CAMELOT FANTASIES

Quote from: Clay Death on May 25, 2014, 08:32:24 am

thanks for posting the awesome stats general masterclass.


there are some stats that don't get revealed. for example the returns during the clutch moments in the game and the match.


rafa used to be pretty damn tough in the clutch.


even my dad made this remark the other day. and he does not even watch all that much tennis. he said rafa is not as calm as he used to be in the clutch.


well that much is pretty obvious; there are simply too many things bothering him on the court in key moments.


but that being said, where he is really getting beat is at his own game: he is getting hustled off the ground by the lesser players.

he used to hustle them all off the ground.

take the rome masters final for instance. nole basically took control of the baseline battle in the last 2 sets.


so the matter is that of insufficient practice and insufficient training on the fitness front. nadal is not that old. if he can get back to focusing on his game and his fitness, he can start beating them all again.


nole does not allow for too many distractions and works like a dog on his game and his fitness 7 days a week.

in fact a lot of players like milos, ferru, dimitrov, and the others have stepped on their fitness in order to take it to the next level.


I am seeing a drop in nadal's supreme fitness levels. he needs his supreme fitness and his physicality. that gives him a decisive edge out there in the trenches.

if he can play on the hard courts then he can step p on his fitness also.

also he should be training longer and harder on the red clay on year around basis. that will put him right back in business.


so he wont have to make stupid remarks like these:

1. "get used to it" on his losing and having trouble out there
2. "I don't know if I can win another major again"



that is fuel for the competition. and it also does not do much for your own confidence.


ferru and almagro hear these remarks and then go out there and push him around. nadal had not lose to them on the red clay in decades.


it is a confidence issue only because he is making it a confidence issue. of course it hurts your confidence if you getting bossed around in the baseline rallies by the players that have no business taking more than 2-3 games off you in a set on the red clay.


but what has led to that dropped confidence is just 2 simple factors:


1. he refuses to put in the work/hard yards on the practice courts like he used to
2. he refuses to train harder and longer on the fitness front to keep up with the competition


there is another factor: too many outside distractions and too many extracurricular activities which can wait. soon he will have over 60 years to do all that outside stuff.


how many players will ever find themselves in a position nadal is to challenge history? I will say just one and that is nadal.


the sport has become too demanding. nobody is ever going get near the slam record again.

nadal seems to be walking away from perhaps the greatest challenge ever offered an athlete. he needs to embrace it and then go after it.

He isn't as calm as he used to be, that's for sure. I hadn't seen #2 listed above, what an odd statement. Maybe he has wearied of the tennis for now and is just going through the motions. It sure looks like it on court, but then again, hasn't Rafa always done this? Play outstanding one year and so-so the next?

He has been battling for a decade now; that has to be tiring. First he had to take on Federer in his ingenue stage all by himself, then the two supremely gifted players Nole and Andy in what started in his prime.

There's more pressure on Rafa than on any other player. Fed has made his mark and can now rest on his laurels. He's set the bar so high that it's going to be difficult to catch him anyway. And while he was battling for so many years straight Nole and Andy weren't doing too much. Now, they have risen to their proper positions in the game.

Can Rafa really be expected to continue fighting year in and year out without rest? I'm not so sure. I think he's tired, physically and mentally. It'll take a great push to go after the record at this point. Does he even want to? He also has physical issues to deal with as well.

I want him to play as long as he wants, and walk away when it's no longer relevant to him. Things work out the way they're supposed to in. We'll just have to wait and see.

rafa says his back issues are flaring up again.


his average serve speed today was 103 MPH. some 2nd serves were at 81 MPH.


he failed to get off the hard courts when he absolutely had to. there was no need to linger around for 10 days at indian wells and then another 10 days at Miami masters.

he should have gone home to rest, relax, and train on the soft clay. and also work on strengthening the back.

if me and general masterclass had been 2 of his other uncles and also assigned to be his coaches, Rafa would have never lost a match on the red clay.

imagine rafa with 3 uncles as his team of coaches.

general masterclass is one of the finest  tennis analysts on the planet. he was right when he said that rafa could have used somebody like muster's fitness coach.

so who got muster's fitness coach? nole did and now look at him. nole also does not have a million other outside activities during the season. he just focuses on his game and his fitness 7 days a week.




I also said very specifically that what ails rafa is 3 things but the single greatest thing that ails him is the drop in fitness.

1. drop in fitness
2. drop in match play and practice on the red clay: clay is the wellspring from which he flows
3. lack of proper focus for clay and too much infatuation with the hard courts and all the other activities outside of tennis

sooner or later it had to cost him and that is what is happening this year.

clay had always saved him but you knew a day would come when that lack of proper detail and preparation for clay would cost him.

now he is going to need just the right luck to take RG. he needs to get rid of ferru in straights or 4 sets and leave the court without making his back worse. he will need a similar performance in the semis.


he needs nole to be slightly off in the final. nole is serving too big and returning even bigger. that gives him an instant edge and makes the assignment slightly trickier for rafa.


rafa just has to get rid of him in straights or 4 sets in the final and I think he will.


I give rafa the edge because he is 8-0 in the finals. nole will go in with some doubts. those doubts will start to weigh after rafa nails the first set.

rafa says his back issues are flaring up again.


his average serve speed today was 103 MPH. some 2nd serves were at 81 MPH.


he failed to get off the hard courts when he absolutely had to. there was no need to linger around for 10 days at indian wells and then another 10 days at Miami masters.

he should have gone home to rest, relax, and train on the soft clay. and also work on strengthening the back.