five set matches, suddenly at 35 plays five set matches without properly sweating, three of them in the first tournament after six months lay off, runs faster, jumps higher…you still believe in Santa Claus.
Of course, for “elixir of youth” you need proper breaks in order to work, otherwise they can’t do “miracles”.

May 15th, 2017 at 6:19 pm

Me thinks Rafa is taking Feds “elixir of youth”, or vice a versa. Novak needs to get up to Speed.

May 15th, 2017 at 6:52 pm

Meanwhile Dimitrov is Delpo’s first victim in Rome, next one will be Nole if he gets that far, I mean if Nole gets that far;)

May 15th, 2017 at 6:55 pm

Nole is not in to that stuff, not yet, he is doing spiritual enlightenment atm…with great success on and off the court…

May 15th, 2017 at 6:57 pm

I hear you Wog Boy!!!!

May 15th, 2017 at 7:18 pm

Thanks JK.

May 15th, 2017 at 7:33 pm

I was wondering why Djokovic’s gave started to go downhill at around the time her good friend Sharapova was caught using performance enhancing drugs. All of a sudden he starts to wilt when matches go the distance whereas before he could go on and on and on without breaking a sweat.

May 15th, 2017 at 10:06 pm

If Rafa DOES win the French, and if Murray and Novak’s woes continue (and I say they will), Fed could actually be the favourite at Wimbledon. Rafa has been terrible at Wimbledon for the last few years.
So IF Fed does come back at full strength, his competition will be Kyrgios, Raonic, Dmitrov, Zverev, and maybe Del Potro.
And on Wimbledon, I would definitely like Fed’s chances against that field.

If he has 2 Slams and 2 Masters by the end of Wimbledon, he will be very close to #1.

May 16th, 2017 at 7:52 am

Wog boy – Federer at his prime hardly ever had to play 5 set matches! He only started to wilt in 5 setters after his glandular fever in 2008 – his lack of stamina then was clearly linked to the after-effects of that viral condition and led to him playing much longer matches.

And the 5 set matches he won at the AO weren’t long and gruelling, as he played ultra-attacking tennis to minimise the length of rallies and reduce energy expenditure.

Federer isn’t unique in winning majors at 35. Even in the modern era, Agassi would probably have won the USO had he not run into prime Federer.

May 16th, 2017 at 9:22 am

Miles,
Incorrect, even if you want to go until 2008, though you Federer fans keep moving the posts all the times for various reasons, Roger played 20 five set matches and was 10:10, 50% winning record, and that is his prime. He never made to top 20 in five set stats. He was always lousy five set players even three tough sets he was as likely to lose as to win, roughly fifty fifty chances and he turned the tables at the age of 35!
Do yourself favour and check the facts before you post, here they are, have a look for yourself and this is only unti 2013, after that he lost few GS final in five sets to Nole:

https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/atp-5-set-records-five-set.335267/page-5

May 16th, 2017 at 9:53 am

^^ In his absolute prime 2003/2007, he played 10 five setters, won 4 (four) and lost 6 (six)!
Not even close to 50% winning record, and that was before mono, bad back, bad knee, two packages of twins and whatever else you have in store:)

May 16th, 2017 at 10:01 am

Just to clarify, when I say “lousy five set player”, it was lousy for his standards, for the so called “the GOAT”, since offical title as such doesn’t exist, not in ATP nor ITF, it is just an opinion..

May 16th, 2017 at 10:11 am

Since it is late here, just to correct you on this one before I go to bed:

“He only started to wilt in 5 setters after his glandular fever in 2008..”

You were wrong here too, since he actually improved his record after 2008, he did better than in his prime, not even taking 2017 in to account, as per my link, and sample is more than big enough, no?

May 16th, 2017 at 10:31 am

I still see an RG match Nadal – Djokovic at 50%

May 16th, 2017 at 11:29 am

Congratulations rafa on your win in madrid keep up the good work you can do it

May 17th, 2017 at 1:21 am