My Favorite Match Of 2012

There were other matches that perhaps were more significant, had results that were more unexpected or had a scoreline that described more drama but in terms of quality IMO the Nadal Federer semi at the AO in 2012 was the best. It also was dramatic and despite the scoreline it was not clear until the very end who would end up with the win. Quality is of course a subjective judgement so of course this is my opinion. But to refresh your memory have a look at some of the highlights contained in an article about this match entitled "Fireworks".

http://www.tennis.com/news/2012/12/fireworks/45685/

I like a few of the quotes from the article that describe some of the unbelieavable play

“I think the thing is, early on...wow.”

'He's not going to . . . He's not going to get . . . He's not going to get that . . . He just got that.'"

"Federer hits a forehand approach that appears to be a winner. I start to scribble the word “break” in my notebook. I look up and Federer is watching something in the air. It’s the ball. Apparently Nadal has retrieved it. It lands on the baseline. Federer, casual, perhaps because he assumed the point was his, slides an overhead wide. You get the feeling that Nadal would have tracked down a ball hit outside of the stadium at that stage."

There were many such points in the match but for me what made the match really stand out is how despite having played each other many times it showed how their tactics against each other are still evolving. Federer's backhand was standing up very well and it was no longer enough for Nadal to attempt to work a point in order to target it. Something that was also evident in the RG final in 2011. What a shame that a tennis career is so short and we only have such a small window to watch how these two very different but equally great players attempt to solve the problem of the others play.

The match did start great, but Fed as usual panicked against Rafa and let the match go, I won't say its a high quality match but yes far better than most Djoko-Rafa encounters of 2012.

1]Fed-Murray Wimby 2012 finals have to be the best
2]Del Po - Fed in Olympics semi's
3]Fed- Rafa AO semi's
4]Djoko - Rafa FO finals
5]Djoko - Rafa AO finals
6]Murray - Djoko USO Finals
7]Murray - Djoko AO semi's
8]Murray - Djoko Shanghai Finals
9]Tsonga -Djoko FO quarters
10]Fed - Djoko Wim Semi's / 10]Ferrer - Tipsy USO quarters

I really liked the djokovic federer 02 match. 1st set was brilliant.

Personally I liked all Fed - Del Po encounters this year.

I agree with Hawkeye, the Murray-Djokovic semi and the Djokovic-Nadal final got a lot more coverage but the Federer-Nadal match had the better shot making. I also quite enjoyed the Nadal-Berdych match, thought that was great.

A bit of a strange one for some, but the Federer vs Raonic match in Madrid I found very tense where Fed came up with this shot... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fez7l6puomA still can't believe it didn't make the top shots of 2012, Federer decided to counter the slippery clay by serving and volleying and pressurising the Canadian, was fascinating to watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65CSM0M85_Q heres the match if anyone missed it, Raonic also hit some ridiculous winners and passing shots

My favourite match of 2012 was Federer/Murray Wimbledon final - a joy to see Federer playing like that, and bitter-sweet to see Murray become the first Brit in decades to make the final, only to, heartbreakingly, lose.

History was going to be made whoever won - and I think it was fab that both Nadal and Federer won a seventh at RG and W respectively in the same year.

I agree with the OP.

For me, Fed-Nadal semi at AO was a cut above.
Federer was superb in that, even generated break points in the 4th set when Nadal was serving for the match.

My favourite match was Nadal - Rosol, Wimbledon 2012. Hope to see many more like that in years to come

Jeremy_Kyle wrote:My favourite match was Nadal - Rosol, Wimbledon 2012. Hope to see many more like that in years to come

I am not sure that it was Nadal's favourite match of 2012, but it sure was for Rosol.

I agree, it was my favourite match as well. The quality of shot-making was what did it for me, superior to anything that I saw for the rest of the year. They were both hitting shots that I doubt anyone else could've hit, at times!

+1 for CAS regarding the Nadal - Berdych encounter at the same tournament too, that was another ridiculous match.

Jeremy_Kyle wrote:My favourite match was Nadal - Rosol, Wimbledon 2012. Hope to see many more like that in years to come

Absolutely agree... great match

Yeah of course the Rosol-Nadal was some people's fave match because Nadal lost...come on there were infinitely better matches all year long.

Djokovic-Tsonga at RG12 for a start.

I think people is being a bit dismissive to Rosol. If the guy can play great tennis for five hrs, he has at least the potential to replicate such performance. Personally, I wouldn't be too surprise to see him doing very well next season.

There's no doubt that had Rosol been 20/21 years old when he took out Rafa at Wimbledon then it would have prompted much excited talk of him as a bright new star.

But he will be 28 next year and I just can't see him suddenly developing the consistency needed to become a top ten player.

That said, I agree with JK that it's perfectly feasible for Rosol to produce more quality performances, and I doubt players of any ranking will be too happy to see his name against theirs on a drawsheet in 2013.

My favourite match is not one for the purists, it is Fed vs. Benneteau for drama. I just remember following it from work, then home, then to the restaurant where we had supper with my son (who really got into it), then back home again and for me it really encapsulated what was a particularly dramatic Wimbledon this year.

I don't get the need to argue quite so angrily about the Rosol match - the guy played sensational tennis in 3 of the 5 sets and got pummelled in the other two sets. It was quite a topsy-turvy match. Overall the match was terrific entertainment because of the quality of some of the tennis, the drama, and the sheer unexpected nature of the result. One of the most impressive things about the 5th set was Rosol's ability to go back to the well when after the 4th it looked to me as though Nadal had gotten over the blip and was rolling him up.

Whilst you have to accept that it can't have helped, it's difficult to say how affected Nadal was by his knee in the particular context of that match. He looked to have the whole match under control in the 4th, and in the 5th it looked to me as though Rosol was winning it by serving out of his skin and just swinging freely and freakishly connecting so that Nadal's strength of staying tough and winning rallies was not helping. Nadal's relative weakness of not being able to pick up many free points on his serve was a particularly bad match-up to have vs. Rosol on that evening, and you only need one good receiving game to win a crapshoot like that. A better server/weaker rallyer might have had more chance against Rosol.

It's clear to me that Rosol has not used the match to press on, it was probably a one-off (unlike the Wimbledon QF in 2001....). In my view he's almost certainly not one to watch for 2013, but I'd love to be proven wrong if he can produce another dramatic match like that.

Rosol did serve very well throughout the match, and especially in the 5th as we know.

But Nadal wasn't serving poorly himself - he racked up 19 aces of his own versus 22 from Rosol.

For me there was no evidence at any stage that Nadal was physically hampered. If he had been, then I suspect the split of respective total points would have been rather different. In the event it was remarkably close at 139 Rosol vs 137 for Nadal.

Rosol was not being gifted free points from Nadal's own play. The fact that Nadal made only 16 UE's throughout the match shows that he (Nadal) was performing at a high level, but on the day it just wasn't high enough to see him through.

In reality wasn't it good for rosol to face rafa over the other top players?

Rafa doesn't really take time away from his opponents which allowed rosol to take those huge swipes at the ball allowing him time to wind up and blast rafa off the court.
Perhaps if he had played a djoko or a feds, who take it earlier and rush opponents more than rafa, they would have not been beaten.

just a thought and i could be wrong but just what i think .