CAMELOT FANTASIES

General hercules, Lady tt, and the others,

If Rafa can't get fit enough to win 250 and 500 events, he'll run into a wall in the Masters and Majors where the competition is much more fierce.

See my last post in discuss.tennis. 

Rafa had a decider win percentage of 14-1 (93%) in 2013. He had a career winning percentage in deciders of close to 71% up to 2015.
In 2014, his decider percentage dropped from the sublime 93% to his career average 71%.
In 2015, his decider percentage dropped again, to 61%, and he lost important deciders to the likes of Fognini, the US Open from 2 sets ahead.
In 2016, his percentage so far is 40%. So it is getting worse, not better.  Zero improvement, or decline in fitness and the outcome is sadly predictable.

Too many returns are landing between the net and the service line.

Too many forehands don't have sting, hit the net, or are being sprayed out of the court.

His court positioning is leaving him vulnerable on his forehand wing, and players know the strategy.
Hit to his backhand to open up the court, especially when he runs around his backhand to hit a forehand, and wallop one with angle to his forehand, and he either won't try for it, or he won't get to it in time to hit a credible shot.

Now he has run out of time on the South American clay with 2 SF exits. 
He'll probably go to his pal Larry Ellison's Indian Wells on the slow hard courts, play some golf, maybe some doubles, and have some fun.
Maybe he'll practice more on hard court and go to Miami, and visit South Beach and the city's Spanish nightclubs.

In my opinion, he would be better off skipping all that and going back to Mallorca and training hard 6-7 hours/day on clay with a real fitness coach like Muster's old coach, now Djokovic's fitness coach.  Then he could go to Monte Carlo with over a solid month of physical fitness under his belt on clay, and not worry about the pounding he will take on the slow hard courts of IW and Miami.

Respectfully,
masterclass