I don't know about that emma. rafa does not ever lose anything on purpose.
the fact of the matter is that he is worn out already. that was the real reason he lost.
not sufficient energy and fire. even a very bad rafa does not lost to ferru at monte carlo.
nadal had no business being in Miami. he went there to pick up a few points and to collect his $1.5 million appearance fee.
what is at cost? maybe zero slams and nole taking over the rankings.
nadal does not need the money anymore. endorsements keep coming. his 8 French opens also will translate into nearly a $1 billion for him over a lifetime.
what he needs is his fitness and his ground game so he can compete with these guys. losing to 33 year old midget with no weapons at monte carlo no less is pretty damn bad.
nole lost the u.s. open and decided to change a few things. one thing he did was to decide to outwork everybody on the tour right away. he still talks about it. he says he is just going to outwork everybody.
nadal has too many diversions and his lazy 2 hour practice sessions are not paying off anymore. he is older and slower so he has to do more and he is not doing it.
he should have skipped Miami and gone home to get on the red clay. he hung around indian well to **** around for a few days after losing early. that was just a tragic lost of critical time which he could have used to work on his game on the red clay at home.
I can assure you that he is in real trouble and we all saw this coming months ago.
he is not scared of stan or anybody else on clay. he has been **** around and it costing him.
a 35 year old with little or no singles game almost beat him in indian wells and should have beat him.
his lack of sufficient work on his fitness and his game is costing him.
These are good points too, as it's all true. His fitness is off and it shows.
he should have never gone to Miami and Oregon before Miami.
he
**** around for 15 days which could have been spent at home on the red clay.
of course we don't know how much his back is still hurting. that could be the reason why he is taking it easy.
but still if the back is a bit of an issue and I know it is then it was even more imperative that he get off the stupid hard courts and go get on the soft clay.