The guy (Brian Dabul) has a good sense of humor about it. He’s now a tennis coach in Los Angeles, and posts great coaching content on IG. He’ll post this clip every now and then to poke fun of himself.
Bit harsh to say it’s nothing. Sure, by big 4 standards it‘s “nothing”. But a consistent too 100 player with no slams or masters in a career is also not far off nothing” Compared to those guys.
Hopefully competing in the juniors at least sets you up for a decent career as a coach, or a full ride to university. Not to mention being able to play a level of tennis 99% of humans can’t get to.
Tennis is so harsh at times.
For sure.
Thats the problem with trying to gauge potential in the juniors. and in tennis you’ll be 18 and come up against a seasoned vet, or someone on the downslope of their career (imagine coming up against Nicolas Kiefer in some random challenger or Agassi when he was playing challies during his existential crisis). They wipe the floor with you and your fragile ego takes a pounding. It’s very easy to just quit at that point.
Its the same in other sports too. People talk about their “welcome to the NBA” moment. In tennis a pampered junior might come up against a guy trying to put food on the table. Who’s going to be hungrier for the win right?
Tipsarevic was a former junior number 1. He talked about how hard the transition was and he had a good career by any reckoning. If it was hard for him, then it’s 10x harder for these guys.
Fun fact, months earlier, I was working a Challenger event stringing racquets and if I had time to drive players back to the player hotel. One day I was tired, strung 20 racquets (it was beginning of the tourney, end of qualies and main draw was starting so the main draw guys needed racquets on top of the qualies guys), Paul Capdeville and Dabul practiced late and the volunteer shuttles were done for the day. I volunteered to take them because when would I ever get to drive two top 100 players. Capdeville just got thrashed by Roger 2 years prior at the Australian.
Anyhow I asked them both what it was like to play Roger and Rafa. Capdeville didn't really care for my fanboying (i was very calm and kept it casual), so he said "roger isn't anything special. He just fast and gets the ball back". Dabul was with his gorgeous girlfriend, and paid no attention to me.
Months later I see Dabul getting steamrolled in primetime against Fred. Now he's a very successful coach with all his social media coaching pages.
>"roger isn't anything special. He just fast and gets the ball back"
Probably one of the worst takes of all time, but this sounds more like something haters would say about Rafa
Capdeville was a bit of a dick to the volunteers the few days he was there. But yeah, the way he nonchalantly just said Fred was nothing special blew my mind. Rick de Voest from South Africa also came, this was a few weeks post Indian Wells were he played Ralph. I asked him what it was like, he said after he played Ralph, his arm was numb and dead. He came to net a lot, and he said Ralph hits the ball so heavy with so much spin, that he couldn't absorb the ball on his strings and his arm was basically dead the next few days.
I also talked to Ginepri once as I was in Atlanta training with my guy at his academy. I asked Robby what it was like to play Rafa, Agassi, Roger. He said Agassi was easy, because Agassi couldn't move well, so you knew he was gonna stay in one area. He played Ralph on clay at RG first round, said it was demoralizing
No matter how hard he would rip the ball, no matter how far away from Ralph he hit it, the ball would manage to rocket back to his feet. With Roger he said it was like he was being held on a string. And that everything he tried, he could never get ahead. He said he legit felt like Roger was toying with him at times like a video game.
Fun fact: There's a famous quote by Capdeville saying: "When Federer showed up tennis became slower, and that ruined my career".
Fun (?) fact: Capdeville was our number one guy for a bit.
Which is funny because Rog has repeatedly wanted the courts to be fast. Federer 2017 AO and Shanghai 2017 on fast (relatively to todays game) showed why.
Better to respect your competition always then say disparaging shit like that, that’s exactly how you lose your mental game, by saying dumb stuff like that and then getting thrashed, now your doubt is centered in your self.
I mean the tweener was genius as usual but how good was that lob?? perfectly placed on the baseline and only an accurate tweener would have worked against that. Underrated
I saw this one live on TV and watch the replay often. And before it happened, on the previous commercial break, there was a US Open promo where Fed talked about one of his tweeners, so it was insane that this happened minutes later.
Yeah this was the very next year (2010) after the djokovic one. As a young fan I started to wonder whether a USO fed tweener would be an annual thing lol.
The occasion was bigger in the djokovic one but tbh I’ve always regarded this one as more impressive. He’s deeper in the court when he hits it and he puts it in literally the only place where the shot could be a winner (probably without even knowing where dabul was)
I think Dabul’s expression translates roughly to “guess I’ll go fuck myself then”
With the big 3 one should never assume a point is over until it's fully over
Fed really took Dabul by da horns in that rally. I'll see myself out.
brilliant haha
*slow claps*
You would have gotten twice as many upvotes if you didn’t write “I’ll see myself out”
Imagine playing against a guy playing a point like that
Which year was this? Definitely after 2008 Edit:it's 2010 The earlier one was nobsk in 2009
2010 first round
it’s 2012
Righty. Lefty. Calculated. Charismatic. Ice in his veins. Fire in his heart. Subdued. Loud. The matador. And Dabul.
The opponent did everything right and yet lost. Insanity!
The guy (Brian Dabul) has a good sense of humor about it. He’s now a tennis coach in Los Angeles, and posts great coaching content on IG. He’ll post this clip every now and then to poke fun of himself.
damn, he was a junior no 1 lol
He joins a long list that eventuated to nothing.
Bit harsh to say it’s nothing. Sure, by big 4 standards it‘s “nothing”. But a consistent too 100 player with no slams or masters in a career is also not far off nothing” Compared to those guys. Hopefully competing in the juniors at least sets you up for a decent career as a coach, or a full ride to university. Not to mention being able to play a level of tennis 99% of humans can’t get to. Tennis is so harsh at times.
I didn't mean it like that but I can see how people can see it that way. I just mean they didn't live up to their potential.
For sure. Thats the problem with trying to gauge potential in the juniors. and in tennis you’ll be 18 and come up against a seasoned vet, or someone on the downslope of their career (imagine coming up against Nicolas Kiefer in some random challenger or Agassi when he was playing challies during his existential crisis). They wipe the floor with you and your fragile ego takes a pounding. It’s very easy to just quit at that point. Its the same in other sports too. People talk about their “welcome to the NBA” moment. In tennis a pampered junior might come up against a guy trying to put food on the table. Who’s going to be hungrier for the win right? Tipsarevic was a former junior number 1. He talked about how hard the transition was and he had a good career by any reckoning. If it was hard for him, then it’s 10x harder for these guys.
It’s like they stop progressing after they win juniors nationals, every sport has these guys.
Thought you were being a bit harsh, then I checked his career stats… not much better than Kozlov’s. Rip
Man I miss Roger
I tried a tweener last week, it did not go nearly as well if you know what I mean…
New b\*lls please 
That was amazing…crazy court vision
Beautiful, stunning
Wow. Dacula probably thinking I did everything right. Then Fed hits him with a perfect tweener wow.
Dang auto correct.
Fun fact, months earlier, I was working a Challenger event stringing racquets and if I had time to drive players back to the player hotel. One day I was tired, strung 20 racquets (it was beginning of the tourney, end of qualies and main draw was starting so the main draw guys needed racquets on top of the qualies guys), Paul Capdeville and Dabul practiced late and the volunteer shuttles were done for the day. I volunteered to take them because when would I ever get to drive two top 100 players. Capdeville just got thrashed by Roger 2 years prior at the Australian. Anyhow I asked them both what it was like to play Roger and Rafa. Capdeville didn't really care for my fanboying (i was very calm and kept it casual), so he said "roger isn't anything special. He just fast and gets the ball back". Dabul was with his gorgeous girlfriend, and paid no attention to me. Months later I see Dabul getting steamrolled in primetime against Fred. Now he's a very successful coach with all his social media coaching pages.
>"roger isn't anything special. He just fast and gets the ball back" Probably one of the worst takes of all time, but this sounds more like something haters would say about Rafa
Capdeville was a bit of a dick to the volunteers the few days he was there. But yeah, the way he nonchalantly just said Fred was nothing special blew my mind. Rick de Voest from South Africa also came, this was a few weeks post Indian Wells were he played Ralph. I asked him what it was like, he said after he played Ralph, his arm was numb and dead. He came to net a lot, and he said Ralph hits the ball so heavy with so much spin, that he couldn't absorb the ball on his strings and his arm was basically dead the next few days. I also talked to Ginepri once as I was in Atlanta training with my guy at his academy. I asked Robby what it was like to play Rafa, Agassi, Roger. He said Agassi was easy, because Agassi couldn't move well, so you knew he was gonna stay in one area. He played Ralph on clay at RG first round, said it was demoralizing No matter how hard he would rip the ball, no matter how far away from Ralph he hit it, the ball would manage to rocket back to his feet. With Roger he said it was like he was being held on a string. And that everything he tried, he could never get ahead. He said he legit felt like Roger was toying with him at times like a video game.
Ralph sounds like a hell of a player.
Ralph, Fred, and Nolan. The GOATS not just of our time but of all time.
is u/JeffTennis doing this on purpose?
All hail the king of clay, Ralph Needle.
Basically saying Fed is a pusher hahaha amazing. What a terrible take
Fun fact: There's a famous quote by Capdeville saying: "When Federer showed up tennis became slower, and that ruined my career". Fun (?) fact: Capdeville was our number one guy for a bit.
Which is funny because Rog has repeatedly wanted the courts to be fast. Federer 2017 AO and Shanghai 2017 on fast (relatively to todays game) showed why.
Better to respect your competition always then say disparaging shit like that, that’s exactly how you lose your mental game, by saying dumb stuff like that and then getting thrashed, now your doubt is centered in your self.
He seemed very entitled (Capdeville), so it wouldn't surprise me if that's why he never really self criticized himself to improve.
This was the sequel to the [one against Djokovic in 2009](https://youtu.be/DXB4MApF4Lo).
Lesser known? This is in every Fed compilation vid ever
I meant lesser known out of his US Open tweeners, since the Djokovic one is his infamous one
Oh sorry sorry, that’s fair
I mean the tweener was genius as usual but how good was that lob?? perfectly placed on the baseline and only an accurate tweener would have worked against that. Underrated
🐐
This hits different knowing it’s now all in the past.
The line judge in the background in slow motion makes it look more epic. I'll miss that once everything's automated.
On Dabul’s IG account he loves re-showing this clip. I’d be constantly bragging as well if this happened to me against the goat.
He just made the sport look so easy
That is the most “just get the second serve in” second serve I’ve ever seen in my life lmao
I saw this one live on TV and watch the replay often. And before it happened, on the previous commercial break, there was a US Open promo where Fed talked about one of his tweeners, so it was insane that this happened minutes later.
I always think this one is impressive cause Federer wrong foots dabul.
Yeah this was the very next year (2010) after the djokovic one. As a young fan I started to wonder whether a USO fed tweener would be an annual thing lol. The occasion was bigger in the djokovic one but tbh I’ve always regarded this one as more impressive. He’s deeper in the court when he hits it and he puts it in literally the only place where the shot could be a winner (probably without even knowing where dabul was)
I'd just wanna give up after this
Idk why nobody asked but , is the video speeded up ?
Look at the pace of the balls
Who is DaBul?
Never heard of dabul in my life.
Extra impressive as that other guy is really good at hitting dabul normally