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dafunk написа:Mental letdown? I'm sorry, but I don't agree that Rafa had a mental letdown.

The conditions sucked today....for both players. But here's the difference: the progressive deterioration of the courts as a result of the rain and continuing to play on them hurt Rafa more than Djoker. Rafa didn't have a mental letdown, rather, the things that were working earlier in the drier conditions slowly stopped working for him and allowed Djoker's game to get on track. Rafa's shots weren't forcing Djoker back as much as the 3rd set prorgressed, and Djoker stepped in and his flatter ball continued to penetrate the court. But because Rafa's ball was landing shorter and lower, he could dictate much more easily. And the conditions made it difficult to implement a Plan B, although Rafa did start coming to the net and using drop shots more, so he was working on changing things up.

Also, I don't think it is insignificant that Rafa said he couldn't see the balls as they got wetter and wetter and covered with clay. I think that's why he was having trouble serving. Almost all of his faults were short into the net, which means his toss is too far into the court. I wonder if he wasn't just trying to see the ball better. It can't be easy to serve when looking up into rain. Djoker's first serve % wasn't great either.

Finally, for anyone to say Rafa had an "outburst" when he complained to the tourney director is crazy. Rafa is so often a victim of his own good behavior. Neil Harman criticized Rafa, but didn't say anything negative about Djoker destroying a bench. He destroyed a bench!!! He put a hole in it! Can anyone ever imagine Rafa doing anything like that??? Of course not. And what I love about Rafa is that he gives 100% in every match, on every point, and he only expects the other people associated with the match to do the same. That's what he called the tourney director on: "Why now? The conditions are no different than they were an hour ago." He's holding them to his standard and calling them out for, ONCE AGAIN, putting the players' best interests 2nd, or maybe even 3rd in this case.