Rafa has his work cut out for him.
he is not putting in nearly the time required on the practice courts and in the training room.
there is only really one man who can stop djokovic and it is rafa.
but it will take an extreme amount of sacrifice. rafa will have to outwork djokovic.
now the window is closing so rapidly.
30 unforced errors agains andy of all the players. rafa had owned andy on all surfaces and most especially on clay.
now uncle tony wants to avoid players like andy and ferru. and of course tony is terrified of djokovic.
rafa can beat these players on clay. he just has to put in the required hard work.
More than anything, he might not want to play back to back events so close to a major. I thought he might hit the wall after Monte Carlo when he played Barcelona after a one week break. He's close to thirty and can't play week in and week out like he did in his youth.
Thirty errors is a lot, but even worse they were unforced and Rafa was simply over hitting it appeared. He needs to pace himself more. No way should he have lost to Andy though, because Andy wasn't playing lights out. He played his normal game and that shouldn't have been enough.
But, if last month you would've asked me if I would've been satisfied with back to back titles and a semis in a Masters I would've been over the moon, so I'll take it, but I don't like that he's playing again this week, even though he has to. Hopefully, he's off after this week in order to prepare for RG.
he was worn out.
same as last year when these two met.
he just has to go fix his fitness. he can still gun down andy and djokovic on clay.
he just has to make his mind and go do it.
what is needed is some sacrifices.
he just bought a multi million dollar yacht. he has his tennis academy on his mind and a million other things.
he can make it happen. he can take another RG but the window is closing fast.
I know he said recently that he would like to win RG.