CAMELOT FANTASIES

well he did not have any major challenge in his first 2 matches so he should have worked on his backhand.

ferru is the right match tomorrow as he (rafa) will get to hit a ton of balls.

but rafa has just got to let his backhand gain some rhythm and traction.

even ferru is going to make rafa pay if rafa gives up too much real estate.

the thing is that rafa does the same damn thing in practice.

ferru is pretty sharp. he will see what is going on very quickly so he will start taking the ball on the rise and he will try to play inside the court.

rafa will play from downtown monte carlo and give up a lot of real estate.




rafa is going to have to allow his backhand to get into play and take better control of the center of the court against better players.

I will be honest with you.  I don't see rafa winning this unless he can fix a few things in his next 2 matches:

1. he has to allow his backhand to get into a little bit of rhythm
2. he has to return better off both wings

I don't know right now who will see in the final. it could be federer or it could be nole. Federer can beat nole on clay on a good day.

I don't see him winning it either. He's simply not playing well enough. He's had too many lapses against weaker players. It only gets tougher from this point on, but...

I'm not too worried about him winning here. I have my eye on the bigger prize, RG. Right now he seems a bit complacent. Might do him good to feel the magnitude of the situation.

Yes, on a good day Federer can take Nole down, but too many times Fed plays lights out in the beginning of a tournament and peters out towards the end.

Whoever wins that semi will win the tournament if you ask me.

I hope it isn't so, but Rafa needs to stop running around that backhand and groove it, like you said.