Andy is only favourite on paper because of his past history - 2 times slams champion etc. but his current form is another matter as he's quite vulnerable to lose to basically anybody.
Anyway, just finished watching a bit of Nadal/Dolgo match. From what I saw, Nadal didn't play very smart tennis against a very unpredictable Dolgo. He gave him a lot of short balls for a start and Doglo was all over those balls. And also, he let Dolgo play well inside the baseline a lot and that pretty much kept Nadal constantly on the run. He was taken out of his comfort zone a lot and for that reason, he wasn't allowed to do what he usually does - dictate the points with this forehand and put as much topspin as possible.
Rafa is just out of it at the moment. I saw a few of his pics on twitter. he looked distraught and dejected even before one of his practice sessions.
I hope he manages to get off the hard courts ASAP and go strengthen that back. he also has to get on clay asap.
that is the deal with a heavy topspin game. it requires constant work. you cant afford to miss a single day of practice.
nadal proved to the world that he can win on the hard courts last year but now its time to back off or else this back issue is going to end his career.
Nadal can of course win on hard courts. They are not that fast like the 90s anyway. And also, when you play this long and you are a champion, you are bound to win some here and there as well - even on your worst surface. Once Andy's career ends, I am sure he'll end up with a few clay titles - just like Sampras.
But what if Nadal loses on clay, say, to Nole or to any other top ten players who are capable of pulling upsets occasionally?
In any case, I do think Nadal suffers from bad losses sometimes.