CAMELOT FANTASIES

incredibly I knew about the tradeoff involved with chasing the #1 ranking after having won 2 slams and a total of 10 tournaments already.


and that tradeoff was that something had to give sooner or later. the sport is way too demanding. you just cant win everything under the sun.

still the tables were set up like never before for him in Melbourne:

no Federer
no nole
no andy
no del potro
no Tsonga


all he had to do was beat a guy he had beaten 12 times in a row already.


his back betrayed him but it was his own doing. that was the tradeoff involved in chasing the #1 rank.


I always felt that taking the Oz slam away from nole would be a much bigger deal then taking away his #1 rank. #1 rank would have fallen in the lap anyway with the conquest of the Australian Open title.

now some players must be feeling like they have been shown a way by stan to deal with nadal. I think nadal will find a way to restore some order on the red clay but he cut it too close. this back injury could have been a lot worse and it could have ended his career. he went simply too hard to grab those 10 titles and needed to slow down after the u.s. open. his style of play is very demanding. it takes an immense amount out of him.


right now it should be all about an assault on history. and the history cares more about the slam record than anything else.

lot of players hit #1. it means very little in a long run scheme of things. especially for nadal who is close to the record.



the world and the history forever remembers the slam count.



if he gets the RG and the U.S. Open again then he has to slow down and start shutting it down a little bit and save himself for 2015.