CAMELOT FANTASIES

Quote from: thetruth on April 20, 2015, 02:52:13 am

Quote from: Clay Death on April 20, 2015, 12:58:33 am

order of play for tomorrow:


http://www.atpworldtour.com/scores/schedule.aspx?year=2015&eventid=425

Wow, I didn't realize Barcelona came so quickly. Here we go again. I'm just looking for improvement for Rafa. I firmly believe that everything will fall into place.

rafa needs matches right now and he needs a lot of practice.



he had no legs, no energy, and no real fire against djokovic in monte carlo.



so 5 matches here and a win will go a long way to start building some momentum anyway.


he just needs to hit a lot of balls.  I don't what he can do about fitness in such a short run.



that is why guys like djokovic, ferru, and Federer never miss a single day of fitness training.


Federer is 34 and ranked #2 in the world for that reason.



there are only 2 sports where you cant take a day off from your fitness work: cycling and tennis.


and especially Rafa given his demanding style of play. no other way form him to dominate the sport other than with his fitness and his once supreme physicality.


they feared his fitness and his physicality so they lost the match on their way to the match. they knew that Rafa would play for 6 hours if he had to in order to try to get the win.


now Rafa check outs physically and then mentally after 45 minutes of hard play. he admits that he gets tired too quickly.



this is why he is going to need some luck at RG this year.


somebody has to push djokovic in the quarters and the semis so he will be tired in the final.


and obviously Rafa needs to be in the other 1/2 of the draw.




djokovic says he wins with his heart and his battle. that means he is showing up fitter then ever before and he desperately wants to win on every single surface.

he is bringing the fitness, physicality, and the fire.

and then he just lets his game do the rest.


he is what Rafa used to be. he will fight tooth and nail for every single point.



that said Rafa can take him in the final at RG this year. he just needs a little bit of luck this time.

I agree that Rafa needs to get fitter, but he can't possibly have stayed as fit while he was injured, and even if he did, he would still have to transfer that form from the practice court to playing with pressure and instantaneous decision-making. I don't think he can be fairly compared to the others when they have been on tour grooving their games and he has been off the tour and is just coming back.

When you get surgery and have injuries, you can't just bounce back like nothing happened. It takes a while to get your stamina back. Then, you have a period where you have to learn to trust your body again. So, I understand what he's going through. Novak, Federer, and Ferrer haven't been off the tour for months at a time. We don't know what they would look like with that much time off.

A lot of Rafa's injuries were flukes, nothing to do with style, IMO. They all play physically grueling games from what I see. Did you see Federer and Monfils? Federer was running all over the court and the time off seemed to affect him too. Getting Monfils in the 3rd round was a tall task with having a bye. Had he gotten another round in, the result may have been different. We'll never know, though.

I think people need to be fair in their assessments. No one else is expected to be off for months at a time and come back in their previous form.

It hasn't happened fro del Potro, Cilic, Nishikori, or Haas. You can't miss huge chunks of playing time and not suffer as a result. That's just not going to happen and I think people need to give Rafa the same leeway that they give others.