CAMELOT FANTASIES

now he has to take it one tournament at a time. he pretty much has to win Barcelona.

and then do all he can to go after the rome masters. that should start to get him on the right track.


what is missing is his usual supreme fitness. he is not doing enough on the fitness front. and he is certainly not doing enough on the practice courts.

agreed. Barcelona title is a must right now.

he has to focus. I thinks his fans are also to blame for some of this slump. they just cant get enough of his time and his attention.

he is forever trying to be helpful and forever trying to please him.

but the biggest reason for his slump right now is that he chose to screw around for 15 days after his early loss in indian wells.

those 15 days could have been spent at home on the red clay. clay is the wellspring from which he flows.

he needed to work on his ground game and his movement on the red clay and he was not willing to do that.

clay has saved him for 11 years. it was not going to save him forever. they are all gaining on him.

rafa has to work harder than ever before to keep his competitive advantage on the red clay. instead he is working as little as possible on the red clay this year.


bottom line: very little time left. he cant afford to let his key competitive advantage slip away. he has to win Barcelona and rome.

it would not hurt to win Madrid also.

that is a great point.


that has to be a variable in this equation. the back has to be a factor.

bad back has caused quite a few issues for him. for example he was not able to even serve for 10 days after Rio.

In my humble opinion, Rafa's been playing tournaments to not lose his #1 ranking. He's afraid to lose it so soon again. He's counting how many points he got from Miami final, etc. He's got to stop thinking that way.

Someone needs to tell him to forget the #1 ranking and just focus on playing his best. He showed last year that when he really wants it, he can go through anyone and win the biggest titles. Win the titles and the #1 ranking will take care of itself.

He is capable of playing much better than he has so far in 2014. I like that he said he was unhappy with his MC result. Let that motivate him to practice more and play better.

I just saw this. this is what uncle tony said about rafa's match today:


Toni Nadal in l'Equipe on Rafa's win over Ramos (@chriscottthomas): It's not working. No, nothing worked. He wasn't feeling it, he didn't play well, he moved badly, he made to many errors, he had no forehand, no backhand. Pffft. He's too tense to play. His loss in Monte-Carlo affected him. He gives it too much importance. Suddenly he has doubts. He needs to win tomorrow (today against Dodig) to try and get better.

affirmative.

it is crunch time for Rafa. he has to dig in and fight.