Nadal is 100% ready to retire BUT...

[initialize]

... Fed's retirement just happened and is too fresh on people's minds.

Nadal is slightly better at hiding it than Djokovic, but Nadal definitely wants all the attention on him when he waves goodbye. He knows if he retired now, people would forget about it fast since Fed is still on everyone's minds.

Fed had the luxury of retiring anywhere he wanted -- London, Basel, the USA, etc -- and he would get a standing ovation wherever he chose.

Nadal unfortunately HAS to retire at a tournament in Spain. And likewise Djokovic in Serbia. If they retire anywhere else, they'll feel like they won't get the attention they think they deserve.

This is why Nadal is delaying his retirement. He's taking a massive gamble with this decision though -- he knows the longer he delays his retirement, the more likely he'll be losing to more and more mugs on the tennis court. But he made this choice to try to get more attention for his retirement ceremony.

 

[Holmes]

Federer's retirement already is forgotten, or so his fans hope. Going out on a bagel on Center Court as your last professional singles match and losing your last match ever period after holding match point on serve has got to be one of, if not, the worst retirement for an ATG

 

[Azure]

What utter nonsense

 

[CoolCoolCool]

You turn everything into a competition, it's an obsession.

 

[Clay lover]

Projection at its finest

 

[aldeayeah]

If they retire anywhere else, they'll feel like they won't get the attention they think they deserve.

Not even in the place where they installed a colossal statue of him?

 

[Breakpointerer]

What is this drivel

 

[Dominic & Andrey]

Yeah I am sure if Nadal retires at the FO (not in Spain if you didn't know it), barely anyone will notice.
If you want to troll at least do it properly.
Utterly disrespectful and putrid thread, but that goes without saying.

 

[jl809]

These “I know what motivates top player XYZ e.g. Djoker / Murray / Venus / Fed etc” threads and comments are the absolute worst

 

[TheNachoMan]

Pure waffle.

 

[Kralingen]

Nadal just isn’t fit yet

He’s not going to “give up” until he suffers a career ending injury man. Not while the slam race is still up for grabs.

 

[NAS]

Not even in the place where they installed a colossal statue of him?

You talk lot of sense, so you will be banished from ttw

 

[InsideOut900]

Nadal just isn’t fit yet

He’s not going to “give up” until he suffers a career ending injury man. Not while the slam race is still up for grabs.

He isn't fit now, but was also in poor form for many months and is also 37 soon.

He is in a worse spot than even after FO21

 

[Deleted member 798069]

Retirement is a non-factor this year, because the Olympics aren't until next year, plus Rafa will want to reach 25 Slams so Djokovic can't reach him.

 

[Hood_Man]

Federer's retirement already is forgotten, or so his fans hope. Going out on a bagel on Center Court as your last professional singles match and losing your last match ever period after holding match point on serve has got to be one of, if not, the worst retirement for an ATG

Best way to bow out, no question. It's as clear as possible that you can't compete anymore and you know you're not going to regret retiring too soon.

 

[Mustard]

Federer's retirement already is forgotten, or so his fans hope. Going out on a bagel on Center Court as your last professional singles match and losing your last match ever period after holding match point on serve has got to be one of, if not, the worst retirement for an ATG

Nowhere close. Lendl's was worse. Lendl at the 1994 US Open had slipped down to world number 30, and played Bernd Karbacher (ranked 41 in the world) in the second round. Karbacher won the first set 6-4, but Lendl bounced back to take a 5-0 lead in the second set and had a total of 9 set points. Karbacher came all the way back to win that second set 7-6 (won tiebreak 7-5), and then Karbacher broke Lendl's serve in the opening game of the third set and then Lendl retired with a back injury. Lendl didn't play another professional tennis match, and announced his retirement from professional tennis 3 months later in December 1994.

 

[octobrina10]

... Fed's retirement just happened and is too fresh on people's minds.

Nadal is slightly better at hiding it than Djokovic, but Nadal definitely wants all the attention on him when he waves goodbye. He knows if he retired now, people would forget about it fast since Fed is still on everyone's minds.

Hi, Fed devotee! Your beloved player Fed is on your comrades' mind, who are constantly polluting the GPPD forum with threads about him.

Fed had the luxury of retiring anywhere he wanted -- London, Basel, the USA, etc -- and he would get a standing ovation wherever he chose.

Your beloved player Fed retired on the tournament (Laver Cup), he is an owner of which. That's how he wanted to guarantee an ovation.

This is why Nadal is delaying his retirement. He's taking a massive gamble with this decision though -- he knows the longer he delays his retirement, the more likely he'll be losing to more and more mugs on the tennis court. But he made this choice to try to get more attention for his retirement ceremony.

Your assumptions about Rafa are incorrect, as usual, Fed devotee!


To those who don't know that the poster I quoted is a Fed devotee aka Rafa hater:

 

[I Am Finnish]

 

[DSH]

Nowhere close. Lendl's was worse. Lendl at the 1994 US Open had slipped down to world number 30, and played Bernd Karbacher (ranked 41 in the world) in the second round. Karbacher won the first set 6-4, but Lendl bounced back to take a 5-0 lead in the second set and had a total of 9 set points. Karbacher came all the way back to win that second set 7-6 (won tiebreak 7-5), and then Karbacher broke Lendl's serve in the opening game of the third set and then Lendl retired with a back injury. Lendl didn't play another professional tennis match, and announced his retirement from professional tennis 3 months later in December 1994.

A quiet Lendl retirement, befitting his personality.

 

[The Blond Blur]

... Fed's retirement just happened and is too fresh on people's minds.

Nadal is slightly better at hiding it than Djokovic, but Nadal definitely wants all the attention on him when he waves goodbye. He knows if he retired now, people would forget about it fast since Fed is still on everyone's minds.

Fed had the luxury of retiring anywhere he wanted -- London, Basel, the USA, etc -- and he would get a standing ovation wherever he chose.

Nadal unfortunately HAS to retire at a tournament in Spain. And likewise Djokovic in Serbia. If they retire anywhere else, they'll feel like they won't get the attention they think they deserve.

This is why Nadal is delaying his retirement. He's taking a massive gamble with this decision though -- he knows the longer he delays his retirement, the more likely he'll be losing to more and more mugs on the tennis court. But he made this choice to try to get more attention for his retirement ceremony.

 

[Federev]

Federer's retirement already is forgotten, or so his fans hope. Going out on a bagel on Center Court as your last professional singles match and losing your last match ever period after holding match point on serve has got to be one of, if not, the worst retirement for an ATG

Wow.

 

[Kralingen]

He isn't fit now, but was also in poor form for many months and is also 37 soon.

He is in a worse spot than even after FO21

Of course this is easily the worst sustained year of health and form of his career (June 2022-May 2023), he has never been this injured for an entire calendar year before. He’s also 37 so his form should be the worst of his career anyways.

But he has a newborn at home and has clearly been rehabbing hard, training at his academy, almost daily since January. That’s 5 months of serious hard work and painful rehab to ramp back up. I don’t think those actions match a player who is finished and about to retire. No, he is resting up and training to get his body right for one last hurrah.

if he gets another injury, I agree we are in uncharted territory and that actually may spark retirement.

But Rafa isn’t putting himself through a grueling hip flexor rehab for no reason. He clearly still wants to win and win a lot more.

 

[Federev]

... Fed's retirement just happened and is too fresh on people's minds.

Nadal is slightly better at hiding it than Djokovic, but Nadal definitely wants all the attention on him when he waves goodbye. He knows if he retired now, people would forget about it fast since Fed is still on everyone's minds.

Fed had the luxury of retiring anywhere he wanted -- London, Basel, the USA, etc -- and he would get a standing ovation wherever he chose.

Nadal unfortunately HAS to retire at a tournament in Spain. And likewise Djokovic in Serbia. If they retire anywhere else, they'll feel like they won't get the attention they think they deserve.

This is why Nadal is delaying his retirement. He's taking a massive gamble with this decision though -- he knows the longer he delays his retirement, the more likely he'll be losing to more and more mugs on the tennis court. But he made this choice to try to get more attention for his retirement ceremony.

No man. Not at all.

That’s thinking way too little of these guys.

Rafa is a great champion. He’s not thinking about how to manipulate timing to get the most applause.

He’s thinking about how to get back to form and win more tournaments.

 

[Federev]

Best way to bow out, no question. It's as clear as possible that you can't compete anymore and you know you're not going to regret retiring too soon.

100%

That poster spends a lot of time here denigrating Fed.

 

[Federev]

Hi, Fed devotee! Your beloved player Fed is on your comrades' mind, who are constantly polluting the GPPD forum with threads about him.


Your beloved player Fed retired on the tournament (Laver Cup), he is an owner of which. That's how he wanted to guarantee an ovation.


Your assumptions about Rafa are incorrect, as usual, Fed devotee!


To those who don't know that the poster I quoted is a Fed devotee aka Rafa hater:

This is a disrespectful post by the OP no question. Rafa is a great champion and doesn’t need to find a strategic location to be celebrated. He’s focused on returning and when he retires he’ll be celebrated wherever his last hurrah is.

But the same goes for Federer. He was going to celebrated massively wherever he went. And he explained quite reasonably why he chose Laver - teamed up w greatest rivals, London, doubles option when singles wasn’t possible for him …and Rafa supported him like no one else.

You don’t have to denigrate one player in order to defend your favorite. You’re just taking a page right out of the OP when you do that.

 

[DSH]

Of course this is easily the worst sustained year of health and form of his career (June 2022-May 2023), he has never been this injured for an entire calendar year before. He’s also 37 so his form should be the worst of his career anyways.

But he has a newborn at home and has clearly been rehabbing hard, training at his academy, almost daily since January. That’s 5 months of serious hard work and painful rehab to ramp back up. I don’t think those actions match a player who is finished and about to retire. No, he is resting up and training to get his body right for one last hurrah.

if he gets another injury, I agree we are in uncharted territory and that actually may spark retirement.

But Rafa isn’t putting himself through a grueling hip flexor rehab for no reason. He clearly still wants to win and win a lot more.

I still think that, even if he doesn't play this edition of RG, he will seek to give himself one last chance and play the next one, and then play the Olympic Games in Paris.
The final chapter for the Spanish Bull.

 

[ffw2]

100%

That poster spends a lot of time here denigrating Fed.

What's your theory about all of the hardcore Fred-haters in this joint?

 

[Federev]

What's your theory about all of the hardcore Fred-haters in this joint?

I don’t know - I mean - I think every player gets their share.

But I think for some posters regarding Fed, it’s disdain for what he did to Pete’s records and then for the fact that he’s still more popular in the public imagination no matter what happens to his records.

Having said all that - I think this thread is way disrespectful to Rafa.

He’ll be celebrated huge whenever he retires. But I don’t think he’s ready to bow out yet.

 

[ffw2]

I don’t know - mean - I think every player gets their share.

I suppose. But the fandom for Fred-haters begins with hatedom first. They got into tennis because they hate Frederick.

 

[InsideOut900]

Of course this is easily the worst sustained year of health and form of his career (June 2022-May 2023), he has never been this injured for an entire calendar year before. He’s also 37 so his form should be the worst of his career anyways.

But he has a newborn at home and has clearly been rehabbing hard, training at his academy, almost daily since January. That’s 5 months of serious hard work and painful rehab to ramp back up. I don’t think those actions match a player who is finished and about to retire. No, he is resting up and training to get his body right for one last hurrah.

if he gets another injury, I agree we are in uncharted territory and that actually may spark retirement.

But Rafa isn’t putting himself through a grueling hip flexor rehab for no reason. He clearly still wants to win and win a lot more.

Ned has my utmost respect for coming back from the dead time and time again in his career, as much as he isn't my favourite.

But I am merely raising the question here. Isn't this too far gone even for him?

He was relatively fit last year during the bad stretch he had and being this bad for this long at an advanced age is already uncharted territory for anyone to come back from.

When he got hurt back in 2021, he at least had some resemblance of form with his otherwise mediocre run in the clay events.

So he has to be match-fit, then to get his level back and then also fight natural decline at his age.

2016 was another low point, but at least he was 30 back in the day and still had good physicality left.

 

[Holmes]

Wow.

What was untrue?

 

[Holmes]

Nowhere close. Lendl's was worse. Lendl at the 1994 US Open had slipped down to world number 30, and played Bernd Karbacher (ranked 41 in the world) in the second round. Karbacher won the first set 6-4, but Lendl bounced back to take a 5-0 lead in the second set and had a total of 9 set points. Karbacher came all the way back to win that second set 7-6 (won tiebreak 7-5), and then Karbacher broke Lendl's serve in the opening game of the third set and then Lendl retired with a back injury. Lendl didn't play another professional tennis match, and announced his retirement from professional tennis 3 months later in December 1994.

Lendl was not an 8 time US Open champion going out on a bagel, nor did he follow up such a star studded performance with a loss that (intentionally?) echoed the single most embarrassing loss of his career by losing his final "professional" match after holding match point on his serve. Sorry, I'll take Lendl's loss in a heartbeat.

 

[Holmes]

Best way to bow out, no question. It's as clear as possible that you can't compete anymore and you know you're not going to regret retiring too soon.

Maybe too late though...

 

[Mustard]

Lendl was not an 8 time US Open champion going out on a bagel, nor did he follow up such a star studded performance with a loss that (intentionally?) echoed the single most embarrassing loss of his career by losing his final "professional" match after holding match point on his serve. Sorry, I'll take Lendl's loss in a heartbeat.

Lendl once reached 8 US Open finals in a row, winning 3 of them. His career ended on a whimper. Most careers do.

Federer, after playing his last singles match at age 39, was still a top 10 player (world number 9), although he hadn't really played much tennis since the start of the pandemic. Lendl had slipped down to world number 30 when he played his last singles match, and to 54 when he announced his retirement. Federer was unranked when he retired, having not played a match for over a year.

 

[Rosstour]

Lendl was not an 8 time US Open champion going out on a bagel, nor did he follow up such a star studded performance with a loss that (intentionally?) echoed the single most embarrassing loss of his career by losing his final "professional" match after holding match point on his serve. Sorry, I'll take Lendl's loss in a heartbeat.

But if Lendl is better then Federer, that was a pretty ignominious way to go out.

 

[Tennfan123]

He knows he can drag it out for two more years and that’s good for him and sponsors.

 

[Chanwan]

BS thread

 

[Mustard]

But if Lendl is better then Federer, that was a pretty ignominious way to go out.

And Holmes says that Lendl didn't go out on a bagel, but he did lose a set 6-7 after leading it 5-0 and having 9 set points. That's probably worse in some ways.

 

[Federev]

I suppose. But the fandom for Fred-haters begins with hatedom first. They got into tennis because they hate Frederick.

There are some posters who I wonder : “do they actually post more about Fed hate than anything they actually like?”

For sure I’ve wondered that.

And that’s weird.

 

[peoplespeace]

Federer's retirement already is forgotten, or so his fans hope. Going out on a bagel on Center Court as your last professional singles match and losing your last match ever period after holding match point on serve has got to be one of, if not, the worst retirement for an ATG

Federer could have gone out with the result that he wanted, even prob a GS final victory, but he CHOSE to go out this way......probably to give his fans closure.

 

[Julius Caesar]

Are we in 2008 again?

 

[Sampras-Bruguera 1993]

If I'm Nadal Im already practicing on grass and peaking for Wimbledon for one last run

 

[NAS]

If I'm Nadal Im already practicing on grass and peaking for Wimbledon for one last run

If he gets his fitness right and somebody upset Novak he will win Wimbledon

 

[Federev]

But if Lendl is better then Federer, that was a pretty ignominious way to go out.

And Holmes says that Lendl didn't go out on a bagel, but he did lose a set 6-7 after leading it 5-0 and having 9 set points. That's probably worse in some ways.

Well the whole idea of making a big deal out of player’s last match or tournament - when they’ve drained the fuel tanks dry and have nothing left - is sort of ridiculous.

For instance Federer and Nadal (and Novak) have done things in their late 30s no one who bowed out earlier would. Sampras left the game with a grand slam at 31, but if that’s all he had left at 31 it’s not a testament to his greatness. In just a few years he saw Federer over take his records before Federer was even 28 years old. Fed went on to win 5 more slams and get the record for oldest world #1 in history at 36+. Rafa and Novak have taken the slam record in their mid and late 30s.

No matter how these guys finish, their last matches are not going to define them. Their careers will.

The only people who I hear bring up Fed’s last match at Wimby as if it’s some sort of defining emblem are a couple of his perennial detractors here. That’s TTW, not the public.

 

[Holmes]

But if Lendl is better then Federer, that was a pretty ignominious way to go out.

My argument does not require either that Lendl's retirement be good nor that Lendl be better than Federer.

 

[Holmes]

Lendl once reached 8 US Open finals in a row, winning 3 of them. His career ended on a whimper. Most careers do.

Federer, after playing his last singles match at age 39, was still a top 10 player (world number 9), although he hadn't really played much tennis since the start of the pandemic. Lendl had slipped down to world number 30 when he played his last singles match, and to 54 when he announced his retirement. Federer was unranked when he retired, having not played a match for over a year.

Rankings aren't really relevant. Going out on a bagel at your best slam and following it up losing your last ever pro match after holding match point on serve can't be rosetinted. It's a far worse exit than Lendl's.

 

[MichaelNadal]

... Fed's retirement just happened and is too fresh on people's minds.

Nadal is slightly better at hiding it than Djokovic, but Nadal definitely wants all the attention on him when he waves goodbye. He knows if he retired now, people would forget about it fast since Fed is still on everyone's minds.

Fed had the luxury of retiring anywhere he wanted -- London, Basel, the USA, etc -- and he would get a standing ovation wherever he chose.

Nadal unfortunately HAS to retire at a tournament in Spain. And likewise Djokovic in Serbia. If they retire anywhere else, they'll feel like they won't get the attention they think they deserve.

This is why Nadal is delaying his retirement. He's taking a massive gamble with this decision though -- he knows the longer he delays his retirement, the more likely he'll be losing to more and more mugs on the tennis court. But he made this choice to try to get more attention for his retirement ceremony.

lol

 

[Rosstour]

Rankings aren't really relevant. Going out on a bagel at your best slam and following it up losing your last ever pro match after holding match point on serve can't be rosetinted. It's a far worse exit than Lendl's.

His knee literally gave out in the match lol. And yeah obviously rankings aren't relevant to you, because looking at rankings wouldn't make Fed look terrible.

 

[TheNachoMan]

His knee literally gave out in the match lol. And yeah obviously rankings aren't relevant to you, because looking at rankings wouldn't make Fed look terrible.

The rankings had a freeze and points lasted longer because of COVID. lol

 

[MichaelNadal]

His knee literally gave out in the match lol. And yeah obviously rankings aren't relevant to you, because looking at rankings wouldn't make Fed look terrible.

Ross