CAMELOT FANTASIES

Lady TT, I didn't get a chance to watch this live as I was elsewhere.  Finished downloading it a little while ago.  Maybe I shouldn't have.

The first set was painful to watch as a tennis or Nadal fan.  Thiem didn't start well.  Nadal was a bit better and had a 2-0 lead but horribly dropped his own serve and soon it was 2-2.  Rafa's forehand was suspect. They went that way until 4-3 Nadal, and Nadal had a break point at 30-40, second serve, then put a routine forehand return into the net, and Thiem held serve.  Then again,  at 4-4, Nadal dropped his serve with some poor shots, many on the forehand and Thiem closed out the first set.  Many errors.  Rallies didn't last long at all. 

The second set was fairly even, some good play and some not, but this time Nadal broke Thiem at 4-4, and won the set.

The 3rd set was a little better play, but at 5-4 Nadal, with Thiem serving to stay in the match, Rafa threw away a match point with another poor return of second serve that did not make it to the service line, and Thiem was on top of the point from there and rescued the game.   After that they went through the motions, barely, as Rafa did not seem to even go after balls that he normally would, to the tiebreaker, and Rafa just looked flat or tired or demoralized or uninterested, take your pick.  He started with a double fault that barely made the bottom of the net, made 3 more errors and was down 6-1 before he knew what hit him.  Even though Thiem stumbled a bit, it still felt like a foregone conclusion and Thiem took the tiebreak 7-4 and the match.

Thiem played ok, hit some balls hard like others that have beaten Nadal recently, but nothing special. Rafa, was up and down way too much, and at the end seemed to be thinking of Rio or something, maybe Mallorca.  Who knows? 

To me it was just sad to see the Clay King like this, beaten in a 250 against a player that shouldn't beat him.  But the same story, no consistency, a poor first set, and then seemed to tire late,  like he isn't getting enough practice or training, or something.  Maybe he was sick.  I saw him taking pill a couple of times against Monaco and Lorenzi.  But look, even Ferrer was beaten by Almagro yesterday, so you never know.

Let's see if Rafa will be better in Rio.  That tournament has tougher players, and if Rafa doesn't improve, I don't think he can make it far there.  He has Pablo Carreno Busta in the first round and maybe Almagro in the second, with Dogopolov, Tsonga, Cuevas also lurking in his half.

I guess I was hoping for more from Rafa. After going out early in Australia, I thought he would be highly motivated to do well in Buenos Aires.  Oh well.  Unfortunately I don't see that much has changed.  In this match, he seemed unwilling to keep points going, going to drop shots, trying for winners, instead of keeping the ball in play and grinding.  But again, maybe he isn't feeling fit.

I had looked for him to start giving it his usual big clay effort so that he might make a run at Roland Garros this year, and maybe he still can, but he seems to still lack a lot.
If he can't get it done this year, then he has to put in a lot of hard work this year, to do it in 2017, or else I think he retires.  At times, it looks like he doesn't want to be out there, no matter what his team and he are saying publicly.   His new Tennis Academy in Manacor is scheduled to open in around June this year; my guess is right after Roland Garros.  Maybe he is thinking about that. 

Rafa really hasn't been the quite the same since the Australian Open of 2014, even though he somehow managed to win Roland Garros later.   Certainly after RG, things deteriorated in a big way.    Losing to Fognini 3 times last year, a player that hadn't beaten him in the past, twice on clay and once at the US Open after leading 2 sets to love tells the story.  We saw signs of this after 2010, in 2011 were he said he had lost his passion for the sport.  He became distracted with other things like fishing, golf, poker, whatever, but after taking a long break in 2012, he came back on fire in 2013 and had another superb year.  But even great players have only so many comebacks in them.

Regardless of all that, Rafa has had a great career.  One hopes he can end it on his terms.

Respectfully,
masterclass