Nadal: Give me more time, Don't Judge me!

[OddJack]

Nadal not happy with the reviews he is getting from the press:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/more-ti...9479--ten.html

[Crisstti]

I don't think that has anything to do with any press reviews. It's from the press conference after the match.

Some quotes:

"The knee is still bothering me, but you have to face adversity with the best possible face and look forward to keep working and enjoy what I like the most, to play tennis"

"A week ago we didn't know how the body would respond"

"At least now I know we can compete at a certain level. I think that was a positive week"

"I will try to keep improving my physical sensations day by day, which is the most important thing because I don't feel that my tennis level is bad. I need more time on court."

"I was two points away from winning the title, but I said from first day that the result was not the most important thing, although I would've liked to win"

"To win four matches in a row is good news for me."

[veroniquem]

It's not really important but he didn't win 4 matches in a row. He won 3 or 6 depending if one counts the doubles. I sure hope Rafa doesn't pay attention to the media in general, they're always after sensationalism.

[Crisstti]

Originally Posted by veroniquem

It's not really important but he didn't win 4 matches in a row. He won 3 or 6 depending if one counts the doubles. I sure hope Rafa doesn't pay attention to the media in general, they're always after sensationalism.

Lol, true. I guess he wasn't counting, or someone messed up the translation.

[veroniquem]

Or he wanted to win the 4 so hard, Freudian slip. I can relate to that...

[Marius_Hancu]

He is crazy to play both singles and doubles when:

---
"The knee is still bothering me

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Ten...-Comeback.aspx
---

[Mike Sams]

Nadal and the *******s are going to use the knee excuse forever and ever and ever....
No such thing as accepting your defeat with class. But then again, most of these tennis players never even went past 5th grade by the looks of it. Most of them are kids, mentally. Just whining and moaning all the time the way kids generally do. Kids in adult bodies who can play tennis very well.

[Mainad]

It's silly to expect him to immediately start playing at his top level after an absence of nearly 8 months off the tour. He did really well to make the final without dropping a set and he only narrowly lost it (he was a set and a break up and, at one stage, was just 2 points away from winning it). Zeballos was playing really well and was able to exploit Nadal's rusty movement. Kudos to him.

It's going to take more than a handful of matches at a small tournament like Vina del Mar before Nadal starts to play himself into any kind of form after such a long absence. Let's wait and see how he does in the rest of his Latin American swing!

[OddJack]

Well, he says his knee still hurts.

So playing pro tennis is going to make it better or worse?

If it gets worse how is he supposed to get better by playing more?

[Crisstti]

Originally Posted by OddJack

Well, he says his knee still hurts.

So playing pro tennis is going to make it better or worse?

If it gets worse how is he supposed to get better by playing more?

It's either just some pain from adjusting to the higher demand on it, or he figured he just couldn't keep waiting if he wanted to have chances for RG so he considers it to be well enough to play and not get too bad again. I hope if this is the case he doesn't play IW and Miami.

[cc0509]

Originally Posted by Crisstti

It's either just some pain from adjusting to the higher demand on it, or he figured he just couldn't keep waiting if he wanted to have chances for RG so he considers it to be well enough to play and not get too bad again. I hope if this is the case he doesn't play IW and Miami.

Excuse me, if he still had pain from his tendon tear/tendinitis no doctor on earth would tell him to go play professional tennis. Tendinitis is a overuse injury, you don't treat it with more activities which contribute to overuse. Use some common sense.

[Crisstti]

Originally Posted by cc0509

Excuse me, if he still had pain from his tendon tear/tendinitis no doctor on earth would tell him to go play professional tennis. Tendinitis is a overuse injury, you don't treat it with more activities which contribute to overuse. Use some common sense.

He's made it quite clear that it's improved enough so that there's no risk of a tear.

If he didn't play whenever he has any pain from tendinitis he would never play.

[cc0509]

Originally Posted by Crisstti

He's made it quite clear that it's improved enough so that there's no risk of a tear.

If he didn't play whenever he has any pain from tendinitis he would never play.

It has been seven months, surely the tendons have healed by now. Why is he still talking about pain?

[Chanwan]

Originally Posted by OddJack

Well, he says his knee still hurts.

So playing pro tennis is going to make it better or worse?

If it gets worse how is he supposed to get better by playing more?

From Toni and Nadal's comments I gather that they expect it to away by the end of February - courtesy of three clay tournaments, including doubles in at least two of them.
If you don't see the casual relationship between playing a lot and the pain going away, I don't blame you.
One would assume that either it's not there now, or that will be worse by the end of the month after playing three tournaments.

[veroniquem]

It's healed but it has not been used intensively (competitively) for 7 months. So there's a bit of getting used to, no big deal hopefully.

[vernonbc]

Originally Posted by veroniquem

It's healed but it has not been used intensively (competitively) for 7 months. So there's a bit of getting used to, no big deal hopefully.

Good article from the BBC talking about Rafa's type of injury. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/21309064

"If you have a basic tendinopathy, when a few fibres are damaged, you're still looking at a three- to six-month recovery, because the cells within the tendon are very, very slow at regenerating.

"The secret is to do a progressive loading programme on the tendon to stimulate those cells to the new load.

"You want a relatively short period of rest, and then you need to reload it within the tendon's tolerance.

"That's what can go wrong with athletes - they don't give enough time and sufficient progressive loading stimulus to these cells to allow them to lay down new tissue, which can get stronger and reform the rope.

"That's why it takes a long time."

"The nature of that injury means an athlete is likely to get some pain when they load the knee at competition levels, but I'd be concerned if they were still feeling pain and hadn't done a significant amount of sport-oriented loading in advance.

"The tendon is load-intolerant now, so in a Slam-type tournament over two weeks solid there will be a consequence of that."

So Rafa is doing his "competition loading" now. Hopefully, his knee will feel better soon.

[rafan]

Originally Posted by vernonbc

Good article from the BBC talking about Rafa's type of injury. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/21309064



So Rafa is doing his "competition loading" now. Hopefully, his knee will feel better soon.

A good intelligent summary of his position

[smoledman]

Don't worry once Nadal gets to Monte Carlo he'll crush everyone as usual and win his 9th consecutive title.

[cc0509]

Originally Posted by smoledman

Don't worry once Nadal gets to Monte Carlo he'll crush everyone as usual and win his 9th consecutive title.

Probably............

[Feña14]

I think he did well reaching the final in his comeback. The knee is something that has bothered him for years, to be out because of it for 7 months is a big deal. To come back and not be worrying about it in the back of his mind straight away is too much to ask, in my opinion.

He played pretty solidly and got to know where his body is at in terms of match fitness, i'd say it was a worthwhile week.