ATP Tennis/Non-India Davis Cup

[jaydeep]

For a very long time, Federer refused to acknowledge his losses and very ungracious in defeat.

Have to agree with Sin Hombre.

[sameerph]

So, US open final is between Nadal and Anderson. Anderson can be said to be really lucky as he did not have to beat any top 10 player on the way to a grand slam final. I am not sure if it has ever happened in the past.

Nadal is the overwhelming favourite in the final and if he wins the four slam titles of the year would be equally divided between Federer and Nadal. Who would have thought that at the start of the year ?

[prasen9]

Hmm. After Sin Hombre's pointers, I searched "Nadal arrogant", "Murray arrogant", "Djokovic arrogant" etc. It seems there are a bunch of articles for each. Fewer for Del Potro. But, don't know if that is because he has won less (GSs).

There are counter-examples too as when Federer was asked by the kid about GOAT, he said some fans call him that.

I guess I was not sensitive enough to recognize the "arrogance" of these players as much.

[PKBasu]

Kevin Anderson is very lucky to be in a Slam final. But he has had a very good run-up to the US Open, losing the Washington final to Sasha Zverev, and also going out in the SF in Montreal to the same guy. If he plays the final as if he has nothing to lose (in his one and only shot at winning a Slam), he will spring a surprise in the final. He needs to serve and volley, and keep coming to the net against Nadal.

[Sin Hombre]

So, US open final is between Nadal and Anderson. Anderson can be said to be really lucky as he did not have to beat any top 10 player on the way to a grand slam final. I am not sure if it has ever happened in the past.

Nadal is the overwhelming favourite in the final and if he wins the four slam titles of the year would be equally divided between Federer and Nadal. Who would have thought that at the start of the year ?

Nadal hasn't beaten any top 20 player on the way to the final. The draws have been kind to both players.

[prasen9]

Anderson's height advantage and huge serve will give him an edge.

[PKBasu]

So, US open final is between Nadal and Anderson. Anderson can be said to be really lucky as he did not have to beat any top 10 player on the way to a grand slam final. I am not sure if it has ever happened in the past.

Nadal is the overwhelming favourite in the final and if he wins the four slam titles of the year would be equally divided between Federer and Nadal. Who would have thought that at the start of the year ?

Nadal hasn't beaten any top 20 player on the way to the final. The draws have been kind to both players.

Good point, although he had to beat a former US Open champion in the semifinal! Juan Martin is always among the most dangerous floaters in any Slam draw, especially if he is fit. But of course, DelPo had played two gruelling matches in the previous two rounds -- against Thiem and Federer -- so he had had the toughest passage possible to the SF, which probably made him less of a threat to Nadal (especially after the first set).

Anderson has, in theory, had a tougher draw -- having beaten the 17th seed and 12th seed in the last two rounds. I would say that the win over Querrey, especially in the context of 2017, was a pretty big deal, given that Querrey made the Wimbledon SF, and beat Kevin on the way there. (That said, Querrey looked certain to lose to Murray until the latter succumbed to injury at Wimbledon). Avenging the loss to Querrey, and his good runs at Washington and Montreal should put Anderson in a good place going into the final. That the two have never met in a hard court match is pretty astonishing.

[Saniapower]

Nadal now overwhelming favorite for the title.
The slams of 2017 will be equally divided between Federer & Nadal
Federer - 2, Nadal - 2
Federer(AO) -> Nadal(RG) -> Federer(Wimbledon) -> Nadal (USO)

[Sin Hombre]

Rafa with a comfortable win to get to his 16th GS. Keeps his hopes of matching Federer in GS count alive.

3rd poor GS final in a row.

[prasen9]

It's been the Roger-Rafa year. Who would have thunk? I really want Djokovic and Murray to return fit and Sasha Zverev and Thiem to develop to become stronger.

[Prashant]

3rd poor GS final in a row.

Yeah. Remember how great the AO final was? Since then we've had three absolute duds. Anderson acquitted himself much better today than Stan in the FO or Cilic in Wimbledon, and he didn't even slightly threaten.

Prasen I hope you are right about Thiem and Sasha. I feel like they are at the spot where Dimitrov was a couple of years ago, and he has done nothing, despite seeming to have all the talent in the world.

Can I hope Del Potro will have a full year next year of injury free high level tennis? That would be wonderful.

[prasen9]

I am now jumping off (a bit) the Thiem bandwagon. I now think Sasha has a better chance of winning one. Shapalov is the other one to keep an eye on. Rublev is also very talented imho with a game suited for the French. The three Russian musketeers may be the future of men's tennis.

BTW, we should not write off Thiem and Dimitrov though. Just like Kevin Anderson, they are a good draw away from a final. And, who knows if they have a great day, they could pull one off a la Stephens.

Del Potro's return would be wonderful. But, I really want the return of Djokovic of the old. The, it becomes really interesting. I am a Nadal fan, but, I also do not like the duopoly of Federer-Nadal. So, I am rooting for Djoko's return. Which shows you that I am not as much of a Nadal fan as I used to be a Paes fan.

[S_K_S]

Rafa with a comfortable win to get to his 16th GS. Keeps his hopes of matching Federer in GS count alive.

3rd poor GS final in a row.

It's not a hope, it's a certainty because Rafa is guaranteed the French for another 3-4 years whereas Fed has no such luxury. Fed probably needs one more to make it interesting and hope that someone can challenge Nadal on the clay.

[prasen9]

Nature is not that easy on humans. Nadal's knee will possibly not take 3-4 years of pounding. When Djokovic was winning, I thought whether anyone could stop this guy. And, then he lost motivation, had family issues, physical issues, whatever. I would say that Nadal picking up 3-4 more of hard court and clay together is more likely than 4 more French's.

Let's just enjoy Fed, Nadal, Djokovic along with Murray, Cilic, Del Potro and the new brigade: Sasha, Thiem, Shapalov, ...

[Sin Hombre]

Rafa with a comfortable win to get to his 16th GS. Keeps his hopes of matching Federer in GS count alive.

3rd poor GS final in a row.

It's not a hope, it's a certainty because Rafa is guaranteed the French for another 3-4 years whereas Fed has no such luxury. Fed probably needs one more to make it interesting and hope that someone can challenge Nadal on the clay.

Rafa didn't win a single GS between FO '14 and FO '17

Federer didn't win a single GS from 31 until 35.

These things are very hard to extrapolate when players are at the backend of their careers. Also keep in mind that the best surface for both (Thiem and Sasha) the top-10 ranked younger stars is clay.

The other thing is that after a very long time ("generation useless"), there is a whole slew of youngsters who are progressing at similar rates as Djokovic and co (Rafa and Borg are outliers even in terms of prodigies) - Sasha Zverev, Shapovalov, Auger-Aliassime and Kuhn are all progressing at elite levels and one or more of them will be a genuine GS contender at this rate of progression quite soon.