yes it's annoying to have him win another slam with his ugly tennis (yes let's face it, tennis wise it's ugly!).

7 crowns like Lance 's 7 TDFs.

Rafaaaaa yessssss

Seems like break might have allowed the superman to have a bit of the magic potion. The same player who was looking outright down came back pumping. Is anyone surprised?

The platform was all well set for Nadal before the tournament started. Balls, courts, draws, umpiring..ahh.. He did what he had to took, oblige and take the RG cup.

Djo as I had told, will not beat Nadal. That grip was already loosened by the manner of Rome loss. This Djo was never going to beat Nadal. Now the tide is on Nadal's side. It will take long before Djo will beat Nadal again.

I disagree rotla.
This was Nadal's last win against Nole.

This Djo was never going to beat Nadal.
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If anything he proved he coudl have done so once again. But as you say, everything was done to make sure Nadal was going to win.

Hadn't it rained i woudl have fancied djoko in 5. But I agree that Djoko was not consistent enough in those first 2 sets.

I just think it's a disgrace to to force a champion no-one wants. Sure he has his millions of fans who would just be happy to see him in ryana's clips but for the rest of teh tennis world, his game is a awful.

Djoko is a counter puncher but Nadal is not even that. He is a scrapper. All he did was slice BH and FH and putting the ball up hoping for UEs. He got 50 of those and that's how he won the match once again. On normal tennis balls he would not have retrieved half of those.

I am afraid he is our Lance Armstrong of tennis.

Tenez only solace I take out of this win is that it keeps fed in hunt to get that no. 1 rank back. Fed will be the freshest for Wimby. I don't know when will this rafa bubble will burst. Dr Funetes has prolonged a career which should have curtailed long ago.

Fed will be the freshest for Wimby.
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Not sure about that. I think he is kind of forced to play in Halle against his will cause of the mess that happened last year after he defaulted but certainly wants to rest (or heal) whatever prevented him to play with his full potential.

@nitb
I disagree rotla.
This was Nadal's last win against Nole.
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Well, as I always say, remember what you said. We will bring this up later on.

I'll leave memorising and bringing it up to you rotla
I'm not the one with the told you so mind
There's only one thing I like to be repeating....yes, you've guessed it right

@tenez
If anything he proved he coudl have done so once again...
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Nadal was ahead in the race from point-1. Djo was always trying to catch-up. Yes he managed to dominate set-3 but that just like how Nadal dominated set-3 of laste year's wimbledon. The next opportunity Nadal gets, and he nails it. 3 times Djo got broken with a Double fault, last one of them on match point. What does this say about his mindset?

If it appears that he could have won this, it just like how Nadal appeared that he too could have won those 3 slam losses.

These ultra slow balls, and conditions favor Djokovic as well. This is how he gets those "amazing" returns straight to the server's feet with power. Thats why the current players don't impress me anything much. They are hailed by media and press as greatest ever, but they hardly are. They are just like players were in the past, infact talent wise much below. I don't awe to manufactured players.

I don't see the current Djo much different a player from what Nadal is. They both play to force errors. Same old-everytime.

The last time I missed a GS final was the 2001 wimbledon. But that I couldn't have watch as I had to take an examination. This one is which I didn't watch a lot, but I don't think I missed it at all.

Oh dear, you can't even acknowledge what a great sporting moment it was, all you can do is say that Nadal was "made" the greatest clay player ever, he cheated his way there just by playing or the rain breaks were to his advantage.

Such shortsightedness.

Just to remind you, when they stopped play last night, there were puddles on the court, and Djoko had pulled earlier up when the grip was becoming dangerous, so no amount of "nice" weather was going to make it safer in 90 mins, it was still raining you know.

That 1st rain break went to Djoko's advantage, the 2nd to Nadals, so even stephens there, you can't complain about that.

All in all, typical responses from Nadals haters, yet the clever ones know what happened on court today, a great moment that will be forever recorded on the silverware and the history books, and we were there to watch it, in this Golden era we are in now, but all you guys can do is lament the loss for Djokovic.

Its sad that you can not see the monumental occassion for what it was, two tennis greats each trying to make history. One lost, tough, the other didnt, tough for you too, but at least look at the good points and the plus side of things, instead of wallowing in self pity.

Its not Nadals fault that Djoko choked on match point against him, he could have made it go into a fifth set if he hadn't blown his service game at the restart. Court in good condition, balls in good condition, weather fine, what more would you want for Djoko to win ? he was outplayed in the end. Simples.

These ultra slow balls, and conditions favor Djokovic as well.
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Yes against everybody else!....but not against Nadal! That's where nadal muscles are so important cause he can create Djoko's pace with security nole hasn't. Djoko to hit a pacy(ier) shot on those dead conds needs to take a risk. Nadal's guns allow him to create the same pace despite the added spin that gives safety to his shots. That's why Djoko's UEs (and everybody else) was so high. Had the match not been interrupted those big muscles of nadal were to the point of starving of O2 and there Djoko's more efficient game would have prevailed. It rained and that gave Nadal much more than the 40s required to finish the match.

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I don't awe to manufactured players.
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Neither do I and I am not a Nole fan but there is something gutsy abiut djoko's game and certainly more comparatively much more talented than Nadal.

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I don't see the current Djo much different a player from what Nadal is. They both play to force errors. Same old-everytime.
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Certainly but it's a game of 2 and one is always the aggressor and teh other the defender. We coudl see Federer scrapping through Raonic in Rome trying to "contain" that power.

Nadal is the player with teh worst game i have ever seen in 35 years in terms of scrapping to 11 slams. It's all about retrieving until a short ball finally comes along and there he unleashes his super safe, super powerful FH which is guaranteed to clear comfortably net and lines but whose power is such that it is a tough shot to retrieve, let alone hit winners from.

i do not see Nadal winning much more really cause he had to have expecptional slow conditions and help from a rain break to actually win that match.

Djoko adapted his game to the conds, we can;t quite blame him for that....and without Djoko, Nadal could have been on his 5th consecutive slam! So we certainly owe Djoko quite a bit to have prevented such a negative game to thrive.

Jubba,

always here to criticise

why don't you write a verse or two on the poetry corner

You gotta be kidding me.

Waiting for a short ball !... so you didnt see the match then, when Nadal was hitting winner after winner from behind the baseline in the 1st 2 sets.

Time to take the blinkers off and the blindfold, you may see things you never imagined.

And the fact that Djoko came back when the game slowed to a snail pace after the 1st rain break, with sopping wet clay and heavy balls does nothing to prove your comment " he had to have expecptional slow conditions and help from a rain break to actually win that match"

Which goes to show you know nothing about tennis and never have really, I wonder if you are just a homogenized wum sometimes Tenez.

A poster named Tenez one day,
made a comment about Nadal on clay,
it was so "up your 4nus"
it made him an ignoramus
But what difference does that make I say.

Very naughty Jub, this is not a pub!
Nadal I don't like, cos his sponsor's Nike
Rigs him draws and stuff,
I have had ENOUGH

You asked for it, you didnt specify language type or whether it be North or South of the river slang.

It's the wrong thread, so it doesn't count, anyway

Just read this comment on a tennis.com blog, lots of truth in it...

"Rafa Nadal won a GRAND SLAM MATCH against Djokovic at Roland Garros? Are you sure? According to Roland Garros circus officials and their clowns, he did. But what Rafa really won was two matches, first a two-set match on Sunday, and second, a one-set match on Monday. According to RG clowns, by simple arithmetic, two sets on Sunday + one on Monday add up to one must-win-three-sets-in a single time span GRAND SLAM MATCH. Thus, Rafa won a GRAND SLAM MATCH. Don't you think that this is a massive flaw in RG clown reasoning? Well, if this is the case, we can ask what is the purpose of a GRAND SLAM TOURNAMENT? Can't tennis players just play Master tournament must-win two sets matches, then? Isn't the GRAND SLAM MATCH designed to test tennis player's tennis skill, endurance, stamina, willpower, form, over the longer must-win-three-sets period of time? Isn't the must-win-three-sets-in a single time span GRAND SLAM MATCH the essence of the GRAND SLAM TOURNAMENT? So, did Rafa Nadal win a GRAND SLAM MATCH? Think about it!"

There shoudl be a whole book about Nadal's luck! I am not kidding!

- His draws (some of it is certainly rigged but also whjen he has tough opponents in his draw they vanish due to injury or else).

- BPs, SPs, MPs saved by the millions, you can be good defending them certainly but a lot has to with the opponent panicking on those or like in Rome or Tokyo 10 when bad calls come at thr wrong time.

- PRP treatment being finally approved in Sept 09 to allow him to be pumped up at will for the slams

In Wimby 2008, the dark conditions came to save his big margin game.

- And now the rain just came at the perfect time to allow him an overnight refill of energy.

I must say I am annoyed with the fact the match was not played as a whole. This really was a joke....and massive asterix.
FO organisers have REALLY let Nole down , AGAIN, you can't just mess up a match like that.
They knew the forecast and still managed to wreck it!

I hope Babolat goes bust just like Prince!

What do you think they shoudl have done? The only thing is that there was apparently another 1h30 of possible play after they left but they probably could only know that after that time went.

I don't we can blame it on the organisers on that occasion. They were certainly guilty for the balls and maybe other things but they cannot control the weather, can they?

Knowing there was going to be 3 days of rain and that Nadal and Djokovic don't play 2 hour matches against each other in the best of 5, they could've scheduled it for Saturday or Wednesday.

mmmhhh - That's a bit of a stretch.

They cannot dot. It woudl be far too complicated, would wrong-foot millions of people who are not paying as much attention as we are and besides that means they woudl have to rewrite the contract of all their broadcasters.

It's already set in the contracts of ITV, CBS, ESPN when play will take place if rained.

I really don't think there was much of a choice. What coudl have been done maybe is to start it an hour or 2 earlier on Sunday earlier but again, that is very difficult to do with the broadcasting contracts in place.

For instance ESPN could ask for its money back cause they lost millions of viewers who were not up at the time they started play. The FO, like any other slam, has to go by whatever their broadcasdting contracts tell them.

Really here we can't blame them. Just bad luck for Nole though had he won in 3 he woudl have been fine!