De tú a tú, de igual a igual

Question

I was looking up the English equivalent for the above spanish expression. Here my try:

Aunque no ganó, hoy en la final de Wimbledon Andy Roddick jugó de tú a tú / de igual a igual con Roger Federer.

Although he didn't win, today in the Wimbledon final, Andy Roddick played on equal terms with Roger Federer.

Is the English sentence ok? Thank you,

Answer 1

I could not have thought to say it this way if I had not seen the replies others entered here. Another way this kind of thing is sometimes said, in English, is:

"At Wimbledon today, Andy Roddick played way over his head and managed to play on a par with Roger Federer."

Just as a matter of interest, assuming the original effort by Pablo to be correct, I would have deleted the first comma and left the comma in front of Andy Roddick's name. Like this:

"Although he didn't win today in the Wimbledon final, Andy Roddick played on equal terms with Roger Federer.

But I didn't look up any rules for the placement of commas. This may just be my personal choice.

Answer 2

Moe,

Thank you very much. I looked up 'way over his head' + Federer and found phrases like these:

"He will, however, have to play way over his head to beat Federer."
"But to beat the biggest dog of them all at the Open, he freely admits he needs to play way, way over his head."

And below some phrases with 'on the same terms':

"Until halftime we played on equal terms but we really missed Alexandr Hleb..."
"After failing to win a set or even complete three sets, he sits there in the press room and talks about how he played on equal terms with Nadal and how you don't have to do anything special to beat Nadal."

Thank you for all the replies.

Answer 3

'De tú a tú' is used when a player who is expected to lose gets a great performance in a game or competition, against an opponent of a higher level.

Then you want to say, '... played up to the level of R. F.? This implies that he normally plays at a lower level (of performance, skill, etc.), but today he played at an increased level to match that of R. F.

Answer 4

'De tú a tú' is used when a player who is expected to lose gets a great performance in a game or competition, against an opponent of a higher level.

Answer 5

I was looking up the English equivalent for the above spanish expression. Here my try:

Aunque no ganó, hoy en la final de Wimbledon Andy Roddick jugó de tú a tú / de igual a igual con Roger Federer.

Although he didn't win, today in the Wimbledon final, Andy Roddick played on equal terms with Roger Federer.

Is the English sentence ok? Thank you,

Do you mean that they both played equally as well? ¿Quieres decir que los dos jugaron igualmente bien'

Answer 6

Your English sentence is grammatically perfect, Pablo, although the comma after "final" is really not necessary.

I'm not sure about the precise meaning of the expression in question, but it seems you have the idea.

I think it would sound more natural to say, "... played on the same level as R. F." or "... played up to the level of R. F." The word "terms" seems to give the idea that they were playing by the same rules or conditions.

Answer 7

your sentence sounds fine to me... but I think you might be looking for the term... one on one. If not I am also interested in learning a translation for those phrases in English.