2015 French Open Final: Djokovic v. Wawrinka

[nehmeth]

Pro tip: Gloat after your guy wins a title, not a QF.

He beat Nadal at Roland Garros... that's always something to boast about. Soderling will tell you - it's the first thing they always ask him.

:celeb: Cheers Stan! Well done.

 

[Kieran]

Novak is 8-8 in slam finals now. It's a record with huge achievements and sodden disappointments. Stan was an animal today but Nole will have to click on this as a great opportunity not taken...

Doesn't matter - better losing 8 finals than not making them in the first place.

That's true, but it does matter. It tells us something about him. There's been a few of them finals where, once he got there, he didn't perform as well as he had in getting there. I'd include today in that...

 

[brokenshoelace]

By the way, while this might be one of the toughest losses of Novak's career, let's not turn this into the 2014 narrative where "Novak has been sucking in big matches OMG, I can't pick him to win a big match until he does it!" (of course, 2 weeks later, he won Wimbledon). He'll be fine.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Pro tip: Gloat after your guy wins a title, not a QF.

He beat Nadal at Roland Garros... that's always something to boast about. Soderling will tell you - it's the first thing they always ask him.

:celeb: Cheers Stan! Well done.

Like I said, I agree. But in Lebanese, we have a saying that loosely translates to: "Always make calculations for the road back home."

 

[britbox]

Novak is 8-8 in slam finals now. It's a record with huge achievements and sodden disappointments. Stan was an animal today but Nole will have to click on this as a great opportunity not taken...

Doesn't matter - better losing 8 finals than not making them in the first place.

That's true, but it does matter. It tells us something about him. There's been a few of them finals where, once he got there, he didn't perform as well as he had in getting there. I'd include today in that...

Did you watch the match? If did, talk me through his performance.

 

[Garro]

Are we really putting this purely down to Stan playing amazing? He did play extremely well, but Djokovic could have played much better as well. I'm not saying he choked or that Stan only won because Djokovic was off his best - god knows I've raged enough at people saying that about Murray's slam wins over Nole, but it isn't ONLY a case of Stan being too good today. Nole was tentative.

He doesn't usually play his best tennis in grand slam finals though, even in ones he wins. There was something strangely lacking in his previous French Open finals and although this one was better, I couldn't help but think the same thing. But Stan was great. When you make those shots at the big moments, it will be tough to beat you.

 

[Federberg]

^Stan won this match. It saddens me that so quickly after one of the great slam finals, the winners performance is being dismissed :nono

 

[Federberg]

Lol! Good point from Rusedski. If Nadal gets knocked out early, count on the Swiss to mop up :laydownlaughing

 

[nehmeth]

Pro tip: Gloat after your guy wins a title, not a QF.

He beat Nadal at Roland Garros... that's always something to boast about. Soderling will tell you - it's the first thing they always ask him.

:celeb: Cheers Stan! Well done.

Like I said, I agree. But in Lebanese, we have a saying that loosely translates to: "Always make calculations for the road back home."

I agree. He should have closed out against Murray in three, and did not.

But even if he had, he would have been hard pressed to make it through Stan today.

Credit to the Swiss.

 

[tennisville]

Kieran Stans level today is probably the highest someone has played in a slam final over the last few years.

 

[Kieran]

Doesn't matter - better losing 8 finals than not making them in the first place.

That's true, but it does matter. It tells us something about him. There's been a few of them finals where, once he got there, he didn't perform as well as he had in getting there. I'd include today in that...

Did you watch the match? If did, talk me through his performance.

I watched the match. He wasn't so good as he's been. If you think he was, good for you. He looked like he'd keep his foot on Stans throat after winning the first, but then he struggled on serve for the rest of the match. Great play by Stan - great opportunity missed by Nole. And we've seen him come up short in big finals before. Not saying anything new here, buddy.

By the way, Barbara Schett still looks hot... :heart:

 

[Fiero425]

^Stan won this match. It saddens me that so quickly after one of the great slam finals, the winners performance is being dismissed :nono

Oh Stan played well, but Nole helped quite a bit! Those serve and volley points lost it, the incessant drop shots; losing a lot of those as well! When Nole doesn't get more free points on his serve and has to work the ball around to tire out his opponent, he wears himself down as well! That was ugly! He'll be fine, but will remember this one for a while! :cover :nono :angel: - I'm not happy, but won't be greedy; at least Nadal didn't get there again! That was just as important to me! :ras:

 

[Puppet Master]

Yeah, Novak didn't show up again. Classic. Come on people, what would have been enough from Wawrinka for you to acknowledge him?

 

[Federberg]

^Stan won this match. It saddens me that so quickly after one of the great slam finals, the winners performance is being dismissed :nono

Oh Stan played well, but Nole helped quite a bit! Those serve and volley points lost it, the incessant drop shots; losing a lot of those as well! When Nole doesn't get more free points on his serve and has to work the ball around to tire out his opponent, he wears himself down as well! That was ugly! He'll be fine, but will remember this one for a while! :cover :nono :angel: - I'm not happy, but won't be greedy; at least Nadal didn't get there again! That was just as important to me! :ras:

There's no doubt that Novak could have played better. But Stan put a lot of pressure on Novak's 2nd serve, and surprisingly it broke Novak. The thing with tennis is that it's very unusual for 2 players to play their very best at the same time. In Novak's defence I'm not even sure he would have won if he was playing better. Stan should probably have won this in 3. As I said after Roger lost, I honestly felt that there was no one who would have survived against Stan and this sort of confirms it. Clearly the situation got to Novak somewhat. All that dropshotting was clearly a symptom of fatigue or a mental choke. I think Novak is enough of a big time champion to give him the benefit of the doubt

 

[DarthFed]

I don't think this was a bad match from Nole, Stan played outstanding and simply wasn't missing much. If you point to anything Djokovic did wrong it'd be the 1st serve % and I also thought he wasn't hitting the forehand quite as clean, but Stan was on fire, that's the main story.

 

[imjimmy]

Kieran Stans level today is probably the highest someone has played in a slam final over the last few years.

I don't quite agree with that. Novak himself has played better in the slam finals he HAS won, than Stan did today.

Stan played a great match. However, tennis is all about matchups. Stan is a bad matchup for Djokovic. Their last 4 matches, all went to 5 sets. So a redlining Stan would be harder for Djokovic to beat in general.

Secondly facing Nadal and Murray didn't help Djokovic obviously, since both of them are not off the bat aggressive players. Not the greatest prep for the final.

Commiserations to Nole fans. He deserves to win the French, and I'm sure one day he will. Meanwhile, he's still the favorite for Wimbledon.

Congrats to Stan. He's definitely the man. Good for tennis.

 

[Federberg]

I don't think this was a bad match from Nole, Stan played outstanding and simply wasn't missing much. If you point to anything Djokovic did wrong it'd be the 1st serve % and I also thought he wasn't hitting the forehand quite as clean, but Stan was on fire, that's the main story.

And the mindless dropshotting. Not even for the iffy conversion rate on those, actually more for the message he was sending to Stan

 

[Fiero425]

^Stan won this match. It saddens me that so quickly after one of the great slam finals, the winners performance is being dismissed :nono

Oh Stan played well, but Nole helped quite a bit! Those serve and volley points lost it, the incessant drop shots; losing a lot of those as well! When Nole doesn't get more free points on his serve and has to work the ball around to tire out his opponent, he wears himself down as well! That was ugly! He'll be fine, but will remember this one for a while! :cover :nono :angel: - I'm not happy, but won't be greedy; at least Nadal didn't get there again! That was just as important to me! :ras:

There's no doubt that Novak could have played better. But Stan put a lot of pressure on Novak's 2nd serve, and surprisingly it broke Novak. The thing with tennis is that it's very unusual for 2 players to play their very best at the same time. In Novak's defense I'm not even sure he would have won if he was playing better. Stan should probably have won this in 3. As I said after Roger lost, I honestly felt that there was no one who would have survived against Stan and this sort of confirms it. Clearly the situation got to Novak somewhat. All that drop-shotting was clearly a symptom of fatigue or a mental choke. I think Novak is enough of a big time champion to give him the benefit of the doubt

Agreed! :angel:

 

[pavlik89]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7y5yKySaSg[/video]

 

[Fiero425]

Kieran Stans level today is probably the highest someone has played in a slam final over the last few years.

I don't quite agree with that. Novak himself has played better in the slam finals he HAS won, than Stan did today.

Stan played a great match. However, tennis is all about matchups. Stan is a bad matchup for Djokovic. Their last 4 matches, all went to 5 sets. So a redlining Stan would be harder for Djokovic to beat in general.

Secondly facing Nadal and Murray didn't help Djokovic obviously, since both of them are not off the bat aggressive players. Not the greatest prep for the final.

Commiserations to Nole fans. He deserves to win the French, and I'm sure one day he will. Meanwhile, he's still the favorite for Wimbledon.

Congrats to Stan. He's definitely the man. Good for tennis.

Well said! :clap