CAMELOT FANTASIES

Quote from: thetruth on April 01, 2015, 09:07:50 pm

Nole’s take on Rafa’s Confidence crisis

Novak Djokovic about Rafa, in his press conference at the Miami Open:

Q. Yesterday Rafa, who's always very honest and forthright, was telling us that he actually feels some self doubt for the first time in his career. That he gets nervous on points and anxious, and it's something he's never experienced before. Have you ever had moments like that during matches or any stretch of your career? How did you get through that?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Of course. More or less every single match you go through these moments. I mean, we are all humans and we all go through certain emotional ups and downs. Depending on the, I'd say quality and intensity of the match, that's how your emotions kind of wave during the play. Of course I understand what he's talking about because I'm playing for many years on this high level and I know how much pressure and expectations you have.

So I respect what he has achieved in his career so far very much because I understand what it takes to be there and what it takes achieve as much as he did. He has so much experience and so much success for only 28 years. I'm sure he wants to play for many more years. It's normal to have some periods of crisis, if you want to call it that, where you sometimes feel more doubt than confidence in important moments and you lose a couple of matches.

But it's Nadal that we are talking about, the player that's won 14 Grand Slams and he's one of the best players in the history of the game.
I'm sure that he's somebody that knows exactly how to deal with this particular situation and how to get better.

both nole and uncle tony are wrong.


tony is wrong for a reason. he just does not want to **** rafa off.


nole is being respectful for some reason. but he is sneaky so I don't care what he says.



as I said, rafa is not suffering from a confident crisis. he is suffering from a fitness and physicality crises which he himself brought about.

he cant stay in the battle long enough these days to fight it out and get his wins.


also rafa has no choice but to say the right words to the press. he cant tell the world and the press that he lost some of his hunger and his absolute relentless will to win a while back.

he really cant tell them  that he has far too many other outside interests and that he simply stopped working as hard as he used to.

of course injuries also have made things more difficult. he cant sustain any tennis activity with constant injury and ailments.

this is the strongest player ever lived. even the injuries could not slow him down long enough for him to win 14 majors.


it was just going to catch up with him when he got a slightly older if he did not keep up his fitness and his physicality. his style of play was and is too demanding. that is the nature of heavy topspin players like Vilas, Muster, Borg, and Nadal. they had to nearly make themselves into super humans to be able to play that style of game.


finally also as I have suggested previously that he also failed to innovate and progress/improve his game. he really cant volley still with any kind of confidence. his serve is much worse now than at any time in his career.

his slice never improved. now he has very little confidence in his backhand and almost refuses to hit it. he also wont practice his return of serve.

now everything is harder.


rafa is rafa. he is just going to do things his way with no desire for real change. he has won so much and won so big that he has to--in his own mind---believe that he has to do it his way.

I don't really know now what is going to happen but I can say this with considerable certainty:


if he does not cut back on the hard court activity then this year could be his last. next big injury will finish him.

clay is the wellspring from which he flows anyway. he has to go back there to find his ground game again.

and that is just 1/2 of it. he has to re-dedicate himself to fitness.

Definitely agree about Nole. You never know what's real with him. He continues to talk out of both sides of his mouth.

I don't know what's going to happen, life is funny that way. I'm not writing off Rafa off though (I know you're not either), because he never ceases to amaze both the fans and the pundits. I'll just wait this out and hope that things fall into place.