Friday’s Lesser of Two Evils
You’ve proven your critics wrong, Rafa. But if you want to pull off the prank, you have got to put the Super Glue on the shoes of the guy across the net!
I mean, he improved so much, improved the serve, he improved the return… He's changing, coming closer to the baseline and makes more pressure… The serve is much better. Like you saw, physical and mentally even, like, always, like, very strong.
…. he was more predictable. He was serving, like, higher percentage to the backhand side of the opponent. Now he's mixing up much better. He's serving more to the body, more to the forehand. Like I said, I thought before he was always returning far behind the baseline, so always get the time to maybe put a right tactic for the next stroke. Now is changing a little bit. Sometimes he's going back; sometimes he's stepping in.
I think he's a little bit more aggressive. Before he was maybe a little bit more… yeah, he knew he's fast, he has a good power, good strokes, but now he's looking for dominating the points and I think improve the net game, the slice… All this very, very small weaknesses maybe he had before. I mean, we're talking about a really good player. But he's just improving there, and that's why I think he's so strong now on every surface.
The German also suggested that, while he can compete well with Nadal on hard courts, the Spaniard is still impossible for him to beat on clay.
But it’s not lack of beauty sleep or crowd support that bothered Zimonjic. The Serb was simply caring about his partner’s feelings. “I was very disappointed, first of all, for Daniel, and then for myself, as well; because, in my opinion, there was a little disrespect to come out and to play at 11:00, being the last Canadian in the tournament, playing for so many years for Davis Cup and being No. 1 in the world in doubles. So it's, in my opinion, very sad.”
Tournament Director Karl Hale responded to the comments by saying that the match could not have been scheduled differently because of TV obligations for the singles quarterfinals and because fans demanded to see Daniel Nestor on Centre Court. He admitted that doubles takes a back seat to singles in scheduling decisions.
More photos from Friday's action at the 2010 Rogers Cup
Photos by Mariya Konovalova
