Nadal lost the plot......

[gamelovergold]

Nadal was a great player but he was misguided by the europhia of fans ...media....circumstances that fedrer was his main rival . He devoted all his energy toward getting better of fedrer but what he forget to think was fedrer was 5 year older and as the age grows fedrer will get slower and fedrer prime will not be there and nadal himself can benifit from that. Nadal real competitor (age wise) were novak and murray. Novak came from behind and stole the slam race at last possible moment. If nadal had devoted more energy toward stopping novak he would have been slam leader.

 

[nolefam_2024]

I guess but that means nothing. He does have almost equal h2h vs Djokovic and better h2h vs Murray.

In his last 3 non clay slam wins he didn't have to face Djokovic so rival or no rival doesn't matter. And he did play Djokovic very close in wimby 18 and AO 12 as well as beating him 2 times in usopen.

So all in all, even if nadal had focussed all his energy on Djokovic and not Federer, he would maybe get 1/2 more slams from Djokovic and 1/2 less slams from fed.

In the end his bread and butter was clay and he defended it fiercely. Better than fedkovic defended Wimbledon. Allowing nadal Murray and alcaraz to score wins here. Nadal also failed allowing nole fed and wawrinka to score wins but at least nadal was 1 man and fedkovic are two still couldn't defend Wimbledon completely.

 

[nolefam_2024]

Nadal couldn't be slam leader because he is surface king. Fedkovic are 2/3 surface kings so he can target whoever, won't matter.

 

[RSJfan]

Nadal barely tries on the court. A well known slacker. Thank you for pointing out the elephant in the room.

 

[Aabye5]

Nadal was a great player but he was misguided by the europhia of fans ...media....circumstances that fedrer was his main rival . He devoted all his energy toward getting better of fedrer but what he forget to think was fedrer was 5 year older and as the age grows fedrer will get slower and fedrer prime will not be there and nadal himself can benifit from that. Nadal real competitor (age wise) were novak and murray. Novak came from behind and stole the slam race at last possible moment. If nadal had devoted more energy toward stopping novak he would have been slam leader.

No.

 

[zakopinjo]

2011 was quite a shocking discovery for Nadal

The man who has a 0:5 score against you in the finals and generally the man who lost all the close matches with you, starts to dominate you and makes a series of 7:0 in the finals of the biggest tournaments.

Who knows what was going through Nadal's head

 

[NatF]

Nadal did pretty well, I think he sleeps soundly.

 

[Hood_Man]

Who knows what was going through Nadal's head

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHH!!!"

 

[MichaelNadal]

Nadal did pretty well, I think he sleeps soundly.

Especially when he's on the yacht

 

[NatF]

Especially when he's on the yacht

That's the dream.

 

[Grafil Injection]

Maximum respect to Nadal is warranted. He could have clay-vultured and finished with 200+ titles easily, but he respected the diversity and history of the game instead.

 

[Biotic]

Novak came from behind and stole the slam race at last possible moment. If nadal had devoted more energy toward stopping novak he would have been slam leader.

 

[zakopinjo]

Maximum respect to Nadal is warranted. He could have clay-vultured and finished with 200+ titles easily, but he respected the diversity and history of the game instead.

Technically, he played 5 tournaments (in two months) on clay every year, I'm not sure he can do more than that for a player of his level.

 

[Grafil Injection]

Technically, he played 5 tournaments (in two months) on clay every year, I'm not sure he can do more than that for a player of his level.

Clay vulturing would involve playing only clay from February until September, so around 15-20 tournaments each year. See Bruguera, Berasetegui and Muster for examples.

In fact it's quite interesting checking the stats. The two years he did decide to clay-vulture, 2005 and 2013, he had his most successful years with 11 and 10 tournament wins, of which 8 were clay tournaments in each year.

 

[zakopinjo]

Clay vulturing would involve playing only clay from February until September, so around 15-20 tournaments each year. See Bruguera, Berasetegui and Muster for examples.

But that is impossible for a player of Nadal's level.
Monte Carlo-Barcelona-Madrid/Hamburg-Rome-Roland Garros is the maximum, and he fulfilled that maximum every year.
Hard-clay-grass-hard is the arrangement of players of his level.

 

[platypus50]

Pretty sure Rafa was going mental in 2011 with the emergence of Djokovic 2.0.

A guy he owned in H2H 16-7 at the end of 2010 and had a commanding 5-0 H2H in majors suddenly whips him in 6 consecutive finals (including 2 majors and 2 BO3 matches on his beloved red dirt).

Still remember Nadal looking quite depressed in his post-match press conference after he beat Murray in the 2011 USO SF knowing he was going to get his rear end kicked in by Djokovic 2.0 once more. Nadal did get his confidence back during the 2012 AO final (yes he lost but the fact that he was able to take Djoker to a 5th set despite being 2 points away from defeat in the 4th set TB, had 4-2 30-15 in the 5th set and barely missed a BH DTL passing shot were good signs to Nadal that he was going to finally stop the bleeding against Djoker in the 2012 European clay swing which is exactly how it played out).

Looking at it in 2024, Nadal did pretty well to get to 22 majors but Djokovic was fortunate to have a career that was less plagued by injuries compared to Nadal and he was able to look after his body much better with his diet, stretching regime and developing a more efficient serve when Goran was his coach.

 

[vokazu]

Nadal barely tries on the court. A well known slacker. Thank you for pointing out the elephant in the room.

True, he did not want to improve his indoor hard court game and did not want to improve his serve and relied too much on his lefty moon ball forehands. Earlier in his career someone told his team that Nadal should improve his first serve but they did not listen and they stick to his strength which is long rallies and standing 10 metres behind the baseline when returning serve. Had he improved his first serves technique and learnt how to finish points quicker he would've won a YEC title.

 

[nam416]

2011 was quite a shocking discovery for Nadal
---snip---
Who knows what was going through Nadal's head Djoko's body

ftfy

 

[aldeayeah]

He DID adapt to Djokovic's ascendancy, and strung a pretty relevant series of wins in 2012-2013.

Unfortunately, his legs were never the same after 2014. He did quite well all things considered, never had it easy competition wise.

 

[nolefam_2024]

He DID adapt to Djokovic's ascendancy, and strung a pretty relevant series of wins in 2012-2013.

Unfortunately, his legs were never the same after 2014. He did quite well all things considered, never had it easy competition wise.

Agree with first half. Second half is bs.

No one had it easy. Nadal if was great outside clay, then would dominate.

 

[messiahrobins]

Especially when he's on the yacht

Dont think this fanbase will ever get over Nadal beating down on Novak so often in the most iconic important matches they had. 2 and a half years on form nadal being active in real terms and they still obsess over him. Rafa will be on his yacht with that cute smirk of his. Interesting Tsitsipas has joined Sinner ruud Alcaraz in seemingly suggesting Rafa is GOAT. Things are falling exactly how i knew they would, and as Rafa probably knew as well.
Davis Cup is going to be epic.

 

[tennis3]

2nd wheel couldn’t even beat 3rd wheel. He was obviously never beating the GOAT

 

[Mustard]

I think Nadal has the fewest regrets of all 21st century tennis players. What regrets he does have are mostly out of his control, like injuries.

2011 was quite a shocking discovery for Nadal

Which he overcame. Nadal went from losing 7 in a row to Djokovic to winning 6 of the next 7. Nadal also beat Djokovic in 4 consecutive matches in majors from June 2012 to June 2014.

 

[Clay lover]

The fact that Nadal tailors his game to beating Fed is perhaps the biggest b3 myth. Nadal has played that way before he met Federer, and has played a similar game against everyone not Federer, leading to, for example, the upsets on grass and hard. Don't you think he might have thought about switching to a different game when he isn't playing Federer? No, he hasn't, because how he plays against Federer is just how he normally plays. Maybe a little more focus on hitting to the BH, but the overall game has been the same.

 

[Mustard]

Agree with first half. Second half is bs.

How is it BS? Nadal's movement slowed further after the 2014 Australian Open final. Late in the 2014 French Open final (i.e. in the fourth set) you can see that Nadal's back is still bothering him, an injury first sustained in the 2014 Australian Open final over 4 months earlier.

No one had it easy. Nadal if was great outside clay, then would dominate.

Nadal won his highest number of tournaments in a calendar year in 2005, i.e. 11, before his Mueller-Weiss syndrome diagnosis.

 

[nolefam_2024]

The fact that Nadal tailors his game to beating Fed is perhaps the biggest b3 myth. Nadal has played that way before he met Federer, and has played a similar game against everyone not Federer, leading to, for example, the upsets on grass and hard. Don't you think he might have thought about switching to a different game when he isn't playing Federer? No, he hasn't, because how he plays against Federer is just how he normally plays. Maybe a little more focus on hitting to the BH, but the overall game has been the same.

Makes total sense

 

[Bride of Alcaraz]

Nadal was a great player but he was misguided by the europhia of fans ...media....circumstances that fedrer was his main rival . He devoted all his energy toward getting better of fedrer but what he forget to think was fedrer was 5 year older and as the age grows fedrer will get slower and fedrer prime will not be there and nadal himself can benifit from that. Nadal real competitor (age wise) were novak and murray. Novak came from behind and stole the slam race at last possible moment. If nadal had devoted more energy toward stopping novak he would have been slam leader.

It was physically possible because Nadal's knees broke down in 2009, so his physical peak ended at 2009 AO and he was only good enough to beat Djokovic at 2010 and 2013 US Opens.
2011 US Open cost Nadal the Slam Race and the H2H!

 

[Incognito]

2011 was quite a shocking discovery for Nadal

The man who has a 0:5 score against you in the finals and generally the man who lost all the close matches with you, starts to dominate you and makes a series of 7:0 in the finals of the biggest tournaments.

Who knows what was going through Nadal's head

Yeah, Rafa lost to Novak in those finals in 2011 after a great 2010. Just like Novak couldn’t replicate his 2011 in 2012 where he lost to Rafa, Fed and Murray at the majors.

 

[Hitman]

Lost the plot by winning 22 slams and 36 masters? LOL

 

[The Blond Blur]

This is in contention for dumbest thread ever created

 

[Rafa4LifeEver]

This is in contention for dumbest thread ever created

Indeed

 

[Neptune]

Nadal was a great player but he was misguided by the europhia of fans ...media....circumstances that fedrer was his main rival . He devoted all his energy toward getting better of fedrer but what he forget to think was fedrer was 5 year older and as the age grows fedrer will get slower and fedrer prime will not be there and nadal himself can benifit from that. Nadal real competitor (age wise) were novak and murray. Novak came from behind and stole the slam race at last possible moment. If nadal had devoted more energy toward stopping novak he would have been slam leader.

Bro, do some research first. As if Toni and Rafa didn’t recognize the threat from Nole—remember Toni’s 'Rafael, we have a problem' as early as 2005?

At least try to understand what happened since 2011, the year Nole broke into the top 2, while Rafa (2005-22) and Murray (2008-16) were still far from halfway through their primes as top-5 players, and Fed (2003-19) was about halfway through his:

Nole > Rafa + Fed + Murray

While Fedal enjoyed the support of the establishment, and Nole was establishment’s focused rival—how crazy is that?

 

[Racquet_smash]

The fact that Nadal tailors his game to beating Fed is perhaps the biggest b3 myth. Nadal has played that way before he met Federer, and has played a similar game against everyone not Federer, leading to, for example, the upsets on grass and hard. Don't you think he might have thought about switching to a different game when he isn't playing Federer? No, he hasn't, because how he plays against Federer is just how he normally plays. Maybe a little more focus on hitting to the BH, but the overall game has been the same.

Yeah look at his 2011 matches against Djokovic. He had a terrible h2h that season exactly because he played like he did vs Federer which was the worst possible strategy as Djokovic eats high boucing backhands for breakfast.

 

[MichaelNadal]

That’s the most epic plot of all time

 

[Berrettini_Fan]

Lost the plot by winning 22 slams and 36 masters? LOL

On TTW, you either finish first in every category or you're a bum. Nothing in between lol

 

[bullfan]

Nadal was a great player but he was misguided by the europhia of fans ...media....circumstances that fedrer was his main rival . He devoted all his energy toward getting better of fedrer but what he forget to think was fedrer was 5 year older and as the age grows fedrer will get slower and fedrer prime will not be there and nadal himself can benifit from that. Nadal real competitor (age wise) were novak and murray. Novak came from behind and stole the slam race at last possible moment. If nadal had devoted more energy toward stopping novak he would have been slam leader.

Federer.

 

[zagor]

The fact that Nadal tailors his game to beating Fed is perhaps the biggest b3 myth. Nadal has played that way before he met Federer, and has played a similar game against everyone not Federer, leading to, for example, the upsets on grass and hard. Don't you think he might have thought about switching to a different game when he isn't playing Federer? No, he hasn't, because how he plays against Federer is just how he normally plays. Maybe a little more focus on hitting to the BH, but the overall game has been the same.

Well yeah. I mean generally speaking I reckon the degree to which ATGs adapt their game one from match-up to another is really overstated, their A games are so great and oppressive that they just don't need to. Not to mention that on big points it's easier to rely on what you're most comfortable with.

Also speaking of Nadal's match-ups with Fedovic and the place where he had most success against them - the FO, it's not like he played them that much different either. As great as Novak's 2HBH and his movement are, even he couldn't really handle Nadal's lefty FH on the PC. The action, angles and precision/placement of Nadal's FH was just ridiculous.

 

[Tennfan123]

I hope Nadal is enjoying his rent free time in your head now he’s retired.

 

[GoatNo1]

Clay vulturing would involve playing only clay from February until September, so around 15-20 tournaments each year. See Bruguera, Berasetegui and Muster for examples.

In fact it's quite interesting checking the stats. The two years he did decide to clay-vulture, 2005 and 2013, he had his most successful years with 11 and 10 tournament wins, of which 8 were clay tournaments in each year.

he played 100 MM tournaments (won 33, 33%), 43 of them being on clay (won 23, 53%)

nole played 73 MM tournaments (won 27, 37%)

fed played 127 MMs and won 49, (39%)

 

[MichaelNadal]

Well yeah. I mean generally speaking I reckon the degree to which ATGs adapt their game one from match-up to another is really overstated, their A games are so great and oppressive that they just don't need to. Not to mention that on big points it's easier to rely on what you're most comfortable with.

Also speaking of Nadal's match-ups with Fedovic and the place where he had most success against them - the FO, it's not like he played them that much different either. As great as Novak's 2HBH and his movement are, even he couldn't really handle Nadal's lefty FH on the PC. The action, angles and precision/placement of Nadal's FH was just ridiculous.

It was really incredible to see both of them try to take it on, and Rafa find ways to just move them back and to the corners with height so he could control the point or even reset it with a good high and angled FH when he did lose control of the rally

 

[inflation_era]

Nadal couldn't be slam leader because he is surface king. Fedkovic are 2/3 surface kings so he can target whoever, won't matter.

LOL, love how the Djokovic bots divert to 'surface' instead of 'slams' when talking about who's leading. Fact is, Fed leads at 2 /4 slams. Djokovic only 1.

 

[Tano]

I hope Nadal is enjoying his rent free time in your head now he’s retired.

What will Vive do now that his biggest fetish is retiring in a few days?

 

[Mustard]

But that is impossible for a player of Nadal's level.
Monte Carlo-Barcelona-Madrid/Hamburg-Rome-Roland Garros is the maximum, and he fulfilled that maximum every year.
Hard-clay-grass-hard is the arrangement of players of his level.

Nadal could have continued to do Latin American clay in February-March, or post-Wimbledon European clay in July-August, like in 2005 for example. Some players in the past did this, including Muster, who reached world number 1 in 1996.

The reputation of Spanish players, prior to Nadal, in regards to Wimbledon was that they lost in the early rounds or didn't bother showing up. Bruguera's fourth round at Wimbledon in 1994 was basically as good as it got, and Bruguera only played Wimbledon 4 times in total, i.e. 1989, 1990, 1994, 2001.

 

[jl809]

2nd wheel couldn’t even beat 3rd wheel. He was obviously never beating the GOAT

Wait what

 

[zagor]

It was really incredible to see both of them try to take it on, and Rafa find ways to just move them back and to the corners with height so he could control the point or even reset it with a good high and angled FH when he did lose control of the rally

Against prime Nadal on PC you could execute a near perfect aggressive point and still lose like 5/10 of them. Just ridiculous.

 

[messiahrobins]

I think Nadal has the fewest regrets of all 21st century tennis players. What regrets he does have are mostly out of his control, like injuries.


Which he overcame. Nadal went from losing 7 in a row to Djokovic to winning 6 of the next 7. Nadal also beat Djokovic in 4 consecutive matches in majors from June 2012 to June 2014.

The way Nadal turned round the rivalry with Djokovic post 2011 often gets forgotten. Nadal was a terrible match up for Djokovic for most of their careers if you look more closely at the h2h breakdown. Djokovic only actually had sustained success v Nadal in 2011 and 2015. As their careers are coming to a close now and as people, including players, start looking at their career histories more closely it is no surprise to me to see players now mentioning Nadal as the yardstick or Federer as it is also noticeable how Federer is now getting mentioned more now than 2 years ago by active players.
As for regrets, Nadal as you say wont have any which he is on record as saying as he literally achieved all his goals, and for Nadal (as he is on record as saying) it was not just about winning, but who he beat as well. He said many times that beating a rival over 5 sets is more satisfying than beating a journeyman in straight sets. Champions measure themselves about who they beat. Paper champions (often see this in boxing) stat pad to boost their numbers.