You must not be reading my posts. I said that he didn't come at his best physically in RG,not that he lost to soderling because of that.Many observers said that Nadal didn't really show his best tennis in the soderling match(mcenroe and navratilova being just some of them) and even the FYB(fuzzy yellow balls)guy said that Nadal had an off day.
Did he have knee problems with Soderling? Honest to God,I don't know,I am not Nadal. But I did see that he had problems before RG,which he brought upon himself by overplaying. Nadal looked very sloppy in the first round,both in movement and in strokes. He had 2 close sets with Daniel!!!. Freaking daniel,a decent claycourter,but who was 31 years old at the time and playing pretty average tennis himself. Nadal also lost a set to nr.109 in the world in an exo. Whether it was physical or just game-wise,Nadal wasn't at his best in this year's RG. The gabashvili and hewitt matches aren't relevant to me. I saw both of those matches and in neither one did Nadal play great tennis. He played just enough to get past the rookie gabashvili and "clay legend" hewitt,who didn't do much to trouble Nadal on that day.
You,like all the people who attack Nadal on the basis of his wimbledon withdrawal,fail to see the purpose of those exo's. Nadal came off a 2 week rest for his knees after RG,skipping queens,and decided on the eve of wimbledon(he wanted to wait as much as possible) to test his knees against two tough opponents,hewitt and wawrinka. He barely lost but all reports of onlookers said that while Nadal moved good,he often cringed and held his knees after certain point,and I don't think it was for show. Nadal saw the grim reality that his tendinitis was bothering him too much and couldn't keep focused on his game. Nothing more,nothing less. If the consensus was to skip wimbledon from the get-go,why put on a "show"? Did Nadal really get his knee scanned in Barca(from what I remember),fly to london,test his knees,hold a press conference,just to sell us a "fake" injury? It would have been much easier to stay in Mallorca and say that he has tendinitis problems and that's it. Everybody would have believed him and no one would have doubted his story.
Nadal is "skinny" because he lost 5kg at the suggestion of his nutritionist,in order to have less pressure on the already battered knees. And where does this general consensus come from that Nadal lost weight in the upper body? Nadal wasn't that big before,he is a guy with a big left bicep,huge tree trunk legs and some decent back muscles. He had almost no pecs(and still hasn't) and I've seen tennis players that are way more cut than Nadal,not to mention some that are bigger. Google up some topless practice pictures of guys like Verdasco,Tursunov,Safin,Tsonga,nowadays Murray,Monfils and many many others who are more prone to suspicion that Nadal if the same standards apply. Nadal lost weight in his legs from what I've seen. And his polo shirt doesn't hug his body like the sleeveless so he looks leaner,not to mention the fact that his still big biceps is hidden by the sleeves.
This is Nadal before his injury,when he wore sleeveless:
http://www.insidesocal.com/outinhollywood/aaaaaaaaarafaa6.jpg
This is Nadal after his injury ordeal,in montreal doubles:
http://cowbell.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83423e30253ef0120a4e2857c970b-400wi
And mind you,he is actually flexing in the first picture. Doesn't look all that different to me.
