Ajde, ajde pustite čovika na miru...svi znamo ko je on, al ne moramo sad tu javno stavljat njegove podatke...to nije u redu!

Danas sam listao Vjesnik iz prosinca 1993. godine.

I primijetio sportsku vijest o izgradnji novoga središnjega terena u Rolandu Garrosu.

Uloženo je 2.2 milijuna ondašnjih dolara, a bilo je to možda i najbolja investicija u teniskoj povijesti jer je ubrzo jedan mladić rekordnim dosezima postavio nove standarde koje će teško biti dostignuti desetljećima.

Kao što bi Andrew M. rekao: "RNP - legend!"

It has been the year of comebacks so far; Justin Timberlake and our own prime minister would attest to that. There are fewer sights more exhilarating than a stirring rise of someone written off. Such a sight was found at Flushing Meadows in the last US Open final, as Rafael Nadal wrote another winning chapter in what is becoming a saga of the finest kind. 

Nadal, while battling weak knees and a congenital foot condition, added another US Open crown to his collection, bringing his tally to 13 grand slams. He now stands just one behind Pete ‘Pistol’ Sampras and well ahead of legends such as Bjorn Borg, Rod Laver and Ivan Lendl. When I started watching tennis, players like Boris Becker and Stephan Edberg ruled the roost. A blonde American named Andre Agassi was bringing in his own style of glam tennis and soon became a favourite.

It boggles the mind that Nadal, at 27, is streets ahead of these players in terms of titles and career wins.

Two men stand before him. Sampras, at 14 grand slam titles, will soon be a speck in the rear view mirror. Nadal can play on for a few more years and Roland Garros (French Open) is his personal fiefdom. It can be safely assumed that he will pass Sampras swiftly. However, the bigger challenge still stands for Nadal — the 17 grand slams won by Roger Federer.

There was a time when such thoughts would not even be considered, let alone uttered. Federer’s fans, and a passionate bunch they are, have been lighting candles and sticks since he won a string of Wimbledon Championships. The Swiss has a voracious appetite, and hapless prey such as Leyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick were joyously chewed, gulped and digested by him.

However, one needs to examine the evidence. Federer is not the greatest player of all time; he is not even the greatest player of his generation. He happens to have a silken game, and watching him play is akin to watching a ballet, albeit a mechanically saccharine one. He has lorded over the grass courts as few have or ever will, and his career grand slam proves that he can compete, though not dominate, on all surfaces. His clay court game is good enough to win him a French Open, something Sampras, for all his prodigious skill, could never come close to, but the caveat is that Federer did not beat Nadal to win his solitary French Open crown.

Federer dominated the first half of the past decade. He barely broke a sweat against the likes of Marat Safin and Mark Philippoussis. Federer won twelve titles from the years 2003 to 2007. The next five came in 6 years, 2008-2013, what many call the “golden era” of tennis. We can narrow the numbers even more. Federer won 15 Grand Slams in the past decade. However, he has won only two since 2010.

A big cause of this slowdown is Rafael Nadal. Federer has faced Nadal across the net 31 times, with Nadal winning more than twice the times Federer won. Of these 31 match ups, eight have been in Grand Slam finals, and Nadal vanquished him on six occasions, one of them being that Wimbledon final in 2008.

Then there is the small matter of the Davis Cup, a tournament that has its own prestige. Rafa has won the Davis Cup 4 times, Federer none. Rafa has a record breaking 26 Masters Titles, Federer 21. Nadal has also taken gold for the singles tournament at the Olympics, Federer’s best is silver. Rafa is five years younger and seems indestructible, bad knees or not, while Federer slips into wretched decline. Nadal’s winning percentage at 88.14% is superior to anyone of his era and went on to a whopping 98.33% at the French Open.

For those who discount Nadal wins as being clay heavy, they should remember that almost half of Federer’s wins are from grass. The argument is facetious in any case; tennis is tennis, whether played on clay or grass. Those who clamour to call Federer the “Great of All Time” seem to forget that the doubles game is also part of the sport, in which Federer has little significance.

Comparing players from different eras is always tricky. Borg played against legends like John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors and retired at 26 with 11 Grand Slam Titles. He won 41% of the Grand Slam tournaments he entered, when playing single. His excellence was not limited to any surface and out of the 735 matches Borg played, he won 608 of them — a winning percentage of 82.72%. Tennis fans should realise that there is more to the game than Grand Slam Tennis.

Meanwhile, Nadal pounds on. His winning record is superior against every player in the top 25, including the members of the Big Four and the evidence is quickly accumulating. Federer  is a great tennis player and has his own place in tennis history, but is he the Greatest of All Time?

Hardly.



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Ajd počupaj sve blogere kojima je Rafa bolji i postaj tu. Inače nije relevantno.

Čovjek je novinar, a ne bloger. A komentar sam izdvojio zbog zanimljive usporedbe. Inače, na prethodnoj stranici objavio sam blogerov tekst u kojemu veliča Federera.

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Poslano: 15. listopada 2013. u 00:26  [direktan link na ovu poruku]

Top 10 Tennis Players Of All Time: Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer Or Pete Sampras The Greatest Men's Player In Open Era?

Rafael Nadal's incredible victory at the U.S. Open on Monday has led to many wondering whether the 27-year-old Spaniard can now go onto become the greatest player in history. Everyone will have their own view, but it seems a fitting time then in the midst of an amazing era of men’s tennis to reevaluate the 10 greatest players of all time.

1. Roger Federer
There can be no dispute about who currently deserves the title of the greatest of all time. A record 17 Grand Slam titles -- and counting -- would be enough to make Federer’s case, but the Swiss master is more than just trophies. When the obsessed club player goes to sleep at night they dream of just once being able to play like Federer. To a far greater degree than any of his contemporaries at the top of the game, it is easy to imagine Federer excelling in a previous age of wooden racquets when a tennis players’ instrument was more of a wand than a blunt instrument. An incredible record of, before Wimbledon this year, having reached 36 Grand Slam quarterfinals speaks volumes, not only for his sustained brilliance, but also for the grace with which he played and moved which enabled him to avoid the injuries that impacted many of his rivals.

U današnje vrijeme srozavanja novinarstva na najniže moguće grane, te informatizacijom, dakle omogućavanjem pisanja tekstova ljudma koji po vokaciji nisu novinari pojasni mi razliku.

Čovjek je novinar koji piše za pakistanske dnevnike na engleskomu jeziku!

"A writer and social commentator who has written extensively for various Pakistani English dailies."

Rafa je čist k'o suza, a za ostale nas, osobito monegaške varalice, boli briga!

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"Više nikome ne vjerujem. Ne možemo vjerovati ni institucijama koje bi trebale brinuti o povjerenju u sport. Ne znam što bih mislio o Čilićevom slučaju, jer nemam pojma što je prava istina. Imam osjećaj da svi lažu", rekao je Tsonga.