congrats to roger and his fans.
18 majors and counting.
now he would have to be the favorite for Wimbledon.
Agreed General. If he can stay healthy, he will have a great chance at Wimbledon. After the match he said his right upper leg is very sore - something about abductor? It started bothering him again in the 2nd set, and he needed treatment between the 4th and 5th sets.
Commiserations to Rafa and his fans. I thought he had it 3-1 ahead in the 5th, but he never won another game for some reason.
But if Rafa can stay healthy, start practicing on clay and stay on it, I'll say right here and now, he will win his 10th title at Roland Garros.
But I heard a rumor that he is heading to Rotterdam? Can that be possible General?
There are all those clay tournaments in South America. Why the hell would he be going to an indoor hard court? If I remember correctly, that is where he hurt himself in 2009 and it cost him RG and Wimbledon that year.
Well, all I can say is that I hope clay warrior doesn't go to Rotterdam. If he doesn't want to make the trip to South America he would be better off practicing on his clay courts at his Academy than playing in Rotterdam.
Respectfully,
masterclass
he would be an idiot if he goes to Rotterdam.
he is just begging for injuries.
and one other thing: he would have lost this final to other top players also.
he would have lost to Andy Murray, Djokovic, and Wawrinka also.
Rafa has forgotten how to win big titles and he is certainly not going to start with the majors.
that is what happens when you fart around for 4 years right in your prime.
and then throw in 30 months worth of injuries.
he got a little more fit and was able to make this run. he was able to hang in there and fight.
but you knew it was going to come to an end. he played a 5 hour semifinal and then had one less day of rest.
well at any rate at least he did not get injured. he will still have to make a few sacrifices and also some very smart decisions if he wants to make a run at RG.
I am not saying he can win it.
General, your legendary thread "Federer: Mother of All Quests 20 slams and 100 titles" is getting a lot of action with Federer's 18th win. Getting close to 150 pages now.
Respectfully,
masterclass
General, your legendary thread "Federer: Mother of All Quests 20 slams and 100 titles" is getting a lot of action with Federer's 18th win. Getting close to 150 pages now.
Respectfully,
masterclass
all our threads there are legendary general.
get ready for slam #19 at Wimbledon.
and I still think he will play until he is 43 to 45.
he will need to switch over to doubles after 40.
Yesterday, or a couple of days ago interview with Uncle Toni about the AO and Rafa.
Toni Nadal on Rafael, interviewed by @djub22 in today's l'Équipe: "Rafa is finally pain free and fine mentally."
The tennis planet vibrated in a way rarely seen when once again he found himself in a summit meeting with Federer. Did you also experience the last few days in a re-lived dream?.
-- Not at all. My work wasn't casting myself over some 'magical' aspect of a duel between Roger and Rafael. My job was concentrating on getting this trophy. For sure, re-playing a big final against him after so many years [their last meeting together in a Slam final goes back Roland Garros 2011] and with all the significance a Nadal-Federer meeting has, there was something moving about it. But, personally, I would have preferred meeting someone not as strong [smiles]
Did Federer stun you?
-- When I watched his matches against Berdych [3rd round], Nishikori [round of 16] and Wawrinka [semis], I told myself countering him would be very complicated. And really, he went at us very quickly and resisting his game was difficult. It's also true that his backhand was incredible at the end of the tournament. I see two reasons for that. Fist of all, Federer experienced a very inspiring week: he missed a lot less than normal, and he stuck firmly to his decision to hit the ball flatter. And then, I don't know if the surface was as fast as many have said, but playing at night favoured Federer, because the ball doesn't bounce as high and it was easier for him to anticipate. Extreme top spin just wasn't possible. But in any case, on the whole, his level was very high.
And Rafael's?
-- Rafael recovered his game. He had a good tournament, he had a good attitude, and played matches that were not bad against Dimitrov, Monfils and Raonic.
"Not bad"? You're being tough. It was tremendous against Dimitrov, no?
-- That's true, it was a great match. I think really Rafael was very close to his top level, both mentally and game-wise.
The best Nadal we've seen in the last three seasons?
-- It doesn't seem so simple to me. Don't forget, Rafael went into Roland Garros last year feeling excellent. There was just this little niggle [left wrist] that was bothering us, and which forced us to withdraw after two rounds and then ruined the end of the season.
How do you explain that he's rediscovered his best tennis at the beginning of this season?
-- For the first time in a very, very long while, Rafael has no physical worries to manage. As soon as we started preparing for the 2017 season, in November in Manacor, his feelings hitting were very good. Peace of mind counts for so much!
Which means?
-- Rafael has been stressed for several years because of his physical problems. At some point, you can't deliver with everything you have on the court, you can't have the ideal attitude in training, you lose self-confidence too much. When your shots depend on the state of your hand, your knee, your foot, at some point having to manage all those pains tires you out. They sap your strength. And suddenly, presto, as soon as Rafael could play without pain, he quickly recovered a good level. And what's more, we were reinforced by the addition of Carlos Moya, who also was a real plus..
During the whole off-season, you nevertheless once again tried a change of materiel, testing different racquets. A year ago, different stringing ...
-- At the start of 2016, we made a mistake with the stringing. We changed to gain more power, but all we gained was a loss of confidence. Rafael was tentative in competition because he hadn't adapted enough to the new stringing and he was playing with doubts [and a lack of control]. At Indian Wells, in March, we went back to the old stringing.
And a new racquet model?
We were looking for some way to produce more definitive forehands It's a problem we've been trying to solve for a while. We want Rafael's forehand to accelerate more.So we looked left and right. But we finally ended up with his original racquet with simply more weight added. And it seems we've found a good compromise.
All these experiments with materiel, that means that solutions are to be found "outside"?
-- No, no, it's still the head above all. It determines everything, it allows you to develop your game. If it's not ticking properly up there, everything becomes very difficult.
And the head's OK today?
-- The head's fine, thanks.
Respectfully,
masterclass
Good read General.
I still see a lot of lip service from tony and Rafa and not enough body of work on clay.
Translation: I am afraid this clay season is going to end up being a disaster.
Clay is the wellspring from which he flows.
If he cant win titles on clay then it is futile to expect titles anywhere else.
More later.
Oh well.
It is what it is.
Rafa simply can't win a title.
He just can't do it in any final.
It is going to have to be on clay if it happens at all.
But time is running out. Now he is worse on clay than on the hard courts.
it breaks my heart obviously but he has forgotten how to win finals.
only way to fix it all is to get on clay and stay on clay.
clay is the wellspring from which he flows.
General, Rafa has been knocking on the door on hard courts, but coming up short. And the latest loss was against Querrey.
But playing constantly on hard courts takes its physical toll.
Rafa has not won a title on hard courts in 30 tournaments, not since the 250 Doha event in 2014 over 3 years ago.
My biggest fear is that he is going to damage his body again before the biggest part of the year for him - the clay season.
Don't be fooled by anyone, last year he first damaged his wrist on hard courts, not on clay. He left Miami and went straight to his doctor in Madrid and had his arm bandaged from the hand to forearm. It got better prior to Monte Carlo, and he won a couple of titles on the clay, but he was definitely struggling physically even before Roland Garros came, losing to Murray of all people in Madrid, and Djokovic in Rome, and then he was sadly forced to withdraw from his favorite slam.
The game is just played at a different pace on hard courts. It is not as tactical and many players are bashing the ball these days, and Rafa trying to counter that and get his Rafa spin on the ball is just a recipe for injury and more unnecessary losses. Each loss digs into his confidence bank.
If I were on Rafa's team, Indian Wells would absolutely be his last hard court event until the summer. Forget Miami, and start practicing on the clay.
Rafa has a lot of intelligent people on his team, but for some reason, he and/or they seem infatuated with the hard courts.
I'm not sure what it is, do they think Rafa is getting too old to succeed on clay? They avoided the Latin American clay circuit this year for some reason.
He simply has to get on his favorite surface before the window closes on him. He will turn 31 this year and he has almost 1000 matches under his belt.
Respectfully,
masterclass
On General Britbox's forum I said that Rafa needs to get off the hard courts and back on the clay if he wants to start winning titles again. One of his fans basically said that the problem is in is head, and that it really doesn't matter if he plays on clay or hard courts.
So then I posted this:
I can say it 100 times, Rafa needs to get off the hard courts and back on the clay, but nobody, not even his biggest fans will believe it.
Maybe his record will say something.
Look at Rafa's record in Finals over the years.
Years................Surface.......W - L __ PCT.
2004-2013: ........All............60-25___ .706
............................Clay..........42-06___ .875
...........................Grass........03-03___ .500
............................Hard.........15-16___ .484
2014-2017: ........All............09-09___ .500
............................Clay..........07-02___ .778
...........................Grass........01-00___1.000
............................Hard.........01-07___ .125
Any questions?
Emphatically,
masterclass
General, Rafa has been knocking on the door on hard courts, but coming up short. And the latest loss was against Querrey.
But playing constantly on hard courts takes its physical toll.
Rafa has not won a title on hard courts in 30 tournaments, not since the 250 Doha event in 2014 over 3 years ago.
My biggest fear is that he is going to damage his body again before the biggest part of the year for him - the clay season.
Don't be fooled by anyone, last year he first damaged his wrist on hard courts, not on clay. He left Miami and went straight to his doctor in Madrid and had his arm bandaged from the hand to forearm. It got better prior to Monte Carlo, and he won a couple of titles on the clay, but he was definitely struggling physically even before Roland Garros came, losing to Murray of all people in Madrid, and Djokovic in Rome, and then he was sadly forced to withdraw from his favorite slam.
The game is just played at a different pace on hard courts. It is not as tactical and many players are bashing the ball these days, and Rafa trying to counter that and get his Rafa spin on the ball is just a recipe for injury and more unnecessary losses. Each loss digs into his confidence bank.
If I were on Rafa's team, Indian Wells would absolutely be his last hard court event until the summer. Forget Miami, and start practicing on the clay.
Rafa has a lot of intelligent people on his team, but for some reason, he and/or they seem infatuated with the hard courts.
I'm not sure what it is, do they think Rafa is getting too old to succeed on clay? They avoided the Latin American clay circuit this year for some reason.
He simply has to get on his favorite surface before the window closes on him. He will turn 31 this year and he has almost 1000 matches under his belt.
Respectfully,
masterclass
great post.
I think the problem is that he is far worse on clay than he is on hard courts. and he knows that.
I think he is just going to ride this out for as long as he can.
you right: he knows he cant win on the hard courts either. no titles.
he has forgotten to win titles.
Verdasco is probably going to take him down tomorrow. and one reason is that he is again caught up in doubles activity.
this fool is going to damage his knee again. he had some sort of tape around his knee in Acapulco.
he has to go back to his roots and he is not willing to do that.
it is clay or nothing. I hope he is happy with zero titles this year.
Federer, on the other hands, is healthy and focused. he has to be one of the favorites for the title in Indian Wells.
http://www.tennis-x.com/xblog/2017-03-13/25532.php
