Nadal rallies from a set down to top Federer, r...

Way to go Rafa. Great concentration in the final set.

Frustrating to watch Fed continue to blow chances against Rafa. His stubbornness lost him this match. He needs to play more drop shots on high mid-court balls Rafa hits rather than continuing to believe that blasting to the open court is good enough against him. It's good enough against everyone other than Rafa or Joker. Those guys play such incredible defense with pace that I just don't think Fed believes what is happening to him. He needs to believe it and change his tactics - he hit the ball purely enough to win this one.

Frustrating to watch Fed continue to blow chances against Rafa. His stubbornness lost him this match. He needs to play more drop shots on high mid-court balls Rafa hits rather than continuing to believe that blasting to the open court is good enough against him. It's good enough against everyone other than Rafa or Joker. Those guys play such incredible defense with pace that I just don't think Fed believes what is happening to him. He needs to believe it and change his tactics - he hit the ball purely enough to win this one.

Great analysis.  It's really the same Problem with Andy Roddick.  He can just overpower competition through the early rounds of tournaments by just blasting his serves and volleys, but the court control is too great once you get down to the top players in the world.  It's a shame to go so long without a US Champion.  I've never forgiven Rafael Nadal for cheating at Wimbledon:

http://espn.go.com/tennis/blog/_/na
me/tennis/id/5340284

Roger Federer is a humble enough champ most of the time, although it was ridiculous when he told Andy that he knew just how he felt moments after Fed beat Roddick in a 16-14 tie break.  Roger had already won Wimbledon five times prior to losing to Nadal in 2008, so I'm skeptical that he has any idea how crushing the loss was to Andy and his fans in the US.  Oh well, at least we aren't counting on Andy Murray to bring us the first Wimbledon title since Fred Perry in 1936 like the Brits are...

must be awful to have to play someone four times a year and get beat by the same guy all the time. to me it would be extremely discourgeing.

With reference to the Sharapova-Azarenka final, this match will be the litmus test on whether the Tennis Federation will ever do something about the "shriekers." These two are the loudest. I love everything about Sharapova, the person and the tennis player, but quite frankly I don't enjoy her ridiculous shrieks. I don't want to hear her for a full match. If I were an opponent, I would protest to that her noise affects my concentration. I think an opponent has the right to hear a struck ball, which those shrieks conceal. I doubt I'll watch the full match between these wailers! tsko

They are both great players in tennis. However, Nadal has got Federar head and federar can not beat him which shows as Nadal is 18-9 vs. Federar. The way Federar played today was good, but he made to many mistakes and match could been over less than 3 hours if he did not win first set. It just seems like Nadal has figured Federar out. It was great match watch, but Federar needs to stop complaining about serves because Djokovic does the same thing with serves as serving it long. So we set up for a great match on Sunday moring Nadal vs. Djokovic. Last year Nadla lost to him 6 times. So hopefully Nadal will play better and figure who beat Djokovic. To get 11 Championship and its his third try for 11 Championship. Hopefully rest will help Nadal more because he came in this tournament with injury on his leg and shoulder was bothering him too. Go Nadal.

Nadal is in the climax of his career; Federer is in the twilight of his. That's how the pecking order goes. Even a G.O.A.T. has to come to grip with the eventual changing of guards. If they both were 25, you'd see a difference. Federer even hinted at it during an interview the day before his match with Nadal. He said that he has a family and children and not so much focused on tennis....

The butt picker (and you know who I mean) should be more gracious when he beats his opponents, and particularly Federer. It will be interesting to see if Djokovic mops up Nadal.

Pete Sampras and Bjorn Borg never had an 18-9 losing record against their biggest rivals..therefore I will never annoint overrated federer as the goat.nadal owns him in grand slams.

Not to take anything away from Nadal but his accomplishments against Federer are based largely on where the two players are at in their respective careers.  Federer is clearly at the back end of his career while Nadal is at the top of his game. Additionally, the overwhelming majority of slams for Nadal are on clay...6/10. But for the French Open Nadal would have 4 slams which, while still very impressive pales in comparison to Federer. On Clay...nadal is the best ever. On grass or on hard court not only is Federer better but Sampras was WAYYYYYYYYYY better and Borg and McEnroe were at their time better as well. 

Nadal is good guy. I pull for Roger every time. Nadal does play his best against Roger in my opinion. Roger had better realize he can't go toe to toe with the guy exchaning strokes the whole match. He is not winning that way against Rafa.

I can pull for both Federer and Nadal but two things come to mind; 1) the next time Nadal carps about an injury that almost caused him to forfeit early in the tournament; IGNORE it, and 2) it is not a rivalry when one side wins every time. Nadal, after early nonsense about injuries, goes through this event (a major no less) and only loses one set en route to the final, totally has Federer's number. Federer will never win another event as long as he has to go through Nadal.

Unless Nadal REALLY is injured. I posted earlier, I think a lot of tennis players complain about a fake injury early in a tournament as an insurance policy............incase the tournament doesn't go their way. That is one more thing to respect about Federer, he doesn't do that chit. He owns all his victories and all his losses. That said, the Final Four didn't go my way for either side. Federer and Clysters lost. I was pulling for both of them. Congrats to Nadal for another runner-up performace..............Joker has Nadal's number and will win this tournament. It's rather ironic, Federer can't beat Nadal, but can beat Joker. Nadal can't beat Joker, but can beat Federer.

Now we will all be subjected to Sman's rants about how Federer's competition in his prime was dog chit for the next few days.

Hey Raf, glad to see the knee injury that almost forced you to forfeit in the 1st round is feeling better.

Frustrating to watch Fed continue to blow chances against Rafa. His stubbornness lost him this match.

I totally agree with this. It's like a stubborn coach that refuses to make half-time adjustments during a football or basketball game when plan A obviously isn't working.

Well, I mean, I hate to second guess a person when they're alleging to have an injury to the extent that they contemplate exiting the event but sheesh man, the guy carries on about that only to follow it up by going to the finals and losing only one set along the way??  Good grief.

Yep, and it's not just him. Other players do it also. Like I said, I think it's an "out" for them if things don't go their way. People will say  "but he was injured". Federer doesn't do that chit.

I am pretty much convinced that the only way Fed is going to win another grand slam is that he does not face Novak or Rafa, and relies on others to defeat those two players. If Fed plays Murray in the final, then I think that Murray would have a 70% chance to defeat Fed, but at least Fed would have a chance.

I'm beginning to think that Nadal's only chance of winning another title is for someone to take the Joker out.  Pretty amazing how certain players have the numbers of specific players.  Federer has had everyone's number until Nadal.  Nadal had everyone's number until Joker.  Joker has everyone's number with a minor exception to Federer who seems to play Joker as well as anyone.  This event is Joker's to lose.