I am really more pissed off than feeling down now.
nadal just keeps donating titles by not willing to work hard enough on his ground game and his fitness. how could he lose to ferru (monte carlo) and almagro (Barcelona) on the red clay. he had not lost to them in a decades on the red clay.
even as a kid nadal was able to beat the likes of pat cash and carlos moya.
you saw what he is capable of when he dominated the hard court circuit just last year.
he said he was tired today. he said his legs did not have the energy.
he is losing the ground war to nole because he wont work hard enough on his ground game.
nole beats him in the baseline rallies/exchanges.
there is only one way to fix that: engage nole in those rallies and find a way to win majority of those rallies.
that is what nadal has done for a decade. that is what has led him to have a winning record against all of the top 30 players.
so you have to be willing to outwork the others and he is clearly not willing to do that this year.