Cincy...

[Florian]

Which makes Nadal's loss to Darcis (5'10, one handed backhand) even more puzzling. Based on his playing style, he would be the perfect opponent for Nadal...

As for tall DHBH's, most of them are or used to be headcases, especially Murray, or are simply not good enough at the baseline. On the other hand there's that one loss at RG vs Söderling, Delpo's 6-2 6-2 6-2 at the USO '09 which remains the most lopsided defeats of Rafa in a Slam.

His match vs Darcis clearly showed how sloppy his footwork was on grass, without training on this surface and if you only rely on your amazing left arm to keep you in the match, you're a dead man to any player willing to take risks from both sides and having a (pretty amazing) day.

Gulbis could also very well be added to the list of solid enough bhs to annoy Rafa, but that was mostly when he defended short. Isner also troubled him to a 5 setter in the 1st round of RG 2011, now compare to how crippled he seemed last week at Cincy once Rafa started to hit deeper and deeper...

Btw it's so annoying every video from the French Open has been deleted on YouTube...any idea where it is still possible to watch some matches again ?

[Ali-Iqb93]

Draw is out.. Roger can meet rafa in quarters.. Murray-Nole in top half

[Corbon]

Le Monf reached the Winston-Salem final beating Dolgo in the SF. His opponent is Melzer.

[Murderface84]

This is obviously nitpicking but it's actually 'La Monf'...I'm no expert on
French but I think feminine articles are reserved for 'forces of nature'

*the more you know*

[Florian]

Yeah La Monf' He's got one of the worst finals won/played ratios ever i think, something like 4/14. Maybe only Benneteau can be worst at this game...(9 finals, no title).

Monfils and Melzer have met 4 times, each time going the frenchman's way, i guess he won't have a better occasion.

[Corbon]

Good to know. He sometimes plays like a woman anyway

Stan is a bad finals player too, 4-12 so far, incl. 0-2 Masters.

[Florian]

Good to know. He sometimes plays like a woman anyway

Yeah well he quit during the final, hip injury, couldn't serve above 100mph and Melzer played very aggressive, assaulting net asap. Hope he'll recover until next week...

[Corbon]

Just read, he retired while trailing 3-6 1-2. So by no means far behind but hopefully not serious enough to make him miss the USO. It's always kinda stupid for the winner to celebrate, makes it half the fun.

[Murderface84]

Wow, man...I don't care who you are or where you hurt, you DON'T RETIRE in a final...WTF was he thinking ???

Certainly not 'I've won enough titles already' because he hasn't ....Monfils loses yet another few Respect Points from me.

A couple more and he should basically just join the WTA.

[emate007]

Agreed. If he walked off the court he's a douche. Henin approves.

[Florian]

Retiring isn't about how big a match it is, but rather how painful and how dangerous it would be to keep playing and make the injury worse, especially few days before a GS.

Monfils could barely serve nor move from 2nd set : you think it would have been more enjoyable for Melzie to serve aces and walk between Monfils' double faults until mp ? What are you thinking, guys...

[emate007]

It's disrespectful to the opponent. If he was already losing, at least put in another 10 mins. So yes, I guess it would have been preferable to let aces fly past the last couple games.

[Murderface84]

I think it does matter how big of a match it is. Like emate said it's disrespectful, and particularly so because now Melzer owns a title that he wasn't even allowed to 'win'. Kind of anti-climactic for all the fans who paid money to watch it, too.

He just has no heart and no focus, Monfils, despite his claims to the contrary.

He shows flashes of 'brilliance' here and there but it all adds up to nothing and is all flash/no substance...'ooh la la look at me jump for this shot that requires no jumping'

Hahaha I'm just in a bad mood, have a bad headache and thinking about Monfils's moonballing ass is pissing me off.

WWPSD??

What would Pete Sampras Do??

Pete woulda just barfed or taken a shit right there and just got on with it

[Florian]

It's disrespectful to the opponent. If he was already losing, at least put in another 10 mins. So yes, I guess it would have been preferable to let aces fly past the last couple games.

He was suffering from the first game of 2nd set, long way to go until the end. Last serve game he lost he was in much bigger pain. He'd have been really stupid to keep going with the risk to withdraw from USO or even longer, especially since he's just recovering from big injuries this season.

And btw check out Melzer reaction to see if he felt a tiny bit disrespected...

[Murderface84]

I don't care if your intestines are hanging out of your butt and you're bleeding from a massive head wound, you man up and you finish the game even if you die in the process