CAMELOT FANTASIES

You've said it all general hercules and Lady TT.  Great posts.

It's sad to see Rafa fail to win a single clay tournament in Europe leading up to Roland Garros.  It hasn't happened to him since he was 17, in 2004, before he won his first title in Sopot, Poland in August later the same year.

It's a survival of the fittest out there these days.

In the semis top half we have:

#1 Novak Djokovic, soon to turn 28 in 6 days, the fittest player on the planet, who when he is not playing trains for hours in Monte Carlo.
 vs.
#7 David Ferrer, who just turned 33 years old last month, known as the Wall, for running all day and getting so many shots back. He trains like the devil, 1.5 hours in the gym with a variety of strength and flexibility training in the morning, 2-3 hours practice, and 1 hour running in the afternoon.

and in the semis bottom half we have:

#2 Roger Federer, who turns 34 in 3 months, straight setted Tomas Berdych today and it wasn't as close as the score 6-3, 6-3 indicated.

vs.

#8 Stan Wawrinka, who turned 30 a couple of months ago, is known for having one of the most punishing backhands on tour, and his serve and forehand are not far behind.  He is one of the strongest men on tour.  His issue has always been consistency at the top level, but when he is peaking in his play, and he definitely did today against Rafa, he is tough to beat if you cannot find a way to keep him behind the baseline and limit his powerful strokes. 

I think Rafa's court positioning 3-5 meters behind the baseline was the key factor today and lack of fitness/strength as his forehand couldn't match Wawrinka's backhand, and even though he was fighting as well as he could, you could see he got more tired/worse as the match went on, while Wawrinka got better.  Obviously, the loss of the 1st set after being up 6-2 in the tiebreaker was a crushing blow.  But we must give credit to Wawrinka. He played lights out tennis to come back in the breaker and snatch the set.  Unfortunately, on most returns of serve Rafa was so close to the lines people on the back wall, he could probably have touched them.  This gives guys like Wawrinka too much time, and if Rafa doesn't return deep enough as happened, then it's like target practice out there for a guy like Wawrinka, making Rafa run like a madman. This is how a player can get injured, trying to extend himself too much for their fitness and play.  It's what happened in Australia in 2014 in my opinion.  So if Rafa comes out of Rome still healthy, that is at least a positive for Rafa. 

Rafa made it to the quarters in Rome, but he needs to get much better and fitter to win at Roland Garros this year. Most everyone on any forum is saying that Rafa is a different beast at Roland Garros and that 5 sets will help him.  I sorrowfully disagree with that today.  In the past, yes, it was always true.  But now?  I've seen such a decline in his fitness level, how is best of 5 going to help him, if he gets tired after 1.5 sets against the likes of Fognini and Wawrinka?  I don't know. Maybe the day off between matches will help him, but I'm grasping at straws for positives I guess.  The one thing that has to help him is winning 9 of 10 French Opens, but I think that probably only helps him if he makes a  final, and perhaps with some players who are still in awe of him.

But again, to put it in perspective, Rafa has done better than anyone would ever dream to win 9 of these.  Nobody can take those from him.  He can retire tomorrow if he wants and finish with one of the greatest careers in the history of the sport.  Anything more is really a bonus at this point, just like with Federer, who just passed 90 million dollars with today's victory in tennis earnings alone.  He might get that 100 million and 100 titles yet. Who knows?  Tennis fans around should be happy with seeing them both still playing, even if the results are not there as much or as often in the past.  One day they will hang up their racquets and it will be a sad day in tennis, but life goes on as they say, and there are others waiting to take on the challenges of the sport of tennis, but players like this cannot be replaced, only succeeded by the following generations who can only dream of lofty accomplishments such as theirs.

Respectfully,
masterclass