Novak to play Monte Carlo
- Thread starter Djokovic2015
- Start date
MichaelNadal
Bionic Poster
Are you unaware that Nadal has played Queen's multiple times and won the event in 2008?
Grassdal won the FO without breaking a sweat, hopped on a train and headed straight to Queens, and won, beating Karlovic, Djokovic, Roddick, Nishikori etc, then won Wimbledon, Canada and the Olympics.....
Epic.
Mainad
Bionic Poster
Surprising considering it's his main residence and the place he calls home. Thought he would have bought a nice house instead.
BeatlesFan
Bionic Poster
Very soon he won't be. There is 6 years difference between them, the same age difference between Roger and Novak. Novak won't lay a glove on Dom when he's 34 and Dom is 28.
Wait and see.
Towser83
G.O.A.T.
That's true but he does skip some events he could play like Rio and I feel like 4 events before RG is sometimes too much so often thought if it wasn't in Barcelona he might skip it to give himself the best shot at the 3 masters and RG, I think he did that in 2010 and won all of them
N01E
Hall of Fame
Good choice, probably dictated by Indian Wells early exit. He barely played after the AO and could use some match play.
Please do some predicting contest against sureshs.
Please do some predicting contest against sureshs.
yokied
Hall of Fame
As satisfying as it would be to see Fred beat Ralph on clay, Fred can't really damage him on that surface anymore and it could even be a pyrrhic victory if Fred jeopardises his fitness in the process... But Noel doing the damage against Ralph in the picturesque Monte Carlo before putting the final nails in his coffin later in season 2019? Simply scrumptious.
Sport
G.O.A.T.
I have never seen Nadal skipping Montecarlo-Barcelona-Madrid-Rome-RG. Barring knee injuries, he will play them all.
Tennis_Hands
Banned
I read somewhere that he intends to skip Miami and Madrid even before his match with Karen and the "injury" happened.
Miami is off the list. We will see about Madrid.
Towser83
G.O.A.T.
He did skip Barcelona in 2010 though, when he was perfectly healthy and perhaps as a result won the 3 clay masters and RG for the only time in his career, he probably could have done does again if he skipped Barcelona more often. He also did skip Hamburg in 2006 because he was tired after the epic Rome final (Fed also skipped it)
Sport
G.O.A.T.
He is not skipping Barcelona, nor should he. No way should Nadal skip the tournaments on his predominant surface.
He is not going to win all Masters 1000 on clay, so he won't be tired. He will lose a match to Thiem as usual, so he won't play all the matches.
Nostradamus
Bionic Poster
Does this mean we will know early how well RAFA can play on clay and spank Novak's butt early in clay season ?
Djokovic2015
Semi-Pro
If Rafa does "spank Novak's butt" then yes that would be concerning for Novak's chances to win RG. However, I highly doubt that will happen given that since 2011 that has really only happened twice:
MC 2012 - Nadal in absolute peak form
Madrid 2017 - Novak in absolute garbage form
Even Rome last year was only a 7-6, 6-3 win for Nadal and that was still Novak not yet back to his full form. I would expect three sets or at a minimum a very tight two like 7-6, 7-5.
D
Deleted member 763999
Guest
Why is he playing Barcelona? Shouldn't he just focused on the Master 1000s alone? I think he should not waste his time on Barcelona.
Shaolin
G.O.A.T.
He can probably see the courts from his apartment. He would probably want to play if it was a 250.
Towser83
G.O.A.T.
I'm not saying he is going to, I'm saying he has before. I agree he probably won't win all masters, though I'm not sure it'll be Thiem who beats him, but I do think he could have won all 3 masters more often in his career when he was younger if he skipped Barcelona and I think he would have skipped it more often if it were not in his home.
Clay might be his best surface but you can't always play everything or he'd be doing what he did in 2005 and play 10+ clay events. Barcelona is at the end of the day only a 500 event and that part of the season is packed.
If Barcelona switched it's place in the calendar Rio (not saying this is even remotely plausible) he's probably play Barca and skip Rio. 3 masters plus RG and Barcelona is too packed for anyone to win all those events
Subway Tennis
Legend
Barcelona is the best clay in the world, and another chance for Nadal to build momentum, which is something he thrives on during clay season.
He will be completely in his comfort zone during what is essentially a home tournament and it is a very very good idea for him to play it imo.
Towser83
G.O.A.T.
Because it's the nearest to a hometown event. If it were in another country he'd probably skip it more often
HetTheGreaterer
Banned
Pista Rafa Nadal
Even more strange is that maybe his best chance to win a Slam was at Roland Garros. In the year with the legendary Gaudio-Coria final (2004) he almost overcame the somewhat “king of clay” of those days (Coria) in the round before with serve & volley. And he also had a H2H lead over Gaudio. On grass on the other hand there was always someone in the final stages who played the same style as Henman but just better.
D
Deleted member 77403
Guest
Yes, and I wanted him to win it. He won the first set against Coria 6-4 if I recall. What a story that would have been. Serve and volley grass loving Henman wins his first and only slam on clay at RG.
Tennis_Hands
Banned
Barcelona is Ferrer's last tournament, so the Nadalistas shouldn't get too excited.
Sosuke Aizen
Rookie
What are you basing this on?
mike danny
Bionic Poster
MC 2008-Madrid 2009 was Nadal's best 52 month period for a reason.
Grassdal won the FO without breaking a sweat, hopped on a train and headed straight to Queens, and won, beating Karlovic, Djokovic, Roddick, Nishikori etc, then won Wimbledon, Canada and the Olympics.....
Even I admit it was epic
mike danny
Bionic Poster
Except he did skip Barcelona in 2010 when he was healthy.
Rago
Hall of Fame
Novak Bikeovic
Djokovic2015
Semi-Pro
MC 2008-Madrid 2009 was Nadal's best 52 month period for a reason.
Even I admit it was epic
lol what that is like 13 months
uscwang
Hall of Fame
Novak had a huge burned-out issue after the last "Great Slam" in 2016. He may be trying a different approach this time around. He took an unusually long break after winning AO, and brought no intensity to IW.
I'm not sure if he can be successful in Miami or how to interpret if he loses early again.
But MC will be where he needs to show some of his cards.
I'm not sure if he can be successful in Miami or how to interpret if he loses early again.
But MC will be where he needs to show some of his cards.
Djokovic2015
Semi-Pro
There is a fine balance IMO. He needs to be playing at a high enough level consistently for confidence/form purposes for sure, but at the same time he needs to save some patterns/tactics/set-ups specifically for RG to not allow Rafa the chance to see them months ahead of time and plan on how to adjust to combat them. I think Novak going all out in 2013 at MC and showing all of his cards ended up backfiring a bit as it prepared Nadal for what to expect in key moments going into RG2013 and may have made a difference in that RG 5th set.
This is of course assuming that the top level between both players is close atm. If we get a situation like 2012 were Nadal was clearly better or 2015 when Novak was clearly better then it won't matter what tactics/gameplan are.
Luka888
Professional
So he is an appartmenter, not a Houserer. Shoot. What happened with all of his money? I'm pretty sure he can purchase a house in MC if he feels like it
. Has Yelena spent all of the money or Pepe showed up? I'm looking for a new house there. Could you tell me where and how?
T
Tiki-Taka
Guest
I wish he would play Barcelona again, but he is not in urgent need for match play like this time last year.
Sport
G.O.A.T.
I initially thought 2017 Nadal was arguably the best Nadal ever on clay, only behind 2008 Nadal maybe. But then I saw recently the 2012 RG highlights and I think that is the highest level on clay ever produced. Both players played great, but Nadal was at his highest level ever on clay IMO.
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Mainad
Bionic Poster
Barcelona is Ferrer's last tournament, so the Nadalistas shouldn't get too excited.
His last tournament will be in Madrid.
Tennis_Hands
Banned
Sport
G.O.A.T.
I DON'T want Ferrer to face Federer in Madrid. Ferrer deserves to retire in fashion, not looking like a pigeon.In such case let's hope that Federer sends him packing with some bakery products.
Mainad
Bionic Poster
In such case let's hope that Federer sends him packing with some bakery products.
Fed is far too much of a gentleman to inflict too much humiliation on an old and respected opponent playing in his last ever tournament.
BHServe
Semi-Pro
Djokovic2015
Semi-Pro
I agree, 2012 Rafa on clay was probably the highest level ever produced by any person on any surface. MC 2012 might be even higher than RG 2012. Riding a 7 match losing streak to Novak (including b2b straight set losses on clay) he manages to pull a 6-3, 6-1 win. That is the worst finals loss (and second worst loss overall) Novak has ever had in his ATP level career, winning just 37.2% of the points. (Only worse loss in his career was 6-0, 6-2, 6-1 to Safin in his first career slam match at AO 05 R1).
Novak played incredible to get a set off that Rafa at RG 2012. I think Novak's level from both RG 2012 and RG 2013 would have beaten the Rafa from RG 2014. Shame he couldn't bring one of those levels for that match.
MichaelNadal
Bionic Poster
HetTheGreaterer
Banned
I think that's not the thing.
Nadal going into pure madly zoning beast, hitting winners out of nowhere in that set, especially after djoker broke him and rafa could see the signal red; making djoker unable to cope up with that kind of hitting.
HetTheGreaterer
Banned
I Am Finnish
Bionic Poster
Novak on whether he’ll play in Monte Carlo: “I don’t know, we’ll see”.
So it’s still open. #Djokovic
Imo he should play
So it’s still open. #Djokovic
Imo he should play
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