CAMELOT FANTASIES

people who see him up close at the tournaments say he looks horribly unfit and even soft.



that does not take a rocket scientist to figure that out. you can just watch his matches.


he is worn out after 40 minutes of play.


he was very lucky last year to take RG. he lost just 2 sets and took the final in 4 but was totally spent anyway.

his hand started cramping and he even threw up. he could not even hold the trophy.



this is not new. I saw all this coming well over 2 years ago.



my indicator was the long rally. he started to lose the long rallies.


he also started spending more time in between points. you could just see him double over from time to time.

he started to tire far sooner than he ever had.


but he had the fight so he kept fighting.



he faced nobody ranked higher than #53 in rio and should have actually lost that match. Pablo had 4 match points.



again rafa got very lucky. nole suffered from some self belief and rafa came to fight.



now rafa does not fight. tony called it right when he said that rafa just check out in the middle of the match.



what he was really trying to say was that rafa runs out of gas and stops what little fight he is bringing these days.



and of course tony had to stop saying that in order to be more optimistic and more positive for Rafa.   


this is why he said that rafa's level was good enough to win at RG. it was not quite obviously.


tony would say the same thing about Wimbledon. he said rafa was one of the favorites for Wimbledon.



but that good for public consumption and for the fans and the sponsors.




you cant escape the bottom line: rafa is not putting in the work on the fitness front and on the practice courts.


he just does not care enough to go out there fight them to death anymore.



he does not care to win.




this is a much tougher reality on me because I have suffered through this for over 2 years. it is painful for me see this.


I do not watch rafa play anymore. I know his game and his fitness level better than anyone on the planet.


I know what is going to happen. I just cant bear to watch it.




I knew exactly what was going to happen well over 2 years ago. he was going to lose his ground game and his fitness and his physicality.

and injuries were going to expedite that process and they did.


it did not have to end this way. he could have still been on top with better training, better fitness, and better scheduling.




also people are not getting this. this is not a normal up and down thing. this is not a slump.


he simply refuses to fix his fitness and his game.


more on this later.