Topic: Ye Olde Castle-Vol.9-The battlefield where Generals,Vamps & Gamers rule supreme

[Clash]

i am watching too duncan.
 
nice backhand there from rafa. he has knee taped which is not good.
 
he probably could have fixed that knee if he had been riding his bike 60-80 miles a day for the last 7 months.

italy leveled in the last minute , 1-1

how's he playing so far ?

[Clay Death]

he does not look sharp at all. the most glaring issue is the movement. it is not crisp at all.
 
i think it is going to take a while this time.

[Clay Death]

delbonis knows nadal cant move all that well so he is hitting drop shots on him and winning those points.

[Clash]

he does not look sharp at all. the most glaring issue is the movement. it is not crisp at all.
 
i think it is going to take a while this time.

why the hell is he playing already then ?

[Clay Death]

he looks shaky as hell duncan. other than that forehand which  works here and there i dont see how he is going to be able to win this event even he gets past delbonis.

[EnriqueIG8]

Rafito clinches first set since Wimby 2nd round!

[Clay Death]

he just took his shirt off to change shirts.
 
he looks soft and out of shape generalito.

[Clash]

we´ll see how far he´ll go here

[EnriqueIG8]

Hi all!

Thanks to Javier for a goodrep at MTF and reminding me of this forum.

Hola Kalle! Glad that you read my goodrep on MTF 

Hopefully you can visit this forum from time to time. Chill back and relax a bit. We also have some games we play here.
Markus is around here as well. I'm sure you will enjoy it!

Let's have an Olut 

[Clay Death]

nadal starting to look more confident.

[EnriqueIG8]

Forehand is still pretty good generalito.

he does seem a little bit slow though, of course he can win vs Delbonis.

but he has to improve at least 10 times if he wants to beat decent players.

[Clay Death]

affirmative generalito. maybe he is just taking it slow early on to make sure he gets through this match.
 
he will get the winner of DGT and montanes next.
 
this is why i firmly believe that has to have 25-26 clay court match wins before he steps out on the centre court for the final at RG.
 
he will just have to be super effiecient at RG. no way he has the time to regain his once monstrous conditioning. he let it slip too far.
 
there is no excuse for it for a top player who is in his prime. lendl rode his bike 30 miles to day to keep his knees healthy and to improve or at least maintain his endurance.
 
nothing should have kept nadal from hitting a million backhands and a million forehands and also riding bikes 50 miles a day for the last 7 months.
 
they could have just fed him the balls so he did not have to move.

[masterclass]

Greetings all.  Looks like mission accomplished for Rafa.  He got through the match without hurting himself and won.  He'll have to play a few matches to get sharper and work on his fitness. Thankfully the competition is not too tough in this tournament, especially with Monaco already going out.  Let's see if Chardy holds his form on clay to make it interesting.

Respectfully,
masterclass

[Clay Death]

is that pncho gonzales next to don budge general masterclass?
 
and why is borg dressed like a color blind circus clown?
 
cool sig general. you have all the all time greats in that sig.  and only god knows how many slams are represented in there.
 
add emerson and you get 28 more slams--singles, doubles, and mixed doubles.

[Clash]

see ya all tomorrow, ciao !

[EnriqueIG8]

bye Dunc!


hello John. how are you doing old pal?

[Clay Death]

night duncan.

[Clay Death]

these are the fittest tennis players in the world.
 
1. nole
2. murray
3. fed
4. ferru
 
 
there is a huge drop after these 4.

this why ferru took home 7 titles last year.

[masterclass]

Hey generals Javier, Hercules and Duncan and the rest.  Doing a bit better, thanks.  Yes, indeed it is Pancho Gonzales and Budge.  Borg's fashion sense wasn't quite as good in those days .  Unfortunately there is a limit to the length of the sig text, so I couldn't include Big Bill Tilden, or Kenny Rosewall. 

As for Emerson, well, even though he was an excellent singles and doubles player, he won so many slams as an amateur, I can't quite include him among the greatest. The pros in those days couldn't play in the slams, and the pros were generally at least a level or two better in my opinion. Emerson won nothing of significance after the Open era started.  Laver and Rosewall were better.  Even 40 year old Pancho Gonzales beat defending champ Emerson in the QF of the 1968 French Open the first year it was open to pros.

I watched all of these players play except for Budge and Tilden of course.  My early memories were of Laver winning the 1969 Grand Slam and Gonzales at 41 years old beating #1 Laver in a winner take all match at MSG in 1970.  And then of course all the rest who followed.
As I've often said, I'm a fan of great tennis, and these are all among the greatest.

Respectfully,
masterclass

[Clay Death]

but it was emerson whose slam record pete sampras went after.
 
so pete`s greatness is based on being able to exceed emerson`s slam record.
 
that must mean that pete`s greatness is bogus if emerson`s records are bogus.
 
 
i would argue that emerson was far more accomplished in his day. he mastered every aspect of the game while playing with a rinky dink wooden racquet with the sweet spot the size of a dime.
 
its not his fault that the open era came later. he did what he could and what he had to. he won slams in everything: singles, doubles, and even mixed doubles.
 
28 slams. lets sampras equal that and then he can talk about his greatness.