French Open Day 11 - Can Wawrinka Stop Rafa?

What a day we had, finally a French hero rising to the occasion to down a legend, but his work is not over indeed got 2 crucial matches ahead to be considered as a GS champ. Rise of underdogs as been the theme of the day will it continue another day? the biggest question is can Wawrinka somehow outset the off-color Rafa?

Haas has in him to beat Nole, but not sure Wawrinka has in him to take Rafa to even 4 sets let alone a win, but would certainly love a complete underdogs semi.

Schedule of Matches

Court Philippe Chatrier
2:00 PM Women's Singles - Quarterfinals
Jelena Jankovic (SRB) [18] vs. Maria Sharapova (RUS) [2]


Followed byMen's Singles - Quarterfinals
Rafael Nadal (ESP) [3] vs.Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) [9]

Court Suzanne Lenglen
2:00 PM Women's Singles - Quarterfinals
Maria Kirilenko (RUS) [12] vs.Victoria Azarenka (BLR) [3]

Men's Singles - Quarterfinals
Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] vs.Tommy Haas (GER) [12]

Jelena is a surprise semi's in my view, could get toasted at Sharapova's hands, Kirlenko vs Vika could be interesting, Two Maria's can do it.

I would love to see Wawrinka -Nadal match start atleast an hour early, so if miracle happen and Wawrinka upset Rafa I will be fully rooting for Haas, if not I would love to see Nole-Rafa semi's, so either Waw-Haas or Nole-Rafa, no other combination pls.

Tommy Haas got a good 7 odds to win the match, if people buying the hype of underdogs then Tommy's odds are eye catching. Wawrinka gets 10 odds on the other hand, I won't advice this unless somebody is an extreme gambler .

Let the theme "Rise of Underdogs" continue, most tennis fans want to see a new champ, let see whether Haas and Warinka has any say in it.

There is only one King of Clay and that can't be a joker

Rafa came firing after the rain break and inspite of Djoko doing his best scummbed to pressure by double faulting at the match point.

Its not joke this guy won 7 slams in a row or utter dominance and holds 52-1 record, Rafa means business in clay, congrats Novak you did your best with some stunning comebacks in the tournament and saving 4 match points against Tsonga but everybody have to go down to the King of Clay.

Vamous Rafa, The King reigns.

Best Grand Slam Final of 2009

This year has been a superb year for grand slam finals in the men´s singles.

The four finals were.
Oz: Nadal beat Federer 3-2.
FO: Federer beat Soderling 3-0.
Wimbledon: Federer beat Roddick 3-2.
USO: Del Potro beat Federer 3-2.

In terms of excitement of the actual match, FO wasn´t up there, but in terms of the history being made (Federer winning all four slams and equalling Sampras´s record) it was in a class of its own.
I would suggest we vote for the ´best´ primarily on match quality and excitement, while also taking into account the sense of occassion and atmosphere, however really it´s up to you.

So the idea is you just choose one as your favourite and I´ll come along later on when the voting dies down and add them up.

Let voting commence.
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I find it hard to understand how come AO finals was better than US Open, in AO both players didnt play to their potential and in contrast DP came from no where with amazing play on 4th set and win the 5th hands down to win the title.

The 4th set of USO was the best set of any finals, it had the shots which no other finals had [some amazing groundstrokes from DP, yet Fed found some way to break DP to take it to tie breaker], before the 4th set tiebreaker Fed was 1 point short of match point at 0-30 in DP's server, yet DP played like a GOAT and won the Game , then set and then Match.

USO - 5 Stars
Wimby -3 stars
AO - 2 stars
FO -1 star

FO wasnt bad, but Sod was just no match to Fed, if Sod would have beaten Fed from that no where position it could be up top with USO.

Last but not least people talk about Nadal's epic semi against Nando in AO, but the gap btw semis and finals was 48 hours and not less than 24 hours in case of USO, so for DP to beat Nadal and Federer in less than 48 hours was breath taking and the best performance of the year.

You cant beat The GOAT and GOAT killer in 2 successive days of a GS,if somebody does that he deserves the moment of the year.

2010 slam winners: sentimental & realistic

Looking ahead to next year who would be the sentimental choice to win each slam and who would be the 'realistic' choice? Bearing in mind that now Fed has beaten Sampras and won French Open he's less of a 'sentimental choice' than before (though still may be for some!).

Australian Open: Men - sentimental choice - a 1st time slam winner, lets go for Andy Murray - otherwise, a talented older player like Nalbandian (who'll be back by then) or Gonzalez. Realistic choice - Nadal has a good chance of defending. Del Potro probably as a narrow favourite, Djokovic, Federer and Murray all in with a shout.
Women: Dementieva as sentimental choice, with her game she ought to have won a slam by now, especially on hardcourts. Realistic choice - Serena, Sharapova, Kuznetsova or one of the Belgian 'de-retired' players

French Open - Sentimental choice men - now Roger's won it, lets go for a Frenchman. Out of the French, Monfils looks the best equipped to win the home slam. He loves performing in front of a partisan home crowd, he'd be a massive hero if he pulled it off. Realistic choice - A two horse race between Del Potro and Nadal.
Women, sentimental choice - Safina, I think she's at her best on clay and it would be good to see her conquer her slam demons. Sharapova, to complete her set of slams, and also possibly Serena as she's a bit of a clay underdog.
Realistic choice - Henin, if fit.

Wimbledon - Sentimental choice, for me, not Murray, but Roddick, who's in danger of going down in history as best grasscourt player never to have won Wimbledon. The crowd would be on his side having seen his valient efforts in this year's final. I'm not even particularly a Roddick fan but he'd be a worthy Wimbledon champion. Haas would be one for the purists. Realistic choice - Federer, possibly Nadal if fit. And Roddick is a pretty realistic choice too.
Women - sentimental choice - Henin, so she's won all 4 slams. Clijsters would be another sentimental choice, and out of the new players, Wozniacki would be popular. Realistic choice - Venus, Serena or (if fit) Sharapova. Henin does have a decent shout though.

US Open - sentimental choice, Nadal. Fed would be the first to congratulate him on what would be a great achievement of winning all slams. Realistic choice - Del Potro, Federer or Murray. Djokovic a possibility too - he has been v consistent at US Open.
Women - sentimental choice, Venus, she's not won a slam away from Wimbledon for a while. Otherwise, Dementieva if she's still slamless. Realistic choice - Serena, Henin, Sharapova (if fit), possibly Azarenka.

Davis Cup - Switzerland would be a sentimental choice, give Fed a Davis Cup victory. Argentina came agonisingly close last year and it'd be nice to see them win - they have a potentially tricky opening tie in Sweden though. Realistically, its difficult to see past Spain or Russia. Argentina may have an outside chance though.

Del Potro dismisses Nadal threat

In an astonishing interview, Del Potro dismissed the threat of Rafael Nadal - not even bothering to mention the Mallorcan when questioned about the challenges ahead.

"I'm starting out but my new dream is to be number one," said the Argentine. "Roger is still a cut above the rest and Andy Murray is having a great year. I'm trying to close the gap."

Yet more evidence that the Argentine has cracked Nadal’s game and feels he no longer even deserves consideration.