CAMELOT FANTASIES

even to this day rafa simply refuses to expand his horizons on the practice courts.


he has become even more conservative. it is a rare sight to see him actually stand near the center of the court and hit both backhands and forehands.

often times he just parks himself in his backhand corner and just tries to hit as many forehands as possible. practice sessions keep getting shorter and shorter.


hitting on the hard courts has been a disaster for him. he has completely lost his ground game and his movement.


in fact he is back on them now. he went right back to the hard courts. you read that right: he is practicing on the hard courts right now.


there was a time to cut back-- in terms of practice and match play-- on the hard courts in order to minimize his injuries. and that time was right after the u.s. open title in 2013.

his work was on the hard courts was pretty much done at that point. he had 3 hard court slams. he has just taken down djokovic at flushing meadows again.


that was more than enough. he could have even had his 4th one if he just had just been able to skip some of the hard court events and get back on clay to stay healthy. I am talking about the time after the u.s. open in 2013.

he could have saved himself from the endless injuries and he would still be a dominant force. and he would have had his 10th RG.

now additional slams are in question. he has fallen too far behind.

even the masters events are in question, let alone slams.


more on this later.

I have to agree general.  What could have been?  Well, I guess we all take decisions at some point that aren't the best, that's part of being human. 

But I like to look at the positive also.  He's done more with what he has than almost anyone on the planet.  He's still under 30. He has a whole life ahead of him, from a personal standpoint, family, etc.  Yes, it can be frustrating to see the wrong turns, but we generally take the correct path for granted and often don't understand why someone would stray from it. 

One thing I've noticed with Rafa, he has many times returned to great play when people thought him down and out.  One can't know how many more times he'll be able to pull that off, but I know I won't count him out until he hangs up his racquet and shoes.  Doom and gloom often gives way to heightened hopes and sparkling success as long as passion and dedication exists.  Let's see what happens.

Respectfully,
masterclass