Nadal's worst ever performance....

Do you agree with me?

  • Yes, it was the worst ever clay match nadal has ever played

  • No, I have other matches where he played worse than this

Results are only viewable after voting.
MichaelNadal

MichaelNadal

Bionic Poster
daphne said:
If there is an exhibition match organised by porn industry and he wins it, and if the trophy is a big *****, is he going to take a bite on it for the photographers?
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:-D

mike danny said:
Nadal's worst year brought him a Mercedes. I want such a bad year too.
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Right? Same lol. He did say he hated the color and was gonna have it painted tho I remember. I don't blame him.

“It’s not a Kia, but it’s still good,” Nadal said diplomatically after a brief inspection inside the garish yellow vehicle, winning huge laughs from the crowd.
“Will you drive it at home?” came the inevitable question.
Short silence. “Without the cameras around, perhaps yes,” conceded the Spaniard, who has been sponsored by Kia for almost a decade.
“I don’t know if I can change the color, because the color is a little bit too much for me,” demurred the man well known for his politeness.

 
Rafa4LifeEver

Rafa4LifeEver

G.O.A.T.
vive le beau jeu ! said:
I don't understand this thread... it's one of my favorites! :unsure:
a46b6348847975.58a3b4c87edfe.png
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Classic vive
 
mike danny

mike danny

Bionic Poster
MichaelNadal said:
:-D



Right? Same lol. He did say he hated the color and was gonna have it painted tho I remember. I don't blame him.

“It’s not a Kia, but it’s still good,” Nadal said diplomatically after a brief inspection inside the garish yellow vehicle, winning huge laughs from the crowd.
“Will you drive it at home?” came the inevitable question.
Short silence. “Without the cameras around, perhaps yes,” conceded the Spaniard, who has been sponsored by Kia for almost a decade.
“I don’t know if I can change the color, because the color is a little bit too much for me,” demurred the man well known for his politeness.

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I don't know, I kinda like the color. It's unique :D
 
S

StrongRule

Talk Tennis Guru
Gizo said:
2015 was basically the first time in Nadal's career that he had a disappointing (for his ultra-high standards) season; before then it had been nothing but one successful year after another for him. 2 grand slam quarter-final appearances and 3 ATP titles across 2 different surfaces would be amazing for almost everyone else though.

2002, 2003 and 2004 were all very successful seasons for him given his age at the time and for his development, and of course he had won at least 1 grand slam title and at least 1 masters series title every year from 2005-2014.
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2014 was a very bad year for Nadal. Him winning RG doesn't change it.
 
H

helterskelter

G.O.A.T.
Surely the Nadal who lost to Murray in 2015 would still have beaten easily the Nadal who lost 2-6 2-6 against Olivier Rochus in Mallorca in April 2002, when he was still 15.
 
G

Gizo

Hall of Fame
StrongRule said:
2014 was a very bad year for Nadal. Him winning RG doesn't change it.
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That RG title was hugely significant and saved his season, beating Djokovic there again after losing their last 4 matches. No year in which a player wins a grand slam title can ever be 'very bad' - perspective is important. Any grand slam winning year is automatically a successful one, especially in this (IMO overly) slam centric day and age. Plus he reached another grand slam final in Melbourne, won a masters title in Madrid, reached another couple of masters series finals in Miami and Rome, and won another couple of titles at Doha and Rio. And he still won 81% of his matches and ended the year ranked at no. 3.

The fact that it wasn't as strong a year as many of his previous ones including 2013 didn't mean that it was a weak one. 2008 was a much weaker year for Federer compared to his previous ultra-dominant seasons with insanely high standards, but it still wasn't a weak year overall because he won the US Open title and was incredibly consistent at the slams.
 
D

D.Nalby12

G.O.A.T.
As usual Fedal fans putting down one of most significant wins of Murray's career giving weird excuses ! It's not fair !!
 
BeatlesFan

BeatlesFan

Bionic Poster
2009 Madrid final had a similar scoreline to the 2015 Madrid final that Murray won. The opponent was much stronger, but Rafa didn't play so well either:

 
mike danny

mike danny

Bionic Poster
Gizo said:
That RG title was hugely significant and saved his season, beating Djokovic there again after losing their last 4 matches. No year in which a player wins a grand slam title can ever be 'very bad' - perspective is important. Any grand slam winning year is automatically a successful one, especially in this (IMO overly) slam centric day and age. Plus he reached another grand slam final in Melbourne, won a masters title in Madrid, reached another couple of masters series finals in Miami and Rome, and won another couple of titles at Doha and Rio. And he still won 81% of his matches and ended the year ranked at no. 3.

The fact that it wasn't as strong a year as many of his previous ones including 2013 didn't mean that it was a weak one. 2008 was a much weaker year for Federer compared to his previous ultra-dominant seasons with insanely high standards, but it still wasn't a weak year overall because he won the US Open title and was incredibly consistent at the slams.
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Fed's 2008 and Rafa's 2014 were incredibly similar in that those GS wins of theirs saved their otherwise disappointing seasons.
 
S

StrongRule

Talk Tennis Guru
Gizo said:
That RG title was hugely significant and saved his season, beating Djokovic there again after losing their last 4 matches. No year in which a player wins a grand slam title can ever be 'very bad' - perspective is important. Any grand slam winning year is automatically a successful one, especially in this (IMO overly) slam centric day and age. Plus he reached another grand slam final in Melbourne, won a masters title in Madrid, reached another couple of masters series finals in Miami and Rome, and won another couple of titles at Doha and Rio. And he still won 81% of his matches and ended the year ranked at no. 3.

The fact that it wasn't as strong a year as many of his previous ones including 2013 didn't mean that it was a weak one. 2008 was a much weaker year for Federer compared to his previous ultra-dominant seasons with insanely high standards, but it still wasn't a weak year overall because he won the US Open title and was incredibly consistent at the slams.
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That AO final was the most disappointing loss of his whole career, there is no way you can call that a positive tournament for him. And let's be honest, he did not "win" Madrid, he was getting destroyed and only saved by Nishikori's injury. Doha and Rio, seriously?

The only positive moment that year was winning RG, but it was the least impressive of his slam wins. After that his season was over.
 
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N

Nadal_King

Hall of Fame
By worst I would says Querey Acapulco final 2017 just watch that it was really a bad performance against an opponent who isn't too talented and neither was playing too well
 
King No1e

King No1e

G.O.A.T.
Rafa4LifeEver said:
......In a clay court match.



For some reason it showed into my youtube feed. Rolling back the years, I still can't believe how nadal managed to play this bad, in a masters 1000 final, on clay, in Spain?? Couldn't manage to break Murray, couldn't hit many Forehands & backhands past his own courtside (yes, his own courtside) service box.

Yes, it was 2015, but this wasn't expected. While I give full credits to my countryman for capitalising and winning his first ever clay masters on the back of winning first clay title in Munich the week before.

This was where the 2015 decline of nadal (even on clay) was cemented, the false glimpse of hope we nadal fans got after that performance against Berdych in the semi was shattered.

Who would have thought that after probably the lowest part of his professional career (2015 clay season), he'd achieve additional 6 slams, 8 masters, 2 YE#1 which is more than entire careers of Del potro, Cilic, Wawrinka, Thiem COMBINED (only non big3+Mury slam winners in last 15 years or so)

So, lovely ladies and gentlemen, do you agree with me that it was the worst ever clay performance of Rafa the greatest warrior of tennis world? Please discuss here.
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Shot at 3:30 pretty much sums up Nadal's entire season. Not just bad, but absurdly bad.
With Federer in 2013, people were disappointed but no one was really shocked, he was still playing his usual game but just getting a step slow. Meanwhile Nadal's 2015 was much more bizarre, like a train wreck that you couldn't look away from.
 
Krish872007

Krish872007

Talk Tennis Guru
On clay maybe the 2014 Monte Carlo match versus Ferrer was pretty underwhelming

Overall, the worst match Nadal played was probably in 2008. Chennai Final against Youzhny where he lost 0-6, 1-6. Had a 4 hour match with Moya the previous day and less than 24 hours to recover.
 
Silverbullet96

Silverbullet96

Hall of Fame
NADALalot said:
I can't find the link, but there was an interview where Nadal said he wasn't even giving full effort in the 3rd Set of the 2015 Roland Garros QF vs. Djokovic.
He didn't care.
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He didn't care because he realized he was far below Djokovic's level in that match/year.
 
Martin J

Martin J

Hall of Fame
The Blond Blur said:
You could pick any match from 2015 and say it was the worst match RAFA has ever played...that’s how bad he was that year :sick:
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He was actually quite good (for his standards) during the indoor season, reached the final in Basel and pushed Federer pretty hard, losing a very close match in the Paris QF, then beat Murray, Stan (the man who beat him in Paris) and Ferrer in the group stage before losing to Djokovic in the SF at WTF.

The rest of the season was horrible, I agree.
 
G

Gizo

Hall of Fame
StrongRule said:
That AO final was the most disappointing loss of his whole career, there is no way you can call that a positive tournament for him. And let's be honest, he did not "win" Madrid, he was getting destroyed and only saved by Nishikori's injury. Doha and Rio, seriously?

The only positive moment that year was winning RG, but it was the least impressive of his slam wins. After that his season was over.
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Honestly that is very weird logic and shows a complete lack of perspective or reality - it's not as if grand slam titles or tennis titles in general can be bought at the supermarket, they are difficult to win. If a player's 'only positive moment' in a year is winning a grand slam title, that is still absolutely huge and guarantees that the year has been a productive and successful one - and of course it's not as if Nadal lost in the 1st or 2nd round of every other tournament that he entered.

You're basically describing Nadal's form and level of play declining after maintaining such an incredibly high standard for such a long time right from when he was still a teenager, which was perfectly understandable and natural. In 2005-2006, a lot of people predicted that with his style of play and intensity that he'd be burnt out by the time he reached 25, but his RG 2014 title was already his 4th grand slam title after his 25th birthday (even if we don't count his RG 2011 title when his 25th birthday was on the day of his SF win), so he had already comfortably exceeded those expectations with his success in his mid to late 20s.

And I doubt 'everyone' thought that Nadal's 2014 season was 'terrible' at the time, I certainly didn't, and I think those that did were way off base. The idea that a season in which a player wins a grand slam title, reaches another grand slam final and wins 3 more titles can be classed as terrible is ludicrous to say the least.

In terms of the Australian Open, winning 6 matches a major and coming up short in the final is far from a failure and is still an achievement, plus he was up against a zoning opponent who had ended Djokovic's 25 match winning streak at the tournament a couple of rounds earlier, and of course he had injury troubles himself. Clearly he was lucky to win his Madrid title with Nishikori a set and break up before hurting himself, although sadly injuries are part and parcel of the sport and ultimately he won a masters series title for the 10th consecutive season. And Doha wasn't exactly a weak AO tune-up event even though most of other top seeded players lost early on, and Rio was a 500 event - all titles count.

The weakest grand slam winning years I can think of by legendary players were Agassi in 2000 (when after his Australian Open title win he struggled with injuries, personal problems and form for much of the season) and Sampras in 2002 (when he was written off and looked to drifting towards an irreversible decline before his US Open title campaign). And I think labelling either of those years, as bad, terrible, unsuccessful etc would be ridiculous, let alone Nadal's 2014, or Federer's 2008 or Sampras's 1998 etc. for that matter.
 
G

Gizo

Hall of Fame
mike danny said:
Fed's 2008 and Rafa's 2014 were incredibly similar in that those GS wins of theirs saved their otherwise disappointing seasons.
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Agreed there's definitely a lot of similarities between the 2 seasons.

After Federer's defeat in the Wimbledon final, and the unsurprising hangover and slump in confidence that he suffered following that loss with the early exits in Toronto and Cincinnati, I was wondering if he'd be able to pick himself up in time to win for the US Open to challenge for the title there, and he certainly did that. That Olympic gold medal win in Beijing with Wawrinka must have been a big confidence booster. Plus it added a nice layer to his career achievements as well.

In terms of one slam winning seasons, psychologically maybe it's far more satisfying if that title comes at the US Open to save a player's season and end it (slam-wise) on a winning note. If a great player starts off on a high note by winning the Australian Open, their year is already successful regardless of what happens during the rest of it, but maybe there can be a lingering frustration if they fail to build on that success and win another slam that year. Agassi in 1995 was a high profile example of that. Djokovic's 2012 and 2013 were of course excellent seasons and he also ended them both with a flurry of titles including at the YEC. But I think he clearly would have been frustrated that he wasn't able to win additional slams during those seasons given how consistent he was in terms of reaching finals and semi-finals.
 
D

D.Nalby12

G.O.A.T.
This is why players like Murray and Zverev never impress me. All of their significant wins seem more because of Big players having an off day rather than their own brilliance. Otoh I always respect Wawrinka more - because he kicked arse of Big 3 when they were on roll. Who could have defeated Djoko in RG Final or Nadal in AO 14 Final. It was foregone conclusion that they would win given their form.
 
Rafa4LifeEver

Rafa4LifeEver

G.O.A.T.
D.Nalby12 said:
This is why players like Murray and Zverev never impress me. All of their significant wins seem more because of Big players having an off day rather than their own brilliance. Otoh I always respect Wawrinka more - because he kicked arse of Big 3 when they were on roll. Who could have defeated Djoko in RG Final or Nadal in AO 14 Final. It was foregone conclusion that they would win given their form.
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Zverev's Rome and Canada Masters triumph in 2017 were slightly better than Murray's Madrid run though.
 
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