Contradiction, I agree Djok recovered well but then it doesn't matter in terms of Nadal's level, which was the question of this thread. If you mean Nadal expected to win in Rome as well because of Novak's SF, all I can say is I remember the commentary was hyping up ND's domination of Rafa and saying he had a good shot despite being so tired. In Madrid, Rafa was still the big favorite, because despite losing in IW and Miami, he was undefeated on clay vs. Novak to that point.
Nadal does play a bit better in Rome historically due to conditions, but his Madrid performances are a bit over criticized, he's done pretty well since it switched to clay, 4 of 9. In the same time he won Rome also 4 times out of 8, with the 9th chance coming this week.
In that particular match, he was closer to winning the 1st set than either in Rome, He also slid into his pattern of getting broken to lose the set twice in Rome, which happened multiple times from then on vs. Novak.
I think he played more confident in Madrid because he had never lost on clay to Novak before.
How is it a contradiction ? Its not wrong to assume the SF would have an effect on Novak before the match start.
It didn't , but it isn't wrong to assume.
As far as Rome is concerned
Look at Rafa's losses at Rome :
11- just mentioned above by me
14- 3 set loss to djokovic
15 - loss to stan, 6-7,2-6
16- tight 2-set loss to djokovic, 5-7,6-7
Look at his losses at Madrid :
11- as mentioned above by me
12 - choke to verdasco
15 - very poor performance vs Murray in the final, got destroyed, winning 5 games
16 - lost 5-7,4-6 to murray ...maybe equivalent to the 15 loss to stan at Rome
also should've lost 14 final to nishikori , was getting beaten, but escaped due to nishikori's injury. should really be 3/9 and not 4/9.
rome , he's 4/8 from 2009 onwards.
Now coming back to the matches in Madrid 11 and Rome 11 :
from Nadal himself :
"I was happy with the way I [played] today. I didn't hit the ball [badly] but it seems like he's always in a better position," Nadal said. "I played more aggressive than one week ago. I didn't play all defensive like in Madrid."
At one point in the second set, Nadal began hitting high balls, almost like the moon balls seen on the women's tour years ago.
"I tried for a moment, that's true," Nadal said. "I lost in Madrid so I tried different things today. ... I have many things [to try] next time."
http://www.espn.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=6553547
