US Open QF: Rafael Nadal vs Tommy Robredo

[Mastoor]

^

If you think of your fav tennis parents they live in Belgrade.

Oh, then I'll pass. I was hoping I'd go somewhere without taxes.

Like Basque for Rafa and Basel for Fed, because neither pay taxes in their own country. They don't chase Fed though because he has an agreement with the tax department in his canton. Rafa doesn't

You are so defensive on this, as you should be. Roger is Swiss, and he lives where he came from. If the laws are favorable to his tax situation, that's his right as a Swiss national. He doesn't "shelter" there, as some of the French players do. And Rafa may have made some investments in the Basque country, which are legal in Spain, but he lives is Mallorca, where he's from, and is still liable for Spanish taxes. Andy Murray seems to still list his residence in Britain, which has notoriously high tax. We'd be silly to think that their lawyers don't make efforts to shelter their money, within the law. However, they haven't moved their residence to shelter tax. That's why you're so sensitive about it.

No I'm not sensitive about it at all, I don't care where Nole lives and if he pays tax there or not. I just thought when BS appeared to be offensive and mentioned the tax haven in the same context for the billionth time on this board I should point out that it was his guy who was called by Spanish courts about his tax.

 

[Moxie]

^

If you think of your fav tennis parents they live in Belgrade.

Oh, then I'll pass. I was hoping I'd go somewhere without taxes.

Like Basque for Rafa and Basel for Fed, because neither pay taxes in their own country. They don't chase Fed though because he has an agreement with the tax department in his canton. Rafa doesn't

You are so defensive on this, as you should be. Roger is Swiss, and he lives where he came from. If the laws are favorable to his tax situation, that's his right as a Swiss national. He doesn't "shelter" there, as some of the French players do. And Rafa may have made some investments in the Basque country, which are legal in Spain, but he lives is Mallorca, where he's from, and is still liable for Spanish taxes. Andy Murray seems to still list his residence in Britain, which has notoriously high tax. We'd be silly to think that their lawyers don't make efforts to shelter their money, within the law. However, they haven't moved their residence to shelter tax. That's why you're so sensitive about it.

No I'm not sensitive about it at all, I don't care where Nole lives and if he pays tax there or not. I just thought when BS appeared to be offensive and mentioned the tax haven in the same context for the billionth time on this board I should point out that it was his guy who was called by Spanish courts about his tax.

Yes, fair enough.

 

[brokenshoelace]

^

If you think of your fav tennis parents they live in Belgrade.

Oh, then I'll pass. I was hoping I'd go somewhere without taxes.

Like Basque for Rafa and Basel for Fed, because neither pay taxes in their own country. They don't chase Fed though because he has an agreement with the tax department in his canton. Rafa doesn't

You are so defensive on this, as you should be. Roger is Swiss, and he lives where he came from. If the laws are favorable to his tax situation, that's his right as a Swiss national. He doesn't "shelter" there, as some of the French players do. And Rafa may have made some investments in the Basque country, which are legal in Spain, but he lives is Mallorca, where he's from, and is still liable for Spanish taxes. Andy Murray seems to still list his residence in Britain, which has notoriously high tax. We'd be silly to think that their lawyers don't make efforts to shelter their money, within the law. However, they haven't moved their residence to shelter tax. That's why you're so sensitive about it.

Mastoor makes a valid point though - they are all playing geographic games to minimize tax. Rafa made a big song and dance about playing the YEC in London a couple of years ago because of the UK taxation.

Meh, they can live wherever they want. The whole patriotism issue is nothing that can't be solved with your country's flag on your sneakers.

 

[brokenshoelace]

^

If you think of your fav tennis parents they live in Belgrade.

Oh, then I'll pass. I was hoping I'd go somewhere without taxes.

Like Basque for Rafa and Basel for Fed, because neither pay taxes in their own country. They don't chase Fed though because he has an agreement with the tax department in his canton. Rafa doesn't

You are so defensive on this, as you should be. Roger is Swiss, and he lives where he came from. If the laws are favorable to his tax situation, that's his right as a Swiss national. He doesn't "shelter" there, as some of the French players do. And Rafa may have made some investments in the Basque country, which are legal in Spain, but he lives is Mallorca, where he's from, and is still liable for Spanish taxes. Andy Murray seems to still list his residence in Britain, which has notoriously high tax. We'd be silly to think that their lawyers don't make efforts to shelter their money, within the law. However, they haven't moved their residence to shelter tax. That's why you're so sensitive about it.

No I'm not sensitive about it at all, I don't care where Nole lives and if he pays tax there or not. I just thought when BS appeared to be offensive and mentioned the tax haven in the same context for the billionth time on this board I should point out that it was his guy who was called by Spanish courts about his tax.

You're right, I should update my digs. If only I can find something as obtuse as Novak participating in a poker tournament to call him a horrible human being, or dig up comments he made in 2006 about a player's injury time outs and label him as an awful person or question his ethics and sense of morality because his hand shake has gotten colder after a loss. Oh I know, I'll wait for Toni/Sebastian Nadal or Robert Federer to show their shallow side and do those things for me.

 

[Denis]

I didn't know Nadal is in court cases for tax evasion. Interesting.

Anyway OT: what a truly appalling effort by Tommy Robredo. What was this guy thinking? Was he thinking at all? Standing a mile behind the baseline and pushing the balls into the court with a single handed backhand against the Spanish tennis bully?

Nadal did this one on autopilot: hammer the backhand and wait for the opportunity to hit the inside-out forehand.

Robredo should be fined for not making enough effort. Or suspended.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Robredo should be fined for not making enough effort. Or suspended.

...Or lauded for an admirable Grand Slam run at 32 years of age after what seems like a millenium on the sidelines due to a serious injury.

Sometimes, your game just doesn't click and your opponent (who in this case, already happens to be miles superior) just plays really, really well. I know you weren't being serious with the above statement, but reading back on this thread, I'm shocked at the vitriol directed towards Robredo by some posters. So he couldn't provide a guy who's a nightmare match-up for him and playing really good tennis to boot a tough match. Big deal.

I wonder if Marcel Grannolers got similar treatment. *Checks Thread*

Actually, no he didn't. The winner got the (deserved) praise:

"2 bagels. Djokovic DESTROYED the Spaniard. I mean he just blew him off the baseline. Hope No1e can keep it up: 3 more matches!!!"

We need to accept that sometimes, very rarely, "fighting" and "effort" might not make a single difference when you're so heavily out-classed. Robredo's already pedestrian serve wasn't clicking (I doubt that is related to effort), meaning that almost every point on his serve started from neutral. There is only going to be one winner in that scenario, especially when you take Robredo's one-handed backhand, lack of wheels, and lack of fire power into consideration. I don't know what else people expected. I predicted it will probably get ugly before the match even began, just based on the match-up and the way Nadal has been playing.

I'm really not trying to be an a$$hole in this post, but just putting things into perspective.

 

[Denis]

I know and I agree with most of it. Obviously I am being subjective in these things. Still, you need to try and do something different IMO. Even a two-year old would have figured out that doing things as usual for Robredo is not going to work against Nadal.

The problem I have with Robredo as opposed to Granollers is their approach to the match. Granollers didn't go in with a zombie-attitude although physically he was of course. They were both blown off the court, yes, but Robredo being fresh he should have done better. It felt like Robredo was just there to collect the prize money and didn't actually make an effort in coming up with a game plan that potentially might trouble Nadal or at least might be entertaining for the crowd. Grannollers had a bit more of an excuse, and even without the excuse did better in his approach to the match in that respect.

 

[Front242]

I like Robredo but he doesn't really have a plan b and plays the same against everyone. As Fed said quite rightly, he didn't s&v, he didn't chip and charge and played his same baseline game that he always does. This was always going to be an unwatchable beatdown by Nadal and if Fed wasn't playing so poorly he should've won by a similar scoreline as Robredo's game just isn't good enough for beating top players (playing well) on hardcourt.

 

[kskate2]

I know and I agree with most of it. Obviously I am being subjective in these things. Still, you need to try and do something different IMO. Even a two-year old would have figured out that doing things as usual for Robredo is not going to work against Nadal.

The problem I have with Robredo as opposed to Granollers is their approach to the match. Granollers didn't go in with a zombie-attitude although physically he was of course. They were both blown off the court, yes, but Robredo being fresh he should have done better. It felt like Robredo was just there to collect the prize money and didn't actually make an effort in coming up with a game plan that potentially might trouble Nadal or at least might be entertaining for the crowd. Grannollers had a bit more of an excuse, and even without the excuse did better in his approach to the match in that respect.

Two bagels suggest that he approached his match better than Robredo? At least T-Rob held serve a few times in the last 2 sets.

 

[nehmeth]

I like Robredo but he doesn't really have a plan b and plays the same against everyone. As Fed said quite rightly, he didn't s&v, he didn't chip and charge and played his same baseline game that he always does. This was always going to be an unwatchable beatdown by Nadal and if Fed wasn't playing so poorly he should've won by a similar scoreline as Robredo's game just isn't good enough for beating top players (playing well) on hardcourt.

This. Tommy doesn't have a plan "B"

Denis, I don't see why it's necessary to compare one slaughter with another. The result was the same. I watched both matches and if anyone was there to simply collect his check, it was Granola - in my opinion.

 

[isabelle]

Poor Tommy, I day after his "feat", coming back to earth is quite brutal
A bagel to begin....wow, I didn't expect such a harsh score but it's true that he has no B plan and vs Nadal, you need one
Hope Richie'll have a look at this video to try to find a solution

 

[shawnbm]

Nadal was "brutally efficient" as I have seen it said. Robredo was a shadow of what he was previously was against Roger, but Rafa had a lot to do with that. Was it really expected he would beat Roger and Rafa back-to-back? Hasn't that been done only once or twice in the last nine years?