CAMELOT FANTASIES

lopez also just got married. he has not been playing much tennis either.


we knew exactly what was going to happen over 2 years ago. this is not rocket science.

in fact I called it as early as 2009.


reckless neglect of clay was going to cost him one day and it did. and now he simply does not feel like fighting anymore.

Sampras is not an idiot. he knows more than we ever will: he said rafa is playing like his career is over.


I think it is. it is a matter of great tragedy to me but it is what it is.

I don't believe he is coming back much stronger next year because next year should have arrived after that pathetic performance he put in at RG this year.

jim courier caught on pretty early as well but we actually saw this happening at Camelot well over 2 years ago when he decided to work less and less on his fitness and was content to put in relatively lazy and aimless practice sessions of 90 minutes.


and now he has missed 1/2 of the year of tennis while being perfectly healthy. he just does not want to play, compete, and fight, and battle.


Sampras said that "he has been out there a while".


translation: considerable expenditure of physical, mental, and emotional capital has taken a toll on him.


his 9 RG crowns are also worth about $1 billion over a lifetime. he is rich beyond belief. that is a variable to consider.



he gets worn out after 40 minutes of play. he complained about heat in hamburg where it was actually cool.


there is just no preparation because there is just no desire to battle and win.


you can put any kind of spin on this if you want to but basically he is going into battle to lose. that is the part that I don't get. he made his name and his stand by being the sport's greatest fighter and gladiator. he won in the past even when he was limping around and injured. now there is no will to win.


more on this later.

Both things can't be true. If he's lost all this fitness and neglected the clay, then how can we expect him to win with such depleted assets? That's how I see it. I can see that he has lost fitness in a very physical game, so I don't expect him to win, until he fixes the fitness issue. This would be more concerning for me if he was playing at optimal strength, but he isn't, so how can we expect great results when all the factors say otherwise?