Nadal News

[Leto]

Rafa hit way too many short balls...

I don't remember him hitting that short, and that often, since the first few tournaments he played after returning from injury in 2009.

I don't doubt Rafa wanted to win this WO Title as much as he ever did, at one level. But mentally, I don't think he was at his best, and this was probably due to inevitable mental fatigue of breaking Borg's record at RG, including all of the stress during the clay season, that led up to it.

[movies99]

yes.. if anyone noticed..which nadal admitted in post match conference..he didn't play well in the first 3 sets..and the telling thing was he didn't find much inspiration.. one point won..rasol hits an unbelievable winner on the next..
it was only in the fourth set when nadal breaked twice and had some sort of momentum and rasol's serve was beginning to look normal.. but the rain break helped rasol freshen up and focus.. and when he broke nadal in the first..his confidence went up..

credit to nadal..for the fight he has shown.. though he wasn't at his best..he was making a lot of UE and missing the lines.. so he opted for slice..but in the fourth he started playing better..

proud to be a nadal fan..he kept fighting though he was being battered..

fed wouldn't have ran as close as nadal did if he played rasol that day..
if benneteau wasn't fading/suffering he would have lost in straight/4 sets..

[namelessone]

Originally Posted by TennisFan3

lol...seriously namelessone? You must have a very low opinion of Nadal's grass court game to say that he played great. .

I don't think I said that he played great, just that he didn't play as bad some of you think in the context of this matchup.

He faced a very tall guy that served out of his mind for most of this match and while Nadal's ground game wasn't exactly top notch, his ROS was exposed big time.

Nadal's groundies could have gone much better against a guy willing to rally but Rosol kept the points very short as Nadal's balls were just coming into his wheelhouse and he was slapping them from everywhere, even when Rafa got a fairly deep ball. Nadal has had a ton of matches where his groundies sucked at the beginning but got better as the match went on. His opponent denied him the opportunity to do long rallies for most of this match. I wonder if we can find an average rally length for this match cause it couldn't have been too long.

For most of this match, on his opponents serve, Rafa had very few opportunities(just 4, converted 3) and the Czech would always go with either an ace, semi-ace or he would get a short ball from Nadal's ROS, which he would normally put away.

In the first 3 sets, Rafa struggled massively because he simply wasn't in his opponents service games that much. Notice that in the 4th, when Rosol's serve dropped to 40-50%(or something like that), Nadal could rally and take charge because he had second serves to deal with and could move the big guy around. But when Rosol was serving nigh unreturnables, he was left hanging and could always dictate. For crying out loud, Rosol lost 3 POINTS on his serve the whole 5th set, the last 3 service games being held to love. That's out of this world serving.

As I said, Nadal was given very little rhythm in this match(and let's face it Rafa, always starts slow even on clay) by his opponent and when he finally got some, the roof had to close.

Trust me, if Rafa had played bad, this would have been over in 3.

I do agree about the complacency bit. Still, a moment like this was bound to come. Maybe we didn't think it would be in R2 to a journeyman but Nadal made 5 straight finals here, he was bound to have a mis-step one of these days.

[Crisstti]

Mónaco: “Rafa always accepts when he loses. You can lose, it’s normal, he is human as well. What happens is that he’s got us spoiled”.

“On grass any player who serves well and has nothing to lose is a very dangerous player. The game on grass is leveled a lot. hen your rival serves well, is with confidence and breaks your serves early, he can play very relaxed and take the initiative with his serve. That is qhat happened to Rafa yesterday”.

“Pico” Mónaco thinks maybe the court conditions changed when it was covered with the roof, but that it affected both players.

“Maybe, but the roof is for both. Maybe it favoured more Rosol. Rafa got cold (or lost momentum) when the match nwas stopped in the fourth set, but I don’t think it’s an excuse”.

Mónaco, who defeated the Czech tennis player in Roland Garros in three sets, said both him and Nadal knew “Rosol was a player to be careful of”.

“I played him in Roland Garros and the match was very tough. I won in three sets, but two of them were very complicated, I couldn’t break his serve. The result from yesterday is a surprise for everyone, one always expects Rafa to turn the match around one way or another”.

http://www.que.es/deportes/tenis/201...rados-efe.html

Originally Posted by movies99

proud to be a nadal fan..he kept fighting though he was being battered..

+1, very much so.

[MichaelNadal]

Originally Posted by movies99

yes.. if anyone noticed..which nadal admitted in post match conference..he didn't play well in the first 3 sets..and the telling thing was he didn't find much inspiration.. one point won..rasol hits an unbelievable winner on the next..
it was only in the fourth set when nadal breaked twice and had some sort of momentum and rasol's serve was beginning to look normal.. but the rain break helped rasol freshen up and focus.. and when he broke nadal in the first..his confidence went up..

credit to nadal..for the fight he has shown.. though he wasn't at his best..he was making a lot of UE and missing the lines.. so he opted for slice..but in the fourth he started playing better..

proud to be a nadal fan..he kept fighting though he was being battered..

fed wouldn't have ran as close as nadal did if he played rasol that day..
if benneteau wasn't fading/suffering he would have lost in straight/4 sets..

Don't let those fistpumps he did fool you. That was one of the weakest "fights" from Rafa i've ever seen. Rafa fighting was in the AO final. That night I was very proud to be a fan.

[Atherton2003]

Nadal didn't seem pumped up enough. I heard he was afraid of the dark and didn't sleep well the previous night.

[cc0509]

Originally Posted by TennisFan3

l
Nadal isn't a youngster anymore. This was a great opportunity lost. He'll be 27 next year, and he's already played almost 800 matches. Who knows how many more opportunities, Nadal will get at Wimbledon. Will he EVER win Wimbledon again?

I agree. Nadal had the momentum from the FO win and I thought he would carry that momentum forward and win W but he gave a weak performance this time against Rosol. He has definitely started his decline just as Federer started his decline in 2008 at the same age. It does not mean he won't win more slams but they likely won't come as easily as they did before, especially off clay.

[brickner_damage]

Originally Posted by cc0509

I agree. Nadal had the momentum from the FO win and I thought he would carry that momentum forward and win W but he gave a weak performance this time against Rosol. He has definitely started his decline just as Federer started his decline in 2008 at the same age. It does not mean he won't win more slams but they likely won't come as easily as they did before, especially off clay.

Nah, he was no different in 2010 when he got down 2 sets to 1 vs Pet and Haase. The only difference was those guys didn't play the 5th set like Rosol did, obviously (who does?). Simple fact, Rosol played a better 5th set vs Rafa Nadal than anyone has played in Rafa Nadal's career. Better 5th set than Djokovic played at the AO for example. Any version of Rafa Nadal would have lost the 5th set to Rosol.

[Clarky21]

Originally Posted by cc0509

I agree. Nadal had the momentum from the FO win and I thought he would carry that momentum forward and win W but he gave a weak performance this time against Rosol. He has definitely started his decline just as Federer started his decline in 2008 at the same age. It does not mean he won't win more slams but they likely won't come as easily as they did before, especially off clay.

Board brain fart so deleted because of double post.

[Clarky21]

Originally Posted by cc0509

I agree. Nadal had the momentum from the FO win and I thought he would carry that momentum forward and win W but he gave a weak performance this time against Rosol. He has definitely started his decline just as Federer started his decline in 2008 at the same age. It does not mean he won't win more slams but they likely won't come as easily as they did before, especially off clay.

I think Nadal is in severe decline too(he won't win anymore slams),but when did winning slams off of clay ever come easy to him? It never has,and it never will no matter what.

[brickner_damage]

The only thing that can be said about Rafa Nadal this year is that he had a better Australian Open this year than last year. And he had a better French Open this year than last year. Not sure how that qualifies as 'decline', unless you only look at Wimbledon..

[Crisstti]

People overreact. There were people saying how he'd win 20 slams after he won RG. Now they're saying he maybe won't win another slam. I don't think we can read that much into either situation.

[TheTruth]

It was simply a match that he lost. We don't know if that means he'll win 20 slams, or that he'll never win another one. That's the nature of sports. It happens.

Anyway, glad to be a fan just because of how he is and the way that he operates.

[CMM]

Monaco says he's travelling to Spain to rest and practice. Maybe he and Rafa will train together.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...type=1&theater

[movies99]

Originally Posted by MichaelNadal

Don't let those fistpumps he did fool you. That was one of the weakest "fights" from Rafa i've ever seen. Rafa fighting was in the AO final. That night I was very proud to be a fan.

lol..fight doesn't mean by fists.. everyone knows rafa wasn't in anysort of rhythm in first 3 sets..he played well in the fourth set..and in the fifth rasol served lights out.. like rafa said..more than unbelievable.. ros was impossible..

as the commentator said.. he tried everything..he wasn't in rhythm.. he used slice a lot..then his game got getting to normal..rasol's was getting inhuman..even his 2nd serve were unbelievable..hitting the lines..

what else did u expect rafa to do ?

[CMM]

I think he'll get over this defeat quickly.

[rafan]

Originally Posted by CMM

I think he'll get over this defeat quickly.

You bet he will . A few weeks in Majorca and he will be Nadal again

[brickner_damage]

I think as long as he wins Roland Garros ever year he'll always be happy about his year overall. 2009 was the only year I'd call him "lost". 2011 wasn't even that bad. As Sampras always said, 'winning one slam is a good year'. So the US Open is bonus if Rafa Nadal wins that. He's already had a good year. And there is the Olympics..

[MichaelNadal]

Originally Posted by rafan

You bet he will . A few weeks in Majorca and he will be Nadal again

I don't know what he's going to win. Whether it be the Olympics, the USO, one of the remaining hardcourt masters, or the WTF... but im pretty confident he's going to win another title before the year is over. He needs it too so the off-clay argument can go away.

[Crisstti]

4-0, Rafa must be very happy