CAMELOT FANTASIES

I couldn't agree more general.  I think it's time to call it a day on the hard courts.  He's had a lot of success there in the last year, but you can't cheat the odds so long. 

"Clay is the wellspring from which his game flows." 

Now I'm not in Rafa's camp, but if it were me, here is what I would do.  I think I would withdraw from Miami.  Other than last year's anomaly, nothing good in Nadal's career came from playing the late winter, early spring hard courts.  They have been the source of many injuries and his later problems.  Use the time between now and Miami to completely rest and recuperate any remaining back problems.  Then when it looks good, get on his Manacor clay courts (not his practice hard court abomination), and get that needed foundation under himself before playing Monte-Carlo.

If he doesn't do this, I think he'll be facing much of what Federer did last year.  Poorer play caused by compensating and trying to protect his injury, followed by declining confidence levels leading to bad decisions, leading to more poor play and more lack of confidence.  He needs to halt this spiral in its tracks now.

His serve is inconsistent at best.  He did serve some 120 mph first serves yesterday, but had only a couple of aces.  His second serve was very returnable.
But the serve has hardly been his forte anyway.  What is hurting him is his return.  It is woeful.  He's again returning from the fence, maybe he should stand in the desert.  This is just a big signal to his opponent that he has no confidence.  The return comes back short so many times with nothing on it and his waiting to be punished.  But now this trend is carrying to his ground strokes.  He's fallen into that pattern of running around his backhand and opening up his forehand side because of the lack of confidence or power in his backhand.   Dolgopolov took full advantage of that yesterday and spanked so many balls with angle on Rafa's forehand side beyond Rafa's reach that I lost count.  Rafa needs to get out on the practice court and just hit backhands for about 3 or 4 hours per day once he is healthy again.   

I'll stop now.  I'm sure general Hercules could come up with other things that need sorting out.

As far as the tournament goes, this upset in the top half adds to the big list of upsets in the bottom half and will send another shock-wave throughout.
I wouldn't be surprised to see another upset of one of the big guns remaining in the top half.   

Tommy Haas plays Roger Federer next.  Raonic plays Mr. Murray, OBE, and Spartan Stan Wawrinka plays Kevin Anderson.
It starts to get very interesting now for these players with Nadal out of the picture.  It's one less hurdle to climb to get to the final.

Respectfully,
masterclass