2012年11月19日星期一

And Nadal Has Earned It by Shifting the Momentum

Red Supra Skytops, Bjorn Borg said recently that he felt today’s tennis stars had an edge over his generation in that they were more protected from the public. Borg might have changed his mind watching this scene.
From a safe vantage point across the increasingly overheated gallery, Nadal was obscured from view as he worked his way from painting to painting, but it was easy to follow his progress with the cellphone screens and iPads that the crowd was holding aloft.
Finally, Nadal emerged, sweatier than after some of his more straightforward tennis matches, to the safer haven of a series of interviews.
“Man, Red Supra Skytops I could use something to drink,” he said.
No other male tennis player except Borg has matched Nadal’s body of work in Paris, and by the time this French Open ends June 10, Nadal has a fine chance to be in a class of his own.
Linked across the years by topspin and athleticism, Nadal, a flashy left-hander from the Spanish island of Majorca, and Borg, the cool Swede who peaked in the late 1970s, have both won six titles at Roland Garros. But as this year’s tournament got under way Sunday without the top four men’s seeds in action, Nadal was preparing to begin his assault on a seventh. Even during the tennis reign of Novak Djokovic, Nadal deserves to be the favorite again on red clay.
“Of course Rafa is the favorite, and I’m sure he’ll say that he’s not, but he is,” said Paul Annacone, co-coach of Roger Federer. “Even if he doesn’t want to Red Supra Skytops hold onto that, I think he should hold onto it with pride because he’s earned it.”
Red Supra Skytops />Nadal has earned it by compiling a phenomenal 45-1 record at the French Open and a 93 percent winning percentage on clay over all that already makes it safe to call him, not Borg, the greatest clay-court player.
And Nadal has earned it by shifting the momentum and defeating Djokovic twice on clay in straight sets this season, most meaningfully last Monday in the final in Rome, where Djokovic beat Nadal in 2011.
“The first set this year, I can lose that first set, but I won it,” Nadal said. “Probably last year, the same set I will lose it.”
Order does appear to have been restored in a flurry of red dust and deeper groundstrokes, but the French Open is the clay-court tournament that matters most.