I am afraid its is going to be an early exit in Miami also at this current rate.
I know what he said in his interview: he is full of ****.
he said his back is ok but that the problem was the backhand the forehand. bullshit.
the problem is the bloody back. it is keeping from doing his thing out there on the court.
the guy can barely serve at the moment. the hard courts are not really helping right now with the back issue that wont go away.
that back should have healed and gotten stronger by know. that is my biggest worry.
I don't really give a damn about indian wells and Miami masters titles for him right now.
my worry is the back, the clay season, and RG. he really cant afford to falter on clay.
he nearly lost to andujar and should have in Rio. he was not playing well at all.
rafa and his camp need to make some quick adjustments now to minimize the damage and get healthy fast. that means getting off the hard courts ASAP.
Agree with everything you've said. Sometimes an early loss works for Rafa, because otherwise he won't stop playing. It's always better to sacrifice the smaller prizes in this instance.
Plus, we can't expect him to win everything, so let's save our "grief" should a more devastating loss occur.
I also like Dolgopolov, so it wasn't too bad.